Hello there.

Welcome to today's lesson.

Great to see you today.

My name is Mr. Barnsley, and I'm really glad that you have chosen to continue to explore the AQA "World and Lives Poetry Anthology" with me today.

So today we are gonna be looking at the poem "Name Journeys," which is a fantastic poem.

We're gonna be analysing this poem in a little bit more detail today.

You should have already read the poem before you start today's lesson.

So if you haven't, do make sure, take your time to read the poem, make sure you know what it's all about.

All right, you're gonna need your copy of the AQA "World and Lives Poetry Anthology" today 'cause we want to see a version of the poem.

All right? Make sure you've got this to hand and let's get started.

All right, let's have a look at today's outcome then, shall we? By the end of today's lesson, you're gonna be able to explain how Mundair uses language, form, and structure to express their viewpoint.

So there are four keywords I want you to keep an eye out for in today's lesson.

They are woven, metaphorically, ghazal and discordant.

Let's have a look at what each of them mean.

So woven means made or constructed by interlacing threads or strips of material or other elements into a whole.

Metaphorically is when we describe something by means of an image or a symbol, so when we use a metaphor.

A ghazal is an Arabic verse.

It's a form of writing dealing with loss and romantic love consisting of rhymed couplets.

So when we think about form later in the lesson, we're gonna be really looking at this word ghazal.

And discordant is harsh and jarring sounds because of a lack of harmony.

So keep an eye out for all those words.

See if you can use them in your own discussions and see if you can use them in your own writing.

So we're gonna be analysing the poem "Name Journeys." We're gonna be taking a deeper dive into how this poem was created.

And to do that, we're gonna analyse the language, the form, and the structure in three learning cycles.

So let's start with analysing the language.

So today we're gonna be analysing how Mundair uses language in "Name Journeys" to represent ideas of migration and identity.

And they're the key two words I want us to keep in mind all the time.

Migration, identity, migration, identity.

Always try and bring it back to those keywords 'cause we know they're so important in this poem.

So over to you, I want you to read the poem independently.

Remind yourself of the poem.

And whilst you're doing that, I want you to choose three powerful verbs.

So doing words, actions that evoke how the speaker feels.

And I want you to think about what their connotations, what ideas they bring to mind? All right, so over to you for this one.

Pause the video, reread the poem, and select three powerful verbs that really evoke how the speaker feels.

All right, over to you.

Press play when you are done.

Welcome back.

I saw some excellent independent reading there, and I really noticed how it wasn't easy for you to pick three verbs.

There were lots of things that you could pick and you had to really do some evaluation there, weighing them up against each other and thinking, okay, what are they telling me about how the speaker feels? I'm gonna share three that I picked, but they might not be exactly the same as you.

So I picked first, toiled, and I thought this really implied that it's been a really difficult process.

It feels like really hard work for the speaker, this migration to Manchester.

I also picked the verb dulled because it implies the speaker feels their identity has been lessened or weakened in some way.

And the final verb that I chose was chastened.

And I picked this 'cause it implies the speaker feels really humbled and they've almost been punished by the experience of migration.

So I wonder which three you picked.

You might have picked some similar ones to me or you might have picked different ones.

But I think this is a really interesting activity to do 'cause it really helps us make sure we understand what the emotions the speaker might be going through.

All right, true or false, then.

Let's check how we're getting on.

The speaker implies that they feel humbled by the experience of migration.

Is that true or is that false? What do you think? Pause the video.

Have a think and press play when you think you have an answer.

Yeah, really well done if you said that was true, then let's justify that.

Is it a, they describe themselves as feeling dulled, or is it b, they describe themselves as feeling chastened? What do you think? Pause the video.

Have a think and press play when you are ready to continue.

Yeah, well done if you selected b, they feel chastened.

Remember that links to the trial by fire, Sita, the Hindu deity, really having to prove themselves.

So the speaker metaphorically refers to her life as a woven tapestry.

Now tapestry is a form of textile art and it's traditionally created by hand on a loom.

So we think of, you know, fabric being interlaced over each other to create a beautiful artwork.

So what do you think the metaphor suggests about how the speaker views their identity? That they call their life a woven or describe their life as woven tapestries.

What do you think that metaphor suggests about how they view their identity? Why don't you discuss this if you've got a partner, you can kind of share some ideas together.

But if you're working by yourself, you can just think through this independently.

Pause the video, give this a think and press play when you're ready to share some of your reflections.

Some really interesting ideas that I really want to shine a spotlight and some fantastic thing that I heard where some of you were saying that the notion of identity and life being woven suggests that there are many different threads that make our lives what they are.

So we've got memories, emotions, experiences, all of these things shape the person that we become.

So to describe this as tapestries, plural, it implies that other people and their threads also feed into our identity.

So our identity isn't this thing which is just independent and isolated to us, but it's actually impacted by those around us.

So this really links to this concept of our identity being influenced by our ancestors and our heritage.

And you might have thought about this idea when you were looking at this poem first time round, that our heritage is so intrinsically linked to who we are as people and our sense of self.

So really well done if they were the kind of conversations you were having.

I thought they were fantastic ideas and I would love for us to continue to keep these ideas in the forefront of our mind as we move through today's lesson.

Okay, let's do another check then to check how we're getting on.

Which interpretation of woven tapestries do you think is the most relevant to the meaning of "Name Journeys?" Is it Sam's who says, "Perhaps the notion of weaving your life implies that you are in charge of your own destiny and you create your own sense of self and identity?" Or is it Sofia who says, "Perhaps the plural tapestries implies that the threads of other people's lives influence our own and create the connection between heritage and identity?" What do you think? Pause the video.

Whose interpretation do you think is most relevant to the meaning of "Name Journeys?" Sam or Sophia? Pause video and select the student, the pupil you agree with.

All right, over to you.

Yeah, really well done if you said Sofia.

I think Sofia's just really nails the importance and that connection between heritage and identity and actually our heritage is influenced by the people, our ancestors, our family, our community.

So really well done if you picked Sophia there.

Okay, so the speaker describes their experience as discordant.

Discordant, remember we said this kind of lack of harmony, loud.

And how do you think we can link that to the metaphorical idea of identity and heritage being a woven tapestry.

So woven tapestry feels like it's this beautiful piece of art, whereas discordant feels quite, well, anything but beautiful.

(laughs) So how can we link that to the metaphorical idea of identity and heritage being a tapestry? Why don't we just pause and have a moment of reflection.

Think of that question to ourselves.

Press play when you've had a little bit of a think.

All right, welcome back.

I'm really glad we took some time to do some thinking there.

Now I want us to this into a written response.

So things you want to consider as you write your ideas down.

How the notion of woven links to the idea of identity, how discordant juxtaposes with the idea of woven, they feel quite contrasting.

And how Mundair might be linking these concepts to discuss fears that specifically people who have migrated might feel about their own identity.

All right, let's put all of those things together into one short, written response to summarise what we've discussed so far.

All right, over to you.

Pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you think you're ready for some reflection.

All right, really well done.

It was great to see you writing so confidently there.

And a special congratulations to anyone who checked their spelling, punctuation, grammar before they put the pen down.

I love to see that.

All right, we are gonna compare our answer to Sofia.

So as we read Sofia's, I want to be thinking, do you agree with Sofia or do you disagree? So Sofia wrote, "The concept of a woven tapestry suggests that every thread has a specific place and function to create the whole.

The notion of their experience as discordant could imply that they feel that they no longer fit harmoniously with the other tapestries.

That could feed into fears around migrant identities that they will no longer feel as though they are connected to their heritage because they are now the discordant thread." So really interesting ideas there from Sofia, thinking about how our woven tapestries can sometimes feel frayed and feel like it's coming apart when we are not necessarily surrounded by the people who helped build our heritage and our sense of identity.

All right, I want you to rewrite your own answer.

Go back to your own answer, and I would like you to include any considerations you had or anything you thought of that was worthwhile from Sofia's response.

Pause the video and let's do a very quick rewrite, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Now it's time for us to look at the form of the poem.

So Mundair's "Name Journeys" is written as a variation on a ghazal.

That was one of our key words.

So a ghazal is an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love.

Mediaeval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own.

And actually, a ghazal is also a prominent form of poetry in the Indian subcontinent that often explores spiritual love or the pain of loss of separation.

So we can see here that this is a form of poetry used by many different cultures, but there is a real similarity of the kind of themes that we might expect to see in a ghazal.

So which of the two following statements are true? Is it a, that a ghazal considers the ideas of migration? Is it b, a ghazal considers ideas of the pain of loss of separation? Or is it c, Mundair writes in a variation of the ghazal form? Which of those two statements are true? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to continue.

Yeah, really well done if you picked b and c.

They are both true.

Now interestingly, the ghazal, you know, the ghazal form is something that we see has travelled around different cultures and that might be because of migration.

But fundamentally, we want to be looking out for ideas of pain, loss, separation, and we know that Mundair writes in a variation of this form.

Okay, so over to you then to start doing some thinking.

Why do you think Mundair chose to use a variation on the form of a ghazal? Okay, how might it link to the themes within her poem? So I want you to write a short answer.

Again, this doesn't have to be really, really long, but things I would want you to consider Mundair, we know, has referenced Hindu deities in the poem.

How can we link this to the ghazal? Think about spirituality here, and also think about how the speaker feels about their migration from India to Manchester.

All right, pause the video now, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to compare your work to some of our Oak pupils.

Over to you.

All right, really well done.

Well done for throwing yourself into that task there.

Okay, let's compare our work to one of our Oak pupils, Alex.

Alex wrote, "Mundair's 'Name Journeys' reflects the feelings of loss and separation that the speaker feels at migrating from India to Manchester.

Therefore, the form of the ghazal not only offers a link to their Indian heritage, but also reflects the thematic link of the pain of loss and separation." Interesting.

Right, let's pause for a minute, and I think you could do this as a discussion.

You could think through this independently.

What would you say Alex has done well, WWW, what went well.

And what would you say he could do even better next time? So an even better if, EBI.

Pause the video, do that verbally, or think through independently, and then we'll share some of our feedback in a second.

All right, pause the video, give this a go and press play when you're ready to move on.

Welcome back.

You might have said something very similar to me here for Alex's what went well.

I said, "Alex really connected the heritage and the thematic meaning of the ghazal with the emotions of the speaker concerning their migration." So there's some really nice ideas here linking the speaker's feeling of loss and separation to the expectations that we might see thematically in a ghazal like the pain of loss or the pain of separation.

Now, as an EBI, I said, "Whilst Alex does consider the thematic link of pain and loss or separation, he doesn't really consider the theme of ghazals being very spiritual and about spiritual love.

That's also what they're known for." So I think we could have mentioned here Mundair's reference to Hindu deities and say there's also, really, a very spiritual element to this poem, particularly the speaker's own spiritual heritage.

They're linked to not only being Indian, but they're linked to being Hindu.

So I think it was a little bit of a missed opportunity from Alex to link the ghazal to the spiritual heritage of the speaker.

Well done if you said something similar.

Now I want you to use Alex's feedback to give your own answer, a what went well, an EBI.

Pause the video, have a moment of quick reflection and then press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, let's analyse the structure then.

So we know a ghazal is typically made of individual couplets and they have a very set rhythm.

However, Mundair creates a variation of the Ghazal by using free verse and enjambment.

So there are couplets if you look, if you just look at the poem, you can see it's arranged, each stanza is a couplet, but the rhythm is maybe not quite what we might expect from a traditional ghazal.

So free verse means there is no regular rhyme and there's no regular rhythm to the poem.

So how might we link the use of free verse to how the speaker is feeling? So we would normally expect some regularity, some rhythm, rhyme.

We don't see that in that poem.

Why? How? What links can we make to how the speaker is feeling? Why don't you pause the video? Have a think about that.

If you've got a partner, discuss with them.

Otherwise, think through independently.

All right? Over to you.

Pause the video, have a bit of a think, and press play when you're ready to reflect on what you've been saying.

Okay, some really nice ideas there.

I really liked it when people said that perhaps we might link the use of free verse to how the speaker is feeling quite disconnected in their new life.

There is less order, there's less organisation.

Really nice idea if you said something similar to that.

Now, enjambment is the continuation of a sentence beyond the end of a line, stanza or couplet.

Enjambment generally indicates the continuation of an idea or a concept in a poem.

So how might we link the idea of a continuation of.

So how might we link this idea of continuation to the meaning of the poem? Again, why don't you pause the video and think this through.

If you've got a partner, you can work with them.

Otherwise you can just think independently.

We're trying to connect that idea enjambment and continuation with the meaning of the poem.

Over to you, pause the video, have a think, and press play when you are ready to hear some different ideas.

Okay, let's have a look at some of the things that you could have said.

Well, you might have said perhaps it links to the speaker's continued feelings of isolation and separation.

So we know that, you know, there's no sense in the poem that, actually, the speaker is beginning to feel more connected to England where they find themselves, Manchester, where they find themselves, so this feeling of isolation and separation continues throughout the poem and potentially continues beyond.

However, on the other hand, we could say it links to this idea that no matter how worried they are, that, actually, their heritage will always be part of their identity.

It will continue to be a part of their identity even if they feel like they're forgetting it because they don't get to use their language, their Punjabi language in Manchester as they once had.

So they might fear losing this, but maybe the enjambment could represent that, actually, this will always continue, their heritage will always be part of who they are.

Some lovely, lovely ideas.

Well done if you said anything similar to either of those two.

All right, true or false time now, let's check how we're getting on.

Mundair varies the traditional ghazal form.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you think you've got an answer.

Yeah, well done if you said that was true, let's justify that now.

Is it Mundair uses a regular structure of rhymed couplets? Or is it Mundair uses an irregular structure of free verse? Which of those things is correct? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you think you have the right answer.

Great job if you said b, Mundair uses an irregular structure, free verse, which we said could represent the speaker's disconnect from their surroundings.

Well done if you've got that correct.

All right, over to our final task then of today's lesson.

I want you to think about why Mundair chose to write a variation on the ghazal form.

Okay, so discuss how might it link to ideas around identities and heritage? So things I want you to consider within your discussion.

A traditional ghazal concerns ideas of spiritual love and the pain of loss and separation.

How the speaker feels about being in Manchester, what the speaker fears is happening to their identity due to their migration.

So they are all things I want you to consider.

You are doing this as a discussion.

So if you have a partner, you can talk this through with them, but don't worry if you are working independently, you can either find someone in your household to have this discussion with or you can do this independently making a few notes on some paper or in your exercise book.

Okay.

Over to you, then, for this discussion.

Pause the video, give this a go.

Let's try and bring everything that we've learned in today's lesson together.

You can do this, and remember to press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really, really nice discussions there, and I could see you thinking really carefully about trying to incorporate everything we've learned today in your response.

All right, we're gonna finish by reflecting and comparing our work to that discussions of two pupils.

So Sam and Izzy have been having a discussion.

What I want us to do is just think about which of the two pupils' ideas you find the most convincing.

Is it Sam who says, "By using unrhymed couplets in Name Journeys," Mundair is suggesting that the speaker wants to feel a sense of togetherness, but instead feels as if they don't belong." Or is it Izzy who says, "Perhaps the variation on the form shows that the speaker desires to be connected to their Indian heritage, but instead feels themselves slipping away which is reflected in the subversion of the form." Both lovely ideas, which do you feel is most convincing and why? Pause the video.

Take a moment to reflect, and press play when you think you are ready to move on.

Okay, really well done today.

That's it, we've reached the end of today's lesson.

On the screen you can see a summary of all of our key learning.

Do pause the video, read through each of these bullet points very, very carefully and make sure you're feeling super confident about each of them before you move on to our next lesson.

All right, it's been a pleasure learning alongside you today.

I really hope to see you in one of our lessons in future.

Have a great day with the rest of your day, however you choose to spend it.

And I hope to see you all soon.

Goodbye.