To learn about a poet and the historical context of a poem

Key Stage 2

English

The British by Benjamin Zephaniah

﻿Hello everyone. My name is Mr. Brown and I'm going to be your teacher for this unit, and it's a brilliant unit. We're going to be learning all about a really interesting poet and one of his most famous poems. So let's get started. Okay. So our learning objective for today's lesson is "To learn about a poet and the historical context of a poem." For this lesson you will need, an exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil or a pen something to write with, and your brain, but let's get warmed up first of all. So I've got a reading warmup for you. I'm going to do this through most of our lessons in this unit. These reading warmups will have nothing to do with our unit. They're going to be completely detached. Just a chance for you to be able to answer some questions. So I've written, for the first one, a story about two girls named Lucy and Sita, okay? "Lucy and Sita were inseparable. They did almost everything together. The two girls were in year five and they even lived on the same street. One freezing day, they were walking home together and it started to snow." Okay. So that's the beginning of a story. My question to you first of all is, what season do you think this story is set in? What season do you think this story is set in? You can say your answer to me, or you can write it down, but the key thing I'd like you to be able to give me is how you know. How do you know the answer? I'm obviously interested in the answer but I'm always interested in how you know. Where did you find the evidence? So this first answer, what season do you think it is, I think it's obviously winter, so well done if you've got that. And the answer is, the proof for the answer is, it says "One freezing day, they were walking home and it started to snow." If it's snowing and it's that cold, I think it's got to be winter. So well done if you've got that answer correct. Okay. On to our next question. What does the word inseparable mean? So you can see in the text it says "Lucy and Sita were inseparable. They did almost everything together. The two girls were in year five and they even lived on the same street. One freezing day, they were walking home together and it started to snow." What does the word inseparable mean? Now I've got four options for this question. My options are, A, young, B, cannot be separated, C, good friends or D, sisters. And they kind of all could be the answer, couldn't they? I know that they were young 'cause they were in year five. I know that they cannot be separated, it says they did almost everything together, yeah. Good friends, yeah, if they do everything together they must be good friends. Sisters, I don't think they're sisters actually because it says they lived on the same street. Now, if there were sisters they probably would live in the same house. They could still live on the same street in different houses perhaps, but I think that's the least likely. Inseparable, I don't think it meant young. If I look at the word closely, inseparable, what word looks like it could be hidden within the word inseparable? Separable, separate, separate. Yeah. Separate, separate. Now if it says inseparable, I know that means that something could be, if they were inseparable, it means perhaps that they can't be separated. They cannot be separate 'cause you've got separate, and then if it's inseparate, inseparable, it means they can't be separated, and then the next thing it says, "they did almost everything together," that much is up with that. Yeah. I'm going to go for B, cannot be separated. The correct answer. Well done. And they did almost everything together backs up that opinion too. Okay. Your next question. Why do you think Lucy and Sita might've been walking home together? Okay. It doesn't say why they might have been walking home together, so I'm going to have to use my own ideas. It does say they lived on the same street, so I think probably, if you live on the same street, that's a good reason why you'd be walking home together. And is the correct answer. So well done if you got that. Okay, let's move on. And we're going to look at Benjamin Zephaniah. He is the poet who we're going to be looking at in today's lesson. And it's his poem that this whole unit is going to be based on. Here is a picture of Benjamin Zephaniah, and I'm going to read you a little bit about his life. "Benjamin Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. His father was from Jamaica and his mother from Barbados. Zephaniah started writing and performing poetry when he was just 10 years old. His poetry is heavily influenced by the music and culture of Jamaica and he became famous in the 1980s for his live poetry performances. He has published over 20 books and travelled the world with his poetry and music." Okay. I hope you were paying attention because I'm now going to ask you some questions on Benjamin Zephaniah and it will be similar to the warm up. You will need to find evidence in the text to support your answer. So let's start with our first question. Where did Benjamin Zephaniah grow up? Now, whenever you get to question, you should always be looking to try and find the key words in the question and hope that you can find them in the text. So I would say the key words in this question is not going to be where or did because they are words that come up in many questions, they're not going to be specific to the text, are they? Benjamin Zephaniah, we know potentially could come up a lot because this whole extract is all about him, grow up, I think that's the kind of words we're going to be looking for. So I'm scanning through to see if I can see the word grow up anywhere. No. Okay. Grow up isn't there. So my next move is to try and find words that are similar to grow up. They mean the same. Let's read and scan. Oh, okay. I can see one in that first paragraph, can you? Can you see a word that means similar to grow up? Yes, it's raised. Okay. So let's read that sentence and see if that answers our question. Where did Benjamin Zephaniah grow up? Okay. "Benjamin Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England." Now raised means the same as grow up, so I know the answer to the question is Birmingham, England. Perfect. And there we can see, "raised in Birmingham." Good. Okay. Well done. Let's move on. How do you know that he took an interest in poetry from an early age? So again, key words in this question I would say interest and early age and poetry probably as well. So let's scan through, okay. Okay. I've got poetry, in the first sentence of the second paragraph, so let's read that one, "Zephaniah started writing and performing poetry when he was just 10 years old." Okay. Let's go back to my question. How do you know he took an interest in poetry from an early age? Well it tells me there that he was writing before in poetry when he was 10 years old, that is an early age, so that will be the answer to my question. Good. Okay. Next question. Why do you think his poetry is so heavily influenced by Jamaica? Okay. Let's find Jamaica I think is going to be my key word there. Jamaica, Jamaica, ah, there it is. Let's read that sentence. "His poetry is heavily influenced," okay, great. That was in my question as well. Lots of key words tells me this is probably where my answer is going to be, this sentence. "His poetry is heavily influenced by the music and culture of Jamaica and he became famous in the 1980s for his live poetry performances." Hmm. It doesn't tell me why. Okay. Maybe I've missed another Jamaica somewhere. Let's scan. Ah, yes. Look in the first paragraph, second sentence, let's read that. "His father was from Jamaica and his mother was from Barbados." Okay. His father was from Jamaica. That's why he was heavily influenced by Jamaica. Perfect. Okay. That will be the answer to this question. Next question, what word tells you that Benjamin Zephaniah was well-known in the 1980s? Okay. The word well-known is not going to be there because otherwise it wouldn't ask you this question, would it? It's going to be a word that means the same as well-known. Okay. Let's scan for 1980s. Yup. I can see it. Let's read that sentence. "His poetry is heavily influenced by the music and culture of Jamaica and he became famous in the 1980s for his live poetry performances." Which word means the same as well-known? If you're well-known, lots of people know you, you could say, famous. Exactly. So the answer to that question is famous. Okay. Over to you now for this one. How do we know that Benjamin Zephaniah is a successful poet and musician? What do you think? If you want to take your time you can always pause the lesson. How do we know he's a successful poet and musician? Okay. Now I'm looking for the word maybe successful. Can't see that in there. So maybe that means successful will be famous but we've read that sentence, there was nothing in there. Okay, let's try looking for musician, poet musician, poetry, I can see. Okay. That's got music in it. Okay. Let's read that sentence. "His poetry is heavily influenced by the music and culture of Jamaica and he became famous." And it doesn't tell us that he was famous. Okay. Last sentence has got music and poetry in it. "He has published over 20 books and travelled the world with his poetry and music." Does that tell us that he was successful? I think if you've published 20 books and you've been travelling the world with your poetry and music that definitely means you are successful. So that would be the answer to this question. Okay. Let's have a think about the poem. Now, we're not going to read the poem in today's lesson, we're just going to start preparing to read it. We are going to be studying a poem written by Benjamin Zephaniah called "The British." What do you think the poem is going to be about? Now, the obvious answer is, well, it'd be about "The British" but let's dive deeper into that. What about "The British" do you think it's going to be about? You might want to write some notes down. Be interesting to see if your notes are right when we actually get to read the poem. Here is some information about Great Britain. Now, Great Britain is part of the United Kingdom. United Kingdom is a European country that includes four separate countries on the British Isles, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. And on the right, you can see a picture of Britain and how close it is to Europe. Those other countries around it are European countries. Great Britain is the name for three nations on the main isle. That's England, Scotland and Wales. They make up Great Britain. The United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland. In Britain, the population is about 64 million people. That's taken in 2020. The capital is London with 9 million inhabitants and its main language is English. What do you think the word inhabitants means? Inhabitants. It says "London with 9 million inhabitants." Inhabitants. What do you think there might be 9 million of in London? Inhabitants. I know word "habitat," sounds a bit like inhabitants. But the word inhabitants means people that live there. So there are 9 million people that live in London. Here is a map of Great Britain with lots of the major cities highlighted. Have a good look. Are there any of these cities that you live near? Here's a question for you. How has the writer shown that London is the capital city of Great Britain? So this map has to be created by someone and a writer has shown all the different cities but how has the writer shown that London is the capital city of Great Britain? What do you think? Find London, how does London look different? Yes, it is all in capital letters, and instead of a dot like the other cities have, it has a star next to it to show that London is the capital city. Let's start to think about Britain's history. Many different groups of people have arrived and settled in Britain throughout history. Have you ever heard of any of these, the Celts, the Romans, the Normans, the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings. Have you heard of any of those? You've probably studied some of them in your history lessons before. So you already seem to know something about British history. Through finding out about the Celts or the Vikings or the Romans, you're already starting to get a good idea about British history which is preparing you to read this poem. And it hasn't always been plain sailing either. There've been lots of invasions and wars. Next lesson, we will read Benjamin Zephaniah's poem called "The British." Using what you've learned in this lesson, have a think about what you think "The British" might include. What do you think is going to be in that poem called "The British?" You might even want to have a go at writing your own poem called "The British." Well done. That's today's lesson completed. Okay. So we've learned all about Benjamin Zephaniah, we've started to think about his poem, "The British," without even reading it yet, was thinking about an idea of what it might entail, what's it going to be about, making our own predictions, next lesson, we'll get to read it, and we'll starts our work on "The British." And I will see you then.

To learn about a poet and the historical context of a poem

To learn about a poet and the historical context of a poem

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UnitEnglish / The British by Benjamin Zephaniah

English