Hello everyone.

My name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

In this session, we are going to be comparing experiences of war in "Exposure" and "War Photographer".

For this lesson, you will need a copy of your Edexcel Poetry Anthology.

So let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to describe how poets use language, form, and structure to express their different experiences of war.

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

We have firsthand, mediated, evaluate, sensory descriptions, and comparative adjectives.

So what do these words mean? Well, firsthand is something that's directly experienced or observed without intermediaries or secondary sources.

Whereas mediated is the antonym, the opposite of firsthand because mediated is something that's experienced through an intermediary or secondary source, not directly experienced or observed.

So we've got that important relationship there between those two words.

Evaluate.

It means making a value judgement about the quality of something.

For example, it's longer than something else or better than something else, or more harrowing than something else.

Sensory descriptions are detailed depictions that appeal to the senses, enhancing imagery and immersion in writing.

And finally, comparative adjectives.

These are words that are used to compare differences or similarities between two or more nouns or pronouns.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we're going to start off by comparing experiences of war, and then we are going to focus on writing a comparative response.

So let's start by recapping our knowledge of "War Photographer" and "Exposure".

Some of our Oak students have been describing both of the poems. So my first challenge to you is which poem is each student describing? So pause the video while you read through their statements, decide which one you think they're describing.

Perhaps discuss this with the people around you or make some notes on your paper if you're working on your own.

And when you are ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll go through it together.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a think about which poems each student were describing.

So Alex, Sam, and Lucas were all describing "War Photographer".

So Alex said, "This poem implies that the speaker has become desensitised to the horrors of war." Lucas says, "This is an ekphrastic poem." And we've got that important word there, ekphrastic, which means that it was written about or was describing or influenced by a piece of visual artwork.

And then Sam says, "This poem has five unequal stanzas." So that means that Laura, Izzy, and Sofia were all describing "Exposure".

And Izzy said, "This poem uses lots of natural imagery." Laura said, "This poem shows the psychological impact war has on those who experience it." And finally, Sofia said, "This poem is based on firsthand experience." So how well did you remember each of these poems? Hopefully, you managed to pick up on a few of these ideas as well.

So now I'd like to discuss how these poems convey different experiences of war and conflict.

So I'd like to start with a discussion.

Each poem focuses on someone who works in a war zone.

In "Exposure", Wilfred Owen focuses on the experiences of a soldier, whereas in "War Photographer", Satyamurti is focusing on somebody who is there to photograph the warzone.

So my question to you is this, "How might each person's experience of war be different?" So take some time to have a good think and discuss this with the people around you or make some notes, and when you're ready to feedback together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Really fascinating discussions taking place there.

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

Starting with the soldier.

A few people picking up on this idea that the soldier's experience is direct.

They're right in the heart of the action, that it might be dangerous and involve loss perhaps of the comrade or friends they're fighting with, and therefore it could be quite terrifying and fearful for them.

It's also a job that could be exhausting, quite physically demanding, and finally, unpredictable.

So let's compare this then to the experience of the war photographer who arguably has more of an indirect or a detached experience, witnessing the trauma perhaps of others and documenting this.

It could also be quite surreal and quite depressing to be in this environment.

It could be quite a complicated job in terms of the moral decisions perhaps that you need to make.

And it would require you to be vigilant and observant, particularly if the experience for the soldiers is unpredictable, the photographer needs to be alert and ready for these stories as and when they appear.

And finally, over time through their repeated exposure to the trauma, they might actually become quite desensitised to it.

So I'd like to just draw your attention to this idea of direct and indirect experience, and let's explore that idea a bit further.

So I'd like to just have a think about the wider context of both poems. So Wilfred Owen who wrote "Exposure" was a World War I soldier fighting in the trenches while he was writing, whereas Satyamurti's photographer is fictional.

So I'm interested to see if this will affect how these characters or these speakers and their inner thoughts are conveyed by each poet based on the firsthand experience or lack of firsthand experience that each poet had.

So when we are thinking about "Exposure" then, firsthand experiences of war are often more harrowing than mediated experiences because they focus on sensory descriptions to bring the scene to life for the reader.

So what is a mediated experience then? Well, we could describe the war photographer's experience as mediated because it is often detached, and remember that mediated that keyword is when something is indirectly experienced through a secondary source.

So these experiences are often detached and they remove the sensory aspects of war.

In this case, the photographer works for the media, providing our experience of war back home.

And interestingly there, if you have a look at the word mediated, we can actually see the word media within it.

So we are definitely getting that idea that the media specialise in these detached indirect experiences because it is through the media that we are able to learn about these things like wars or conflicts or other historical events that we aren't directly a part of.

So what I would like to focus on next then is how both poets use these sensory descriptions.

So we've got "Exposure", a firsthand experience, which focuses on sensory descriptions versus "War Photographer", a mediated experience, which arguably removes the sensory aspects of war.

So let's explore this idea in a bit more detail.

So I'd like to start off by throwing it out to you for a discussion.

So take a few moments to discuss with the people around you or make a few notes if you're working on your own.

How does each poem use sensory descriptions? And remember, sensory descriptions are those depictions that evoke those five senses, seeing, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.

So take a look over both poems and see if you can identify any sensory descriptions.

Pause the video here while you have a think and take some time to discuss it, and click play when you're ready to feedback your responses together.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really fantastic discussions taking place there.

So well done if you are also drawing out these keywords and phrases from each poem.

So let's just pick up on some of the evidence that you might have found.

In "Exposure" then, we have varied sensory descriptions relating to all the different senses.

We have descriptions relating to sight such as watching, twitching, flickering, these are all things that we could see.

There were descriptions related to things that we could hear such as silent, whisper, hear, rumbles.

We also had lots of descriptions that are related to the sense of touch, things that we could feel such as this description of how the winds were like knives.

Also we had the rain soaked or that the soldiers cringed back.

These were all things that we could perhaps link to the sense of touch.

And then over with "War Photographer".

So let's see how these sensory descriptions compared.

So there were some sensory descriptions, but interestingly, Satyamurti focused only on the sense sight.

So we had lots of different very vivid descriptions of how things looked such as sizes, that things were small, or perhaps the state that they were in, devastated or shattered.

We also had focus on individual details such as the mouth or the smile of the girl, the reference to pictures and edges and frames.

These were all things that we might be able to see.

So interestingly, although both of these poems use sensory descriptions, "War Photographer" focuses only on sight.

So let's think then about how these poets are presenting war.

So I'd like you to have a look at the words below.

Which words from this grid would you choose to describe how each poet presents war? So pause the video here for a few moments while you discuss this with the people around you, or make some notes if you're working on your own.

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

Welcome back.

Some really interesting discussions again there.

I particularly like the creative ways that people were interpreting the poem in order to link it to these different words.

So let's start with Carole Satyamurti then and "War Photographer".

So arguably we could describe the representation of war in this poem perhaps as that war is harrowing or that war is traumatic or that war is banal, which is a word that means something we associate with everyday life, something that's fairly regular and fairly routine and not necessarily out of the ordinary because Carole Satyamurti's poem focuses on the horrors of war, the traumatic experiences, for example, but in this detached and mediated way.

The speaker watches it happen to somebody else and we get the impression that they've become desensitised to the horrors of war.

So again, these contrasted impressions.

On one hand, we are getting these vivid descriptions of harrowing and traumatic scenes, but that's contrasted with this perhaps banal attitude that we get from the photographer who appears to be quite desensitised to this trauma.

So what about Wilfred Owen then? Well, we could argue that a lot of these words could describe how Owen presents war.

So we might describe it as harrowing, futile, exhausting, depressing and traumatic because arguably, Wilfred Owen emphasises the horrors of war and the psychological effects that it has on soldiers.

And also there's this underlying attitude towards war that is questioning whether it is worth so many deaths.

And that's where that word futile comes into play because that's questioning whether it's necessary or whether war perhaps is meeting the aims that it sets out to achieve.

So what do both these poems have in common? Well, they both explore the atrocities of war, arguably from a different perspective, but they're both focusing on the devastating and traumatic aspects of what it's like to be in a warzone.

So let's return to these sensory descriptions then.

So having a look at the different keywords and phrases that we've pulled out of these poems. And I'd like to hand over to you for another discussion.

What effect is created in each poem with each poem's use of sensory descriptions? So pause the video while you discuss this or make some notes.

And when you're ready to feed back your responses together, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting discussions that I overheard though is people really thinking about the effects that each poet is trying to create in the poem.

So let's start with "Exposure" then and these varied sensory descriptions that Owen is giving us in the text.

We could argue, and well done if you picked up on this idea as well, that they symbolise this direct experience for the reader because they enable the reader to imagine what it's like to be there.

When we are reading Wilfred Owen's poem, we are getting this full sensory experience.

We could imagine what it might look like, perhaps what sounds we might hear, what textures, what temperatures, what weather conditions we might experience.

We're getting a fairly three dimensional description of what it's like to be in that place.

Whereas in "War Photographer", that focuses only on that one sense, sight, we could argue that that could represent the mediated experience because readers can only imagine what the place looks like, not what it's like to actually be there.

And actually, we could argue that that links to the idea of images themselves almost with their words.

The photographer who's speaking in this poem is giving us this very imagelike description from their words.

At the end of the poem, we're almost left with just a photograph impression of what that place might be like compared to Wilfred Owen's more three dimensional description using all of those different senses.

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

So true or false, "Firsthand accounts of war are often more harrowing than mediated descriptions." Pause the video where you have a think, and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click play and we'll carry on.

Welcome back.

And well done to those of you who said true.

So now it's time to justify our response.

So take a look at these two potential explanations and decide which one you think best supports our ideas above.

So pause the video again while you make your mind up, and click play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Okay, welcome back again and well done to those of you who said A, Owen was a soldier fighting in World War I and he uses a range of sensory descriptions to bring the atrocities of war to life in "Exposure".

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

And what I would like you to do is to complete the following sentence stems, showing the similarities and differences between the two poems. And as we have a look at these sentence stems, you will notice that there are lots of great examples of comparative vocabulary in each one to encourage you to really drill down into this relationship between the two texts.

So in our first sentence stem, we are using the word both to group the two poems together.

In the second one, we've got whereas, so we'll be identifying a difference in this sentence.

Number three, although.

Again, we are looking for another difference.

Number four, neither and nor.

And this correlative conjunction pair shows us that we are identifying a similarity, but interestingly, we're identifying something that both poems don't do.

Number five, similarly.

We are getting again another sentence where we can talk about similarities.

So you can tweak the wording slightly to better suit your meaning, but make sure that you use all of the comparative words in purple.

So feel free to switch the text around or to switch around some of the wording in the sentence, but do make sure you use those all-important comparative words.

So pause the video for as long as you need to to give this a really good go.

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

Welcome back.

So here is how you could have completed each of these sentences.

"Both 'Exposure' and 'War Photographer' explore the atrocities of war." Number two, "'Exposure' presents war as futile and exhausting, whereas 'War Photographer' presents war as a banal aspect of everyday life." Number three, "Although 'War Photographer' does use sensory detail in its vivid descriptions, 'Exposure' uses a range of sensory descriptions to help the reader to imagine what life was like in the trenches." Number four, "Neither 'Exposure' nor 'War Photographer' display a patriotic view of war.

And as I was saying earlier, it's interesting this neither nor pair because we are still identifying a similarity, but we're focusing on what both poems don't do.

And a really great way to add detail to a similarity like this is to then use the word both to suggest what both poems do instead.

So for example, we could say, "Both focus on how it is destructive and traumatic for those who experience it firsthand.

And finally, "'Exposure' focuses on the speaker's firsthand experience of life in the trenches.

Similarly, 'War Photographer' focuses on the speaker's experience of life in a warzone." And again, we are able to identify that similarity.

But I don't know about you, that second sentence I think lacks the detail perhaps that we might have had in that first sentence.

So how could we add a bit of extra detail? Well, we could use a conjunction that suggests a difference.

So, "Similarly, 'War Photographer' focuses on the speaker's experience of life in a warzone, however, this is more detached as the speaker isn't a soldier, but works in the media, observing and documenting how war affects others." So just adding that extra clause onto the end really enabled us to add important details into our responses.

So what I would like you to do is just take a moment to review your responses and underline where you've used that comparative vocabulary in each of your sentences.

So pause the video here while you review your responses, and when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, so we've made it to the halfway point of today's lesson, and well done for your hard work so far.

Comparing more than one text is not an easy thing to do, but it is such a useful skill to master.

So now we've made our initial comparisons, it's time to practise writing a comparative response.

And I'd like to start by thinking about how you write a thesis statement.

Thesis statement outlines your comparative response.

It sets out your overall argument that each of your analysis paragraphs will then explore in more depth.

So here is an example of a thesis statement.

"Both 'Exposure" and 'War Photographer' explore the atrocities of war from the perspective of someone who is working in a warzone, though they approach this from different perspectives." So a really great way to build a thesis statement is to identify nuanced or subtle differences between the two poems by expanding on and exploring your original similarity.

So I would argue that this thesis statement we've got here is a great start, but it lacks detail.

So how could we add detail to this thesis statement? Well, introducing and summarising the key ideas in each text is a really great way to start off.

And then linking to the writer's intentions and the wider context.

And the thesis is a really great place to include wider context because you are always talking about the whole text.

So it's a really great opportunity to add in that extra contextual knowledge about the situational or the environment that the text perhaps was published in or the inspiration behind why the text was written in the way that it was.

So let's return to this original thesis statement then.

I'd like to hand it over to you.

What extra detail could we add to this thesis statement, thinking about those two bullet points above? So pause the video while you discuss this or make some notes.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting suggestions there for how we could redraft and improve this thesis statement.

So if we were to add some extra detail then, it might look something like this.

"Both 'Exposure' and 'War Photographer' explore the atrocities of war from the perspective of someone who is working in the warzone, though they approach it from different perspectives.

'Exposure' is a raw firsthand account of Wilfred Owen's time as a soldier in the trenches during World War I, whereas 'War Photographer' depicts a fictional war photographer's experience during an explosion.

Although Satyamurti was a sociologist who studied the stories that people tell about themselves, this poem is more detached than Owen's since the war photographer's job is to witness, capture, and document the suffering of others." So let's explore how this response adds detail by including those things up there on the bullet points above.

So how does it introduce and summarise the key ideas in each text? Well, we've got this description of how "Exposure" is a raw account and how it focuses on the soldier in the trenches during World War I.

We've got that link to which historical conflict the poem is about.

And then when we come to "War Photographer", we've got this idea that it depicts a fictional war photographer's experience.

So we've got quite a clear summary of what happens or the key ideas in each poem.

So what about the writers' intentions or the wider context then? Well, we've got this link to how Wilfred Owen was a soldier himself and that it was a firsthand account.

And then with "War Photographer", we've got that linked to how Satyamurti was a sociologist who studied the stories that people tell about themselves.

So the last sentence of this thesis is particularly effective, and I'd like to hand over to you to have a think about why this is.

So take a real close look at that final sentence and discuss with the people around you or make some notes what makes it particularly effective.

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

Welcome back.

I think I heard some people picking up on the answer that I was thinking about, which was that this final sentence evaluates the poems using comparative adjectives and adverbs.

So using these sentence phrases like more something or less something, and actually starting to weigh the texts up against each other.

So if we have a look at our sentence, we've got that little phrase, "This poem is more detached than Owen's".

We are thinking about the level of detachment and we are now actually adding a value to that judgement we are making.

This one is more detached and that one is less detached.

So let's explore this idea of analysing and evaluating in a bit more detail.

A great way to compare two texts when you are identifying similarities is to use this evaluation.

And it's that idea, as we were just saying, of making a value judgement.

So something is longer than something else, is better than something else, more harrowing, more effective.

There are lots of different ways that you could evaluate two texts against each other.

So I would like you to have a quick discussion then, how would you add detail to the following similarity using your evaluation skills? So I've given you a frame for a sentence there, and it's up to you to see if you could fill in those gaps, adding detail.

So pause the video while you have a think about how you could fill those gaps, and then click play when you're ready to feedback your responses.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting and creative ways to fill those gaps there that I overheard.

So let's just discuss how we might have gone about adding detail here then.

So we could have said something like, 'Both texts bring the warzone to life for the reader using sensory detail.

Owen does this more effectively than Satyamurti because 'Exposure' uses a range of sensory descriptions, evoking sight, sounds, and sensations, whereas 'War Photographer' focuses only on one sense, the sights." So if you see there, we're really starting to add detail by weighing these two texts up against each other.

They do both use sensory descriptions, but one does it more effectively than the other.

So now it's time to check our understanding.

So can you complete the following sentence? Evaluating means what? Have a look at the four options here, and pause the video while you have a think.

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

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said D, evaluating means making a value judgement about the quality of something.

So now it is time to move on to the final practise task of today's lesson.

And what we'd like you to do is to use your evaluating skills to add detail to each of these similarities.

So number one, "Both texts explore the psychological effects of war on the individuals experiencing it firsthand." And then you've got that second sentence there where you can start to evaluate this idea.

Number two, "Both poems reflect on the difference between life in a warzone and life back home." And again, you have that second frame there to add an evaluative statement.

And finally, "Both poems explore the moments of war that exist between the chaos and gunfire." And again, you have got some space to add your evaluative statement.

And then finally, I would like you to have a go at writing a similarity of your own, and then adding your own evaluative statement.

So pause the video here while you give this a really good go.

And when you are ready to feed back your responses, click play and we'll go through it together.

Welcome back.

So here is how you could have evaluated these similarities.

Number one then, "Both texts explore the psychological effect of war on the individuals experiencing it firsthand.

Owen does this more vividly than Satyamurti because he reflects on the inner thoughts and feelings of the soldier in his repeated use of rhetorical questions to consider the futility of war.

Whereas Satyamurti focuses mostly on the speaker's account of the girl's reaction to the bombing, describing only the physical symptoms of her trauma, for example, her mouth." So what was really good about this response then? Well, it was really effective in its use of evidence and analysis of methods.

Adding that second evaluative statement really enabled us to support that original idea with some great evidence from the text.

So let's have a look at the second one.

"Both poems reflect on the difference between life in a warzone and life back home.

Arguably, 'War Photographer' is more cynical than 'Exposure' because it shows an awareness of how conflict is misrepresented in the media and emphasises the value of the luxury and freedom afforded to people not living in war and chaos.

Owen however focuses mostly on life in the trenches and the world back home seems very far away to the speaker, emphasising the hopelessness of his situation." So what was particularly effective about this response then? Well, it had a really good understanding of the key ideas in both poems, thinking about this idea of how in "War Photographer" conflict can be misrepresented.

Those stories perhaps that we tell are not always giving us the full picture, versus "Exposure" where this world back home is quite far away from the speakers experience that they're describing.

And number three then, "Both poems explore the moments of war that exist between the chaos and gunfire.

Owen's depiction is more hopeless than Satyamurti because there are images of peace described in 'War Photographer' in the description of the Ascot girls and almost smile the girl gives the photographer before the explosion.

Whereas Owen's descriptions of the moments between the chaos where nothing happens only emphasise the horrors of war since the soldiers suffer in the harsh weather conditions." So again, what went well here and perhaps how might we have even improved it? Well, and what went well, there was a very nuanced comparison of both texts.

They both zoomed in on those moments between the chaos, but explored how each poem approached it slightly differently.

So we had that real subtle and nuanced differences there.

However, for an even better if, we could have linked to the wider context.

And I would argue that this response almost missed quite an important opportunity there to get into relevant contextual information.

So now it's time for you to review your work, and I'd like you to ask yourself the following questions.

Did you use comparative adjectives to show the relationship between both texts? Did you avoid feature-spotting by leading your response with a comparison of the key ideas in the texts? Did you make relevant links to wider context and or the writer's intentions? And finally, did you produce a balanced response covering both poems equally? So take some time to review your response, and I would like you to set yourself a what went well and an even better if for next time.

pause the video while you have a read through of what you've written.

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

Okay, so you've made it to the finish line of today's lesson, and a massive, massive well done for all the hard work that you've put in today.

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

Owen's authentic poem presents a firsthand experience of war.

Often firsthand experiences create more harrowing poetry.

Both poems use sensory descriptions to create a vivid impression of war zones.

Both poets explore the atrocities of war.

And finally, comparative adjectives can be used to evaluate the subtle differences between the poet's attitudes and methods.

So thanks for joining me and I hope you enjoyed today's lesson as much as I did.

Have a great day, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.