Sensory Reading: A New Approach to Teaching & Learning GCSE English Literature

This project will help to realise the value and application of 'Sensory Reading' as a pedagogic method, by helping mixed ability GCSE students to appreciate poetry as a life enriching experience, that will in turn address the decline in A-Level and BA English Literature recruitment.

There exists substantial evidence to confirm that the 2015 GCSE reforms have significantly deterred students from progressing to A-Level English Literature (Barbara Bleiman, 'Decline and Fall: A Level English - The Figures', NATE, Teaching English, Issue 15), and that the awarding gap for disadvantaged students has widened since the reforms were introduced (Catherine Lough, 'Michael Gove's tougher GCSE's "harm social mobility"', TES, 5 December 2019). Pupils are generally daunted by the process of reading and writing about poetry, mainly because of the current emphasis on technical knowledge (e.g., the naming of formal features). Guided by the conviction that poets "routinely emphasize sensate as opposed to purely cogitative ways of knowing" (Noel Jackson, 'Literature and the Senses', ed. David Duff, The Oxford Handbook of British Romanticism, 2018), and that the study of literature is 'a quest for meaning [that] requires the reader to be an active participant' (The Cox Report, 1989), 'Sensory Reading' works directly with teachers and pupils to show how an engagement with the visual, acoustic, and physical dimensions of poetry, whether embodied or imagined, can be used to enrich technical knowledge and understanding.

Through devising online teaching worksheets and education resources, and through the delivery of face-to-face workshops for mixed-ability pupils in 5 Leicester schools, 'Sensory Reading' builds on the successful impact and engagement initiatives of the 'Wordsworth 2020' project by enhancing the pedagogical ambition of the project while extending its reach to a wider community.

Focusing on the selections from the AQA GCSE 'Past and Present' Poetry Anthology, the worksheets (for teachers) and resources (for pupils) place emphasis on how poets engage a reader's mind/imagination via sensory devices (e.g., imagery, metaphor, sonic features) that affect the human senses (e.g., sight and sound). The resources build on an emerging field of criticism that challenges the instrumentalization of poetry, intending to reverse the decline in the take-up for A-Level (and University), for example: Robert Eaglestone, Literature: Why it Matters (Polity, 2019), Jennifer Webb, How to Teach English Literature; Overcoming Cultural Poverty (John Catt Educational, 2019). A website, entitled 'Innovate English', will include audio and visual resources (including links to the University of Leicester 'Wordsworth 2020' and Department of English websites) to aid the sensory experience for all the set poems in the AQA anthology.

In sum, by the end of the project, 5 one-hour workshops, supported by specially devised worksheets and learning resources, will have been developed and delivered to each of the 5 participating schools. Final year BA English students at the University of Leicester who are considering teaching as a career will be invited to attend a selection of the workshops and, where feasible and appropriate to collaborate on their delivery, as a way to gain vital classroom experience. The project will also create opportunities for teachers and pupils to participate in bi-monthly, pupil-led Knowledge Exchange forums, culminating with a one-day, community-led forum at the University of Leicester that will enable researchers and beneficiaries to reflect on the project's aims and objectives and to consider further opportunities for collaboration.

Findings from the project will be published as peer-reviewed articles in English: Journal of the English Association and the Times Education Supplement (TES), for which links will provided on the project website with a view to extending the reach of the project nationally.