Hello everyone, Ms. Keller here.

I'm so glad that you could join me for today's lesson.

In this session, we are going to be reading and understanding the poem, "Belfast Confetti." So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explain how Carson presents The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

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

We've got the word exacerbated, which means to make something worse or more severe, to intensify it.

We've got the word Civil War, which refers to a conflict within a country.

I'm gonna talk a little bit more about that idea later on.

Paramilitary, which are armed groups operating like the military, but they're not officially recognised by any government.

The Troubles, which is the particular historical conflict that this poem focuses on, which was a period of conflict in Northern Ireland characterised by sectarian violence.

And then that word sectarian there at the bottom means divisions or conflicts between religious or political groups, often marked by intolerance or hostility.

So pause the video if you'd like to explore any of these definitions a little bit further 'cause we're going to be using all of these words in the next section of the lesson where we are going to be exploring the wider context of the poem.

And then in the second half of the lesson, we are going to be exploring the poem itself.

So let's start by thinking about The Troubles.

Now, The Troubles was a period of conflict that occurred between approximately 1968 and 1998.

And the conflict and fighting took place in Northern Ireland between two particular groups, the unionists and the nationalists.

So who were these two groups and what did each one stand for? Well, the unionists were mostly Protestant and they wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK.

Whereas, the nationalists were mostly Roman Catholics were already seeing this idea of different religious beliefs.

And the nationalists wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland.

So essentially, this conflict was primarily focused around whether Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom or whether it should join the rest of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and become united.

So much of the fighting in The Troubles took place between paramilitary forces, and that was that word that I mentioned earlier.

Paramilitary, para, means to one side of or running alongside like the word parallel.

It means a military-style group that are operating alongside the military, and they're not officially recognised by the government.

And these paramilitary forces and on the unionist side were the Ulster Volunteer Force, the UVF and the Ulster Defence Association.

And then on the nationalist side, this was primarily the Irish Republican army, also known as the IRA.

So it's often been said that The Troubles had many of the characteristics of a civil war.

And remember that word, civil war relates to a war that takes place within a country.

It's not between two different countries, it's between two groups in the same country.

So these characteristics then of a civil war, street fighting, a lot of fighting took place on the streets of Northern Ireland, terrorist attacks, homemade weapons.

And one example of a homemade weapon was a homemade bomb that was referred to at the time as a Belfast Confetti because when the explosion took place, these bombs were filled with shrapnel and small bits of metal that would then spray across the sky like confetti might spray across the sky at a wedding.

The Troubles also sought the use of roadblocks.

So certain groups of people were prevented from travelling into different parts of the country.

And finally, the involvement of external forces such as the British Army.

So although, this war was taking place between two different groups in Northern Ireland, we did actually see lots of other groups begin to get involved, such as the British government and the British Army.

So I would like to pause here and take some time for you to think and discuss.

So what impact might a civil war have on a country's identity? So pause the video here where you think really carefully about this and discuss it with the people around you.

Or if you're working on your own, that's okay.

Just make some notes on your paper or in your exercise book and press play when you are ready to feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

A really great discussion there to start off the lesson.

I was particularly impressed to hear so many of you using your empathy skills.

So thinking really carefully about what it might be like to be living in Northern Ireland during a period of conflict such as this.

So really putting yourself into the shoes of people that experienced this conflict.

So some of the ideas that you could have picked up on then, it could lead to the country having a very fragmented identity and could cause inner conflict for citizens.

It could also create a lot of mistrust among communities or neighbourhoods.

So we've got that idea of a fragmented identity.

So people split off or splintered off into much smaller groups.

And there isn't really any more perhaps during a period of conflict like this, a united sense of perhaps what it means to be Northern Irish because different groups might perceive their Irish identity in different ways.

So eventually, a ceasefire agreement was reached in 1998, and this is often referred to as the Good Friday agreement, which established a devolved government in Northern Ireland to allow for power-sharing across both sides of the conflict.

So even today, Northern Ireland does still remain part of the United Kingdom, but this devolved government means that Northern Ireland are not solely run by the British government, but rather they have their own government based in Northern Ireland, which then allows for some power-sharing to take place between these two groups because those two groups are represented in that Northern Irish government.

So I would now like to think about the poet of Belfast Confetti, whose name was Ciaran Carson.

So he was born in Northern Ireland in 1948 and as a child, he spoke Irish Gaelic, and actually, he didn't learn English until he began to pick it up from his childhood friends.

He was also an accomplished flautist, which means that he played in bars and pubs across Ireland.

And finally, he lived through The Troubles himself because he lived in Belfast.

And in 1969, he narrowly missed death when somebody opened gunfire on a taxi that he happened to be sitting in.

So his experience of The Troubles is firsthand.

It's something he experienced for himself.

So again, then I would like to hand over to you for a discussion and I'd like you to think about two key questions.

Firstly, what impression does this information give us of Carson, perhaps as a person or what his beliefs might be? And secondly, how could it influence our interpretation of the poet? So pause here while you have a think and take some time to discuss your responses and when you are ready for us all to discuss it together, click play and we'll carry on.

Welcome back.

Again, some really fantastic responses that I overheard there.

And I was really impressed with the creative ways that you were beginning to think about how this information could influence our interpretation of the poem.

And in particular, I overheard lots of people using tentative language to show that these are just your ideas and they're not concrete links.

We can't say we know this about Carson's life and therefore, we're sure that he made a certain decision.

We can just use the evidence we've got and put a case forward.

So using words like perhaps, likely, suggests, all of that tentative language is really fantastic to overhear.

So let's just pick up on some fantastic responses that I overheard.

So first of all, I heard lots of people discussing this idea that Irish identity has played an important role in Carson's life.

He grew up in post World War II Northern Ireland, which like many countries involved in World War II have been badly affected by poverty and discrimination.

And we often find that factors like poverty and discrimination where there's widespread suffering in a country often leads to further divisions because everybody is struggling.

So there's already tensions are building within a country.

So these factors only exacerbated, intensified, or made it worse, the ongoing division between the Protestants and the Catholic.

So they just increased these tensions.

So as a child then, Carson's Irish identity actually played a larger role than his British one.

His family were Catholics who were proud of their Irish identity.

However, his British identity was something that he discovered for himself from childhood friends.

So we're already getting this idea of Carson's two conflicting identities which could potentially represent or symbolise the conflicted identities of many people that were living in Northern Ireland at this time, trying to balance their Irish identity and their Irish heritage with their British identity and British heritage as well.

So this third point then, music was a very important part of Carson's life.

And music is also an important part of Irish cultural heritage.

It links to traditions and to Irish folk history.

And here, it could also demonstrate Carson's artistic creative side.

So Carson's definitely got this links here through his music to this sense of Irish traditions, Irish culture and Irish history.

So it seems like it's a very important aspect of his life.

And finally, then, The Troubles were also an important part of forming his identity, since he was only 21 when this attack that he was involved in took place.

He was still a very young person who was perhaps still forging his identity at the point where he found himself in the middle of this conflict.

So his childhood, we could argue, might have been characterised by this division and in fighting.

And perhaps his perception of his Irish and British identity is fragmented too.

And what I mean by that is that if he's always grown up in a world where Irish identity and British identity are two separate things that don't really cross over because of these divisions, perhaps that's how he began to view his own identities as completely separate.

He must be one or the other.

So now let's pause and check our understanding.

During The Troubles, Belfast Confetti was a slang name for what? Take some time to have a look at the responses and pause the video and click play when you're ready to feed back your answers.

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

Belfast Confetti was a slang name for the homemade bombs that were used during the street fighting.

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

And I would like you to use your contextual knowledge to answer the following questions.

Number one, how do you think a civil war might affect a country's identity? Number two, what do you think it would be like to be a civilian during The Troubles? Number three, what do you think it would be like to grow up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles? So thinking specifically there about being a child in The Troubles.

And number four, what do you think inspired Carson to write a poem about The Troubles? So one thing that I'm sure you've already noticed, but all four of these questions have something in common and that is that they all ask you to consider what you think.

So they're asking for your opinions.

So it's really important that you make sure you're using that tentative language, suggests, perhaps, likely to explore these ideas without stating them as concrete facts.

So pause the video while you take some time to think really carefully about these questions and answer giving your opinions.

Pause the video here and click play when you're ready for us to feedback together.

Okay, welcome back and well done for putting such a good effort into that task.

It was so fantastic to see so many people thinking really carefully about what they think because personal interpretations are so important in English literature.

So let's have a look at how you might have answered some of these questions then, starting with number one.

So how do you think a civil war might affect a country's identity? So you could have said, it's likely that a civil war or a conflict resembling this might result in a fractured identity for the country involved.

Many communities will have been divided with neighbours and colleagues finding themselves on opposite sides of the divide.

So straightaway sight of that tentative language there, it's likely not, it's obvious or it's certain, but it's likely, it's possible.

Number two, what do you think it would be like to be a civilian during The Troubles? I think it would've been quite terrifying to be a civilian during The Troubles as much of the fighting took place on the streets so many people would've found suddenly living in the middle of a war zone with no escape.

And again, this response straight away, we know it's personal interpretation because it starts I think.

Number three then, what do you think it would be like to grow up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles? Northern Ireland's fractured identity during this time could make growing up here difficult.

It's likely many young people won't have fully understood the conflict and will have lost many childhood freedoms to the fighting for their safety.

So again, lots of fantastic tentative language.

I wonder if you spotted it.

We have got could, likely, great ways to show that we're not stating concrete facts.

And lastly, number four, what do you think inspired Carson to write a poem about The Troubles? While we can never know for certain, it's likely that growing up in a divided island inspired Carson to write this poem.

He lived through the conflict and was even involved in a street attack and so wanted to convey the impact the fighting was having on civilians.

So we've gone straight in there with that tentative, while we can never know for certain, and then really effectively using things we know about his life, like he was caught up in the conflict firsthand, begin to consider why it might have inspired him to want to share this experience with other people.

Okay, so now we've explored the wider context of the poem, it's time for us to get to grips with the text itself.

So at this point, if you haven't already grabbed your copy of your poetry anthology, you might want to pause the video and go and grab it now.

So before we start reading, I would like to have a discussion.

And what I'd like you to do is to see if you can match each of the following punctuation marks to the correct name and function.

So a little bit of a literacy challenge here, but as we explore the text, I think it will become clear to you while we're focusing on these particular punctuation marks.

So the punctuation marks that I would like you to think about them, we have got them here.

Here are your symbols, here are the different names and here are the different functions.

So your job is to match up each symbol with the correct name and the correct function.

So press pause here while you have a think and discuss this with the people around you or make some notes.

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

Welcome back.

Interesting literacy challenge there.

I bet that challenged you to think about what you really knew about these punctuation marks.

'cause even the ones that we use all the time, sometimes it's quite difficult for us to articulate what they actually do.

So let's run through it together then.

So just to start off with here, then on the left, I have matched up all of the correct symbols to the correct names.

So we had an exclamation mark, then an asterisk, then a hyphen, a full stop, a colon, and a question mark.

So what do these different punctuation marks do? Well, let's start with an exclamation mark.

So this shows excitement or fear.

So we can usually associate exclamation marks with heightened emotions.

An asterisk then, links to extra information.

So usually in a text, if we see an asterisk, we would look for the other asterisk somewhere else on the page that would then give us a little bit of extra information.

A hyphen, it joins words or parts of a sentence.

A full stop pauses at the end of a sentence.

A colon separates a list or examples.

And finally, a question mark, it poses a question.

So why did I ask you about these punctuation marks? Well, let's find out by reading the poem.

So grab your copy of the text and let's read through.

So I would like you to read through independently for the first time.

So here is a glossary of some words that might be unfamiliar to you.

So do bear that in mind if you come across a word that you're not sure of what it means.

And when you've had a chance to read through the text, I would like you to discuss the following question.

So what happens in this poem? So just take some time to summarise it with the people around you or perhaps just make some notes on your paper, or in your exercise book.

So pause the video for as long as you need to and read the poem very carefully.

And then when you're ready to go through it together, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

What did you think of the poem? I really like this poem because I think it uses some really powerful language.

And in a second, I'm go through it together.

I'll point out some of the particularly powerful bits that I identified in the text.

Let's explore the text together.

Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation marks.

Nuts, bolts, nails, car keys.

A fount of broken type.

And the explosion itself, an asterisk on the map.

This hyphenated line, a burst of rapid fire.

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept stuttering.

All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and colons.

So let's just pause here at the end of this first stanza then.

So what is happening here? Well, the speaker is caught in an explosion or in some street fighting between locals and the riot police because we've got this riot squad there on the first line who have moved in to either stop or put an end to this conflict.

So there were also shrapnel and bullets flying everywhere.

And our speaker can't escape chaos.

And we've got this idea, it's raining, exclamation marks, and then some examples of that shrapnel, nuts, bolts, nails, car keys.

Okay, and on to the second stanza.

I know this labyrinth so well.

Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street.

Why can't I escape? Every move is punctuated.

Crimea Street, dead end again.

A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh, Mackrolon face shields, walkie-talkies.

What is my name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.

So in this stanza then, they know the area well, but they can't escape.

We've got a first line.

I know this labyrinth so well.

So labyrinth makes it seem quite complicated.

It's like a maze, but it's like a complicated maze that they know well, presumably because they live there for a while.

And as it stands progresses, we can see the speakers growing fear and confusion as they try to flee the chaos.

So first of all, we've got lots of rhetorical questions, which can show fear, can show confusion.

Why can't I escape? What is my name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? So these questions building up to create a sense of confusion, but also, we've got lots of lists.

So Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street, Crimea Street, these are all references to the Crimea War listed.

And then we've got Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh, Makrolon face shields, walkie-talkies.

Again, we've got another list of sort of military equipment.

So building up this pace of the poem by listing these things, which encourages us to read faster, so it'll naturally increase that pace.

Finally, at the end of the poem, the speaker is questioned by the riot police, and that's where we see these rhetorical questions that represent perhaps what the riot police are asking on speaker.

What is your name? Where are you coming from? Where are you going? And then this last bit, a fusillade of question marks.

So perhaps where we had the exclamation marks earlier to represent the bomb and the shrapnel.

Now we've got the question marks being used to symbolise these questions about the riot police are asking the speaker.

So I would like to just pause here for another discussion.

We talked about what happens in the poem, and we've started to unpick some of Carson's uses of language, but I'd like to think about mood and emotions.

So how do you think the speaker is feeling in this poem? So pause the video while we discuss this with the people around you, or you make some notes on your paper and when you're ready to be back together, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really empathetic discussions taking place there.

And I really like how some of us are challenging ourselves to imagine how we would feel in that situation because thankfully, unfortunately, many of us are not used to the idea of fighting taking place in the place where we live.

So it's perhaps quite a stretch for us to try to imagine how somebody would be feeling.

But it's so important for us to start to empathise with the characters and the speakers of these poems. So well done if you are also picking up on this idea then that the speaker might be feeling confused, terrified, overwhelmed and anxious.

I think these four different types of emotions summarise quite effectively the different feelings that might be going through our speaker's mind as they're experiencing this.

Let's return to this punctuation we were discussing earlier.

Now we've read through the poem, I'm sure many of you will spotted that each of these punctuation marks is named somewhere in the poem.

So just take a moment, go back over the text and see if you can find where each of them is mentioned by name.

And I have taken the names away here to give you a bit of a challenge.

So you will have to remember what each of these symbols is called.

So pause the video here while you discuss this and identify that all important evidence and when you are ready for us to discuss it together, click play, and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's discuss then how each of these punctuation marks appears in the poem.

So I'll show a large version of that table.

So starting with the exclamation mark then, well done, if you identified this quote from the beginning of the poem, it was raining, exclamation marks, nuts, bolts, nails, car keys.

For asterisk then, the explosion itself, an asterisk on the map.

A hyphen, this hyphenated line, a burst of rapid fire.

So here, you've got hyphenated in the adjective form.

So what it means by that is almost lots of little hyphens making up that big line.

So almost think of it like a dotted line.

The full stops and the commas, we can actually find in the same line, all the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and colons.

And the last one, the question mark, where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.

So here, we've identified all the different key quotations where each of these punctuation marks is named.

So my next question to you is this, what could each punctuation mark symbolise? So what you've got here is the function of each of these punctuation marks on the left, and then you've got your evidence from the poem on the right.

So what I'd like you to do is think carefully about each of these quotations and ask yourself, how is Carson symbolising that function or the meaning behind that punctuation mark in his use of it in Belfast Confetti? So pause the video here while you take some time to discuss this or make some notes and annotate your key quotations.

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

Welcome back.

Some really, really fascinating discussions taking place there.

And I really like some of the clever interpretations of these key quotations that I overheard, so well done.

So let's just explore it together then, this symbolism.

So starting with the exclamation mark.

So the function was it showed excitement or fear.

So in this quote, we could argue that fear and chaos are raining down over the speaker.

So the exclamation mark here could symbolise that fear or chaos that we would associate, perhaps with seeing an exclamation mark in a piece of written text.

The asterisk then, so its function was to link to extra information.

So how could this explosion perhaps link to an asterisk? So first of all, we could have the implication that this explosion that's taken place here in Belfast links to all of the fighting that is taking place.

So this idea that it's just that asterisk that added on piece of information, but also we've got the shape of that punctuation symbol there, which we can see on the left, it's a star shape.

So we could argue that perhaps that star shape could represent the burst of the explosion and how it might look.

So the hyphen then, so we said they joins words or parts of a sentence.

So here I've tried to depict what that hyphenated line might look like using some hyphen.

So we could argue that this broken, but yet continuous line could mimic the rhythm of gunfire.

The full stop and the colon then.

So both punctuation marks indicate some sort of break or separation, whether that's a break between two sentences or a break between perhaps the category of a list and then the examples of that follow.

So here, they could emphasise how the speaker feels trapped and cannot escape because each of those punctuation marks signals that there is an end or a break.

So a barrier of some sort.

And finally, the question mark then.

So it could emphasise the overwhelming confusion at the roadblocks.

We were discussing this idea earlier, so not only have we got the statement of fusillade of question marks and a fusillade here is like a rapid burst of gunfire, but also, we can actually see lots of question marks in those listed rhetorical questions.

And there are actually three in total that come before that line of fusillade load of question marks.

So let's pause here and check our understanding.

Using punctuation marks to represent different elements of the street fighting is an example of which literary method.

Pause the video while you have a think and meet your mind up.

And when you've decided, click play and I'll reveal the correct answer.

Welcome back, and well done to those of you who said, symbolism, D.

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

And my challenge to you is this.

I would like you to use your personal interpretations of the poem and your own opinions to decide whether you agree with Aisha.

So she says, "Carson's use of symbolism in the poem helps to capture how emotionally overwhelming The Troubles were for civilians living in Northern Ireland at the time." So I'd like to think really carefully about Aisha's opinion here and whether you agree and whether you disagree, and most importantly why or why not? And then what I'd like you to do is to write a paragraph responding to Aisha's interpretation.

And in your paragraph, I would like you to include the following: Your interpretations of the text, supported by evidence.

Analysis of Carson's use of symbolism.

And finally, links to the wider context of the poem.

So all that knowledge we were discussing in the first half of today's lesson.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to really think carefully about Aisha's opinion and how your opinion and your interpretation of the text matches up to what she has said.

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

Welcome back.

So let's explore how you could have responded to Aisha.

And remember, this task was asking for your personal opinions and interpretations.

So if what you've written doesn't look anything like what I have written here, that's absolutely okay and we'll ask ourselves some important questions afterwards for you to check that your response is still valid.

I strongly agree that Carson emphasises how emotionally overwhelming it was to be a civilian living during The Troubles.

He uses symbolism, comparing many elements of the conflict to punctuation marks, for example, the explosion rained exclamation marks.

This emphasises how terrifying and chaotic the street fighting was.

Since these fearful emotions are also raining down over civilians, along with the nuts, bolts, nails, car keys.

The nature of The Troubles as a civil conflict between groups in the same country meant that much of the conflict was fought on the streets by paramilitary forces using dangerous and unpredictable homemade weapons.

The title Belfast Confetti was a slung name for a homemade bomb.

Carson captures how volatile and dangerous civilian life was.

Since for many, there was no escaping the dangerous conflict on their doorsteps.

So now, it's time for you to self-assess your response and ask yourself these questions: Did you remember to include your own interpretations of the text supported by that all important evidence from the poem? Did you analyse Carson's use of symbolism? And finally, did you link to the wider context of the poem? So take some time to review your work.

And when you've done that, I would like you to set yourself a what went well and even better if for next time.

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

Okay, so we've made it to the end of today's lesson and a massive, massive well done for all your hard work today.

I hope you're feeling a bit more confident when it comes to reading and understanding the poem, "Belfast Confetti." So let's just summarise what we've covered in today's lesson.

Carson lived in Belfast during the height of The Troubles.

The Troubles was a 30-year conflict between nationalists and unionists.

Belfast Confetti was a slang name given to homemade bombs.

The poem discusses the impact of The Troubles on people living in Belfast.

And finally, Carson uses different punctuation symbols to explore the overwhelming emotions we associate with war.

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

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