Hello there.

Welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mr. Barnsley.

Great to see you.

Thank you so much for joining me as we continue to study the AQA World and Lives poetry anthology.

Today's lesson, we're gonna be exploring a new poem.

That poem is "Thirteen" by Caleb Femi.

You are all gonna need a copy of your AQA World and Lives anthology in front of you 'cause you are going to want to be able to read the poem.

We're gonna do some independent reading today.

All right, make sure you have that in front of you and let's get started.

Right.

Let's have a look at today's outcome then, shall we? So by the end of the lesson, you are gonna be able to explain how Femi presents concept of power imbalance.

So there are five keywords and phrases that we're gonna look out for.

The first is power imbalance.

So we saw that in today's outcome, and a power imbalance is a situation of inequality between parties that leaves one side relatively unable to defend themselves, or defend its own interests.

So that's something we're really gonna be focusing on as we think about the poem today, we're gonna be thinking about can we see any power imbalances there? Other keywords that I wanna keep an eye out for are: transition, which means the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

Visceral, which means felt in or as if it's in the internal organs of the body.

So something, if you if you have a visceral reaction to something, it might mean that you feel it all the way through your body.

Liminal is a word you might recognise if you've studied any gothic literature.

And it means occupying a position at or on both sides of a boundary or a threshold.

So really think about thresholds, boundaries.

Liminality is a feature of gothic literature that you might be aware of.

And intimidation is the act of frightening or threatening someone.

So all words to keep an eye out for and potentially even try and use in our own writing and discussions today.

So we are gonna be reading and understanding the poem "Thirteen".

We're gonna do that in three parts today.

We're gonna start by making some predictions before we read the poem, we will then focus on the reading of the poem and then we'll share some personal context about the poet, which might help develop our understanding.

So let's start by forming some predictions, shall we? Let's start by considering the title of the poem.

What connotations come to mind when you think of the word "Thirteen"? Why don't you pause the video and just take a moment to think through this individually, independently.

What words or ideas come to mind when you think of the word "Thirteen"? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to share some responses.

Well done.

Some great self-reflection there.

And I'm sure many things came to mind.

Some of you might have thought about the age and thought, well, that's the age when you start to become a teenager.

Some of you might have thought, well, if that's the age of becoming a teenager, it can represent new beginnings, growth.

But you might have also thought about thirteen linked to superstition.

Some people say 13 is an unlucky number.

So you might have looked at that from a different perspective and just thought about the number in itself rather than it being an age.

I wonder if you thought of any similar things that you saw on screen or maybe you had some different ideas as well.

And that's of course absolutely fine, absolutely valid as long as we can justify our ideas.

Alright, so let's have a discussion then now.

I want us to think about how we might see thirteen as a transitional age, which is where we transition, move from something to the next, and it occupies a liminal space, to be on the boundary or the threshold of something.

How might we see thirteen as a transitional age, occupying a liminal space? If you have a partner, you can discuss with them.

But don't worry if you're working by yourself, you can either think through this independently or even make a couple of notes if you wish.

Alright, pause the video, think about this question and press play when you are ready to share your response.

Alright, over to you.

Welcome back, I heard some really interesting discussions there.

I want to shine a spotlight on something that I heard a few of you saying, which was this, that we might see "thirteen" as a liminal age because it occupies this threshold between childhood and adulthood.

Still, when you are 13, of course you are legally considered to be a child.

In fact, you're legally considered to be a child all the way up until you being 18.

However, society deems adolescence or the teenage years as a traditional time, sorry, a transitional time where you move between being a child and being an adult.

And "Thirteen" often represents the start of that transitional period.

So yeah, I can absolutely agree with those of you who said that 13 feels like the start of a really transitional time in people's lives and therefore it's a liminal age.

It occupies this liminal space, this transitional space between childhood and adulthood.

Alright, true or false then.

"Thirteen could be considered a transitional age." Pause the video.

Have a think about this one and press play when you're ready to find out the correct answer.

Yes, you should have said true.

Let's justify that shall we? Is it A: Thirteen is the age that we consider the start of teenage years? Is the transition from child to adolescence? Or is it B: Thirteen is the age that we consider the start of the adult years, the transition from adolescence to adult? What do we think? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you think you have the right answer.

Alright, over to you.

Great work if you said A.

Yes, it's of course, the start of the teenage years.

In that moment you are transitioning from child to adolescence.

But we could also say that adolescence is, in itself, that whole period of adolescence, is the transition from childhood to adulthood.

But yes, "thirteen" is very interesting because not only is it the start of adolescence, adolescence itself is a transitional, liminal period.

Alright, over to our first task then.

Here are some other words from the poem: officer, school, robbery.

Let's have a think about what predictions you can make about what you think this poem will be about.

Of course, if you have a partner, you can do this via discussion, but if you're working by yourself, you can just think to this independently or you could even write a prediction down.

Okay, pause the video, give this a go, whether you're discussing or just thinking independently and press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some great predicting going on there.

Before we move on, I want to take just a moment to reflect on our prediction.

Ask ourselves some questions, just to think about whether we've really taken everything into consideration.

So things I want you to consider as you reflect on the prediction that you either made verbally or that you wrote down.

Did you think about the possible connection between "Thirteen" as being unlucky as well as "Thirteen" as the age of a teenager? Did you consider the possibility that the officers might have made a mistake? Why do you think that might be? Did you consider how someone aged "Thirteen" might feel if they were accused of being involved in a robbery? These might have been some of the discussions you might have been thinking about.

Why don't you pause the video before we move on.

Reflect on the discussions you had.

Think about the quality of your predictions.

Alright, pause the video, press play when you're ready to move on.

All right.

Hello there, welcome back.

Right, it's time for us now to read the poem.

So you're gonna need to open your anthology and you are going to read the poem "Thirteen".

Alright? You're gonna do this independently.

I'm not gonna read it to you, you're gonna read it by yourself.

So I need you to all make sure you've got a copy of the anthology, the one that I shared with you, showed you at the beginning of today's lesson.

If you haven't got it, now is the time to pause the video and make sure that you are organised and sorted.

All right, pause the video, get yourself sorted and press play when you're ready to continue, Right, everyone should definitely have everything they need now.

Okay, so over to you to do some independent reading.

My advice would be to read it twice.

Read it once to get the gist of it and then read it again to check that you've seen some of the details in there.

Of course we'll be looking at some of the details together.

But I want you to really have a go at doing this independently first.

Alright, it's time for you to pause the video and read the poem.

Alright, good luck.

Over to you.

Welcome back.

Some really fantastic independent reading going on there, really well done.

Alright, let's pause then and think about what we've read.

What do you think is happening in this poem? If you've got a partner you could share your ideas with them, but if you're working by yourself, you can just think through this independently.

Alright, pause the video.

What's happening in this poem? Press play when you think you have an answer.

What I want us to do now is choose a word from each stanza that we think or you think summarises its moods and events effectively.

And then really think about why you chose each word.

So for each stanza, pick one word that you think best summarises what's happening in that poem and then be prepared to explain why.

Alright? Pause the video, read the poem again if you need to.

And select the word from each stanza that you think most effectively summarises the moods or the events.

Alright, over to you, Great work there.

What I'm gonna do is share with you the some of the words that I picked, but of course these are not the only right answers.

In fact, there are no right answers.

This is a personal, our own personal interpretation and how we read the poem.

So for the first stanza, I picked out the word "laugh" for the second I picked out the word "little".

For the third, I picked out "powerless".

And for the final stanza I picked out fear.

Let me share with you why I selected these words.

So I picked "laugh" because I think it really showed the boys initial incredulity.

He's clearly like, "This is ridiculous.

How could you even think, consider that I might be responsible?" I picked the word "little" and "school", really, 'cause it links, to really emphasise that this is still a young boy, he's only "thirteen".

It wasn't that long ago since he was in primary school.

"Powerless" for me really showed the lack of control that the boy has in this situation.

His fate is completely in the hands of the two officers.

And I picked "fear" because I think this was a real realisation by the end of the poem that the boy could be in danger.

And like I said, it links to "powerless" 'cause he feels like he has no control of his own fate here.

I wonder if you picked similar words to me.

So let's return it to our reading of the title "Thirteen".

So we know it's talking about the age of the boy, but we also know it has connections of an unlucky and transitional number.

Now we've read the poem, how might we apply all of this, our understanding of "Thirteen" and what the connotations it has? How we can apply that to the poem now we've read it.

Why don't you pause the video, have a little bit of a think and press play when you think you have an answer.

I wonder if you said something similar to this: The boy recollects how the officers came to his school and talked about how they were "stars", which implies a really positive interaction that the boy had had with the policeman when he was younger.

However, now the boy is "Thirteen", they don't see him as a small innocent child.

In fact, they're starting to consider him a man.

The fact that he's "Thirteen" now suggests he's transitioned from being childlike and innocent to the officers and suddenly he becomes something that they perceive to be a threat and potentially dangerous." I wonder if you noticed that we can really think about that idea of "thirteen" as a transitional number, but also, I guess we can talk about the unluckiness as well.

You might have said something along the lines of how unlucky the boy is, that the policeman doesn't recognise him or that he doesn't want to recognise him.

He doesn't want to kind of give him grace or believe in his innocence.

Or at least that's what it feels like to the speaker.

Alright, I want to consider the subjects in the poem.

I've used Jacob here, one of our Oak pupils, to reflect this image from the poem.

What I want, I'm looking at the image on the screen.

I want you to think about what is the power imbalance here? What power imbalances do you spot? Remember, that's a keyword or a key phrase from today's lesson.

A power imbalance is where one person or one group has more power than someone else or another group in a situation.

So what power imbalances do you see in this image? Pause the video, have a think, discuss with your partner if you wish, or just think through this independently and press play when you're ready to continue.

I heard some really interesting discussions there, and most interestingly, I thought that there were some of you saying there were actually quite a few different power imbalances at play here.

The first is the fact that obviously both of the policemen are figures of authority.

They have power, whereas the speaker, the 13-year-old boy in the poem holds no authority.

So there's a power imbalance there.

There's also this imbalance because these two men or these two police officers are adults.

Whereas at 13, even if they view the speaker as an adult, he's not, he's a child.

And just the number of them, the fact that there are two of them and only one of the boy again shows an imbalance.

He's outnumbered.

The speaker is outnumbered in this poem.

So you can see there's at least three examples of a power imbalance here in the poem.

What I want you to think about now though is which of these do you think creates the biggest power imbalance? Okay? In your opinion, which of these is the biggest power imbalance in the poem? Pause the video, have a think.

Again, you can discuss with a partner or you can work independently.

Which of these ideas do you think creates the biggest power imbalance? Pause the video, over to you and press play when you are ready to share.

Welcome back.

Well, let's have a look at Laura's response and you can compare whether you agreed or disagreed with her.

So Laura said, "I think the fact that they are figures of authority and the boy is not creates the biggest power imbalance because they have a greater control over how he is perceived, how the boy is perceived and what will happen to him because of this." So you might have said something similar to Laura, you might have said something slightly different, but it's really interesting for us to think about, actually there are many different power imbalances at play, but we can think about which one is gonna be the most, have the most negative impact on the speaker.

Alright, I want you to now reread the poem and I want you to write down all the references to power imbalance that you can find in the poem.

You can either underline them or you can write them down in your exercise book.

But there, just have a think, can you see references to power imbalance in the poem? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to move on.

Welcome back.

You might have picked out words, identified words such as "cornered", "fear", "patted", "speaking", "praying", all of these can suggest a power imbalance.

Which of these do you think is the most evocative though? Using the ones that I put on the screen, which one do you think creates the greatest emotion to you as a reader and why? Pause the video, have a think.

You can discuss with a partner if you wish, or you can do this independently.

Which of these words is most evocative, creates the strongest feeling in you and why? I'm really interested to see if you picked the similar one to Alex who said he thought "cornered", 'cause actually that really evokes this image of an animal.

We think of a cornered animal who's maybe trying to escape its prey and it is prey and they're trying to escape its predator.

So it really, to me and and to Alex, I think this implies that the officers see the boy as less than human.

Interesting if you said something similar, of course you might have a different opinion and that's absolutely fine as long as you can justify that.

All right, let's check our understanding then.

Which of the following factors arguably creates the biggest power imbalance? Is it the fact that there are two officers and one boy? Is it the fact that the officers are adults and the boy is a child? Or is it C: the fact that the officers are in a position of authority over the boy? Pause the video, select a response and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Yes, of course we said C, although like I said, you might have argued slightly different things, but I think just on balance we could argue that, actually, the authority the policemen hold is what really creates this power balance.

Of course, the fact there's two of them, of course the fact that they're adults also creates a power balance, but the authority that they hold creates the biggest gap between the officers and the young boy.

Alright, onto our second task of today's lesson.

I want to answer this question.

How does Caleb Femi present concepts of power imbalance in "Thirteen"? I've got some sentence starters to help you.

So I've got a sentence starter at the front that's gonna help you write a topic sentence.

Remember, you're gonna have to include at least one quote.

I want you to make an inference.

Okay, so "this has connotations of.

.", "this evokes idea of.

." Think about what literary device have been used, "the use of something reflects.

." Remember to use tentative language, "maybe", "might", "perhaps".

Okay, we are not Caleb Femi.

We do not know exactly why he's chosen to write this poem.

We do not know all of the ideas and thought processes so we can use tentative language.

And you can start to bring in some context.

I'm gonna share some more context with you later in the lesson.

But you can start to think about context that you know about the justice system, that you know about what it's like to be "thirteen".

Alright, you can start to bring some of those ideas in as well.

Alright, this only has to be a short paragraph, but let's kind of start to summarise some of the discussions we've had so far today.

Alright, pause the video, over to you and press play when you're ready to do some reflection.

Alright, really great work there.

It was really nice to see you writing with such confidence.

It shows me that you've really been listening to what we've been doing in today's lesson.

I was also really pleased to see so many of you checking your spelling, punctuation, and grammar before you put your pen down.

They're the kind of things that I love to see.

Alright, we're gonna do a reflection for a moment and we're gonna do that by looking at the work of one of our Oak pupils, Andeep.

Now this is very small part of Andeep's paragraph.

He, in one sentence he wrote was "The word fear evokes feelings of intimidation." Okay, so he's justifying, he's explaining the impact of that use of the word "fear".

But I want us to think about how his single word analysis can be improved.

We know whenever we're analysing text, it's really useful to dive in on individual words, but I think this analysis of Andeep's is fine, but I think it can be better.

How would you improve it? Why don't you pause the video for a second and just think to yourself and think, how could I improve this? How could we make this even better? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

So you might have said yes, the word fear does evoke feelings of intimidation.

It's probably not the best word in the poem.

Words such as "patted" or "cornered", As we mentioned before, they have much more to unpick in terms of what type of intimidation the speaker felt.

So let's think about what we might say about "cornered".

So we might say that it's inescapable, the boy cannot escape from these officers.

We might have said that this is actually quite visceral, in like when I think of the boy being cornered, the emotion goes all the way through me.

I can feel it in my body like a kind of a mixture of tension and frustration and anger and fear and worry.

All of these things kind of bubbling away because I'm concerned for the speaker.

And as we said earlier, this links to animalism.

We think of a cornered, a trapped animal and perhaps suggesting that these officers see the boy as less than human.

So let's have a look at how much better Andeep's writing becomes when he chooses a slightly better word.

See, he says, "The word 'corner' evokes a visceral sense of intimidation since it implies something inescapable.

Furthermore, we associate cornered with an animal which may add to the sense of threat, since it implies the officers don't see the boy as fully human." What I want you to do now is check your paragraph to ensure that you've chosen the best words possible for your single word analysis.

Alright, pause the video, have a reflection, have a check back over your work and press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, really, really well done on that activity.

Now let's move on to our final learning cycle.

And we're gonna think about personal context.

So this poem was written by Caleb Femi.

Femi was born in Nigeria in 1990 and he immigrated to London at the age of seven.

"Thirteen", was published in 2020 in Femi's collection "Poor", which explores the experiences of young black men in London.

So "Thirteen" was written about a real life experience that Femi had of being stopped by the police and falsely accused of a crime when he was 13-years-old.

Now that we know that this is based on a real life experience that the poet himself went through, does your response reaction to the poem change? Why don't you pause the video and think about if it does, why? How might that change our response? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to share.

Welcome back.

Some interesting ideas there.

You might have been thinking about, actually, it makes the poem more emotional knowing that the poet actually went through this.

It allows me to potentially feel more empathetic or sorry, sympathetic to the speaker.

Because even though the speaker isn't, even though Femi isn't saying that the speaker is him, I can imagine it is him.

You may even be able to feel empathetic with the speaker because this might be a similar experience that you yourself or someone that you know has gone through.

So yeah, I think this, for me, makes the poem more powerful knowing it's based on a real life experience because it's that reminder that this can happen to young people.

Alright, which of the following statements is true? Is it A: the poem recollects Femi's real life experience? Is it B: Femi's collection "Poor" explores the experiences of young black men in Nigeria? Or is it C: that Femi emigrates to London at age 13? Which do you think is correct? Pause the video and have a think.

Once you've got your answer, press play.

Yeah, well done.

If you said A: this poem recollects one of Femi's real life experiences.

Alright, onto our final task of today's lesson and it is going to be a discussion task.

So though the experience happened to Femi personally, he uses the second person pronoun "you".

So he doesn't say "me" or "I", he says "you".

And he uses the future tense "will" throughout the poem.

Why do you think Femi has chosen to do this? Things you might wish to consider: How does it make you the reader feel, particularly through that second person pronoun "you"? And what do you think the use of the future tense implies? Now of course this would be ideally done through a discussion.

So if you've got a partner you can discuss with them.

But don't worry if you're working independently at home, maybe there's someone in your household you can talk this through with.

You can show them your understanding of this poem you've been studying.

But don't worry if you don't, you can just work through this independently.

Maybe make a few notes of things that you would've said as part of this discussion.

Alright, pause the video, over to you and press play when you are ready to continue.

All right, great work there.

What I'd like us to do as part of our reflection is listen to one of the Oak pupil's response when they were taking part in the discussion and think about whether you agree with them, disagree with them, why or why not.

So this is Sofia's response and Sofia said, "I think Femi chose to write the poem using second person pronouns because it immerses the reader in an emotional journey of the subject through the poem.

The choice of pronoun and the lack of name for the subject implies that this situation can happen to anyone, including the reader.

The use of future tense suggests that these kinds of situations will continue to happen because it's something that needs to be changed on a societal and institutional level." Some really nice ideas there from Sofia suggesting that kind of we as individuals can't change this situation, but this is something that society as a kind of, as a group, as a community needs to change and institutionally as well.

Alright, why don't you pause the video and think about whether you agreed or disagreed with Sofia and maybe there are some ideas of hers that you would like to steal.

Alright, pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, before we say goodbye, let's have a quick look at the summary of all the learning that we have covered today.

Why don't you pause the video, reading each of these very carefully, 'cause I want you to feel really confident about each bullet point before you move on from today's lesson.

Right, thank you so much for joining me today.

It's been a pleasure learning alongside you.

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

Have a great day and see you all soon.

Goodbye.