Hello there, Mr. Barnsley here.

Fantastic to see you today.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson as we begin to explore the Edexcel poetry anthology.

And in today's lesson, we're gonna really be thinking about this idea of belonging so that we are ready to explore each of the individual poems in later lessons.

So you are gonna need your copy of the anthology in front of you.

Make sure you've got it, and once you have, I think it's time for us to begin.

Let's go.

So let's have a look at today's outcome then, shall we? By the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to conceptualise the ideas of belonging within the poetry anthology.

So some keywords there.

Belonging, the first one.

We know that's gonna be very, very important in this unit.

And belonging means a feeling of being happy or comfortable as part of a particular group.

And also we saw that word anthology.

An anthology is the collection of artistic works, in this case, poetry, that have a similar form or subject.

And the subject, we know, is going to be belonging.

Other words to keep an eye out for in today's lesson are themes, connection, and representation.

So if you do want to pause the video for a moment and read the definitions of those, now is the time to do so.

Alright, I think it's time for us to get started in today's lesson.

So there are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

Firstly, we're gonna be conceptualising, thinking about, this idea of belonging, and then we're gonna be moving to exploring the anthology in a little bit more detail.

So let's start by thinking about this idea of belonging.

So today you're gonna be exploring the Edexcel "Belonging" anthology, and you're gonna need your copy with you.

So if you don't have it, now is the time to get that copy of the anthology in front of you.

Pause the video, grab it, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, we should all have our anthologies now.

So a poetry anthology is chosen with overall themes, big ideas in mind.

And the poems within the anthology will all relate, will all link back, to these themes, these big ideas in some way.

Now, these big ideas, these themes, can help us form connections between the poems so we can start to make links, draw comparisons, look for similarities and look for differences within our analysis of different poems. So let's start then by thinking about this idea of belonging.

And I am gonna throw this over to you for a little bit of discussion.

What does the idea of belonging mean to you? Now, if you've got a partner, you can discuss this, you can share some ideas with them, but if you're working by yourself, don't worry.

You could just make a few notes or think through this independently.

Alright, pause the video then and have a little bit of think about this question you can see on screen.

What does the idea of belonging mean to you? Pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

It was fantastic to hear so many different ideas then.

I wonder if you said something similar to some of the Oak pupils.

Laura, who said, "I think belonging means feeling safe and feeling really comfortable somewhere in the surroundings that you are in." I heard lots of you talking about that.

Places that made you feel safe.

Places that made you feel like you belonged.

Now, Sofia said something about being part of a group or a collective.

And again, I heard lots of you talking about the people, the communities, that made you feel safe.

Well done if you said anything similar to what you can see on screen.

And of course, you might have said different things as well, and that's absolutely fine as long as you can justify those ideas.

So here are some of the words from the poems that you might find in the anthology.

"Sister," "merry," "sheltering," "we," "gentle," "brother," "island," "house," "comfort," "us," "Wales," "mother," "cousins," "home," and "sunlight." Let's think then, if we wanted to group these words together in smaller groups to form ideas about belonging, how would we do that? Okay, we're trying to work out what belonging means, and we wanna do this by grouping these words into smaller groups.

How would you group these words? Which words would you put together? Okay, over to you for this one.

So pause the video, give this a go.

Again, you can do this with a partner if you have one or you can just do this independently, but it's time for you to start trying to dig a little bit deeper on what that word belonging might mean by using some of the vocabulary from this anthology.

So pause the video, group these words, and press play when you think you are done.

Welcome back.

I heard some really interesting discussion there, and super well done to everyone who was discussing and maybe challenging people who didn't agree with them in a really respectful way.

That's fantastic to see.

Alright, I'm gonna share you some of the ideas from Sofia, one of our Oak pupils, and let's see if your groupings were similar.

So Sofia put "sister," "mother," "cousins," and "brother" together because all of these linked to this idea of family.

And she said that family really does create this sense of belonging.

She also grouped words like "merry," "comfort," "gentle," "sunlight," and "sheltering" all together because this suggested that belonging is something that creates happy, positive emotions, and all these words felt really positive.

Sofia also grouped the words "island," "house," "home," and "Wales" because she said this reminded her that belonging can also come from a sense of place.

A place that makes you feel warm, and comfortable, and like you belong.

But she also grouped these two words, this pair of words together, these pronouns "we" and "us" because she said this reminded her that belonging is about creating some form of connection with others.

And both of these are pronouns, plural pronouns, suggesting there is more than one person, a connectivity between more than one person.

I wonder if you said something similar to Sofia? Fantastic if you did, but of course, you might have had your own different interpretations, and that's fantastic as well.

Alright then, let's pause for a moment and check that we are understanding what we've been discussing so far.

So which image or images do you think best represent this concept of belonging? Is it a, this image of what looks like two parents walking along a beach with a small child? Is it b, this image of this girl in a very, very busy crowd? Or is it c, this image of these two young children reading a book together? Which image or images do you think best represent the concept of belonging? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you've got some answers.

Welcome back.

I wonder if you managed to say both a and c? What was quite interesting about b is there seems to be the most people in here.

And when we think of a community, we might think of numerous, lots of people, but there is something about this image that feels quite isolating, that the girl feels quite lonely, quite upset, even though she's surrounded by all these people.

Whereas even though there are a smaller amount of people in a and c, there does seem to be a real connectivity, a sense of relationship, between the people in these images, which creates that sense of belonging.

Well done if you said a and c.

Alright, over to you for our first task.

I've got another image on the screen here, and this is an image of a nest with some eggs in it.

Now, I'm gonna argue that this image can represent the anthology, it can represent this idea of belonging.

I want you to have a discussion now and think do you think a nest is an effective way to represent the concept of belonging? Why or why not? Some things that you might wish to consider as part of your discussion.

What a nest provides for eggs, but also the fact that birds can make their nests from anything that they find.

Alright, over to you.

Of course, if you've got a partner, you should definitely be doing this as a paired discussion, but don't worry if you're working by yourself.

You can just jot down a few ideas or think through this independently.

Alright, pause the video, give this discussion a go, and press play when you think you're ready to move on.

Alright, welcome back.

Some really great discussions there.

It was great to hear you adding or building on each other's discussions, and where possible, challenging if you didn't agree.

That's fantastic.

Really, really great discussion skills shown there.

Alright, I've got two responses from our Oak pupils, and we're gonna take a moment for some reflection here, and think, "Do these responses sound like the conversations I was having or the thoughts that I was having? Do they align with my ideas? If not, why not?" Okay, so let's have a look at them.

So Laura said, "I think a nest provides protection and safety for eggs, and therefore feels like a fitting image as I think a sense of belonging would make you feel safe." Whereas Sofia said, "Yes, but I also think the idea that birds make their nest out of anything they can find metaphorically suggests that we can actually make our own sense of belonging." And that's actually a really nice, positive thing to think about.

That we are all capable of making, creating, a sense of belonging for ourselves.

Do you agree with Laura? Do you agree with Sofia? Do you have different ideas? Why don't you just pause for a moment and reflect on the discussions that you had, and then press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, time for us now to start exploring the anthology, so do make sure you have your copy in front of you.

Let's go.

So we're gonna start thinking about the idea, the concept, of the anthology itself.

So why do you think we might want to bring a collection of poems about belonging together? What do you think it might reveal to us about humanity and society? So a reminder that an anthology is a collection of works, in this case a collection of poems, that are linked in some way by form, or theme, or idea, and our anthology that we are gonna be studying is linked by this theme of belonging.

But why, why might someone have chosen to put all of these poems about belonging together? What do you think they might be wanting to reveal about humanity and society? Pause the video.

Have a think about this question.

Discuss with a partner if you have one or just think through independently, and press play when you've got some ideas.

Great work.

Some fantastic discussions there.

I heard some really nice ideas that were similar to Laura's that said, "I think it's really important because it shows us that ultimately everyone in some way wants to feel like they belong." Okay, it might not be in the same ways, but this sense of belonging is really important to to all of us, but maybe in slightly different ways.

And I really like those of you who said something similar to what Sofia is saying here, is that she says, "I think it shows us that we can all find the idea of belonging, but in many different places and many different people." And what belonging means to each one of us might feel slightly different to what it means to our neighbour, our partner, our friends.

But ultimately this is a really important feeling and central to humans and us working collectively in society.

I think there was really nice ideas that lots of you are pulling out there.

So here are the titles of the poems in this anthology.

We've got "To My Sister," "Sunday Dip," "Mild the Mist Upon the Hill," "Captain Cook-brackets-To My Brother," "Clear and Gentle Stream," "I Remember, I Remember," "Island Man," "We Refugees," "Peckham Rye Lane," "Us," "In Wales, wanting to be Italian," "Kumukanda," which means initiation, "Jamaican British," "My Mother's Kitchen," and "The Emigree." What I want you to think about now is how do these titles add to the ideas, the discussions, that we've already had about this concept of belonging? Can you develop your understanding of this word belonging further using some of the titles that you can see on the screen? Again, fantastic opportunity for us to discuss in pairs if we have a partner, but otherwise think through this independently.

Pause the video, give it a go, and press play when you're ready to move on.

Welcome back.

Some really great discussions there.

Now, I wonder if you said something similar to Sofia who has highlighted some words in these titles like "Sister," "Sunday," "Mild," "Brother," "Gentle," "Island," "We," "Peckham Rye Lane," which is an area in London, "Us," "Wales," "Mother's Kitchen." She said all of these words kind of create this connection between family, and comfort, place, and feeling like a part of a larger community.

I wonder if you picked out some of these things, this connection between family, and place, and community? But actually Sofia didn't mention all the titles.

She didn't mention, "I Remember, I Remember." She didn't mention "Kumukanda", which means initiation.

She didn't mention "Jamaican British," and she didn't mention "The Emigree." So I wonder if you can bring a sense of connectivity to these four titles together? How might these add to our ideas about the concept of belonging? Over to you for this one.

Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

I wonder if you said something similar to Laura who said she thinks that "Emigree," "Kumukanda," and "Jamaican British" all suggest that actually identity, who we are, is part of belonging? And then Sofia said this really interesting point about "I Remember, I Remember," suggesting that our memories and our experiences are part of our belonging.

And often we can link identity, and memory, and experience together.

They're sometimes very intrinsically linked.

Our memories, our experiences, help form our identity.

I wonder if you said anything similar to this? And of course you might have said something different, and that's absolutely fine as well.

However, there are some other words from the anthology that maybe when we first look at them might not necessarily jump off the page as being linked to these ideas about belonging that we've spoken about so far.

These words are "sorrow," "dim," "silent," "heavy," "grey," "refugees," "desperation," "I," "escape," and "accuse." Do these words seem like they suit the idea of belonging? And if not, what might this be telling us about this concept of belonging that we've been discussing? Alright, over to you.

Discuss with a partner or think through independently.

Pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I heard a real shift in some of the discussions that we were having there.

And I heard lots of you saying these words seem to link to this concept of feeling isolated, which seems to be the complete opposite of feeling like you belong.

So I think we could argue that the anthology is just as much about not belonging as it is about belonging.

So let's think about why might it be important for the anthology to also explore these feelings of not belonging, just as important it might be to explore the feelings of belonging and being part of community.

Why might the anthology also look at ideas maybe where people feel isolated, and like they don't belong, and like they're not part of community? Why might that be important? Over to you to think about this.

Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you think you've got some ideas.

Welcome back, and well done for having that conversation so sensitively.

I heard some of you saying that actually it can really help us understand what belonging feels like when we do find it if we take some time to think about what it feels like when we don't belong.

And I heard lots of you saying, "Well, actually it really reflects the reality of division and conflicts in society." Because the sad thing is is not everyone does feel like they belong.

Not everyone is trying to make people feel connected like they're part of a collective.

And actually as a result, there are often people on the periphery, the outsides of society.

And this is really important for us to understand empathy.

If we can start to think about what it might feel like for people who are not part of that collective, not part of that community, do not have those safe places to call home, to call a sanctuary.

So we're starting to prepare ourselves here for the fact that we are going to be wrestling with and exploring some ideas that might also make us feel quite uncomfortable.

I think it's really important that we think and prepare ourselves for that.

Alright, let's pause for a moment and check our understanding.

Which of the following statements do you think is gonna be true about the anthology? Is it a, that the "Belonging" anthology only contains positive, happy poems? Is it b, the "Belonging" anthology contains poems about belonging, but also about poems about not belonging? And is it c, that you should focus on the poems about feeling as if you belong in the anthology? Alright, pause the video, have a think which of those statements do you think is most likely to be true? Yes, well done if you said b.

We know that the "Belonging" anthology is gonna contain poems about belonging, but also ideas around not belonging, okay? And I think we are gonna prepare ourselves for looking at both sides of this.

Alright, over to you now for our final task of today's lesson.

I want you to reread the titles of the poems in the anthology.

And then I want you to choose the title which seems the most evocative of belonging to you, which seems the strongest, which stands out to you, creates the emotions of belonging to you.

And then I want you to just read that poem.

And we're gonna really work on first impressions here, our own first personal response.

But I want you to answer the following question.

Do you think your chosen poem represents the idea of belonging to you, okay? So you've been drawn in by the title in some way, now I want you to think about does that poem really resonate with you? Does it create this sense of belonging for you? Alright, this is gonna be really interesting.

And if you're working with other people, do make sure you're picking different poems to them.

Alright, pause the video then, find a poem, read a poem, and think how does that link to that idea of belonging? Alright, pause the video, over to you, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Alright, welcome back.

Time for us to reflect on what we just read.

And if you've got a partner or you're working with other people, you could do this actually in a small group, but don't worry if you're working by yourself.

We're gonna quickly consider Laura and Sofia's ideas and think about the poems that they've read.

And then if you want, we can pause the video, and you can share what you read with the people around you and see what different opinions, whether their ideas aligned to yours.

So Laura looked at the poem entitled "We Refugees." And she said, "I think it represents belonging because it reminds us that we can never take our sense of belonging for granted.

Our sense of belonging could be taken away at any time.

Our safety, our home, and we might need to flee." And that is a reminder to not take this idea of belonging for granted.

Sofia looked at the title "In Wales, wanting to be Italian." And she says, "I think this represents belonging because I recognise those feelings of desperately wanting to be different to who I was so I felt like I belonged." Alright, pause the video.

If you've got a partner, share some ideas.

Think about the different poems you looked at and how they link the idea of belonging.

But if you're working by yourself, compare your ideas to those of Laura and those of Sofia, and think so their ideas, were they similar or different to you when you think about the poem that you read? Alright, pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you're done.

Alright, welcome back, and well done for reaching the end of today's lesson.

There is a summary of all the learning that we have covered on the screen today.

Let's quickly go through that together so you can feel really confident before you move on to your next lesson.

So we learned that a poetry anthology is chosen with overall themes and big ideas in mind.

We might conceptualise belonging as meaning ideas of family, place, positivity, and connection.

Arguably, the anthology is just as much about not belonging as it is about belonging.

And exploring ideas of not belonging are just as important as arguably they reflect realities of society.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

It's been a pleasure learning alongside you.

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

Alright, bye for now.

Have a great day.

See you soon.