To answer questions on a poem and to plan my own poem

Key Stage 2

English

The British by Benjamin Zephaniah

﻿Hello everyone, it's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson for today. And we are going to start by answering questions on Benjamin Zephaniah's amazing poem "The British." Then, we're going to have a little think about writing our own version of a recipe poem using his as inspiration. So lots to do. Let's get started. Our learning objective for this lesson is to answer questions on a poem and to plan my own poem. In this lesson you will need an exercise book or a piece of paper, pencil, pen, something to write with, and your brain, or more specifically your creative brain, especially in the second half of this lesson. If you haven't got any of these, pause this lesson now, go and grab them. Okay, we're going to start with a vocabulary warmup because here are three really important words that we have learned during this unit. And I am going to ask you to write a definition for each of them. A definition is just simply what that word means. So the three words, I'm sure you can read them yourself, are diverse, equality, nationality. You could, if you're confident, pause the lesson now and have a go. If you would like to see a clue, then don't pause quite yet, and I'll show you a clue. But if you're confident, we'll see you when you're done. Okay, the clues are here are three definitions, but you don't know which matches which word. Read them carefully. Try to work out which matches diverse, which is for equality and which is for nationality. Pause the lesson, have a go. When you're ready, play, and we will carry on. Okay, let's take a look at the answers. Diverse means showing a great deal of variety or being very different. Equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights and opportunities. And nationality is belonging to a particular country. Okay, let's refresh our minds and read once more "The British" by Benjamin Zephaniah: The British, serves 60 million. Take some Picts, Celts and Silures and let them settle. Then overrun them with Roman conquerors. Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years and add lots of Norman French to some Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings. Then stir vigorously. Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans, Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese, Vietnamese and Sudanese. Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians, and Pakistanis, combine them with Guyanese and turn up the heat. Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians, Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with the Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese and Palestinians, then add to the melting pot. Leave the ingredients to simmer. As they mix and blend, allow their languages to flourish binding them together with English. Allow time to be cool. Add some unity, understanding and respect for the future. Serve with justice and enjoy. Note, all the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient best than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste. Warning, an unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all. Okay, it's now over to you, because we're going to be answering questions on this wonderful poem. Your first question. What word tells you that the Picts, Celts and Silures stayed in Britain for a long period of time? We'll look at the text on the left-hand side. I've given you an extract of the text and the answer is in that extract. So what word tells you that those groups of people stayed in Britain for a long period of time? I mean, I'm looking for the word time. It's not there. Long is not there. We're going to have to use our own ideas. What word means when something is staying still for a while, have you spotted it? Yes, well done. It is, of course, settle. The word settle implies that something is staying for a long time. Very clever of Benjamin Zephaniah to be able to use that to explain to us that these groups of people were in Britain for longer than just, you know, a year or two. Next question, why does the writer choose the verb overrun to describe the arrival of the Romans into Britain? Why does the writer choose the verb overrun to describe the arrival of the Romans into Britain? Because you've got the Picts, and the Celts, and the Silures, and they're settling. And then he says, "overrun them with Roman conquerors." Why did he choose overrun? If you're overrunning something, you are going over the top of it, aren't you? If I recorded a lesson, and then I accidentally recorded over it, I could say, I've overrun my lesson, I've gone over the top of it. And they're Roman conquerors. And to conquer something is to go somewhere and take over, take over ownership of that place. So I guess, overrun implies that the Romans came in and conquered that group of people? Let's have a look at an answer. Because the Romans invaded Britain and conquered the other people such as the Celts. Good. Well done. Okay, let's move on. What does the word vigorously tell us about this period of Britain's history? Now, vigorously is there down at the bottom, isn't it? You "Add lots of Norman, French to some Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings and stir vigorously." Now, do you know what the word vigorously means? We know it's an adverb, has ly at the end. It tells you how to stir. Stir is the verb, vigorously is the adverb. But do you know what vigorous means? If you don't, can you guess? That was what you would have to do. If this was an assessment, you would have to make your best guess. What does the word vigorously tell us about this period of Britain's history? Okay. Now, if you're stirring something, you can only really store it, you know, slowly, gently or fast. Vigorously means one of those two. Which one do you think it is? It's the fast one. If you are vigorously doing something something, it's with speed, it's with aggression. It's not very careful. So what does that tell us about this period of history then? If the Norman French are there with Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, and they're all vigorously being stirred together, then perhaps this period of history didn't run so smoothly. That this may have been a turbulent time with battles, invasions and wars. That's why vigorously was chosen. If he'd said, if they all got on really nicely, you would have said, you know, and then stir smoothly. But it wasn't smooth, was it? It was vigorous. Good. Okay. Let's move on. Why does the writer used the adjective hot to describe the Chileans? He says "mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans." Why hot Chileans? I mean, the Chileans are a group of people that come from the country Chile. Why hot Chileans? Think about Chile. What do we know about Chile in recipes? You might have had some green chilies or red chilies at home. Exactly. Because Chileans sounded like chilies, and chilies are spicy, hot. Mix some hot Chileans, hot chilies. The country Chile could be a chilli pepper. Good. What word tells you that the writer thinks having a lot of different languages in Britain is a good thing? What word tells you that having a lot of different languages in Britain is a good thing? So first of all, I'm looking for, I guess, the languages. Okay, there it is. "As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish, binding them together with English." What word jumps out at you there as a good word, a positive word, something that means when something's going well? Flourish, exactly. Flourish tells you that it's a positive thing that the languages are mixing. They're flourishing, they're getting better. That's what flourish means. Binding them with English. So in this country, we are lucky to have English, but all these other languages they're all bound together with English. Good. The writer uses the words equally, unequal and equality in the notes and warning part of the poem. What is the key message he is trying to say to the reader? It's no accident that Benjamin Zephaniah uses equally, unequal, equality in that note and warning section. The message that he's trying to get to the reader is what? You can tell me out loud. What do you think? Okay, let's see my answer. I think you're going to be pretty close. Everyone should be treated equally. I think it's as simple as that. He is trying to get the message across that everyone should be treated equally. And that probably is the main theme of the entire poem. That Britain is an amazing country that is made up of so many nationalities, but it only works if everyone is treated equally. Okay, now time to move on to planning our own poem. I'm going to read you an example of a poem I have written all about being a successful sports team, and it's written it using Benjamin's Zephaniah's "The British" as inspiration. When something inspires you, it makes you want to do something, okay? And that poem inspired me to write this. Can you guess what ingredients might be in my recipe? So if this is recipe for a successful sports team, what ingredients do you think might be in there? What do you need to be a successful sports team? And you can use football as an example if you want to. That's the most popular sport in Britain. Seeing as we are doing a poem all about the British. Let's have a look. I'll read you my poem and see if any of those things that you came up with are in here. I've called it simply "A Team": First, take a handful of ambition and a pinch of a dream. Sprinkle those both on a large green surface. Use a coach to mix together. Hardworking defenders, tough, battling midfielders, slick, silky strikers, and an agile athletic goalie. Add this mixture together at least three times a week for optimum success. Roll everything out onto the surface and turn up the heat with dozens of watchful eyes. Warning, this team will not rise if one player plays as an individual. Only together, can everyone taste victory. So that is my poem that I have written using "The British" as inspiration. I have called it "A Team" because the whole thing is a recipe for making a successful team. I thought that we'd have ambition and a dream in there. I thought that's definitely something you need when you are making a sports team. Then I've used verbs, like sprinkle onto a large, green surface. What do you think the large, green surface is? What do you think the large green surfaces is for my team? Yes, the sport pitch. It's the football pitch. It's the field that they're playing on. Use a coach to mix together. Now I referred to the coach actually there as a noun, I said that the coach was almost, I've made it feel like the coach was a utensil to use in the kitchen. "You use a coach to mix together, hardworking defenders, tough, battling midfielders." I tried to do some alliteration here, slick, silky strikers. Agile, athletic goalie. And "Add this mixture together at least three times a week for optimum success." What did I mean by that? Why did I put, "add this mixture together at least three times a week"? What would a sport team need to do at least three times a week to be really successful? Yeah, training. It's their training sessions. Then I've put, "Roll everything out onto the surface." So this is time for the match. "And then turn up the heat with dozens of watchful eyes." Who are the dozens of watch eyes? Everyone watching, the fans, the parents, and carers, and friends that might be there to watch a match. And then my warning, "The team will not rise," and I thought rise was a really suitable verb because a cake rises in the oven, doesn't it? And then a team can rise up a league or a tournament. "The team will not rise if one player plays as an individual. Only together, can they taste victory." A taste of victory works really well, because taste, you're talking about taste in the recipe, taste in the food, and you taste a victory when you win something. And I love the taste of victory. You might say of a sports team, "Now they tasted victory." Good. Okay. That warning at the end has my message. And Benjamin Zephaniah's message was that everyone should be treated equally. What's my message? What's the message of my poem? The message of my poem is that everyone has to work together. To be a successful team, you have to work together. No one playing on their own as an individual is going to help the team. It has to be played as a team. Good. And you can see there I've got all the different verbs that I used or verb phrases, to be able to create that feeling that it's a recipe mixture. Mix, pinch, roll, turn up the heat. Good. Here are the different things, that different ingredients that I came up with for my poem. I wrote this first, and then I wrote my poem. This was my mind map to help me. Your job today is to be able to make your own mind map to generate things that are going to go into your poem. Now, our poem that we're going to write together is going to be about how to make a successful school. I want you to generate a mind map of all the things needed for a successful school. And we're going to use these ideas next lesson, to write our own poem. I'll give you a clue of one thing. Teachers, definitely don't forget us teachers. We should definitely be in your poem. Okay. Well done, everyone. A lovely lesson. I will see you soon. Super work. See you soon everyone. Bye.

To answer questions on a poem and to plan my own poem

To answer questions on a poem and to plan my own poem

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UnitEnglish / The British by Benjamin Zephaniah

English