Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's English lesson, where we're going to be focusing not one, but two poems from the poet Alice Walker.

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

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

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

Great.

Let's get started.

Let's start by considering our agenda for today's lesson.

We're going to start with some key vocabulary.

Today, that is the word resilient.

Then we're going to read Alice Walker's poem, Torture, and explore it in further detail, before we read her poem, We Alone Can Devalue Gold, also sometimes known as We Alone.

We're going to consider the role of materialism in the poem, and then we're going to finish by looking at Walker's own revolution.

Yes, you're right, we are going to look at two whole poems in one single lesson, so we best get started.

Today's key term is resilient.

If you're resilient, it means to be able to move forward when things go wrong or bad things happen.

Being resilient is all about bouncing back and more than anything, never giving up, regardless of what hurdles and obstacles are put in your way.

Can you read the term resilient with me now, after three, one, two, three.

To be able to move forward when things go wrong or bad things happen.

Great.

Let's look at how we can use it in a sentence.

His greatest strength was his resilience; he never gave up.

I wish my friend was a bit more resilient! I am proud of my emotional resilience.

Here you can see each of these three sentences relates to someone moving forward, if things go bad or when things go wrong.

Or in the second sentence is an example of someone wishing that their friend was a bit more resilient, that they were able to move forward even when obstacles are put in their way.

So let's test our knowledge of the term resilient.

Please copy down this definition and fill in the gaps.

You can resume the video when you're done.

Great, let's check our answer.

Resilient is to be able to move forward when things go wrong or bad things happen.

Did you get that correct? Well done, if you did.

If you didn't, you can pause the video and make any necessary edits.

Let's check our knowledge of the key term, resilient, a little more.

I'm going to present you three sentences and you're going to tell me which of the following sentences uses the word resilient correctly.

Number one reads, My mum is the most resilient person I know.

Number two reads, Everything is going resilient! And finally, I must be more resilient in life.

Pause the video here and write down the two statements that use the word resilient correctly.

Resume the video when you're finished.

Now you've had some time to complete the task, let's check our answers.

I'm going to present to you the sentences from the last slide.

If they're in green, they have used resilient correctly.

There we go.

Number one and number three uses resilient correctly.

However, number two doesn't.

Everything is going resilient! Ah, I see what this person has done.

They have understood that being resilient means bouncing back and moving forward even when things go wrong, and they have substituted the word resilient for the word wrong.

So it reads, everything is going resilient.

Now, we could amend the sentence by perhaps attaching on a further phrase.

Everything is going wrong, I need to be more resilient.

There we go, that one would make sense.

Please can you pause the video here and complete the following task.

I'd like you to write an example of someone being resilient.

Think of a difficult event or circumstance and how someone may bounce back from this.

Pause the video while you complete your task and resume the video once you are finished.

So in order to access our first poem today, entitled Torture, I want you to consider what do you associate with the term torture? How does it make you feel? How may it make others feel? Pause the video here and make a mind map of words and phrases you would associate with the term torture.

Please resume the video when you are finished.

Thank you.

I'm going to present to you some of the words and phrases I would associate with this term.

See if any of yours match mine.

Pain, both physical and mental, emotional pain.

Oppression, perhaps torture is a method of oppression, a way for powerful oppressors to gain control.

Mistreatment, no one deserves to be tortured.

Despair, we're now going to think about the consequences of torture and despair could be one of those.

The idea that we are broken and that we will never be able to put ourselves back together.

It's a trauma, and traumas stay with us, and traumas shape us for the rest of our lives.

And ultimately, we might feel like giving up.

Those who have experienced torture, the pain of torture, whether it be mental or physical may feel like giving up.

These are all natural responses to the term torture.

So, let's read Alice Walker's poem, Torture.

Before we read the poem, I want to note that Alice Walker, as a black writer, was inspired by the civil rights movement and the injustices and inequalities suffered by black people.

Let's read the poem.

When they torture your mother plant a tree When they torture your father plant tree When they torture your brother and your sister plant a tree When they assassinate your leaders and lovers plant a tree When they torture you too bad to talk plant a tree When they begin to torture the trees and cut down the forest they have made start another.

So hopefully reading this poem, you've identified that there are two phrases that are repeated throughout.

On the one hand, as represented by the image on the left, we've got the image of torture, and we've considered what we would associate with that image.

Pain, giving up despair, being broken.

But this image of torture is contrasted by Walker with the repeated phrase, plant a tree.

So let's consider why in the next slide.

I would like you to pause the video here and write down some bullet pointed notes regarding what you would associate with planting a tree.

Please resume the video once you are done.

Thank you for that.

I'm going to present to you some of my own ideas.

I wonder whether you've got any that are similar.

For me, planting a tree represents new life and growth, and being reborn, even new energy in the world.

In line with this, it represents renewal.

Planting a tree could also be a sign of resilience and not giving up, even as they're torn down, we plant new ones and we fight back.

And finally, a tree could be a symbol for hope, a symbol for new life, a symbol for growth, not just in the physical sense of the natural world, but metaphorically, growth in our society.

So I'd now like you to consider, how does Walker promote resilience in her poem, Torture? I'd like you to write a short paragraph to answer this question.

Consider the following.

What do we normally traditionally associate with the term torture? Think about our mind map from earlier on.

Pain, despair, being broken, and most importantly, perhaps giving up.

When they torture your mother, when they torture your father, when they torture you so much you cannot talk, she says, plant a tree.

And so what is Walker suggesting about human nature through the repeated image of planting a tree? Is she suggesting that when we are tortured, whether that be torture, be physical or mental or emotional torture in all of its varying degrees, is she suggesting that we should give into the pain and we should give up and we should break? Or is she suggesting that we need to move forward? Is she promoting resilience? I'd like you to pause the video here and answer this question in a short paragraph.

Please resume the video when you are finished.

Thank you.

Let's have a look at an acceptable and a good answer to this question.

First of all, our acceptable answer to how does Walker promote resilience in her poem reads, We associate pain and misery with the word 'torture'; it is something that breaks people and makes them give up.

In 'Torture', the writer suggests that we should respond by planting 'a tree' to create new life and hope for a better future.

Good.

Let's have a look at our good answer and what makes it slightly superior to our acceptable answer.

Torture is a word that many people would associate with pain, oppression and becoming a broken person.

Nice.

So this person has started in exactly the same way as our acceptable answer, but they have used, hopefully you've noticed, the high level vocabulary, the term oppression.

In her poem, 'Torture', Alice Walker suggests that our response to torture should be in the form of planting 'a tree.

' Nice.

They've introduced the poem, its name, Torture, and rather than write, the writer, they have introduced Alice Walker as our writer.

This is always good practise.

Introduce the name of the writer, and then you can refer to them as the writer later on in your paragraph.

Here, the tree is a symbol of resilience against oppressors; it represents new life and hope for a better future, a future we can build together.

Good.

Once again, this person has considered a similar idea to our acceptable answer, new life, a better future, but they have made sure they used the word resilience in their answer, remember, resilience is all about not giving up, bouncing back, regardless of what hurdles are put in your way, however big, however small.

And they've also used that high level term, oppressors.

So you're welcome to pause the video here and make any edits to your own paragraph response to how does Walker promote resilience in her poem.

Once you're finished, please resume the video.

Now, we're going to move on to our second poem of today's lesson.

It is called, We Alone Can Devalue Gold, and it is written by the same author, Alice Walker.

Sometimes we can find this poem under the shortened version, We Alone.

So before we read the poem, I would like you to consider what do you think society values the most? On the left hand side, I've got gold, representation of riches and luxuries and jewels, and things that we might not have a lot of, we might not have them in abundance.

And then in the centre and through to the right hand side, I've got images of a flower, a tree, a shell.

These are more natural images, things perhaps that we are more widely surrounded by.

I'd like you to pause the video for a moment and consider what do you think society values the most.

Gold, material possessions that we might not have in abundance, or nature, the natural world, the natural beauty that surrounds us? Please resume the video once you've completed the task.

Now, bearing in mind the previous task, let's read the poem from Alice Walker.

We alone can devalue gold by not caring if it falls or rises in the marketplace.

Wherever there is gold there is a chain, you know, and if your chain is gold so much the worse for you.

Feathers, shells and sea-shaped stones are all as rare.

This could be our revolution: to love what is plentiful as much as what is scarce.

So in her opening line, she's suggesting we can devalue gold.

If we devalue something, we take the value away from it, we make it less valuable.

And she says that we can devalue gold by not caring if it falls or if it rises in the marketplace.

And then as the poem continues, she suggests that there are other things in this world that we should value.

So let's consider that on the next slide.

For Alice Walker, what do you think she thinks we value the most in society? And what do you think she thinks we value least in society? I'd like you to note down your idea and resume the video once you are finished.

Great.

From her poem, Alice Walker suggests that we value the most things like gold.

And she suggests, and if your chain is gold so much the worse for you.

She's being critical of the fact that we value gold above other things in society.

And how use of the phrase chain, on the one hand, we might relate that to jewellery, a chain that we wear around our neck often made of a precious material like gold, but here, is she using chain in a more metaphorical sense? If we're chained to something, it means that we lack freedom.

Are we chained to our love of material possessions like gold? So in turn, she's suggesting that society values least the natural world around it, the flowers, the shells, the trees, the feathers, that she suggests can be just as rare and we should value to the same degree.

So for Walker, we should value less and less items like gold, and we should value above all the feathers, shells, and sea shaped stones that are all as rare.

She wants us to change our perception, change the value that we put on things in life.

Just because, she suggests, things like gold are rare and harder to come by, it does not mean we should value them any more than the natural world that surrounds us.

Walker's poem is a comment on materialism.

Now, materialism is a belief that material possessions, things, objects, are more important than natural and spiritual values.

So perhaps she's suggesting that someone might value having a fast car or a handbag or a piece of jewellery, more than the beauty of the natural and spiritual world that surrounds them.

Because those things like the fast car, like the gold, like the jewellery, like the handbag, are expensive and therefore harder to come by.

And because of that, we value them more than the things we're surrounded by.

So do you think Walker's poem is for or against materialism, believing that material possessions are more important than natural and spiritual values? After three, I want you to tell me whether you think Walker's poem is for or against materialism.

After three, one, two, three.

I'm hoping you said against.

Walker's poem is a poem that is against materialism, and it's trying to highlight the importance of natural spiritual values.

The things that we are surrounded by, that we take for granted.

And I want us to zoom in on this final phrase here.

She says, This could be our revolution: to love what is plentiful as much as what's scarce.

And as we know, revolution prompts a change in society.

And the change that Walker wants to see in our society is to love what is plentiful as much as what is scarce.

What is plentiful, the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us, versus what is scarce, what we have less of, material things, gold, for instance.

She believes that we alone can devalue gold, if we put our values elsewhere, if we stop being, as a society, materialistic.

So I would like you to complete this final task.

You're going to answer the question, what is Walker's message in her poem, We Alone Can Devalue Gold? I would like you to write a short paragraph to answer the question.

Consider the following.

What does society value most highly? What is materialism? And what revolution can we see in society to promote change? Pause the video here while you complete your answer.

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

Let's consider an acceptable answer to this question versus a more detailed, good answer.

Remember, we're considering what Walker's message is in her poem.

The writer suggests that we should stop valuing gold and other material things so highly and value the natural world around us.

She suggests that our revolution could be to 'love what is plentiful' rather than our material possessions.

Good.

This person has written an acceptable answer that answers the question correctly.

The writer does suggest we should stop valuing things like gold and value the natural world that is surrounding us.

And they have zoomed in on the idea that Walker says our revolution, our change could be to love what is plentiful rather than material possessions like gold.

Let's have a look at our good answer.

In We Alone Can Devalue Gold, Walker suggests that society needs to change its materialistic ways.

Good.

This person has started with a strong opening sentence.

They have noted the name of the poem and the name of the author, and they have focused in on her message that we need to change our materialistic ways.

She criticises the importance modern society assigns to objects like 'gold', even suggesting we are somewhat chained to these material possessions.

Excellent.

They've gone that step further, and they've used that image that Walker uses of us perhaps being chained to material possessions, like gold, that they have this hold over us, and therefore we lack a sort of freedom.

And finally, Instead she believes we should 'love what is plentiful': the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us.

This, suggests Walker, 'could be our revolution'.

And what I like at the end here is how this writer has embedded those quotations, 'love what is plentiful' and 'could it be our revolution', just to highlight and emphasise Walker's message in her poem.

So hopefully those are helpful, and as always, you're welcome to pause the video here and use them to make any edits to your own answer.

Make sure you resume the video once you are finished.

Thank you very much for your hard work and engagement during today's lesson.

Well done for exploring two poems with me during the period of just one single lesson.

Please don't forget to complete the end of lesson quiz, and I will see you next time, bye.