Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

I'm so glad that you have decided to learn with me today.

We are in the Modern Text: First Study, and our modern text is 'Leave Taking'.

Today, we are going to start reading the play.

I can't wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas about this incredibly rich text.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work through today's lesson together.

Let's get started.

So by the end of this lesson, you are going to be able to describe the characters in 'Leave Taking' and start to predict some of its main themes.

We're gonna look at the blurbs to this play.

We're gonna look at some of the words that Winsome Pinnock wrote herself in the introduction to 'Leave Taking'.

And then we're going to start reading scene one.

There are some key words which we're going to reference throughout this lesson and are gonna help us unlock the learning.

They are leave taking, theme, generations, obeah, and colonisation.

Their definitions are going to come up one at a time on the next slide.

If you'd like to spend some more time with our keywords and their definitions, pause the video at the end of the next slide.

Our lesson outline for today, we're gonna start by thinking about 'Leave Taking's' themes and characters, and then we're going to read scene one of 'Leave Taking'.

Let's start off with themes and characters.

Here is a blurb for 'Leave Taking' by Winsome Pinnock.

It says, "Two generations.

[.

] 'Leave Taking' is an epic story of what we leave behind in order to find home.

So the characters of Enid and Brod are one generation and the characters of Del, who's 18 and Viv, who's 17, they're Enid's daughters and they are the second generation.

Now, Enid and Brod both left Jamaica when they were younger, that's where they were born, and they started a new life in England.

Viv and Del, Enid's daughters, were born in London and this is where the play is set.

I'd like you to discuss, just using this blurb, and some of the notes that we've made around it, what are your initial predictions about the themes that 'Leave Taking' might explore.

Pause the video and discuss this question now.

Lovely to see people looking at that blurb and also really grappling with two of our key words to help ground their discussion.

Here's some ideas that you might have had.

While Enid and Brod are of one generation, we know Del and Viv are of a second generation, a younger generation, so perhaps it will explore the theme of intergenerational conflict.

Often grandparents, parents, and children, they can have different ideas about what it means to lead a good life, different ideas about what decisions you should make in your life, and this can sometimes lead to conflict.

Also, people talked about this idea of what we leave behind in order to find home, this phrase from the blurb.

And we know Enid and Brod both left Jamaica when they were younger, that's where they were born.

And Viv and Del were born in London, but obviously to Enid, a Jamaican parent.

So perhaps this play, it might explore the theme of identity with characters thinking, "Who am I if I'm now live in England, but I was born in Jamaica?" Or, "Who am I if I was born in England, and I've always lived here, but I know that I have Jamaican roots?" Really nice exploration of this blurb showing how much reading the back, reading the blurb of a story or a play or text can help us to understand what we might find in that text.

Now we know there's a character of Brod, Enid, Viv and Del, but there is one further character in the play, so we have five characters in total, and her name is Mai, and she's an obeah woman.

Obeah is a series of spell-casting and healing traditions found in the Caribbean of which Jamaica is an island nation where Enid, Brod, and Mai are from.

Its origins, obeah's origins lie in West African practises and beliefs, brought to the Caribbean during the Transatlantic slave trade when Europeans enslaved Africans in the newly colonised Americas.

Scene one of the play sees Enid consulting Mai, looking for support, healing, and advice.

Here is what Winsome Pinnock says about obeah.

She says this in the introduction to her play.

"I am the descendant of enslaved Africans who are forcibly denied the right to the written word or to express themselves through art or song and yet held on to aspects of their African heritage in both.

Traces of African spiritual rituals were preserved by clandestine, which means secret, practises like obeah, which was made illegal in Jamaica in 1898, a law that remains on the statute books.

Despite its illegality, my mother and some of their peers retained some interest in consulting obeah men and women in times of crisis for advice and healing." I'd like you to discuss this question.

Looking at this introduction, looking at Pinnock's words, why do you think Pinnock might have included the character of Mai in her play? Pause the video and discuss this question now.

Lovely to see people engaging with Pinnock's own words and we're starting to get a bit of an understanding of who our playwright is.

Here's some ideas that you might have had.

So lots of people looked at this moment where Pinnock talks about how traces of African spiritual rituals were preserved by clandestine, of secret practises like obeah, and recalls that her mother and some of her peers retained interest in obeah women and men.

So perhaps to explore how her character's identities are impacted by the Transatlantic slave trade and the history of the British colonies in Jamaica.

So thinking about even though we know the characters in this play are living in London where the play is set, then actually their identity is still going to be formed by things from their past, things from our past.

Here are two further blurbs of 'Leave Taking'.

So one says, In North London, Del and Viv are soul-sick.

Del doesn't want to be at home; staying out late, 3:00 P.

M.

-the-next-day late is more her thing.

Viv scours her schoolbooks trying to find a trace of herself between their lines." The second blurb reads, "When Enid takes her daughters to the local obeah woman for some traditional Caribbean soul-healing, secrets are spilled.

There's no turning back for Del, Viv, and Enid as they negotiate the frictions between their countries and cultures." Now, I'd like you to use these two blurbs to develop your discussion of the themes this play might explore.

So pause the video using these two further blurbs.

Develop the initial discussion you had about the themes this play might explore.

Pause the video now.

Lovely to see you building on your discussion from earlier in this learning cycle.

We're getting a bit more information about the specifics of the characters and why the opening of the play is so important to understanding the text as a whole.

Here's some ideas you might have had.

So lots of you focus on the character of Del to begin with and the idea that she doesn't want to be at home, she's staying out late.

So she herself is trying to find out who she is.

She's on the cusp of adulthood.

Lots of you noted that she's 18, so probably about to leave the family home.

We also were thinking about ideas of freedom and perhaps even rebellion, some conflict between Del and her mother is perhaps anticipated.

Now Viv, her sister, just a year younger, she's still at school.

It says, "Viv scours her school books trying to find a trace of herself between their lines." And again, people noted that that while Viv is also trying to find out who she is, trying to understand her own identity.

But there's also an idea that education is quite an important theme here.

And education can happen in many, many contexts, but one of the places it does happen is at school and Viv is trying to find a trace of herself, trying to understand her identity in relation to her school book, so those two themes tie together.

Enid will return back to Enid, Del, and Viv's mother.

Now Enid takes her daughters to the local obeah woman for some traditional Caribbean soul-healing.

We know that's how the play starts.

So lots of you said, "Well, this is also about identity," but you made it a bit more specific about cultural identity.

So who are we in relation to our roots, the places that we might be born, how those places might impact us later on, and how we might preserve our cultural identity even if we move from one place to another.

The final section of the blurb, "There's no turning back for Del, Viv, and Enid as they negotiate the frictions between their countries and cultures." And lots of you returned to our initial discussion about the themes about intergenerational conflict, but you made that even more specific by looking at mother-daughter relationships and it seems like there is going to be some friction, some conflict in this play between the mother and her daughters.

Really beautiful discussion there of of these two blurbs to help us understand what we might find in this play script.

A check for understanding.

True or false, 'Leave Taking' is set in Jamaica? Pause the video and select your response now.

Well done if you selected false.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it A, 'Leave Taking' is set in London, but some of its characters moved from Jamaica or B, 'Leave Taking' is set in West Africa, hence the exploration of obeah? Pause the video and select your response now.

Well done if you selected A, the play is indeed set in London.

I'd like you to complete the table below to show your initial understanding of 'Lead Taking'.

It's divided into characters of which we have five and settings of which we have three.

I'd like you to note down each character and each setting and then give a brief description of them.

An example has been done for you and you can use that to guide your creation of this table.

Pause the video and complete the table to show your initial understanding of 'Leave Taking'.

Pause the video now Well done for completing that table and showing such a clear understanding of our five characters and the three most important settings to this play.

Here are some ideas that you might have had.

So we know we've already got Enid, the mother of Del and Viv, who moved from Jamaica to England when she was younger, and we know the play begins with her consulting an obeah woman.

We've got Del, who is Enid's oldest daughter, she's 18, perhaps rebellious, we're not sure yet.

We haven't started the play, but perhaps rebellious.

and born in London.

We've got Viv, Enid's second daughter who's 17, she's still in school, and also born in London.

We've got Brod, he's a family friend.

He moved from Jamaica when he was younger, just like Enid.

And we've got Mai.

Mai is an obeah woman and the play begins with Enid consulting her.

Now we've got three important settings.

The first is London where the play is set.

Del and Viv are born in London.

We've got Jamaica where Enid, Brod, and Mai were born and they moved to London when they were young.

And we've got West Africa.

This is the origins of obeah, brought to the Caribbean by the Transatlantic slave trade.

Well done for completing that table with a good level of detail so that we can open the play knowing exactly the characters and some of the most important settings.

We're gonna move on to our second learning cycle and we are gonna start reading 'Leave Taking' and we're gonna start with scene one.

The play begins with Enid and her two daughters, Del and Viv, visiting Mai, an obeah woman.

Enid says she's heard Mai "got the gift good" and doesn't mind paying more "as long as we get a reading." Del, her daughter, on the other hand, calls obeah "mumbo jumbo" and says Mai "stinks." I'd like you to discuss what might the opening scene signal about the character of Enid and her relationship with Del.

We're gonna read the opening scene shortly, but just using the details that are on the board, I'd like you to discuss this question.

What might the opening scene signal about the character of Enid and her relationship with Del? Pause the video now.

Some beautiful discussions there using the details from the board to ground your ideas.

Let's start with the character of Enid.

Zalosofi said, "That you remembered that Winsome Pinnock said her own mother consulted obeah woman and men at times of crisis.

So maybe Pinnock is signalling with this opening that Enid feels she's at a time of crisis." In addition, we know that Enid migrated from Jamaica to England many years ago when she was much younger, but obviously things from her cultural heritage, from her roots from home are still really important to her.

Now, Del, she's very rude about obeah.

Mumbo jumbo is an insult and saying Mai stinks is obviously incredibly rude.

And it seems like Del, when we read this scene, you'll see that not only is she being rude to Mai, but she's trying to rile up her mother.

She's trying to have an argument with her or that could be one interpretation of it.

So there's a real clash here between Enid, who really values obeah, and Del, who doesn't seem to value it at all and makes her views very, very clear.

Well done for starting that initial discussion about the characters of Del and Enid, just before we start reading scene one.

A check for understanding.

True or false, the play begins with conflict? Pause the video and select your response now.

Well done if you selected true.

Now, I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it A, Enid and Del have conflicting views about who will get the first reading, or B, Enid and Del have conflicting views about the value of obeah? Pause the video and select your response now.

Well done if you selected B, Enid and Del have conflicting views about the value of obeah.

Now, I'd like you to read scene one of 'Leave Taking' and as you read, pause and discuss these six questions.

One, what did Mai's mother discover about her when she was 13? Two, Mai says she doesn't deal in numbers.

What does she deal in? Three, how does Del make it clear she doesn't want to be at Mai's? Four, what does Viv want to learn from Mai? Five, give two reasons Enid visits Mai.

And six, what does may offer Del before the family leave? Pause the video, read scene one of 'Leave Taking', and as you're reading, pause and discuss these six questions.

Pause the video now.

Beautiful reading of scene one.

So fantastic to open up a play and start that reading grounded in knowledge of some of the themes and some of the characters, but still with lots of questions about what's going to happen in the remaining scenes.

And let's have a look at some of these discussion questions and some of the answers that you had.

So you might have said question one, what did Mai's mother discover about her when she was 13? Mai's mother discovered I, Mai, had the gift.

So the gift of obeah.

Two, Mai says she doesn't deal in numbers.

What does she deal in? Mai says, "Is people I deal." Three, how does Del make it clear she doesn't want to be at Mai's? Del is rude, saying Mai stinks and suspects her of charging a lot of money for nothing.

She calls obeah "mumbo-jumbo nonsense" and makes it clear she doesn't want a reading.

She attacks Mai's integrity saying she might have caused a car accident and steals holy water.

She deliberately misnames obeah, calling it voodoo.

So these are some of the ideas that we talked about earlier in the learning cycle, the conflict between what Del feels about obeah and what Enid feels about obeah.

Four, what does Viv want to learn from Mai? Viv wonders if Mai can tell her what exam grades I'll get in the exam.

And in the blurb of 'Leave Taking', we know that Viv is scouring her school books trying to find a trace of herself.

So Viv seems quite an academic character and she certainly is quite worried the grades that she might get in her upcoming exams. Five, give two reasons Enid visits Mai.

Well, the first is to ask whether she should send money back to her sister in Jamaica.

Her sister has asked for money for their mother who is apparently dying.

Enid suspects her sister of lying.

Del also believes that Enid is visiting Mai to find out if Del is pregnant.

So that second reason is another potential source of conflict between mother and daughter.

Six, what does Mai offer Del before the family leave? Mai tells Del, "Anytime you need someone to talk to, I'm always here," and "I can see you need to talk." So despite Del's rudeness at Mai, Mai is still offering her something, seeing that Del perhaps needs to talk to someone and then that talk with her mother is maybe a bit more difficult for Del, so Mai is offering that support.

Well done for reading scene one of 'Lead Taking' and answering those questions so accurately and already thinking about some of the future themes, future ideas which might come up in this play.

In summary, 'Leave Taking' is set in London.

There are five characters in the play, two different generations.

Enid and Brod moved to England from Jamaica when they were younger.

Enid's daughters were born and have grown up in London.

And obeah is a series of spell-casting and healing traditions found in the Caribbean.

It's been such a pleasure to read the opening scene of 'Leave Taking' with you, and I look forward to seeing you next time.