Lesson video

Hello and welcome to your English lesson, where today we will be reading and exploring the poem "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith.

I'm also hoping that you're going to be inspired to write your own poem for change.

But before we begin, please make sure that you have something to write with and something to write on.

If you don't have that, you can pause the video here and go and grab it.

I'd also like you to make sure that you've got all distractions out of the way so you can fully focus on today's lesson content.

Right, let's get started.

Please note that the poem we are going to be reading today uses adult language.

Let's begin today's lesson by considering our agenda.

We're going to start by looking at the power of words and more specifically, the power of poetry.

Then we're going to explore the dramatic monologue form of poetry before reading Maggie Smith's poem "Good Bones".

Then we're going to move on to looking at sentence types and Smith's own use of sentence types in her poem.

And finally, you are going to have a go at writing your own poem for change.

So let's get started.

The power of words and the power of poetry.

I'm hoping that you'll agree with me that words are a very powerful entity.

Now we've been looking specifically at the poetry form of writing, but of course we've got plays and novels as well.

I would like you to consider why words are so powerful.

What do they emote in the reader or the listener? How widely can they reach? What ideas do they present people? I'd like you to make a mind map to consider the power of words and the power of poetry.

Why are words and poetry so powerful? Please pause the video here to create your mind map and resume the video once you are finished.

Great.

Hopefully you've had some time to consider the power of words and the power of poetry.

I'm going to talk you through some of my ideas.

I wonder whether any of my ideas match your own.

Words can reach the masses.

We may write something in our bedroom, in a little town or city, but that piece of writing has the ability to stretch far and wide, even across the world.

Words can survive for generations.

We have texts, pieces of literature that go back years and years, centuries and centuries, and it helps us to learn about the world around us.

Words can be personal and relatable.

Sometimes people might feel alone.

They might feel like they want to turn to somebody for help.

Words, poetry is always there.

It has the ability to speak to many.

We have been focusing specifically on poetry prompting change and revolution.

And that's also an important aspect of this art form.

People might read a piece of poetry and be inspired by it.

It might shape how they then live their lives moving forward and the changes they wish to implement in society.

A written word is to many accessible.

Similarly, poetry is often read aloud.

More importantly, it evokes emotion and that emotion might depend on who the reader or the listener is and their own personal experiences.

And finally, poetry and words have the ability to challenge the reader, to challenge the listener.

You might think that you know everything, you might think that you've decided how you feel about all aspects of your life.

And someone might read something to you, a short poem, a short stanza of a poem, a short section of text, and it might make you rethink many things that you thought you knew.

So you're welcome to pause the video here and add any additional ideas to your own mind map.

Please resume the video once you are done.

So before we read Maggie Smith's poem "Good Bones", I'd like to talk through its conception.

Maggie Smith is, was a relatively unknown poet, and she wrote this poem during the summer of 2015.

She was influenced by personal experience, specifically the role of motherhood and protecting those we love.

She realised that she wanted to make and she wants to make the world a better place, not just for herself, but for her children.

And so this poem explores more widely our social responsibility.

Our shared social responsibility to move forward and continually be evolving and creating a better world.

The poem was published in the year 2016, and it spoke to many people given the condition of the world at the time.

There had been a series of difficult events that people had faced, including a mass shooting in Orlando and the murder of a politician, Jo Cox.

The world seemed at this time a very unsettled place, full of unknowns.

So as a consequence of this Smith's poem went viral.

The poem spoke to many people.

They, the reader, the listener, interpreted the poem in their own way.

For some it offered hope, for others it was a shared expression of despair and disgust at the world at this time.

The poem, and we must remember that at this stage, Maggie Smith was a relatively unknown poet, the poem became among the most shared works of poetry during this time, up there with works by writers, including Auden and Maya Angelou.

Now before we read the poem, I'd like to introduce you to this form of poetry.

It is called the dramatic monologue.

Now a dramatic monologue is written in the form of a speech from an individual character.

It gives an insight into this character's feelings and their innermost thoughts.

And often a dramatic monologue creates quite a conversational tone.

It's like we're speaking to somebody directly and they are speaking to us directly.

So we are now going to take some time to read the poem "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith.

I want you to consider, as we read, who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? And what are their thoughts and feelings about the world and about their role in the world? Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I've shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I'll keep from my children.

The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that's a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake.

Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children.

I am trying to sell them the world.

Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones.

This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.

And so here, Maggie Smith, the speaker, shares her musings on the world that she's currently living in.

And hopefully you've picked up.

She's suggesting that while there is good in the world, there is also bad.

And these ideas are continually opposing one another.

And she wants to teach her children about the world, but she wants to keep them safe and keep them protected from the bad and the evil that does also exist.

So Smith writes her poem, as I've suggested earlier, in the dramatic monologue form.

She uses "I", and this is important in this form of poetry because it creates a personal character.

We are being spoken to by someone specific.

Now here, I want you to tell me who is the I referring to? What character has Smith created here? After three, I want you to tell me something about this character.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

I'm hoping that you've picked up on the fact that this character is a mother and she's talking about life.

She's talking about the world around her and the life she lives and the life that she wants to provide for her children in this world that is both good and bad.

Now there's a tension here for Smith.

There's a tension between what she wants for her children as a mother.

She wants to be nurturing.

She wants to be protective.

She wants to be caring.

Versus the reality of the world.

And while the world can be such a good place, it can also be a dangerous, an uncontrollable and an unkind place.

And so her poem comments on this tension.

What she wants for her children as a mother and what is out of her control, the dangers, the unkindness that exists in our world.

So now that we've read and explored a little bit about the poem, I would like you to answer these questions.

When was "Good Bones" published? What form is "Good Bones" written in? Who is the speaker in "Good Bones"? And how does the speaker feel about the world? I've given you a sentence starter for each of the questions.

I'd like you to pause the video here and complete your task.

Make sure you resume the video once you are finished.

Great.

Let's move on.

So in this portion of the lesson, I'm going to introduce you to the four sentence types.

First of all, we have a declarative statement, a declarative sentence, and this is a statement.

And the purpose of a declarative sentence is to relay, is to give the reader information.

So examples of declarative sentences include: The sky is blue.

The grass is green.

They're a statement and they're presenting a fact.

They're relaying information to the reader.

So that is a declarative sentence.

Alongside this, we have an interrogative sentence, and an interrogative is very simply a question.

You might be thinking it sounds very similar to the term to interrogate.

A police officer might interrogate a suspect.

They're questioning the suspect.

So examples of an interrogative, really simply.

What do you want for dinner? Can you hear me? They're questions that we would ask people.

We also have imperative sentences, and these are probably used a little bit more sparingly in our day to day.

An imperative sentence is a command.

They simply tell someone to do something.

So examples of these types of sentences might be: Turn right at the end of the road.

Sit down, now.

And they will often hold with them a more commanding tone.

So that's our imperative sentence, a command.

We use them when we're telling someone to do something.

And finally, we have our exclamatory sentence.

So an exclamatory sentence ends in an exclamation point and they are used to express a strong emotion.

And it could be any emotion that has a strength behind it.

So it might be a happy exclamatory.

It might be an angry, frustrated exclamatory.

So we've got a couple of examples here.

I can't believe it! That could be: I can't believe it! I'm amazed.

Or it could be: I can't believe it! I'm really angry.

I'm really frustrated.

We've also got: That's the best thing I've heard all day! So we can see that the tone of that exclamatory sentence is brighter.

It's lighter.

It's a happy exclamatory.

So here are our four types of sentences.

You're welcome to pause the video here and take down any notes required.

I'd like you to resume the video once you are finished.

Great.

Let's check our knowledge of the four different types of sentences.

I'm going to read you a sentence and you're going to tell me whether it's a declarative, an interrogative, an exclamatory, or an imperative.

Let's get started.

Are you home yet? After three, what type of sentence is, Are you home yet? One, two, three.

I'm hoping that you notice that question mark.

It is, of course, an interrogative.

I like animals.

After three, what type of sentence is, I like animals? One, two, three.

Thank you.

I like animals is a statement.

It's expressing a fact.

It's relaying information.

So it is a declarative sentence.

Sit down.

I'd like you to tell me what sentence type sit down falls under.

After three.

One, two, three.

It is an imperative.

It's a command.

We're telling somebody to do something.

I can't believe it! Is this a declarative, an interrogative, an exclamatory, or an imperative sentence? After three.

One, two, three.

I'm hoping you notice the exclamation point on the end there.

So it is an exclamatory sentence.

How about this one? Shut the fridge door.

What sentence type is, Shut the fridge door? After three.

One, two, three.

I'm hoping you got this one.

You might hear this one a lot at home.

It is an imperative.

It's a command.

You're being told to shut the fridge door so you don't let all the cold out and ruin all the food.

Try this one.

What is your name? After three.

What type of sentence is this? One, two, three.

Well done if you got that.

It's an interrogative.

It's has a question mark at the end.

You are being asked a question.

Great.

Now hopefully we're feeling confident about the different types of sentences.

I would very simply like you to pause the video here and write down your own example of each of the following sentence types: a declarative, an imperative, an exclamatory, and an interrogative.

So pause the video here and write down an example of each of the following sentence types, and make sure you resume the video once you are finished.

Thank you.

So I've introduced you to these sentence types, because I want us to look at what sentence types Smith uses in her poem "Good Bones".

So I would like you to pause the video here and reread the poem on the screen, and I'd like you to note down what types of sentences does Smith use in her poem.

Please make sure you resume the video once you are finished.

Great.

Now you've had some time to reread the poem and consider Smith's use of sentence types.

I'd like you to tell me what sentence types she uses in her poem.

So after three.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

I'm hoping you've noticed that overwhelmingly Maggie Smith uses declarative sentences throughout her whole poem.

Her whole poem is a series of statements.

She's relaying her opinion.

She is relaying information.

Except right at the end, we have a final interrogative, and it reads, "This place could be beautiful, right?" Before we end on one more declarative.

"You could make this place beautiful." So let's consider why Smith uses overwhelmingly declaratives in her poem.

And why she decides to contrast this with the use of an interrogative right at the end? Let's look at this first section here that uses declarative sentences.

Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children.

She uses declarative sentences in her poem because really cleverly, they make her opinions, her personal thoughts and ideas appear like they're facts.

Like she's relaying information that everybody should know.

This is factual information that you need to be party to.

Because we are being presented with this declarative sentence that read as factual, it's forcing us as the reader or the listener to face the speaker's truth.

And it also forces the reader to consider their own opinions.

We are being introduced to this series of declarative sentences throughout her poem.

Now they're being presented, her opinions are being presented as facts because of this use of declarative.

However, we can also respond to that, and we can also question and consider our own opinions in relation to the ones that Smith presents in her poem.

So ultimately, all of these things, all of these uses of a declarative sentence, promote reflection and change in the reader.

They make us think.

They make us challenge our own thoughts and ideas.

We might be sitting there and thinking, "Yeah, the world is a hundred percent great, "I've never had any problems in the world," because of our own personal experience.

But Smith highlights perhaps our ignorance, our lack of knowledge about the world around us.

And it prompts us to reflect on that and perhaps to change our opinions moving forward.

And so as stated, she contrasts these declarative sentences with her use of an interrogative as the poem comes to its end.

She questions, "This place could be beautiful, right?" Well, the interrogative contrasts the declaratives that come before, and there's a slight shift in the tone there because she's suggesting hope for a better future.

She's actually inviting us, the reader, the listener, into the conversation.

It becomes more personal.

Rather than us being talked at through this series of declarative sentences, she's welcoming us in.

She's saying, "This place could be beautiful, right?" And she's inviting us to respond to her thought processes.

But she doesn't end on this interrogative.

She switches back and she uses a final declarative.

"You could make this place beautiful." And this is a really powerful ending as the reader, the you, is addressed directly.

We've been thinking, we've been considering.

This place could be beautiful, right? Could it? Do I have a role in this? And then she tells us, yes, you could make this place beautiful.

So I would like you to complete this task.

You're going to answer for me.

Why does Smith introduce an interrogative at the end of her poem? I'd like you to consider the role of an interrogative.

What purpose does it have? Why do we use them? And how it contrasts the declarative statements that come before it.

Please pause the video to complete this task and resume the video once you are finished.

Great.

Let's consider an acceptable answer in contrast to our good answer.

Our acceptable answer might read, it contrasts the declarative sentences that come before and suggests hope for a better future.

That's fine.

It, the interrogative, does contrast the declarative sentences, and its purpose is to suggest some hope for a better future.

But I'm sure we can go into more detail.

Let's see how we can do that in our good answer.

In "Good Bones", Maggie Smith uses a series of declarative sentences that force the reader to face the speaker's truths, while promoting reflection and change.

Great.

We've introduced the poem, "Good Bones".

We've introduced the author, Maggie Smith.

And this person has suggested they use a series, so they use a number of declarative sentences, and their purpose is to force the reader to face the speaker's truth.

Then they go on and say how the interrogatives contrast this.

Let's read this sentence.

This contrasts with the use of an interrogative in the final lines where "This place could be beautiful, right?" invites the reader into the conversation and creates a more personal tone in the quest for a more beautiful world.

Good.

Now this person has explored the contrasting use of the interrogative as a sentence type.

They've suggested that rather than being told a series of declarative sentences that appear perhaps factual, we are now being invited into the conversation through the use of questioning, and it creates a more personal tone.

It creates a connection between the writer and the reader, the writer and the listener.

You're welcome to pause the video here and make any edits to your own answer if you wish.

Please make sure you resume the video once you are finished.

And finally, I hope that the story and the conception of "Good Bones" has proven to you the power of poetry in the 21st century, in our modern world.

Remember Smith was a relatively unknown poet, but because her poem spoke to people due to the world that we were living in in that time, due to the horrors that were existing during 2016, the poem went viral.

It offered people hope, but it also offered people a space to explore and to express their despair.

So I would like you to have a go at writing your own poem about a change you would like to see in society.

That change can be anything.

In her poem, Maggie Smith is simply suggesting that we could be a kinder society.

We have the ability to make the world more beautiful.

You could focus perhaps on a topic that you think is really important.

You might want to look at something like climate change perhaps.

You might want to look at something like gender.

It is completely up to you.

Now, in order to give you a bit of a helping hand, I have suggested that, first of all, most importantly, you need to decide what your poem is going to be about.

What change would you like to see in the world? Because this change is going to be the focus of your poem.

You might not refer to it on every line, but it's going to be what drives forward your poem.

It's going to be the message that drives it forward.

I'm suggesting that you use the dramatic monologue form.

So you create in your poem a character, and it's likely, just like in "Good Bones", you're going to use "I" throughout because this character, whether it's influenced by you or not, is going to be expressing their ideas for the change they'd like to see in society.

As always, when you're writing, you want to consider your use of techniques.

You've been introduced to alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification.

Try and include them in your writing.

And finally, pick up your pen and write from your heart.

If you need a bit of a helping hand, I have put some potential openers and images that you could include in your writing.

Please don't feel like you have to use them.

It's just to get you thinking.

So please pause the video here and have a go at writing your own poem for change.

Make sure you resume the video once you are finished.

Thank you, as always, for your hard work and engagement during today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed creating your own poem for change.

If you would like to, you can share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to share your work, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag LearnwithOak.

See you next time.

Bye.