How do you approach the unseen poetry question on paper 2?

I would say logically and with plenty of practice beforehand. I would start by reading the poem through at least twice, then on the thirs time take three different coloured highlighters - one for structure (rhyme scheme, punctuation etc), one for form (sonnet, ballad etc), and one for language (alliteration, similie, metaphors, imagery etc) - and highlight anything that immediatly jumps to mind and in your head have an idea of what your overall interpretation of the poem is. (I would ask the student if there were any features they were unsure of and go through them in more detail - such a meter, personification etc - as terminology is key to gaining good marks.) Then read through again, looking for deeper, less obvious features that back up your overall interpretation. Then use arrows to draw links between the features you have picked out and in doing so try to create an argument (which is a requirment of the higher band marks). Then it is key to make a quick bullet point plan (just a few words) for your response - this way you can clearly make sure you are going to cover language, structure and form with terminology before you get carried away with writing. It also helps to keep your response focused.

The other thing to do is to now practice. In my session I could provide the student with several poems which are not on the GCSE syllabus. We could then work through these together. The student could independently try to pick out ideas and features but with my support to answer any queries. Eventually I would suggest doing this exercise under timed conditions to practice interpreting an unseen text under time pressure. This repetition would help improve the student's ability to read poetry and pick out key features, creating an individual interpretation effectively and efficiently.