Hello there.

Welcome to today's lesson.

Fantastic to see you today.

My name is Mr. Barnsley and I'm so glad that you have chosen to continue your study of the AQA World and Lives poetry anthology with us today.

In today's lesson, we are gonna be looking at Berry's poem "On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955" in a little bit more detail.

We're gonna be analysing this for the language, the structure.

So it's really important that you've already read this poem before you start today's lesson.

So if you haven't, do go and do that before you begin.

Okay, you're gonna need your copy of the AQA World and Lives poetry anthology 'cause you're gonna want to see a version of this poem during today's lesson.

So now is your time to grab your copy and then we will begin.

Okay, let's have a look at the outcome then for today's lesson.

So by the end of the lesson, you are gonna be able to explain how Berry uses language and structure to express his viewpoint.

So four keywords that we are gonna be focusing on today are humanity, contrast, contrast even, conceptually and inclusion.

Let's think about what each of these words mean.

Well, humanity is the quality or state of being human.

We're gonna be building up to a big question by the end of the lesson and really thinking about what Berry is saying about humanity, about what it means to be human.

So let's keep that in our mind as we work through today's lesson.

Contrast is the state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition, opposites, close association.

Conceptually is we're trying to think of ways that relates to ideas or principles.

So we're not just looking at the literal meaning of the poem.

We want to be thinking of some bigger conceptual ideas of what Berry is trying to express through his poem.

And inclusion is the act of including someone or something as part of a group.

Okay, so thinking about.

What we'll be thinking about in this poem is like how do we include everyone in a community.

All right, so the lesson outline today is we analyse the poem "On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria in 1955" in more detail.

Three steps.

First we're gonna look at some language, then we're gonna look at some structure, and then we're gonna build up to writing a detailed paragraph on the poem.

But we're gonna start by analysing some language.

So let's start with the discussion then, shall we? I'm gonna throw this straight over to you.

What do these pairs of words have in common? We have silence and loudly, lit and darkness, sunny and snow.

Okay, pause the video.

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

If you're working independently, that's fine.

Just think about this to yourself.

What do these pairs of words have in common? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you think you have a response.

Really well done if you mentioned anything about opposition or contrast.

Okay, one of our keywords contrast, when things are juxtaposed, when they are different from each other.

Well done if you said something similar to Andeep.

So let's consider these words conceptually rather than literally.

Okay, so rather than thinking about it being sunny or about it being snowy, let's just think about conceptually, this big idea of contrast within the poem.

What might Berry or why might Berry be using them, what might he be suggesting about people, do you think? So we know he has used contrasting words in his poem, conceptually, big ideas, what might he be saying about people? Pause the video.

Have a think with your partner or independently and press play when you're ready to reflect on some ideas.

Okay, really interesting.

I really wanna shine a light on anyone who said actually these contrasting words and ideas through the poem could represent the disconnect and the difference between the speaker and the Quaker.

And actually more widely, if we take this even more conceptually, actually just the difference between people in general.

So it feels through the use of these contrasting words that Berry is really trying to highlight, to spotlight the differences between the two characters in the poem, but also between kind of society as a whole.

So true or false, Berry uses contrasting pairs of words throughout the poem.

Is that true? Is that false? Pause, think, and press play when you've got an answer.

Well done.

You should have of course said true.

Let's justify that.

Arguably, Berry might be using pairs of contrasting words in order to show the individual differences between people.

Or arguably, Berry might be using contrasting words in order to show the inherent similarities between people.

Which of those feels right to you? Pause, think about it and press play when you want to find out what the answer is.

Yes, you should have said A, that we can argue that Berry uses these contrasting words in order to show differences between people.

Over to our first task then.

So let's be honest, if we consider the contrasting language throughout the poem alone, it can give us quite a negative impression on how Berry views humanity.

Perhaps there's this overwhelming sense that we're all different, potentially too different to get on.

However, we know that these pairs, these contrasting pairs, don't exist in isolation.

They've all been deliberately placed within the compound of the same poem.

So what I want you to think about is, does that change our perspective? Does it change our view of what Berry might be saying about humanity, knowing that he's deliberately picked these contrasting pairs of words to exist within the same poem? Right, I'll hand this over.

I think this will be best done as a discussion.

So if you've got a partner, you can share some ideas back and forth.

If you are working by yourself at home, that's absolutely fine.

You are welcome to find someone in your household to have this discussion with.

Or you can just think through what you might say in this discussion.

All right, over to you.

Does our perspective change? Okay, pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

All right, welcome back.

That was a tricky, tricky question.

I was really asking you to think conceptually there, not literally.

So let's have a look.

Let's compare the discussions that we might have had with that of Alex, one of our Oak pupils.

And as we read Alex's idea, I want you to think, do you agree with him? What ideas do you like? Are there any you disagree with? Why, why not? Okay, so let's read through what Alex said.

He said, "I think considering the contrasting pairs within the context of the whole poem suggests that even though people are different, they are not inherently disconnected because they coexist within the same conceptual framework.

Perhaps Berry's wider point is that, we people, we are all different parts that make up the whole of society and we can be connected and exist together." Some great ideas there from Alex and I would like you now to pause, revisit your discussion and see if you can bring any of Alex's ideas into it.

All right, let's see if we can build our discussion using Alex's ideas, over to you.

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

Welcome back, some fantastic discussions on contrast there.

Now we're gonna move this discussion further by thinking about structure.

So we're gonna build on our considerations of that contrasting language by thinking about the structural framework of the poem as a whole.

So I want you to discuss what the connotations are of the very first and the last word of the poem.

It starts with hello and it ends with us.

Why don't we pause the video then, if you've got a partner you could discuss otherwise you can think through this independently.

Why that first word and why that last word? What's the impact of that? Over to you to have a think and then I want you to pause the video and have a think.

You can press play when you think you are ready to share some answers.

Okay, some really nice ideas there.

I really liked it when people were thinking of hello.

They were saying, well this is a way of initiating conversation.

It's a way of initiating a connection with someone.

It feels really welcoming, it feels warm, and by finishing with us it suggests connection here.

So hello is all about that, starting that connection and by the end of the poem, by using that pronoun us, then we've got this connection, the connection with someone else.

There's commonality, there's some kind of implied link and purpose between them.

Well done if you said something similar.

All right, then let's check to see how we're getting on.

Which interpretation of the poem ending on the word us, do you think is most valid for "On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria in 1955?" Is it Lauras who says, "ending on us shows that the subjects of the poem have formed a romantic connection over the course of the poem and have fallen in love" or is it Sofia who says, "ending on us shows that the subjects of the poem have found common ground over the course of the poem and forms a connection." Which feels most valid to you? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to continue.

Yeah, well done if you said Sofia, I think that feels more valid.

I think we'd be going a little bit far if we said that the speaker and the Quaker had fallen in love over the course of the poem, but they've definitely formed some form of connection.

Okay, over to our second task then.

Now we are gonna track the relationship of the speaker and the stranger, the Quaker, through the structure of the poem.

It looks like this.

So we start in that first answer with that first word hello.

The pronoun usage as we move through the poem moves into I, we then see you and it finishes with us.

What I'd like you to do is write down the implications of each word and what you think this progression throughout the poem shows us about the relationship between the speaker and the stranger.

Okay, over to you.

Track, I think it's really impressive if we can track ideas across the text, it shows we can talk about progression and we can talk about writer's intention.

So let's track those words.

Hello, I, you us, what we're learning about the progression about the speaker and the stranger's relationship.

Pause the video, give this a go and press play when you're ready to do some reflecting.

All right, over to you.

All right, welcome back.

Really great effort there and it was really nice to see you thinking about that connectivity between the poem and not seeing quotes or words in isolation, but actually seeing how they all link to each other.

Let's have a look at some things that you might have said.

Well, hello is a greeting.

It's an opening to an interaction.

We said it could be warm and welcoming, but perhaps trying to form some form of connection.

But the use of the pronouns I and you shows a real separation.

These are individuals, they are separated from each other and again really highlights this difference.

I, being kind of really focused on our sense of self and using you, seeing them as different to them.

However, by the end of the poem, this collective pronoun us shows there is a formed connection.

They formed a group.

So we could say that the structural progression of the words shows that over the course of the poem and through the interaction between the subjects that the subjects have gone from separate individuals to forming a cohesive group.

Okay, I want us now in the final part of today's lessons to take all of the amazing work that we've done, analysis we've done and we're gonna turn this into a really interesting clear bit of writing about the poem.

So we are gonna be answering this question.

How does Berry present humanity in "On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955?" How does Berry present what it means to be human? And to do that, we are gonna be using a single paragraph outline.

You may have used these before.

These are plans that help us structure and organise our ideas in a really logical manner.

They're made up of three parts.

Our topic sentence is where we outline the arguments that we're gonna be covering in the paragraph and supporting detail is where in note form we make a note of all the things that we want to talk about, the things that are gonna help us justify our argument in the topic sentence.

That might be language, it might be form, it might be structure, or it might be context.

So what we know about the poet's background, what we know about life in 1955, what we know about migration.

All of these things might be interesting context that we might wish to put into our paragraph to really help justify our argument.

And of course, we always finish with a concluding sentence.

This is where we summarise the argument in each paragraph, we have a really sharp focus here on the writer's purpose.

So analysis of language and structure.

What part of our plan does this go into? Is it a concluding sentence, a topic sentence or a supporting detail? Pause the video, have a think and when you think you've got an answer, press play to find out if you are right.

Yes, well done if you said C, supporting detail.

Sometimes I see people really tempted to make their topic sentence about language.

They might say "Berry uses a simile too." But the problem, that means that your whole paragraph has to be about one simile, which to me feels really restrictive.

So if we keep our topic sentence focused on big ideas, it means individual language, form, structure can all be discussed in the supporting detail.

Okay, then let's have a look at some elements.

I've had a go at writing a little bit of an answer and I want you to tell me whether you think this is part of a topic sentence, supporting detail or concluding sentence.

So let's read through these together.

So on the left we have, "Berry presents people as having inherent differences and yet they are able to find ways to communicate and connect.

Berry, who often explores the experiences of Caribbean migrants, may have wanted to communicate a message of universal humanity.

And ending on the word us shows that ultimately we find a way towards being connected and together." All right, pause the video and think which of these feel like it's a topic sentence, a supporting detail, a concluding sentence.

Pause the video, over to you.

Give this a go and press play when you think you've matched them up.

All right, welcome back.

You might find that a little bit tricky because arguably the first and the second both feel like they could have been a topic sentence.

Well done if you said the first one was a topic sentence, it seems to really clearly say this is a big idea that we're gonna work on.

The idea that people are different, yet they are able to find ways to connect.

Now the reason why the second one is more likely to be a concluding sentence is 'cause it's very much focused on Berry's message.

And remember that last sentence always wants to really link back to the writer's purpose, the writer's intentions, the writer's message.

And here they're saying actually maybe Berry wants to communicate a message of universal humanity.

This means that the zooming in of one word, looking at that language choice, that pronoun us has to come in the supporting detail.

That's where we do our language analysis.

Well done if you've got all of those correct.

Okay, so it's now over to you for our final task.

I have planned, I have filled in the plan for you.

So you are gonna use my plan, my single paragraph outline to write a response to this question.

How does Berry present humanity in "On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955?" So you've got the topic sentence that you saw on that previous slide.

You've also got this, the same concluding sentence.

Now the supporting detail that I want you to see, if you can include, whilst you write out this paragraph, I want you to talk about the contrasting pairs and how they might suggest there are inherent differences within people.

But I want you to talk about how these contrasting pairs exist within the same poem.

So perhaps this suggests that people coexisting despite their differences.

And then I want you to track those words from hello through the pronouns I, you and us showing that connection and inclusion, that ultimately we might be different, but we can be inclusive and include everyone in society.

All right, over to you.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can write and how you can summarise all the brilliant things you've learned today.

All right, pause the video, best of luck and press play when you're ready to do some reflecting.

Okay, really, really well done there.

It was great to see so many of you checking your spelling, punctuation, and grammar before you put your pen down as well.

Really pleased to see that.

All right, we're gonna finish the lesson with a little bit of reflecting.

We're gonna look at an example response, compare it to what we might have written and then see why it was successful.

So here is an example response.

Berry presents people as having inherent differences and yet being able to find ways of communication and connection between them.

Berry utilises contrasting pairs of words such as silence and loudly and sunny and snow throughout the poem.

On first reading, it may seem that Berry is using these words in order to demonstrate the inherent differences between the subjects of the poem and therefore people in general.

However, if we consider that these contrasting pairs all exist within the same conceptual framework of the poem, then we might instead see Berry's intention as showing that, though we are all inherently different, we can coexist in society together.

This idea is highlighted when considering the structural progression of the subject's relationship through the poem.

By progressing from hello through individual pronouns of I and you to the final word us shows the subjects creating a connection through the open communication.

Using us as the final word of the poem is particularly poignant because the final image of the poem is one of connection and inclusion.

Berry, who often explores the experience of Caribbean migrants, might have wanted to communicate a message of universal humanity.

All right, let's see if it includes everything on that single paragraph outline.

Does it have a topic sentence? Yes, it does.

Does it have the supporting detail? Yep, we can see the contrasting pairs and them existing in the conceptual framework of the poem.

We could also see the discussion of that, the structural progression of the subject's relationship.

And finally, we have that concluding sentence so we can see this is a great paragraph that meets all of the criteria, that single paragraph outline.

Why don't you now take a moment to check your own work and ensure that you too have included everything.

All right, pause the video, have a moment of reflection, and of course, if you want to use this model answer to improve your work, now's the time to do so.

Okay, over to you.

All right, fantastic work today.

Really impressed to see you writing so confidently about this poem.

On the screen you can see a summary of the things that we have covered today.

You might want to pause and read through each of these key learning points very carefully, making sure you feel really confident that you've understood all these things before you move on.

All right, thank you so much for joining me today.

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

Thank you very much.

Goodbye.