Breathe in: experience. Breathe out: poetry

The lesson will commence with group performances from the previous activity. Whilst the performances are not formally assessed offer commentary and feedback with particular attention to the types of language they have chosen to use. Rely on peer feedback as much as possible.

Once concluded, use the data projector to watch The Herd’s version of “I was Only 19”. Hand out the song lyrics.

Discussion Questions (oral)

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  Question 1 - How is language/speech rhythm used in this piece to create tension and momentum?
  
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  Question 2 - Who is telling the story and how does the use of the first person position us as an audience?
  
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  Question 3 - identify examples of onomatopoeia, repetition and alliteration (be sure to define these terms on the ongoing glossary sheet if you have not already done so).
  
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  Question 4 – What are the central themes and ideas in this piece?
  
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  Question 5 – How does the musical composition/instrumentation of the song affect our perception of the lyrics?
  

Now hand out and read aloud Bruce Dawe’s “Weapons Training” and repeat the discussion process.

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  Question 1 - How is language/speech rhythm used in this piece to create tension and momentum?
  
• 
  Question 2 - Who is telling the story and how does the use of the first person position us as an audience?
  
• 
  Question 3 - identify examples of onomatopoeia, repetition and alliteration.
  
• 
  Question 4 – What are the central themes and ideas in this piece?
  

Having discussed concepts such as onomatopoeia, repetition and alliteration students will now attempt to write a short poem based upon these concepts.

Using the internet (or a comic book of their own) students will choose a comic strip that contains examples of the above devices. They then need to write this out separately. In the example above this would be “ratatt, ratta-tatta, wham and pat pat”.

The students then consider the narrative of the comic they have chosen and ‘retell’ the story in the first person incorporating the onomatopoeic language they have identified. They may choose to use the exisiting dialogue as a basis for this or devise their own. When working with students emphasise the phonic nature of this type of writing and encourage use of repetition, alliteration etc.

Students to complete poems as homework and submit along with the cartoon strip upon which their poem is based.

The two works in this unit are diametrically opposed to one another stylistically but share the common, contemporary theme of the war in Iraq. Unlike the earlier units every student will have been exposed extensively with this subject matter in the media, internet and in popular culture. For this reason I have chosen to juxtapose a US perspective on the conflict (the Beastie Boy’s “In A World Gone Mad”) with a work by Iraqi poet Saady Yossuf. Whilst the Beastie Boy’s song offers a critique of George Bush and the hipocracy of the US governments action, Yossuf’s beautifully constructed poem places the Iraq war in a historical context – one in a long line of wars in a region that has long been subjected to conflict. Yossuf’s poem is both reflective and expository in style and is interesting in terms of its physical lay out, its spaciousness (and fatalism) in direct contrast to the urgency of “In a World Gone Mad”.

The activity in this piece emphasises the role of written layout and punctuation in a poem and how this can effect our perception of the piece.