Jackie KayNational 5 Poetry

Jackie Kay

Fact Finding Mission: About the Poet

Before we dive into the poems, it is important to understand the poet and her life. Working in groups you will read about Jackie Kay and participate in a quiz to test your knowledge.

1. As a group read the information.

2. Decide on what you think is important and write this down in your jotters.

3. As a group learn the information as best you can. (divide it, quiz each other etc.)

4. I will collect your information sheets when the buzzer goes off.

The Quiz

Working as a group, try to answer the questions correctly. Write your answers down to be peer marked.

Quiz1. In what location and year was Jackie Kay born? (2)

2. What were the nationalities and occupations of her parents? (4)

3. What challenge did she face during her childhood? (1)

4. What caused her to search for her birth mother? (1)

5. ‘All writers draw on their own ___________ and a lot of my ____________ has been heightened' Fill in the blanks. (2)

6. What career did she first pursue? (1)

7. What made her change her mind? (2)

8. What country does Kay claim inspired her poetry? In what ways? (3)

9. Name at least one prize that Kay was awarded for her writing. (1)

10. Name at least one other voice that Kay has used in her poetry (1)

11. What has influenced her poetry? (1)

 

Final question: Name as many themes in Kay’s work as possible .(4)

Marking

Trade your answers with another group. 1. Edinburgh; 1961. (2)

2. Mother – Scottish, nurse; Father – Nigerian, student. (4)

3. Racial bullying. (1)

4. The birth of her own son. (1)

5. Experience. (2)

6. Acting. (1)

7. Car accident; recognition by Alasdair Gray. (2)

8. Scotland; language and speech rhythms. (3)

9. Any of: Saltire First Book Award, Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. (1 + extra if they have more than one correct)

10. Any of: mother, daughter, old woman, lover or child. (1 + extra)

11. Her awareness of her complex genetic inheritance (coming from a mix of backgrounds). (1)

Final question: Racism, family relationships, misogyny, homophobia and human love. (possible 5 points)

Give them a final mark out of 24.

What’s in a name?

In pairs discuss the following questions:

What do the names of the six poems we will study suggest to you?

What do you think the poems will be about?

What themes might they explore?

Keeping Orchids

Divorce

Bed

Gap Year

Lucozade

My Grandmother’s Houses

Learning Intentions

1. Read and understand the main ideas of the poem ‘Divorce’.

2. Learn how to annotate the poem with analysis of poetic techniques.

3. Explore and analyse the poetic voice used.

‘Divorce’

Pre-reading: What does the title of the poem suggest that the subject matter of the poem will be about?

What are your associations with the term ‘divorce’? Write down at least 5 words that come to mind.

Divorce

Reader associates with a marriage breaking apart /parents splitting up

1st Stanza

Looking at the first 5 lines only discuss and make notes with the person next to you:

1. Who do you think is talking?

2. How do they talk? (language, register, tone etc.)

I did not promiseto stay with you till death do us part, oranything like that,so part I must, and quickly. There are thingsI cannot sufferany longer:

married couple – supports expectations

high, formal language – gives impression that an adult is speaking

1st Stanza

After reading the rest of the stanza….

Discuss: Who is actually talking? What evidence do you have for this?

any longer: Mother, you never, ever saida kind wordor a thank-you for all the tedious chores I have done;Father, you breathsmells like a camel’s and gives me the hump;all you ever say is:‘Are you off in the cream puff, Lady Muck?’In this day and age?I would be better off in an orphanage.

role reversal; something parents might complain about

pun – play on words

Pun: a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

haughty or pretentious woman. Suggests the speaker is being dramatic

a parent might say to a child – grown up language

OTT; theatrical. ‘Teenager’ talk

2nd Stanza

In pairs or groups of 3, you will be a given line(s) of the stanza.

Write down your line in your jotter and annotate around it following my example.

Look for word choice, tone, sentence structure etc. Think about why certain words may have been used and what it says about the speaker.

Be prepared to share your notes with the class on the board so that we can finish annotating the poem.

Enjambment

1. Look at the first stanza. Where do you see enjambment in use?

2. Read the stanza out loud to the person next to you.

3. What might the use of the run on lines show about the way the speaker feels?

Enjambment: the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. In French, the word means ‘straddling,’ which is a perfect way to envision an enjambed line. When you read an enjambed line, the sense of it encourages you to keep reading on to the next line, without stopping for a breather.

Dramatic Monologue

Watch the following clip.

The poem and the video are about very different subjects, but they use a similar technique.

What things do they have in common? (think about presentation rather than content)

What effect does the clip have on the audience? How is this different than the poem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KFVLWX7eEY

Dramatic Monologue: also known as a persona poem. Shares many characteristics with a theatrical monologue: an audience is implied; there is no dialogue; and the poet speaks through an assumed voice—a character, a fictional identity, or a persona

Create a mind map that shows who the speaker is, what they are like and what they think, feel and desire. Have at least 2 for each category.

Find and record quotes to back up your ideas.

The speaker in ‘Divorce’

Who they are (age, gender, occupation)

What they are like (personality, voice)

What they think What they feel

What they desire

• Dramatic: ‘all you ever say is: / ‘Are you off in the cream puff, Lady Muck?’’

Now decide: Do you feel sympathy for the speaker?

Theme: Parent and Child Relationship

Working in pairs, answer these questions:

1. Do you think the speaker actually has a reason to complain. Why or why not?

2. What do you think the relationship is really like between the parents and the speaker in this poem? What clues tell you this?

3. What message do you think the poem has about families and the relationship between parents and children?

‘Divorce’

Finally, think back over what we have looked at in the poem and on your post-it note write down one thing that you think is important.

This might be a theme, a technique used, an important word or phrase or anything that might be important when revising the poem.

We’ll look back at these when we revise the poem later in the year.

Review Questions

Answer the questions about the poem on a separate sheet of paper. You can use bullet points or a paragraph structure, but write in full sentences. Due:

1. Who is the narrator? (2 marks)

2. What tone does the poem have? (2 marks)

3. Summarise the ways in which the speaker’s parents are an irritation to her. (4 marks)

4. How is imagery used to create an idea of the perfect parents in lines 16-24? (4 marks)

5. How does the language in lines 24-28 show the speaker’s anger? (4 marks)