Teaching Pack
Teaching Pack - teaching ideas and resources for Duffy’s ‘Small Female Skull’. Lesson planning ideas and resource materials for active learning, critical thinking and creative approaches to explore the poem in detail.

Lessons are structured around, but not limited to, the following learning continuum:
Connect - Activate - Demonstrate - Consolidate.
This is the content page from the Teaching Pack:

Contents
Introduction to A Level AHEAD 3
Small Female Skull — Overview 3
Planning Learning and Teaching Activities: Small Female Skull 5
Connect Phase (Choose 1–2 activities) 5
Activate Phase (Choose 1–2 activities) 5
Demonstrate Phase (Choose 2–3 activities) 6
Consolidate Phase (Choose 1–2 activities) 6
Activities — Detailed Implementation 7
Connect Phase Activities 7
Activity 1: Fragility in a Single Adjective — Title Prediction 7
Activity 2: Where Do We Do Our Deepest Thinking? 7
Activity 3: Weight and Worth — The Central Paradox 8
Activity 4: Like With Unlike — Metaphysical Conceit Recall 8
Activity 5: What a Body Does — Faculty Brainstorm 9
Activate Phase Activities 9
Activity 1: Guided Annotation of Stanza One 9
Activity 2: Modelling the Weight Comparison 10
Activity 3: The Hamlet Allusion Explained 11
Activity 4: Five Lines, No Rhyme — Form Modelling 11
Demonstrate Phase Activities 12
Activity 1: Genially Escape Room — The White Tiled Room 12
Activity 2: Tracking the Extended Metaphor — From Object to Friend 12
Activity 3: Two Extremes of Emotion — A Paradox Audit 13
Activity 4: Reading the Scar — Ambiguity in Stanza Four 14
Activity 5: Creative Response — A Contemporary Metaphysical Meditation 15
Consolidate Phase Activities 15
Activity 1: Whose Skull Is It? 15
Activity 2: Debate and Defend 16
Activity 3: Essay Planning 16
Activity 4: Linking Theme to Close Analysis 17
Student Handouts 17
Handout 1: Annotation Framework for Small Female Skull 18
Handout 2: Essay Planning Sheet for Small Female Skull 20
Handout 3: Creative Writing Framework — A Contemporary Metaphysical Poem 22
Handout 4: Comparative Analysis Planner — Mortality and the Object 23
Handout 5: Research Investigation Sheet — Context and Criticism 24
Teacher Planning: Interactive Quizzes and Activities 25
Create the Escape Room — Instructions for Setting Up on Genially 25
The Ten Challenges — Teacher Version with Suggested Answers 26
Student Version — The White Tiled Room 30
Paper Task Version 30
Alternative Activities 32
Annotation and Investigation 32
Object or Projection? 32
Creative Corner: Multi-Format Responses 32
The Other Woman’s Voice 32
Performance and Interpretation 32
Debate and Defend 33
Reader Response Comparison 33
Cross-Curricular Connections 33
Essay Challenges 33
Critical Contexts and Further Reading 34
Literary Context 34
Critical Perspectives: Duffy in General 34
Critical Perspectives: Small Female Skull 35
Essential Reading 36
Assessment Objectives Alignment 37