Lesson Plan-Afiah

Lesson: The theme of the importance of place to identity, by analysing Jackie Kay’s poem, ‘In My Country’.

  

Students: Sec 2s, Mixed Ability, 34, with students who are visual, audio and kinesthetic learners.

Pre-requisites:

·         Understand what constitutes a ‘theme’ in a literary piece.

·         Understand the meaning of ‘tone’.

Lesson duration: 90 MINS (3 periods)

Learning Objectives:

• State and respond to the ideas, themes and issues in poems
• State the writer’s tone and evaluate how it relates to the themes and issues in the poems.
• Analyse the linguistic choices made by the poet and their effects ( how it makes the reader feel, the mood of the poem, etc)
• Create a poem of their own, using the techniques such as tone, choice of words/phrase and themes.

	Procedure
10MIN	Starter Write "where do you come from?" on the board and ask students to jot down their responses which can be as literal or metaphorical as they like. Pair and share ideas, then share with the class as a whole. Ask students: Why does it matter where you come from? Give them time to think, and call on a few students and write their responses on the board.
15 MIN	Show students the song, “This is Home” by Kit Chan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTkVG6lWvwY Distribute lyrics of song to students: http://www.justsomelyrics.com/809361/Kit-Chan-Home-Lyrics Ask students to think about:           -What is the song about?          -What are the descriptions used to describe, “Home”          -How do you feel after listening to the song? Students to jot down these points and share it with their partner. Explain to students poems are like songs too, and they convey certain themes and ideas through the careful use of words and descriptions.
15 MINS	Explain to students that they are going to look at a poem called 'In My Country'. Distribute handout of poem and ask students to read the poem quietly to them, once through. Call on some students to read it out aloud. Once, they are done, let students listen to the audio-recording of the poem, recited by the poet herself, Jackie Kay. (Skip the self-introduction of the poem) http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=5685 Ask students to pay take note of following points:         1) Pay attention to the tone of her voice & the emphasis of certain words? 2) How do you feel while listening to the poem? 3) How does it affect your understanding of the poem?
25 MINS	Split students into groups of 4 or 5 and assign them to analyse and discuss the poem Students are to:  1)  Look at the words and phrases used in the poem and discuss what they think the poet means by each of them?     How, for example, can a river be "honest"? What does that choice of words tell the reader? They may need access to dictionaries for this part of the lesson: An honest river A slow, watchful circle A superstition The worst dregs A segment of air       2)    Think about the perspective of the author, what is the writer’s tone?       3)    What are the themes presented in the poem?       4)    How are these themes presented? Through word choice? Through the writer’s tone? They might have questions of their own - these should be jotted down too On the mahjong paper, students are given the choice to present their points in any way they like, through a mind-map, pictoral representation,etc. Once students are done, call on groups to present on their points and discuss the points mentioned.
15 MINS	Now, let students listen to the introduction of the poem & let students listen to the poem recitation again. After this comes to mind, Ask students again, knowing the “background” knowledge, does it affect their understanding of the poem? For example, She says that it's a poem about "being black and Scottish". Ask students to think about these questions:         -          Do we know this when we hear it or read it?         -          Does it only have that one meaning?         -           Could it be about not fitting in, regardless of colour or nationality?  Ask them to write down their points down and discuss it in their groups.   After this is done, call on a few groups to share their ideas.
	Follow up task: Linking students back to the idea of ‘Home’ and the poem, ask students to compose a poem (in any style they wish), titled “Where I come from…” (Students have to take into account of their language use  and the themes they will like to bring out, there is a lack of emphasis in rhyming scheme) .  OR  Pick a poem that personally speaks to them and write an analysis of the poem.

Adapted from: Alison Smith’s lesson
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePlan.do?planId=11173

Lesson Rationale:

    The idea to start of the lesson with such a popular National Day song to the lesson is to pre-empt students on the importance of place and its relations to feelings and identity, through the use of a song that they are familiar with. 

    When students read and then, listen to the “Spoken” poem, they are able to get a different ‘feel’ and consequently, ‘viewpoint’. Thus, this pushes their thinking and invites them to think through the “written” poem further, and this might be slightly advantageous to learners who are auditory. 

    The teacher is involved in the learning process and instead of “instructing” students what to do. The teacher is actually guiding and working with students. The leading questions to guide the students, follows the Thorndike approach in the sense that it follows a set list of questions that literature teachers ask students when they are analysing a poem. This provides a “structure” or “model” that will guide students’ engagement with the text in a rigorous manner, attending to specific details of the text. Instead of just giving them a poem, and ask them to analyse them poem whichever way that best suits them.

   The second part of the poem analysis introduces the “background” of the poem, embedded in the social context. Dewey states that Schooling is a way of life – “Education, therefore, is process of living and not a preparation for future living” (19) . Therefore, this part introduces the idea of the importance of place to identity, and the issue of ‘race’ and nationality is at the forefront.

   Students are then able to think critically of the issues presented in the text, and engage in the Freirean “dialogic education”, whereby students are aware and respect other individuals who have different set of identities and experience. The type of discussions (pair-work or group work) varies depending on the difficulty level. In addition, discussions which are relatively personal and simple can be done in pairs. In addition, pair discussions provide a greater intensity of discussions, and would probably be the most “democratic” because each individual has an EQUAL say (for most cases). 

    In a way, the poem is not taught in a ‘classroom vacuum’, but relevant to the “concrete realities” of students. ( Singapore students might think about how they react to non-locals, or how foreign students in Singapore might think of how they are treated by their fellow Singaporean peers.)

    At the end of the lesson, students are encouraged to consolidate what they have learned in the lesson and they are given the choice to compose a poem or choose a poem which personally speaks to them. By having activities that are directly relevant to their lives, learning poetry education is not just a “means to an end”, but a “means” in itself, a “means” to understand their own lives.

Handouts: 

‘Home’ by Kit Chan (song)

Whenever I am feeling low
I look around me and I know
There's a place that will stay within me
Wherever I may choose to go
I will always recall the city
Know every street and shore
Sail down the river which brings us life
Winding through my Singapore

Chorus:
This is Home, truly
Where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me
Where that river always flows
This is home, surely
As my senses tell me
This is where I won't be alone
For this is where I know it's home

When there are troubles to go through
We'll find a way to start anew
There is comfort in the knowledge
That homes about its people too
So we'll build our dreams together
Just like we've done before
Just like the river which brings us life
There'll always be Singapore

Chorus:
This is Home, truly
Where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me
Where that river always flows
This is home, surely
As my senses tell me
This is where I won't be alone
For this is where I know it's home

Chorus Repeat

This is Home, truly
Where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me
Where that river always flows
This is home, surely
As my senses tell me
This is where I won't be alone
For this is where I know it's home
(For this is where I know, I'm HOME)

In My Country by Jackie Kay (Poem)

Walking by the waters,
down where an  honest river
shakes hands with the sea,
a woman passed round me
in a slow, watchful circle,
as if I were a superstition;

or the worst dregs of her imagination,
so when she finally spoke
her words spliced into bars
of an old wheel.  A segment of air.
Where do you come from?
‘Here’, I said, ‘Here. These parts.’

 P/S:  My apologies for the lengthy post. :)