Hello everyone, my name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

In this session, we are going to be reading and understanding Mary Casey's poem, The Class Game.

So grab your copy of the text and let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explain how Casey presents the conflict between the ruling and the working classes.

So let's have a look at some of today's key words.

We've got trade unions, exacerbated, hierarchy, sociolect, and privatisation.

So do take a moment to pause the video here, and have a look at these definitions in a bit more detail.

But I would just like to draw your attention to a couple of the words that we're going to encounter in the first part of the lesson.

So first of all, I would like to have a look at that word hierarchy there in the middle, which means a system where groups of people are ranked one above another according to status, authority, or important.

So what's really important to remember about the meaning of the word hierarchy is that some people are given a higher status than other people.

So there is an order, and I'd also like to draw your attention to that word there at the top, trade unions, and we're going to discuss these when we think about the wider context of the poem.

But they are associations of workers formed to protect, and promote their collective interests.

So in lots of different workplaces today, you will find trade unions exist and what they are as it says here, are groups of workers, often the members that represent the trade union in the workplace are usually volunteers, but they collectively organise in order to campaign for, protect and promote collective interest and to make changes in the workplace.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we're going to start off by exploring the poem, and then we're going to explore the wider context.

So I'd like to start off with a discussion.

What is social class? So I think this is probably a term that you've come across before.

So I'd like you to have a go at defining it.

So take a moment to have a think and perhaps discuss this with the people around you.

Or if you're working on your own, make some notes on your paper or in your exercise book.

So pause the video and click play when you're ready to go through it together.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of really interesting discussions taking place there to start us off.

And impressively, I could hear lots of you already starting to link some of those keywords that we were discussing a second ago into your definition.

So thinking about this idea that social class is a type of hierarchical grouping, so it's placing individuals above each other.

So it's a hierarchical grouping of individuals in society based on factors like wealth, occupation, and education level.

So what do we mean by that in practise? Well, it's how we organise different people into societies into a group.

Now, social class is quite an outdated way to group people for lots of different reasons.

One, because your level of wealth and occupation, and education don't necessarily dictate what sort of person you are, but also because this nature of using a hierarchy moves away from the idea of an equal society because it's starting to suggest that certain groups of people in society are perhaps considered more valuable or more high status than others.

So while it's interesting to think about when we study a literary text, for example, particularly if we're looking at historical societies, it's not the most inclusive way for us to think about society today.

So let's have a look at the different social classes that there are.

So we've got working class, which traditionally appears at the bottom of that hierarchy, and they are people that are typically employed in manual, or low wage jobs with limited financial resources and little social or economic mobility.

So these are the people that are sitting perhaps at the bottom of this class system with the least wealth of the groups.

And then sitting above them, we have lower middle class.

So these are people that are typically employed in semi-skilled or clerical jobs.

And clerical are usually to do with helping businesses to run, so they're usually perhaps what we might think of as office jobs.

They earn modest incomes and face financial security, but with some access to opportunities.

So they do still face some financial insecurity as the working class people face, but they do have access to slightly better opportunities than that group below.

So sitting above lower middle class, we have upper middle class.

So this group have substantial income, they're quite wealthy, they had access to good education and professional careers, often residing in affluent neighbourhoods.

So these are quite wealthy areas, and pursue higher education for their children.

So here we're already starting to see that this education is important.

By the time we get into this upper middle class group, it's almost assumed that parents will be expecting their children to go on to university.

And then finally at the very top, upper class.

So these are the most wealthy individuals in a society with significant assets, inherited wealth, or high paying careers, enjoying privileged access to education, influence and opportunities.

So when we say privileged access, we mean the best perhaps schools or the best universities, the best jobs.

So when we think about these different social classes then, what can differ between the classes? So take a moment to think about this and discuss it with the people around you.

And when you are ready to discuss it together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of interesting discussions taking place there.

And I really liked the different things we were coming up with.

There were lots of things that are different between these social classes, some more obvious responses, and some perhaps less obvious responses.

So if we just think about the discussions that we've already had about the different social classes, we already could spot quite a lot of differences there.

Differences in the jobs that people do, their financial wealth, the housing or the neighbourhoods that they live in.

Levels of education, life chances and social power or influence.

So these were all things that we were able to identify.

So on top of these more obvious, perhaps concrete differences between the social classes, there are also some more subtle differences.

And these might include things such as tastes or preferences perhaps with food or fashion, interests and hobbies, language or sociolect.

So these are the words or the accents, or the ways of speaking or communicating.

And then attitudes and beliefs.

We often, for example, see different political beliefs occurring across different social classes.

So now it's time for us to explore the poem itself.

So if you haven't already, pause the video and grab your copy of the anthology and turn to The Class Game.

So as you are reading, you'll probably notice that there are quite a few unfamiliar words in this poem.

So I have put together a glossary here of some of those more unfamiliar terms. So do refer back here if you come across a word that you are not familiar with.

And my final thing that I would like you to do once you've had a chance to have a good read of the poem is to just take some time to discuss this question with the people around you.

So can you identify any words or phrases in the poem that could link to social class? So pause the video for as long as you need to, and take your time, read this poem carefully.

And then when you've finished doing that, take some time to identify those words or phrases linked to social class.

So pause the video here and click play when you're ready for us to read through together.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope that you all had a good chance to really engage with the text, work out what you think perhaps the message is, and the key ideas are in the poem.

So back to this challenge question then.

Can you identify any words or phrases that could link to social class? Well, I think that there are quite a few examples in the poem, so well done if you picked up on any of these words or phrases yourself.

So before we go on to discuss these words in a bit more detail, I have another challenge question for you.

So do any of these words link to these class differences we were discussing earlier? So when we were talking about things like different wealth status, different jobs, different education levels, different interests, do these differences link to any of those words? So just take a moment to have a look at this list of words, and discuss it with the people around you, or make some notes thinking about how each of these words are specifically linked to these social class differences.

So pause the video here and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of people identifying some of these important differences then in these words and phrases.

So I overheard people saying that there were references to different jobs, different wealth status, different types of housing, education, life chances, this social power and influence, tastes and interests, language and sociolect and attitudes and beliefs.

So actually Casey very cleverly include all of these class differences in her poem.

So let's explore which of these words link to each of these differences.

So I've just put them over there on the left hand side of the screen while we look at some key quotations.

So let's start with these first few then jobs, wealth, housing, and education.

So first of all, we've got these words, unemployment, cleaner and docker.

And then we've also got corpy and semi, and Wirral, commute and Liverpool.

So how do these key quotations link to those differences there in purple? Well, let's explore them in a bit more detail.

So first of all, then we've got this one at the top.

So it's suggested that working class people either do not work or do unskilled manual labour because if we look at the jobs that the speaker associates with their life, we've got unemployment, so not having a job at all.

And then these manual unskilled jobs, cleaner, docker, they're not necessarily these clerical office jobs we might have associated with the middle classes or perhaps managerial or professional, or academic jobs that we might have associated with the upper middle class or the upper class.

Onto the second set of words then, corpy and semi.

So that word corpy was a (indistinct) slang term for council housing and semi was a slang abbreviation for a semi-detached house.

So we can see that we're getting some differences here to do with housing and accommodation.

So the suggestion here is that working class people live in council housing, which they don't own, but they rent from the government, whereas the middle classes live in much larger accommodation.

They have a semi-detached house.

And the implication here is that perhaps they own their own property as opposed to renting from the council.

And then finally this last set of words, so Wirral, commute and Liverpool.

So this poem is set in Liverpool, which is where Casey herself lived, but we'll come onto that wider context later.

And Wirall is an area near two Liverpool that is known for being a very affluent suburb, and a suburb is an area that's just outside of a city that is quite peaceful, perhaps quite calm away from that buzz of the city, that was traditionally populated by middle class people who perhaps worked in the city, but wanted to raise their families out of that busyness.

So we do have this implication then that working class people live in this busy, noisy, dirty city, whereas the middle class people live in the suburbs, which are characterised by this idea that they're quieter, that they're perhaps safer, away from the crowds of the city, and then they commute into the city for their job.

So we've chosen some of the important examples from that big list of words and phrases that we identified earlier, which leaves us with these.

So my challenge to you is this, can you sort the rest of these quotes according to those other differences? They're highlighted in purple on that list.

So click pause while you discuss this with the people around you or make some notes and when you're ready to feedback together, click play.

Okay, welcome back, some really creative links there that I overheard with people trying to group these words together, which was fantastic.

And actually when we're analysing the poem, a really great way to make your analytical point is by grouping words from throughout a poem because this actually avoids having to copy out big chunks of the text.

And it also shows that we've got a really good understanding of the text because we're able to track certain ideas all the way through.

So let's have a look then.

How could we have sorted these quotations? Well, first of all, Casey focuses heavily on the differences between the sociolects of each class, and we've got that key word sociolect, and that is the type of language, or the way of speaking, the words that are used by a particular social group.

So here Casey is really focusing on the different ways that each class speaks.

So the working class are characterised by the use of informal language, slang, abbreviations, and non-standard English.

So we've got words like Tara, ma, bum, bog, pee, wet nelly, belly.

We've got these slang terms are often shortened versions of perhaps longer words, whereas the middle classes are characterised by the use of standard English.

So we've got lots of words like patio, toilet as opposed to bog, bread pudding as opposed to wet nelly, and stomach as opposed to belly.

So we've got these direct comparisons here.

So now let's explore the last few quotations that we can see there left in black.

So that just leaves us with four words, posh, perfume, toil and second-hand.

Now as we can see, two of these words link to middle classes, and two of these words link to the working class.

So I'd like to hand over to you for a discussion.

What impression do these words give us of each social class? So pause the video while you think really carefully about the connotations we can draw out of these words.

Do they have positive connotations, perhaps negative connotations? What subtle implied meanings could we draw out? So pause the video while you have a think and discuss, and click play when you're ready to feedback your responses.

Okay, welcome back.

So well done if your response was picking up on similar ideas to this.

So here, working class life is characterised by hard tiring work, so toil and a lack of material possessions, so second-hand things, whereas middle class life is characterised by luxury, so posh things and high quality items such perhaps as perfume.

So we're getting a really, really contrasting image of each social class here.

So let's pause and check our understanding so far.

So the class system is a type of what? Pause the video while you have a think, and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answers, click play, and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said C, it is a type of hierarchy.

So while the working class make up the majority of most modern societies, the majority of wealth and authority is afforded to the higher classes.

So that's really important to remember.

So at the bottom of that hierarchy, we've got the most people, but arguably the least money and wealth.

So now it's time for our first practise task of today's lesson.

And what I would like you to do is to write a paragraph answering the following question, how does Casey present social class in The Class Game? So your response should include the following.

Your interpretations of key ideas in the poem, evidence to support these ideas, analysis of Casey's use of language and methods, and comments on the writer's intentions.

So thinking about why she chose to use language in the way that she has.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to give this a really good go.

And when you think you've completed your paragraph, click play and we'll feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you found that a nice challenge, that really enabled you to get to grips with this poem.

So here's an example of how you could have responded.

Casey presents social class as a fundamental part of a person's identity.

Throughout the poem, she compares how both working class and middle class people experience different aspects of British life such as housing, language, jobs and behaviours.

In doing this, she exposes how working class people are often unfairly judged because of these factors out of their control.

This is seemingly frustrating to the speaker of the poem as they repeatedly question how it is possible to tell someone's social class, ending finally by stating that they are proud of their working class background.

So what I would like you to do is take a look at this example response, and give it a what went well and an even better if.

So, what does it do effectively? But perhaps what is it missing that could include next time? So thinking really carefully about that checklist from earlier.

So pause the video here while you take a minute to discuss it and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So if I was marking this response, I would probably have given it the following feedback.

I thought that this response had a really good understanding of the poem and particularly of Casey's attitudes, and the speaker's attitudes in this poem towards social class.

So that's what I mean there about those key ideas.

However, I think next time the person that wrote this paragraph could think really carefully about Casey's use of her language and methods and when using their quotations, perhaps zooming in on particular methods that the writer has used or even breaking down certain words or certain meanings in order to explore these key ideas in a bit more depth.

So now it's time for you to review your response, and set yourself a what went well and an even better if.

So take a few minutes to read through your response carefully, set yourself those targets and then click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, so we've reached the halfway point of today's lesson, and now we've had a chance to explore the poem, I'd like to explore the wider context.

So when you're thinking about the wider context of The Class Game, it is really important to consider the time in which it was written.

So this poem was published the same year that conservative MP Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.

And Margaret Thatcher has become quite a memorable historical figure for quite a few reasons.

First of all, she was the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.

And secondly, she was actually quite a controversial figure because lots of people didn't necessarily agree with the policies that she brought in.

And these were things such as privatising public services.

So selling a lot of public services into private ownership or to private contractors, selling council homes into private ownership, curtailing the rights of trade unions to organise or strike.

So setting down rules in which trade unions could strike, or could organise and removing many regulations that hindered private business.

So what's really important to remember about Margaret Thatcher is that she stood for a type of politics that was very, very pro-business.

She wanted to hand as many elements of our society into private ownership because she believed this could create a competitive market, so it would ensure the best services because the best people for the job would be running them.

However, this had a lot of knock on effects to the working classes that were living in the United Kingdom at the time.

And I would like you to have a think at this point.

So it's often been argued that Thatcher's policies exacerbated social inequality.

So just thinking about these four particular policies, how could they have affected working class people? So pause the video here while you think, and when you're ready to discuss it together, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So many working class people relied on a lot of public services, and in particular things like council housing to enable them to survive on such low wages.

Most working class people were not business owners, and instead were working low skilled manual jobs where trade unions were instrumental in securing decent working conditions.

So this last point about removing big business regulations will really have affected working class people because they didn't own their own businesses, and in fact worked for the businesses owned by other people.

So to them, having a trade union was something that was really important because it helped them to fight for the working conditions that they wanted to see.

So now let's have a think about Mary Casey then who wrote this poem.

So she was a working class woman and she lived in Liverpool and she was very proud of her working class roots.

And arguably this poem draws attention to the ways that people often look down on working class people.

So I'd like to hand over to you for another discussion then.

So do you think that people still look down on working class people today? So do you think that this was an issue that was just affecting society in the late 1970's when this poem was written, or do you think that Casey is highlighting an important issue that's still relevant to us today? And I've just put in brackets there.

Have a think about the word chav and perhaps the connotations of that word, or what perhaps it means to you or what image of a person perhaps it encourages you to form in your mind.

So pause the video here while you take some time to discuss this with the people around you.

And when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

Could hear lots of people having quite a spirited debate there.

So that was really interesting to see.

So I would argue that unfortunately many people today still look down on the working classes.

Often they fall victim to negative stereotypes that include assumptions of lower intelligence, a lack of ambition, poor work ethic and rough manners or behaviour.

So these are all really important things to think about.

And then just above there I've put that there are actually quite a few slang words that we still use today to describe working class people.

And some of these are quite regional, so don't worry if you've not heard of them before, but that word chav, the word pleb and the word scally, and these words all draw on this idea of perhaps uneducated people, people perhaps that are lazy, people that are perhaps rough, maybe they behave in a way that's not very civilised.

So we certainly do unfortunately still have these negative perceptions of working class people.

So let's pause here and check our understanding.

Again, many people believe that Margaret Thatcher waged war on the working class.

So take a moment to think about everything we've been discussing, and decide whether you think this statement is true or false.

Press pause and click play when you'd like me to reveal the correct answer.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said true.

So now it's time to justify your answer.

So take a look at these two possible explanations and decide which one you think best justifies our views above.

And click play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said B.

She sold off council homes, and privatised many public services that many working class people relied on to survive.

So now it's time for our final practise task of today's lesson.

And I'd like to focus on redrafting.

So you'll need to have another look at your response from the first learning cycle.

So this was the paragraph you wrote about what we thought the speaker's views or the poems views on social class were.

So how Casey presents social class.

So I have a little redrafting to-do list for you.

So I'd like you to first redraft your work according to that EBI, that even better if that you set yourself in the first learning cycle.

Then when you've done that, I'd like you to add in some relevant links to the wider context information that we've covered in this part of the lesson.

So now we know a bit about the poem, and we know a little bit about the time that the poem was published into.

I'd like you to add some of that contextual knowledge.

And number three, add in at least one sentence exploring why you think Casey presents social class in the way that she does.

And finally, a bit of a literacy challenge for you.

I'd like you to check that you've used tentative language for personal interpretations.

So this is where you are explaining, or describing how you've interpreted the meanings in the poem.

And it's really important to use words like perhaps, or likely or suggest to show that these are your interpretations and not that you are presenting them as concrete facts.

So check that you've used some, perhaps underline it or highlight it where you can find it.

And if you haven't, don't worry because we are redrafted.

So this is a perfect opportunity for you to add some in.

So take your time with this task, and really try to get that original paragraph into the best state that it can be.

Okay, so really redrafting and looking for ways that we can improve, that we can add detail, that we can make our explanation really clear.

So pause the video here while you give this a really good go and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

It was so fantastic to see so many of you hard at work redrafting because redrafting is such an important skill to have because often when we write something the first time, we don't remember to include every possible thing that we need to.

So going back and checking our work, and looking for these places that we can improve it helps us to improve that overall quality.

So it's something really that we should be regularly doing when we are writing analytical paragraphs.

So now it is time for you to underline all of these fantastic redrafts that you've made.

So what I would like you to do is to underline where you improved your work, using that even better if from the first part of the lesson.

I would like to underline where you've used tentative language, I would like you to underline where you've made relevant links to the wider context of the poem.

And I would like you to underline where you've considered why Casey portrayed social class in the way that she did.

So pause the video while you take a moment to do that and click play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

So now I have one final challenge for you.

It is a discussion.

I'd like you to think about the poem.

Do you think that it's still relevant today, and why or why not? So this is really asking for your personal opinion.

So lots of tentative language needed.

So pause the video here while you take some time to discuss it and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, so we've made it to the end of today's lesson.

So let's just summarise what we've covered in the session.

Casey shows pride in her working class roots.

The poem was published when Margaret Thatcher came to power as UK Prime Minister.

Some people argued Thatcher waged a class war against the working classes.

Casey's poem reflects the way some people looked down on the working class.

So I hope that you've enjoyed today's lesson as much as I have, and I certainly hope that you feel a lot more confident when it comes to understanding the poem, The Class Game.

Thanks for joining me in today's lesson, and I hope you have a fantastic day.