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

In this session, we are going to be reading and understanding Seamus Heaney's poem, "Follower".

For this lesson, you'll need a copy of your AQA Love and Relationships poetry anthology.

Okay, so by the end of today's lesson we'll be able to explain how Heaney presents the admiration found in a parental relationship and how this changes over time.

So let's have a look at today's keywords.

We have prowess, skill, rural, plough, and furrows.

So what do these words mean? Well, prowess is exceptional skill or ability, especially in a particular field or activity.

And we've got that word "skill" there in the definition.

So what does the word skill mean? Well, skill is proficiency or expertise in performing a task, often acquired through practise and experience.

Rural relates to the countryside, typically characterised by agriculture, open spaces, and a small population.

A plough is a farming tool used to till the soil by cutting, lifting and turning it.

Finally furrows.

These are narrow grooves or trenches made in the ground, typically by a plough or cultivation.

So again, we've got a link there between those last two words.

If land is ploughed, it's likely that it will have furrows.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we are going to begin by understanding the poem and the wider context, and then we're going to zoom in on Heaney's portrayal of the father-son relationship.

So let's start by exploring the wider context.

Seamus Heaney who wrote "Follower", grew up in the Irish countryside.

Here are some images of rural Ireland.

So I'd like to just pause at this point for a quick discussion.

Looking at these images, what do you think it would be like to grow up and live here? So discuss this with the people around you, or if you're working on your own, that's okay.

Just make some notes in your exercise book or on a piece of paper.

Pause the video while you have a think and when you are ready to discuss your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really fantastic discussions there to start us off.

So first of all, one thread that was coming through in the discussions were a lot of negative words.

For example, cold, bleak, lonely, boring and frustrating.

Now, it's perhaps easy to see when we're looking at these images, why we may have chosen words such as bleak or lonely because we have this quite grey colour scheme.

And in both of these images, there is not another human soul present.

So one thing that characterises this rural landscape is a lack of people.

It's not very busy and there's lots of wide open spaces, which some people might find frustrating or boring, especially if they're growing up there because perhaps they want to be social and see their friends.

And maybe living in a rural community means that they're quite detached from perhaps other people that they go to school with or people living in more built up urban areas such as towns.

However, there were lots of positives to living in a rural landscape as well.

And some other more positive words that came out of your discussions included refreshing, free, breathtaking, peaceful and exciting.

And if we see here for each of those descriptions on the left hand side, we almost have the the flip side description, how we might view it if we had a more positive lens.

So where it's cold, it might now be refreshing.

The lonely open spaces might now be something that is quite freeing.

This bleak landscape is also quite breathtaking to look at, what perhaps might be boring because it is quiet and lonely may now be viewed as peaceful and exciting.

So how perhaps might we summarise what it would be like to live in a place like this? We could say that living among the natural world can be challenging but also is rewarding, got these two different sides to what it might be like to live there.

So Heaney grew up in a farming community and "Follower" comes from his first poetry collection, which was called "Death of a Naturalist".

And this collection contained many poems that were focused on rural life.

And Heaney's poetry is often characterised by subtle links to his own life.

And common themes that we might expect to find in Seamus Heaney's poetry include: Irish identity, family relationships, rural life and childhood experience.

And many of his poems use a child narrative voice.

So many of his poems are described in the voice or through the eyes of a child speaker.

And finally, it has been argued that Heaney held a deep respect for the past and for traditional ways of life.

So now it is time to read the poem.

And as we're doing so we can think about whether we might be able to see any links to that contextual information in the text.

So grab your copy of your poetry anthology and open it to the poem "Follower".

And once you've read through the poem carefully, I'd like you to think or discuss with the people around you about what type of relationship Heaney is depicting in this poem? And also how does the speaker feel about the other person in the text? So pause the video while you have a chance to have a really good read through and discuss these questions.

And when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

Did you enjoy the poem? I particularly like the natural images that Heaney manages to create in this poem because I'm not from a rural community, so being able to have such a clear picture painted in the poem really helps me to imagine a landscape that I'm not very familiar with.

So let's discuss some responses to these two questions.

So in this poem, what type of relationship does Heaney depict? Well done If you picked up on the idea that he depicts a parental relationship and more specifically a relationship between a father and a son.

And the second question then: So how does the speaker feel about the other person in the poem? So you may have said something like: the speaker helps his father plough the land.

He worries that he is a nuisance and he isn't helping very much compared to his father who he admires and describes as an expert.

So when we thinking about this relationship, we've got our speaker, the son who really looks up to his father, who he believes is an expert farmer, and as he describes helping his dad out or accompanying his dad out when he is ploughing the field, we get this impression that the speaker views himself as a bit of a nuisance who is perhaps getting under his father's feet.

So now I'd like to zoom in on Heaney's use of language in the poem.

And specifically I would like to draw out all the words that Heaney uses linked to farming.

So take a couple of minutes to reread the poem and underline all the words that you can identify in the poem that are linked to farming.

So pause the video while you do this and when you're ready to discuss it, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, very impressive.

I could see lots of people pulling out different words from the text there, so, fantastic.

And as I'm sure you might have worked out by now, Heaney uses rather a lot of words in this poem that are linked to farming.

So let's have a look at some examples: We have got in the first stanza: horse plough, shafts, furrow and horse.

In stanza two, we've got wing, sock, sod and headrig.

And wing and sock there are parts of the plough in the context that they're described here.

Stanza three: we've got reins, land, and furrow.

Four: we've got that word "sod" again, which is another word for the soil or the earth.

And finally in stanza five we've got plough and farm.

So looking at all these words, I'd like you to have another discussion.

Why do you think that Heaney uses these farming words? So pause the video while you discuss this or make for your notes on your paper and when you are ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting inferences there and I liked that we are beginning to consider the writer's intentions, because this is really important for us to include when we come to analyse the text and to write about our analysis.

So you could have said something like: "Heaney uses these farming words to create a vivid description of the rural landscape, bringing this scene to life for the reader.

It could also emphasise the speaker's admiration for his father, the expert farmer." Because not only are all these farming words bringing the scene to life for the reader, but they're also perhaps bringing the scene to life for our speaker in order to view his father as an expert.

He does so by describing all the different things that we see him do and all the different types of equipment that he has to use in his job.

So now it's time to pause and check our understanding of the poem so far.

So I'd like you to complete this sentence: "The son something his father." So have a look at the four phrases below and decide which one you think best fills that gap.

Pause the video while you have a think and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said C: He admires the prowess of his father.

He looks up to his father, in particular the skills that he has with his farming job.

Okay, so it is time for the first practise task of today's lesson.

So what I would like you to do is to discuss and make notes on the following questions, using evidence from the text to support your opinions.

So number one: How does Heaney present the relationship between the father and the son? Number two: Why do you think Heaney uses lots of words related to farming and the rural landscape? And finally number three: Are these natural descriptions characteristic of Heaney's writing and how do you know? So pause the video while you discuss these questions with the people around you and make your notes.

And when you are ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

A really great effort from everybody there.

And as I always like to say, a sign of a great discussion is when we don't all necessarily agree because this means that we are encouraged to justify our opinions with reasons and evidence from the text, which is fantastic.

So, well done.

So here is what you might have said.

Number one then: how does he need present the relationship between the father and the son? Well, you might have said Heaney suggests the father and son have a close relationship, they spend a lot of time together on the farm.

The son admires his father, wanting to be an expert like him when he's an adult.

And for number two: Why do you think Heaney uses lots of words related to farming and the rural landscape? You might have said something like: Heaney's use of words related to farming creates a vivid description of the rural landscape, bringing it to life for the reader.

It also implies the speaker admires the work his father does since the detailed descriptions of the ploughing equipment emphasise his fascination with farming.

And number three: Are these natural descriptions characteristic of Heaney's writing? And how do you know? Heaney's writing often drew on themes relating to his own upbringing in a farming community in rural Northern Ireland? His writing showed a deep respect and admiration for the past and traditional ways of life.

So take some time to review your own answers and double check that your interpretations are valid and most importantly that you are backing up your opinions with clear reasons and evidence from the text.

So pause the video while you check your answers and when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, so we have made it to the halfway point of today's lesson.

So well done for everything that you have achieved so far.

So now we've explored the poem and the wider context, it's time to zoom in specifically on Heaney's portrayal of this father-son relationship.

So let's recap the structure of the ideas in the poem to start off with.

So over to you, I'm going to show you some statements describing things that happened in the poem.

And what I would like you to do is to put them into the correct order.

So have a look at these statements and perhaps make some notes on the order of the letters that these statements would go in.

There's no need for you to copy the entire statements out.

So pause the video while you discuss this and decide on the correct order and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of heated discussion there again.

And it was great to see people referring back to their copies of the text because this suggests that you are supporting your ideas with evidence, which is fantastic.

So here is the correct order of events in this poem: So first of all, we had statement F: The Father and the son are introduced and we have that keyword that introduced, which should have indicated that this statement went first, and they are ploughing a field.

The son admires his father's skills with ploughing the land.

They then turned the plough and make their way back to the farm and the son struggles to walk on the furrowed land and occasionally the father carries him on his back.

The son wants to plough when he gets older, but worries he will never live up to his father.

And the son thinks is a hindrance, which is another word for an obstacle, slowing his father down.

And finally, time shifts forwards and their roles have now reversed.

Now the father walks in the son's shadow.

So now we've summarised the structure of the ideas in the poem, let's think about how Heaney uses language and structure to explore the relationship between the father and the son.

So can you analyse Heaney's use of language and structure to fill in the gaps below? So we have got some evidence and annotations and it's up to you to see if you can fill in the gaps.

So pause the video while you discuss this and when you think you filled in those missing words, click play and we'll discuss it.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's discuss some responses then.

So let's start with that first bullet point then.

In stanza one: The father and the son are introduced and they are ploughing a field.

And the speaker uses a simile, indicated by that word "like" there on line two, to suggest that his father's body is big and strong like a ship or a boat.

So onto that second bullet point then.

The son admires his father's skills with ploughing the land.

So some evidence that we have to back up this second key idea, we can find this short sentence on line five, which emphasises the son's admiration for his dad, the expert.

And then also down on line eight, we get the idea that his father is so skilled that he can turn the plough around with only one tug of the reins.

So which keyword could we use as evidence to back up that claim? Well, we've got that word "single" there on line eight.

So onto the next part of the poem then.

And we are thinking about this point where they turn the plough around and then the son is struggling to walk on the furrowed land.

So over to you again then.

Can you analyse Heaney's use of language and structure to fill in these gaps? So pause the video while you have a think and take some time to discuss it with the people around you or make some notes.

And when you're ready to discuss your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Again, some really interesting discussions taking place there.

So let's start with that first bullet point.

They turned the plough and made their way back to the farm.

And in particular we were looking for an adjective there on line nine, that emphasised how hard-working the father is so we could have chosen sweating because this shows us that he's worked so hard and the physical exertion of his job has made him tired.

It's hard physical labour.

Onto that second annotation then.

Vivid description of the father's skill, such as narrowed, angled or mapping.

Emphasise his shrewd gaze.

He knows the land well.

So what do all these words have in common? Well, they are all verbs.

We've got this idea of the different actions that the father has to do in order to do his job, the different skills that he has.

The second bullet point then, so the son struggles to walk on the furrowed land and occasionally the father carries him on his back.

So he's patient with his son who slows him down.

And we can see that on line 13 and 14 with this description of how the son stumbled over the furrowed land.

And he actually shows his compassion when his son falls by carrying him, even though the father is tired and sweating, as we talked about earlier on.

and we can see this in the word "plod",.

The movements, the walking pace of the father is perhaps quite slow and laboured and the son can actually feel this as he's riding along on his dad's back.

Okay, and onto the final stanzas of the poem then.

So towards the end of the poem we see that the son wants to plough when he gets older, but he worries that he will never live up to his father.

He also thinks that he's a hindrance, slowing his father down.

And then there in the last stanza, time actually shifts forwards and the roles between the father and son have reversed.

And now the son is an adult, it's the father who walks behind.

So over to you then one last time.

Can you analyse Heaney's use of language and structure to fill in these gaps? So pause the video while you discuss this with the people around you or make some notes, and when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's take that first bullet point then.

The son wants to plough when he gets older, but worries he will never live up to his father.

And if we zoom in on lines 18 and in particular these nouns: eye and arm, they indicate that the son yearns for his father's physical prowess, something that he describes here using these particular body parts.

When the son is older, he wants to be just like his dad.

Onto that second bullet point though.

So he's got this admiration, but he also has these worries that he's a hindrance, slowing his father down.

And on line 21, he describes himself as "a nuisance", following this with a triplet of verbs that emphasises the uselessness of the speaker because they imply that he can't seem to do anything right when he's out working with his dad.

And finally then in this last stanza, so time has shifted forward and we see how these roles between the father and the son have reversed.

So on line 23 we have a repetition of that word "stumbling" which echoes the reference to it above there on line 13.

So this suggests that it's the father who has now become the nuisance, the father who is now getting under the son's feet and perhaps is viewed as a hindrance.

So let's explore the end of the poem in a bit more detail, and particularly this word stumble.

So as we've just discussed, both the father and the son stumble at some point in the poem.

So I'd like you to discuss with the people around you or make some notes, how does each person react differently to the stumble and what does this suggest about them as people? So pause the video while you have a discussion and when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting discussions there again, and we didn't all agree and it was great to see people justifying their responses with evidence from the text.

So let's just pick up on a few responses that I overheard.

So first of all, zooming in on the father's reactions to when his son stumbles earlier on in the poem.

So the father actually shows compassion to his son, picking him up and sometimes carrying him on his back, which suggests that he's not deterred from taking his son out to work even though he slows him down.

So we can see in the poem that the father's got a tough job to do and it's tiring.

But even though his son stumbles out on the field, rather than getting angry, rather than not taking him out in the future, the father is undeterred.

He continues to bring his son out to work with him and even carries him when the job gets too tough.

However, the son; so if we are looking at the end of the poem, the son doesn't show the same compassion, and in fact, he actually seems irritated by his father.

He doesn't help him when his father stumbles and he is frustrated that he won't go.

And on that last line of the poem there, we really see those opposite reactions.

The son doesn't think to help his father, and more to the point, wishes that the father would get out of the way and let the son carry on without him following along.

So now we've thought carefully about these different reactions and perhaps what we can infer about the father and the son as people based on these reactions, I'd like to think about the connection between these two individuals and their relationship.

So what does this suggest about how the father-son relationship has changed over time? So pause the video while you discuss this or make some notes.

And when you are ready to feed back your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So well done if you were picking up on this idea that Heaney emphasises how the father son relationship has soured over time.

As a child, the speaker idolised his father, but as he grows up, this changes to frustration and impatience towards him.

So the major change that we can see in his father-son relationship is actually in the speaker's perspective of his father.

When he is a kid, he really looks up to his dad and thinks of him as this strong and powerful expert in his field.

Whereas by the time the speaker's an adult, his father is nothing more than a frustration who gets in his way and perhaps gets under his feet.

So now it's time to check our understanding.

True or false? "At the end of the poem, the father's and son's roles are reversed.

The son shows his patience and compassion for his elderly father." So pause the video while you make your mind up and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click play.

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

So now it's time to justify our response.

So have a look at these two possible explanations and decide which one you think best justifies your ideas from the first part.

Pause the video or you have a read and make your mind up.

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

Okay, welcome back.

And well done to those of you who said B: Their roles are reversed, but the son doesn't show patience and compassion.

Instead he seems frustrated by his father's dependence on him.

So now we've made it to the final practise task of today's lesson.

And what I'd like you to do is to summarise how the speaker's feelings towards his father have changed over time.

And I'd like you to support your ideas with evidence from the text and analysis of Heaney's use of language and structure.

And I'd also like you to challenge yourself to see how many of these words from the vocabulary bank you can include in your answer.

So down there in the box, we've got lots of keywords from today's lesson that link to ideas in the poem.

And also the first three words there, we've got some great examples of tentative language that you can use to show that the interpretations in your analysis are personal interpretations.

So you can use it to show perhaps how Heaney's use of language suggests something or Heaney's use of structure implies something else.

So have a go at seeing if you can get some tentative language into your response as well.

So pause the video and take as much time as you need to give this a really good go.

And when you're ready to feedback your response, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you had a chance to think really carefully there about how Heaney has chosen to structure the poem and how he uses language.

So what I would like you to do is to self assess your work using the questions below.

So reading through your answer again and thinking carefully to yourself, have I included a clear concise topic sentence to introduce your point? Have I supported my ideas with evidence from the text? Have I analysed Heaney's use of methods? So perhaps zooming in on keywords and phrases from those quotations or evidence that you've used.

And have I commented on the writer's intention? So thinking really carefully there about why we think Heaney may have chosen to describe the father, the son, or the landscape in a certain way.

And finally, have I made a relevant link to the wider context? So perhaps thinking really carefully about how Heaney's use of language and structure, links to what we know about his life, his writing, and possible influences.

So take some time to review your answer against these questions and set yourself a "what went well" and an "even better if" for you to use next time you attempt a task like this.

So pause the video while you take some time to check your work and when you are ready to continue, click play.

Okay, so we've made it to the end of today's lesson and a massive well done for all the effort that you've put in today.

I hope you feel a bit more confident when it comes to reading and understanding Seamus Heaney's poem "Follower".

So let's just summarise what we've covered in today's lesson.

The speaker feels deep admiration for his father's skill and prowess on the farm.

The speaker sometimes felt incompetent or overwhelmed in the presence of his father.

Despite the multifaceted nature of the relationship, the father and son were close and spent a lot of time together.

The speaker and their father swap or reverse roles at the end of the poem.

And Heaney has seemingly taken inspiration from his own past growing up in rural Ireland.

So thank you very much for joining me in today's lesson and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Have a great day and I hope to see you again soon.