Lesson video

Hello.

It's Mrs. Smart.

Welcome back to our English unit.

This is actually now the second part of this unit exploring John Lyons poetry.

If you haven't completed the first part of the unit I highly recommend you go back and complete those lessons.

Before you move on to the next five lessons.

In today's lesson, I'm really excited because we are going to be looking at a poem called Carnival Jumbie and you guessed it.

It's all about carnival in Trinidad.

So begins with learning what carnival is all about and also learning about Calypso music as well.

I can't wait to get started.

I hope you're ready.

Let's go.

In this lesson you're going to need an exercise book or some lined paper a pen or pencil to write with, and some colour pencils or felt tips if you've got them.

If you don't have any of those items with you right now just pause the recording and go and get them.

In today's lesson, we're going to start with learning a little bit of context about this poem before we read it, we're going to learn about carnival and we're going to learn about Calypso music.

We're then going to read Carnival Jumbie by John Lyons.

And we're going to watch a video of him reading it out loud.

Then it will be your chance to respond to the poem and we'll analyse it in a little bit more detail.

And lastly, we'll end with your independent task.

You must have heard of Notting Hill Carnival before I live in London, and I'm lucky enough to have been to Notting Hill Carnival before.

It's very similar to the carnival that happens in Trinidad because it takes lots of inspiration from the Caribbean.

We're going to watch two videos about Notting Hill Carnival from the BBC now.

Now this poem is called Carnival Jumbie and I must admit when I first read it I did not know what a Jumbie was.

So I had to look up and find out all about it.

A Jumbie is a type of ghost or mythological spirit in Caribbean folklore and in some traditions or in some countries Jumbie is a sort of devil like creature, an evil creature but actually in Trinidad, it's a protective spirit.

So they have something called a Moko Jumbie and you can see two pictures there of people representing a Moko Jumbie and they've represented by stilt walkers.

So people who walk on these very, very high legs.

So they're super tall.

I think that's probably to represent that they are looking over everyone because they are this protective spirit.

When John Lyons is talking about the Jumbie throughout his poem, this is what he's referring to.

This goes slight or mythological spirits.

He also talks about Calypso a lot which is a type of music, common in the Caribbean.

And it actually originates from Trinidad and Tobago.

It's the national music of Trinidad and Tobago.

So it represents the country really well.

And it's really often associated with carnival.

Whenever you think about carnival you will think of Calypso and, you know guaranteed that you're going to hear some Calypso music.

It often uses call and response.

So when the singers are singing they will say they will sing something and then they will expect the audience to repeat it back to them.

The toppy lyrics are often topical or witty or satirical.

So they often make jokes about things that are happening in the world at that time.

And the actual music is played by steel pans but also by guitars, trumpets, saxophone and different types of percussion instrument like drums. And you can see on the screen there's an example of some steel pan players.

So they're like these big metal pans which you hit with sticks and they make a really, really beautiful sound.

Soca music is also really common in carnival in Trinidad and Tobago.

And the Soca actually means soul-calypso.

And it's slightly more energetic disco influenced offshoot of actual salsa music which I thought was really interesting.

So Calypso music is maybe a little bit slower and a bit more chilled.

And then Soca music is a little bit more energetic.

Calypso music developed in the 17th century.

So it's quite an old form of music.

It was brought by enslaved people who worked on sugar plantations.

So people came over to the Caribbean or over to Trinidad and Tobago in particular and worked on big farms where they grew sugar.

Freezing slaved people was stripped of all connections to their homeland and their family.

They weren't even allowed to talk to each other.

They used Calypso music to mock their masters.

That means the people that were in charge of them who did not treat them very nicely at all.

They used to sort of joke about them behind their backs using Calypso music and using the lyrics.

They also used it as a way to communicate with each other because their masters couldn't understand what they were saying if they were singing these Calypso songs to each other.

Actually, they were talking to each other in secrets.

We're now going to listen to an example of some Calypso music from the BBC.

I really hope you enjoy it.

Here you can see the poem, Carnival Jumbie which is what our lesson is focused on today.

If you want to you can pause the recording and read it through yourself.

We're now going to listen to John Lyons reading Carnival Jumbie from CLPE.

It shouldn't add.

People have so much fun.

They loved partying.

So even when they die, they come back like Jumbie which is like a ghost to have a party.

And this is the poem is called Carnival Jumbie.

Come back to jump in the carnival.

Jumbie jump high.

Jumbie jump low.

Jumbie jumpin to calypso Jumbie doing a dance in de silk-cotton tree.

He waiting for jouvay an steelban music to break away.

Jumbie jump high.

Jumbie jump low Jumbie jumpin to calypso.

At six in the morning steelban come out.

People wining dey body Ole mas all about Jumbie jump high Jumbie jump low Jumbie jumpin to calypso Jumbie jump in a steelban and everybody know when he move he body he's like a black-smoke shadow.

Jumbie jump high Jumbie jump low Jumbie jumpin to calypso Jumbie have no flesh he have no waist to hol' but just look how he movin' wid no bumsey to roll.

Jumbie jump high Jumbie jump low Jumbie jump to calypso' As always, the first thing I want you to do now you have read or listened to that poem is to respond to it yourself.

So I want you to think about what did you like about the poem? What did you dislike about the poem? Do you have any questions or anything that maybe confused or puzzled you and what does it remind you of? Maybe it reminded you of something you've heard before.

Maybe it reminds you of another John Lyons poems or maybe it reminded you of something.

You have something that you've actually experienced in your own life.

If you've been to a carnival before maybe it would remind you of that.

Pause the recording, and write some notes under those four question headings.

We're now going to think about the structure of this poem.

I want you to consider the verses.

Remember that's how the poem is split up a bit like the poetry example of paragraphs.

I want you to think about if there's any rhyme see if you can identify any rhyming words they're words that sound the same.

Repetition are there any words that come up more than once throughout the poem, and punctuation is there any interest in punctuation that you could comment on in this poem? Pause the recording now and write yourself some notes under those four headings.

This poem has a really interesting structure.

It's actually reminded me of a song.

I wonder if you thought the same, the reason it reminded me of a song it's because it almost has a chorus that's repeated all the way through but in poetry we call that a reframe.

So there is a few lines Jumbie jump high, Jumbie jump low.

Jumbie jumpin to calypso that are repeated.

I can see one, two, three, four five times throughout the poem, after each verse.

So very much like a chorus in a song.

There's also quite a lot of rhyme in this poem.

So the refrain has some rhyme where he rhymes low and calypso, but there's also rhyme in the verses as well.

And you'll notice the rhyme in poems nearly always goes at the end of the line.

So you can see we've got jouvay breakaway outs about no shadow, whole role, lots of rhyming words that and in lots of the verses you can see that the ryhme is on every other line which is quite a common rhyming structure in poems. Lastly if we haven't looked at the punctuation we've got the normal full stop.

And actually there aren't any commas in this one are there often there's commas at the end of lines, but this one doesn't it just has a full stop right at the end.

But it does have these apostrophes.

Now, sometimes we use apostrophes to show something belongs to someone, but this apostrophe is for another reason.

Do you know what it's used for? Excellent.

Yes.

It's to show that a letter's missing.

So if we look at the word hol, what do you think the hol word should be? He have no ways to hol.

What do you think? Hold? Yeah, I think so.

He has no waste to hold.

And then the next bit is the word movin which is a bit more obvious.

He's just dropped off the G there, but he's used an apostrophe to show the two letters missing.

What do you think that might be? I agree.

I think he's writing almost how he would say it.

It's almost like he's writing it in a phonetic way so you can feel how he would actually pronounce those words.

Next we're going to think about the language and the meaning of this poem.

First of all, I want you to try and summarise what is this poem about? If you had to write one sentence to explain what this poem was about to someone who hadn't read it what would you say? Pause the recording and write your sentence now.

I summarise the poem like this.

I wrote a Jumbie dancing to Calypso music at carnival.

That pretty much summarises everything that happens in the poem.

I now want you to think about what are the themes and the tone of the poem.

Remember in previous lessons, we've talked about what these key words mean.

The themes are the key ideas in the poem.

And the tone is the feeling of the poem.

Pause the recording and write yourself some notes now.

I thought the main themes of this poem were carnival, Calypso music and dancing.

That pretty much summarises everything that happens in the poem.

The tone, I thought it was a very positive tone then of energy, very energetic lots and lots of moving and jumping around.

And everyone in it's having lots of fun and is feeling very happy.

Generally at carnival, there's really positive, happy vibes.

Everyone really enjoys their time.

Now we're going to have a look at some of the language used in this poem in a little bit more detail and there might be some unfamiliar words.

I know when I first read it I definitely had to look up a few of the words to find out what they meant because they were unfamiliar to me.

Now, if we see I've highlighted some of the words that you might be unsure about, the first one is Jumbie.

You should all know what that means now.

Can you tell me what the Jumbie is? Excellent.

Well done.

A Jumbie is a type of ghost like creature, and in Trinidad and Tobago it's a protective ghost.

And often they're represented by people in the parade on very long, tall stilts, because they're looking over everyone and protecting them.

The next one I've highlighted is calypso.

You should know what that means as well.

Can you tell me Well done calypso is a type of music and it's the national music of Trinidad and Tobago because that's where it originated from.

And it's often played by instruments like steel pans, guitars, brass instruments, and percussion.

Then we've got Jumbie doing a dance into silk-cotton tree.

I wasn't sure what's a silk- cotton tree was at fast? So I had to look it up and you can see a picture on the screen of what a silk-cotton tree is.

It's basically a type of tree that produces this fibre which people then pick off the tree and they create what they call silk cotton.

That's a little bit different from silk.

They actually use it for stuffing things, things like stuffing mattresses and pillows, and even teddy bears.

So it's this sort of fluffy material that they use for stuffing things.

And this tree is actually really significant in Trinidad and Tobago because there is a, there's some folklore, which is a kind of traditional story about the tree and about how a carpenter managed to trap the devil inside the tree.

So it's actually a really significant tree in Trinidad and Tobago.

Then this word jouvay, he waiting for jouvay.

I didn't know what that meant at first.

So I had to look it up and it means the first day of carnival, it actually comes from the French or the French Creole word to mean open or morning or daybreak the beginning of the day.

And actually I found out that carnival in Trinidad starts at 2:00 AM.

So when everyone else would normally be sleeping, people up and awake, ready to start carnival and jouvay is a really exciting time cause everyone looks calm, looks forward to carnival all year.

steelban music we know what that is.

We learned about steel pans or steel bands.

You can see there, some people playing some steel pans and they often the instrument that features in Calypso music.

We're now moving onto the next part.

And now we have got this word winin.

Now winin is a type of dance move.

That's very common in Trinidad and Tobago and it basically involves winding or moving your hips from side to side.

So it says people wining de body it's a kind of dance move that people often do at carnival.

And then it refers to Ole mass that you might remember earlier.

I used that word mass.

Can you remember, remember what it meant? Really good.

I'm so impressed you remembered, mass means costumes.

So it's the traditional costumes that people wear to carnival.

And often they represent different characters and figures from folklore, that traditional stories.

And then here it talks again about Jumbie his movement to the music.

And it describes when he move he body he's like black-smoke shadow.

Now I think that's almost telling the reader that the Jumbie isn't really real.

It's not a human body.

It's almost like a kind of smoke.

So that describes the Jumbie as a black smoke shadow is it's moving.

It then goes on to describe the Jumbie body in a little bit more detail, cause it says it has no flesh.

So your flesh is your kind of skin on your body, your skin and your muscle.

So the Jumbie doesn't have any of that because it's this ghost like creature, that's almost like a smoke.

He have no waist to hol can we remember what we said that word meant? Hold that's it.

He had no ways to hold.

So because he's not this human figure, he's not a body.

He's got no flesh and he's got no waist that you can hold on to.

And then it says with no bumsey to roll.

Now, what do you think bumsey might mean? Go on tell me.

That's right.

It means no bum to roll.

So because he's got no actual human body he can't move his bottom and wind to the music with everyone out.

Now it is time for your independent task.

You have learned a lot about carnival and Calypso music in today's lesson.

I would like you to create a mind map of all of the vocabulary and the terms you use to describe carnival.

You might want to go back through the recording to remind yourself of what some of these terms meant.

If you want to, you could add some images to illustrate them using your coloured felt tips or coloured pencils.

See if you can explain what Calypso is.

What's a steelpan is what's a Jumbie or a Jumbie.

Can you remember? Can you remember what the meaning of jouvay was? What's winin? and lastly, what's Ole mass? So you've got six terms there that I want you to put on your mind map with six arrows coming out to the side and explain to me what each term means.

And you might want to add an image to illustrate each one as well.

Right? You have finished today's lesson.

Congratulations.

If you would like to please share your work with your parents or carer I'm sure they would love to hear all about carnival and learn some of the information and those key terms that you have learned today.

I'll see you in your next lesson.

Goodbye.