Milton’s Paradise Lost is undoubtably a difficult text. The syntax and religious preoccupations throughout the text appear to be far removed from the day-to-day lives of modern teenagers. But, revising Paradise Lost and making it accessible is possible. There are some really simple revision ideas that can help make a huge difference to how well students are able to approach the text.
Use the text
Encourage students to flick between notes and the text to help contextualise what is being said by Milton. It surprises me how much knowledge is in the text; using the text effectively is key to unlocking potential meaning. If the exam is open book, this process of familiarisation will really make a difference to students’ ability to quickly look up specific meanings of parts of the text, unlocking meaning quickly and effectively.
Encourage students to identify who is speaking
Get students to re-read the play in sections and identify if it is the narrative voice, Satan, Adam or Eve speaking. Although this may seem simple, knowing who is telling the story at the time is really important in understanding what is being said and why. This also encourages students to skim read each section for information, reminding them of the whole story.
Summarise each section in their own words
Copies of Paradise Lost that have a synopsis section are really useful, especially when used with the skim reading technique. This enables students to create their own summaries of the different sections of the poem, reengaging them with the language and syntax and refreshing their memory of the story. Students are encouraged to remember what they have learnt, think carefully about what is being told to them and then put it into their own words to show that understanding.
Encourage invisible questions
Invisible questions are the unconscious questions that we, as teachers, naturally ask. Give students the following types of questions to help them think carefully about different elements within the poem. They can insert any character or theme in the questions with gaps left.
- What is _________ like at the start, middle and end of the poem?
- How does _________ change throughout the poem?
- What is the temptation and how is this presented throughout?
- How can you use your religious knowledge to help you understand the story?
- What is happening?
- Who is speaking?
- Is the speaker a reliable or bias voice?
- What difference does the reliability have within the poem?
- What language is being used to create the mood/emotion/feelings?
- Is this similar or different elsewhere in the poem?
- What is Milton’s wider intention/meaning?
- What is Milton saying about society?
These questions give students a starting point to think about the text in more depth. They also remind students that they should be asking themselves questions as they go over sections of the poem. These prompts can be used as extract practice or to help students plan what they might say to different exam questions.
Place events in chronological order
Ask students to write everything they can remember about the text onto pieces of paper and then put it into chronological order. Students can categorise information into the start, middle and end of the poem and then make links across the poem of where certain themes or ideas are seen repetitively.
Choose an extract and complete an in-depth analysis
Open the main poem at a random page and choose a 20 – 25-line section of the poem to analyse in depth. Then explore how to link the small extract section to other areas of the poem. Students are actively practising decoding the poem in smaller extract sized chunks, also testing their existing knowledge of the rest of the poem.
Create your own essay question to plan or answer
Ask students to create their own exam-style questions, thinking about characters and themes that might come up in the exam. Students can then plan a response to the questions to highlight areas that they may need to revise further before creating a full essay response.
Write the introduction and conclusion of an essay
Students often think that they have to write lots and lots in full essays. Having a good introduction and conclusion written can be really useful in focussing the body of the text. Starting and concluding, is often what students struggle with, so this is a good area to practise in class. Ask students to write a range of introductions and conclusions to different exam-style questions. This prepares them for any question that might come up in the exam and begins the thinking process behind the themes and characters before the exam.
Self-Assess
Self-assessment is crucial in any revision process. Giving students the assessment objectives, success criteria and exam examples will help them to feel confident in their response. They can use these materials to check their independent revision and mark their own work. It’s helpful for students to add any missing elements in a different colour pen so that they identify what they need to do to be successful.
These revision ideas are designed for Paradise Lost, and can be transferred across to other literary texts. The poem contains lots of analysis within the text itself and being familiar (or even over-familiar) with the text is a sure-fire way to success.
Meet the Author
Susan currently works as a Head of English and Drama at a secondary school in Bristol, United Kingdom. She’s passionate about equality of education for all and English. To read more from Susan check out her article on reading around a subject, visit her blog Why I love… or follow her on Twitter @susansenglish.
