Hello everyone and welcome to your lesson today on understanding the poem "Remains." I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Now for this lesson, you're going to need your Power and Conflict anthology, so make sure you've got this before you continue with today's lesson.

Pause video and go and grab your anthology if you haven't already.

In today's lesson, our learning outcome is to be able to explain how Armitage comments on the traumatic effects of war in his poem "Remains".

We have four keywords.

The first one is trauma.

Trauma is the emotional response to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.

A lot of soldiers and people who return from the war have experienced trauma because of the things they've witnessed on the battlefield.

Our next word is veteran.

A veteran is an ex-member of the armed forces.

Aftermath refers to the consequences of a significant unpleasant event.

And atrocities, atrocities are extremely violent acts.

So in war, soldiers witness a lot of atrocities.

I'll give you a moment to pause the video and make a note or reread those keywords now.

Let's get started with our learning cycles.

In the first learning cycle, we'll be reading, enjoying, and exploring the poem "Remains".

And in the second learning cycle, we'll be learning a bit more about the aftermath of war and what a veteran could face when they return from the war.

So let's explore the poem together now.

Here is our title "Remains".

What predictions can you make about today's poem based on the title? Pause the video and have a quick think now.

Now, remains could refer to something left behind l like the residue left after something is almost finished.

Remains could also refer to body parts after death as they are also known as remains.

If something remains, it stays for a long time.

So potentially, this poem could be about the long lasting effects of something.

And remains also refers to remnants of something bigger.

So each of those ideas can help us to predict what this poem may be about.

I now want you to open your anthology and read the poem "Remains".

Pause the video and have a read.

I hope you enjoy it.

First question I want to ask you is, what is your initial reaction to this poem? Remember, your initial reaction can simply be what you liked or disliked.

Let's see the Oaks pupils' initial reactions.

Sophia said she feels saddened by the poem because the speaker seems to have witnessed a lot of bloodshed.

Aisha says she feels regretful for the speaker of this poem.

He seems like he has a lot weighing him down.

So pause the video and reflect on what your initial reaction to this poem is.

Off you go.

Now I want you to read the poem again.

Pause the video and have another read.

I hope you've unlocked another interesting interpretation of the poem on your second read.

What aspects stood out to you on that second read? Remember, you are not expected to know what a poem is about after your very first or even second read.

So let's see what the Oak pupils noticed on their second read.

Sophia says, "The looter staying in the speaker's head really stood out to her.

The speaker seems haunted by a certain event." And Aisha says, "The speaker says he swears he saw something," and she does not usually see this type of expression in poetry.

Now reflect on what stood out to you on your second read.

Pause the video and have a quick think.

What stood out to you? Thanks for sharing.

I now want you to read the poem "Remains" for a third time.

Reading the poem for a third time can really help you to understand it completely.

We can never understand something fully by only reading it once or twice.

So go on, have another read and enjoy.

I now want you to discuss what do you think the poem is all about? Pause the video and discuss now.

Sophia says she thinks this poem is about exposing the horrific reality of war, which is not dissimilar to Owen and Hughes' poetry.

Aisha says she thinks this poem is about the aftermath of war as the last four stanzas show war never ends on the battlefield.

I wonder if you had similar ideas to Aisha or Sophia or perhaps something completely different.

That's fine too.

Now, what new meanings does the title take on after reading the poem? And can you understand why Armitage chose this title? Pause the video and reflect again on why Armitage may have chosen the title "Remains".

Off you go.

Now in this poem, Armitage explores what remains after war ends.

For example, the memories of bloodshed and the guilt, and Armitage explores the fact that distressing memories from war remain a long time after war ends.

And those are ideas we've now got after reading the poem.

Let's check your understanding of what we've talked about in the lesson so far.

In the poem "Remains," Armitage highlights the honourable sacrifice soldiers make, the haunting effects of war, or the way war affects family.

Pause the video and answer that question now.

Off you go, Well done if you few said, in the poem "Remains," Armitage highlights the haunting effects of war.

Armitage shows how the distressing memories and the guilt involved in war can stay with a veteran long after he leaves the army.

And this speaks to how war is haunting and what soldiers may see at war could haunt them for the rest of their life.

The next question I want you to answer is, in Armitage's poem, what remains? Does the soldier's glory remain? Does the soldier's patriotism remain? Or does the soldier's disturbing memories of war remain? Or do the soldier's disturbing memories of war remain? Pause the video and answer that question now.

Well done if few said in Armitage's poem, the soldier's disturbing memories of war remain.

We notice that towards the end of the poem when the soldier describes going home, but still having images and memories and feelings about war reside in his head.

Now I want you to pick three images or lines from "Remains" that stand out to you.

I want you to annotate what the quotes make you think and feel.

To help you find interesting quotes, look for imagery or powerful or unusual language choices.

Pause the video now and pick your three lines and annotate them.

Off you go.

So here are some ideas.

The first word that stood out to me was rips.

And that stood out to me because the graphic imagery really startled me and I think that reflects the atrocities a soldier witnessed at war because that word rip is a very brutal and graphic word to describe how one of the looters was killed.

The next word is bursts that I've chosen.

The word bursts stood out to me because it feels like a sudden intrusion happening in the speaker's mind.

It makes me think he cannot control his thoughts if they're bursting through at any moment.

It feels like they're interrupting something and they might be bothering him.

And the last word that stood out to me was bloody.

This made me think that the speaker feels guilty for ending the looter's life as I associate blood with guilt.

Blood also has connotations of being stained, so perhaps this guilt won't fade.

So there are my ideas and my annotations.

It doesn't matter if you chose different words, images, or quotes, as long as you discussed why those images and quotes were powerful to you.

Well done.

Now let's learn a little bit about the aftermath of war to help us understand the poem "Remains" a bit better.

The poem is the first conflict poem in the anthology that we've read that focuses heavily on the aftermath of war.

So I want you to discuss how do you think being involved in war affects an individual? Pause the video and discuss.

Let's go through some ideas.

War may affect an individual through physical injuries that they endure as a result of being involved in conflict.

War also means time away from one's family.

So perhaps it could make one feel quite lonely or perhaps might make someone feel alienated from their family once they do reunite.

War could also traumatise someone because of the atrocities they witness.

And war could mean that an individual has difficulty reintegrating into society because they've been away from normal life for a very long time.

And this may mean that they struggle to find a job or struggle to complete normal tasks when they do return back to normal life after the war.

We are going to look at trauma in more detail since Armitage focuses heavily on this in "Remains".

So what type of incidents at war could link to trauma? So basically what are the distressing and disturbing incidents at war? Pause the video and have a think now.

Let's go through some ideas.

One example of trauma is witnessing bloodshed, so witnessing injury and suffering all around you.

Another example of war trauma is ending the lives of others.

We see that in the poem "Remains" in which the speaker has orders to attack looters and then is left with the guilt of ending someone's life.

Even though perhaps outside of the context, they would've disagreed with taking that action.

Another example of war trauma is witnessing death.

Many soldiers experienced the death of their friends and that is quite traumatic to witness.

And lastly, fearing for your life on a daily basis is another example of war trauma.

Just that feeling of being in a heightened state of panic and anxiety and fear all day every day is another example of trauma because soldiers may not ever get the chance to feel comfortable, calm, rested, or safe.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after witnessing a deeply disturbing or stressful traumatic event.

PTSD is more common in veterans than civilians, potentially due to the recurrent disturbing and stressful situations that war places individuals in.

Many veterans also suffer from alcohol disorders and depression.

I want you to discuss why do you think alcohol disorders and depression are also common amongst veterans? Pause the video and discuss.

You may have talked about the fact that depression could be linked to having trauma and that very low mood and inability to do things for themselves and inability to function normally in society could be a result of all the distressing memories that take over one's life as a veteran and alcohol disorders may be common due to soldiers filling the need to block out those distressing memories and forget about that trauma.

Armitage wanted to raise awareness of those that survive war, but are changed on their return home by their war trauma.

He wrote a documentary called "The Not Dead" in which he interviews ex-soldiers from the Iraq and Gulf Wars.

Why do you think Armitage called his documentary "The Not Dead"? Pause the video and discuss that now.

"The Not Dead" is a really interesting title for his documentary, and I think it speaks volumes about the point he was trying to make about veterans.

The title "Not Dead" raises awareness of those soldiers that are perhaps not always recognised or remembered by society in the same way as those that die.

We could say that as a society, we are more used to seeing remembrance and honour for those that sacrifice their lives, but we don't necessarily see this to the same extent for those that actually make it back from war alive.

So Armitage brings our attention to the fact that those who survive war are perhaps not functioning as best as they would want to due to their war trauma.

So they are not physically dead, but due to trauma, they may not also feel alive either.

So that could be why Armitage calls his documentary "The Not Dead" firstly to make us remember and reflect on those that actually make it back from war alive.

And secondly, to show how those who do make it back from war alive are very much changed by their war trauma.

Let's check your understanding now of what we've discussed.

What is PTSD? Is it a deeply disturbing event, witnessing a deeply disturbing event, or an anxiety disorder that is triggered by a disturbing event? Pause the video and answer that question now.

PTSD, which is short for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is an anxiety disorder that is triggered by a disturbing event.

So PTSD is a disorder that can develop in veterans after they return from the war.

The documentary in which Armitage interviewed veterans from the Iraq and Gulf Wars was called "The Survivors", "The Not Dead", or "The Lost Soldiers"? Pause the video and answer that question.

Off you go.

The documentary in which Armitage interviewed veterans from the Iraq and Gulf Wars was called "The Not Dead".

And of course, we've talked about the reasons why Armitage may have called his documentary "The Not Dead" in the last part of the lesson.

Now I want you to answer this question.

What does the poem "Remains" reveal about the aftermath of war? You have some really useful vocabulary to help you answer that question there.

You should try and use the words PTSD, trauma, atrocities, guilt, aftermath, flashback, haunted, memory, bloodshed, violence, gore, distressed, and veteran.

Those may help you articulate what the poem "Remains" reveals about the aftermath of war.

And here are some sentence starters.

"Remains" details.

Armitage reveals.

And the background for the events of the poem is.

Pause the video and answer that question.

What does the poem "Remains" reveal about the aftermath of war? Off you go.

Great effort in your writing and well done for handling a sensitive topic in a mature way.

Let's look at what June wrote.

Jun says, "'Remains' is told from the perspective of a veteran who details the bloodshed and gore of war and the horrific aftermath of it.

Armitage's ideas for the poem came from the fact that veterans are traumatised by war." Whilst Jun has used useful vocabulary in his answer, there are two errors he has made.

Can you identify what Jun's errors are? It is related to his expression in his final sentence.

Pause the video and try to see if you can find Jun's errors now.

Firstly, Jun has expressed an idea as a fact.

We have not met Armitage, so cannot say for sure that his ideas from the poem came from the fact that veterans are traumatised by war.

Jun says it is a fact that veterans are traumatised by war and this is not an accurate reporting of what we know.

We know that many veterans suffer with PTSD, but we cannot make a sweeping statement.

So Jun now needs to rephrase his answer.

Jun says, "Okay, I'll use tentative language to express possibility, and I'll use the word many and often to qualify that not all veterans suffer from PTSD." So here's Jun's rewrite.

"'Remains' is told from the perspective of a veteran who details the bloodshed and gore of war and the horrific aftermath of it.

Armitage's ideas for the poem may have come from the fact that many veterans often suffer with PTSD as a result of disturbing events of war." That makes Jun's answer a lot more sophisticated.

I now want you to reread your own work and ensure that you have used tentative language and accurate information.

Pause the video and reread your work now.

Well done on reflecting on your own work and improving it accordingly.

Here's what we've learned today.

The poem's title may reflect the long lasting unpleasant effects of war.

In "Remains", Armitage explores the PTSD and other disorders that many veterans deal with.

The poem is taken from a collection called "The Not Dead".

The title of the collection reflect his interviews with soldiers from the Iraq and Gulf Wars.

And the speaker's battle with PTSD may reflect the long-term effects of conflict that are left unnoticed by society.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope to see you in another lesson soon.