Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Ms. Halliday, and I'll be teaching you today.

In today's lesson, we're going to read and start exploring Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons", which forms part of our relationships cluster within the Eduqas Poetry Anthology.

As with all poems, I'm super excited to see you read it for the first time and hear your initial impressions, as well as dive into some really deep discussions about themes and ideas being expressed in the poem.

So let's get started.

So today's lesson is called "Understanding Afternoons", and by the end of today's lesson you will be able to explain what you think "Afternoons" is about and support your opinion with evidence from the text.

Here are the keywords for today's lesson.

We've got pessimistic, cynicism, to stifle, to dilute, and to expose.

I'm just going to pick a few of these keywords out, as I think you might be unfamiliar with them, and some of them are quite difficult to pronounce.

So first of all, I think pessimistic is one of the harder words to pronounce on this list, and that means seeing the worst in things or people and believing that the worst might happen.

So if you are really pessimistic, you tend to think quite negatively.

Also, that word cynicism can be quite difficult to pronounce, and cynicism means being distrustful of people or believing the worst about their intentions and their integrity.

So if you're a pessimistic person, you're also probably quite cynical.

Now, if there are any other words on that list that you are unfamiliar with, please do feel free to pause the video and take the time to jot down the definitions.

If not, you can carry on with me.

Here's today's lesson outline, so how we're going to be progressing through today's learning.

We're going to start off by reading the poem first and foremost, before thinking about how we can apply context to our reading of the poem.

So learning about Philip Larkin, and then thinking about how this might inform our reading of the poem.

But let's start first of all by reading the poem.

So let's start by considering the poem's title, "Afternoons".

And I'd like you to have a quick discussion, so, first of all, what is it that we associate with afternoons, what are the connotations of the word afternoon, and, finally, what might the poem be about based on the title? Now, ideally I'd like you to discuss this with the people around you, however if you don't have a discussion partner, then, do not worry at all, 'cause you can still do this independently.

You can just consider the questions either by jotting your answers down or thinking about them in your head, whichever you would prefer and find easiest.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider those questions with the people around you.

Pause the video and off you go now.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic discussions and really, really well done.

Some brilliant ideas put forward there, so fantastic.

What we're going to do now is read the poem in full.

We're then going to discuss some of our initial thoughts and ideas in a little bit more detail in just a moment.

I would like to draw your attention to this glossary that I've put together for you, just to help you with any words that you may be unfamiliar with that you might find in the poem.

Okay, so we've got the phrase recreation ground, assemble, courting places, and intent.

So when you come across those words in your reading, do feel free to have a look at what they mean in the glossary, to help your understanding of the poem.

When you're reading this poem, it's really important if at all possible to read it out loud, because we know that poetry is designed to be read aloud, and reading the poem out loud can really help you to determine the tone that is being used, as well as the mood, so if at all possible, it would be brilliant if you were able to read that poem out loud.

The second thing I'd like to mention is punctuation.

Okay, I know I go on about this all the time but punctuation in poetry is super, super important, because it informs the tone of voice that you use.

So as you're reading this poem, it's really, really important that you pay specific and close attention to Larkin's use of punctuation, okay, making sure that you match your tone to that punctuation.

So as I said, I'm going to give you a few moments now to pause the video while you read that poem out loud, more than once if you can, and then use the glossary to decode any language or words that you may not be familiar with.

I love this poem, and I'm really excited for you to read it for the first time.

I wish I could go back and reread this poem for the first time, so I am really envious that you get to do this now.

I'm also really looking forward to seeing what you think of it.

So without further ado, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you go and read the poem, using that glossary to help you understand it.

Pause the video, and off you go.

Fantastic reading.

Really, really great expression, great tones of voice.

I'm super impressed by how clear your reading of that poem was.

Really, really well done.

Now, as I said, a good reading of the poem is a good understanding of the poem, and therefore you are now in a perfect position to be able to give your initial impressions of this poem.

So I'd like you to think, well, what are your first impressions of the poem? Did you like it? Why? Why, perhaps, didn't you like it? I'd also like you to think about how it made you feel and, again, why did it make you feel that way.

And, finally, I'd like you to think, well, what might that poem be about? So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you consider those questions, again, either with people around you or just independently if that's how you're preferring to work today.

But I'd like you to pause the video while you go to consider those questions.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions, and it was great to see so many of you enjoying this poem as much as I did.

I love it when students get really passionate and excited about a poem.

It just really warms my heart, so thank you and well done.

(mouse clicking) So here are three responses to this poem from our Oak pupils.

So they've read the poem, and these are their initial responses.

So Jacob says, "Well, I think that this poem is a warning." Laura states, "I think this poem exposes something." And Aisha says, "Well, I think that this poem is a celebration." Three very different but very interesting responses there, so thank you to our Oak pupils for those.

Now, you'll notice that I've highlighted a word from each line in purple, okay? And I'd like you to think, "Well, what do those words in purple mean?" So what is a warning, what is, you know, to expose, and what is a celebration? Again, you can do this by discussion if you've got people to discuss this with.

If you don't, please don't worry, because you can just do this independently.

It's completely up to you.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you try and define those three words with somebody else or on your own.

Off you go.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic.

Really, really well done.

Some great definitions there.

And what I'd like you to do now is think, well, which of the Oak students do you most agree with and why? So I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you discuss that, again, either with people around you or consider it independently if that's how you've chosen to work today.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic discussions and really well done, and, as always, a really diverse range of opinions there, which is lovely to see, 'cause it shows me that you've all got your own personal responses to this poem, so really well done.

Let's check for understanding before you move on.

Which of the following is the correct definition of the phrase to expose? Is it, A, to have a lack of trust in others' intentions? Is it, B, to uncover or reveal the truth about something? Or is it, C, to highlight something in a positive way? I'm gonna give you a moment to pause the video while you make your answer selection.

Off you go.

Fantastic, and really well done if you selected B.

You're absolutely right.

To expose means to uncover or reveal the truth about something.

Really well done.

So we asked our same three Oak pupils from earlier in the lesson, what they thought the poem was about, and here's what they said.

One said that they thought it was about the passage of time.

Another said that they thought it was about the difficulties of family life.

And the third student said that they thought it was about the achievement of parenthood.

Again, three very different but very interesting answers there.

And what I'd like you to do now is discuss, well, which of these ideas do you agree with or disagree with and why? So basically, what do you think of the Oak pupils' opinions? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you discuss this, again, either with people around you or think about it independently, whichever you would prefer.

So pause the video and off you go to consider those ideas now.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic discussions.

Really, really well done there.

Some really sophisticated ideas being bounced around that have really, really impressed me, so massive well done.

(Keyboard key clacking) And all those discussions bring us really nicely onto our first task of the lesson, where we're going to refine our ideas and opinions.

So what I'd like you to do here is, you'll notice that on the screen there is a table, there's column A and there's column B.

What I'd like you to do is combine one of the sentence fragments from column A together with a sentence fragment from column B, to help you express what you think the poem is about.

So just for clarity, you are taking part the sentence from column A and part of a sentence from column B and combining them together.

Now there are multiple different ways in which you can combine these together, so you will need to think carefully.

This is not a gap fill, this is not a, you know, complete the rest of the sentence where there is a right or a wrong answer.

There isn't that, so this is really allowing you to have the freedom for you to be able to combine different sentence fragments together to express what you think this poem is about personally.

Once you have done that, I would then like you to find evidence from the text to support your opinion.

So there's two parts to this task here for you to complete.

What I'm going to do now is invite you to pause the video while you go and have a go at completing both components within this task.

Again, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Make sure you put your all into this, and we will come back together in just a moment to share some ideas.

So pause the video and off you go.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic effort.

And actually, as I said, the poem could be about any of the combinations of fragments.

There was no right or wrong answer here.

However, what I thought would be nice is to share some possibilities of combinations that you might have come up with.

So here's how you might have combined them.

You might have put, "I think that this poem is a warning about the passage of time." You also might have said, "I think that this poem exposes the difficulties of family life." And finally, you might have said, "I think that this poem is a celebration of the achievement of parenthood." So in terms of evidence, 'cause I asked you to go back to the poem and find evidence to support your opinion, if you have written any of the following three statements, here's some suggested evidence you might have found.

Okay, you might have found completely different evidence and that's brilliant and that's great, okay, but here's just some suggestions of evidence you might have found.

So in terms of the poem being a warning about the passage of time, well, you might have selected lines 23 and 24 as evidence for that statement.

If you wrote that the poem perhaps exposes the difficulties of family life, well, you might have selected lines 13 and 14 to support that statement.

And finally, if you felt that the poem was a celebration of the achievement of parenthood, well, you might have selected either line six or line eight to support that statement.

I was really impressed with the way that you considered combining these fragments together, and I was also really impressed with how many of you were working away with your poetry anthologies open, continually referring back, finding that evidence to support your opinion.

So a massive well done from me, a really successful start to the lesson.

So brilliant work.

And now onto the second part of the lesson where we're going to learn a little bit more about Philip Larkin, and try to understand how this context might influence our reading of the poem and why he might have written this poem in the first place.

So Philip Larkin, the poet, was born in 1922 and he died in 1985.

And I'd like you to think, well, looking at those dates, what experiences might Larkin have had in his lifetime that may have affected his outlook and influenced his work? So look at those dates very carefully, think about what might have come between those dates, what you know about, you know, Britain particularly during those dates, and then have those discussions.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider that question, again, either independently or with people around you, whatever you'd prefer.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic discussions and really well done, as many of you were able to identify at least one really key significant event in Britain during those dates that may have affected Larkin's outlook, one of which was obviously World War II.

And what we know about Larkin is that a lot of his work is actually reflective of the post-war era in Britain, and he's regarded as one of the most famous post-war voices in British poetry.

And actually this poem was written in the late 1950s, we're not 100% percent sure when it was written but we think it was possibly in 1959.

Okay, so just quite soon after the second World War had ended in 1945.

And actually Larkin's work more broadly explores themes of death, love, and the passing of time, so those are some of the common themes that we see running throughout his work.

So what I'd like you to think now is, well, which of these three themes do we see in the poem "Afternoons"? So I'm going to invite you again to pause the video while you consider where we see those themes of death, love, and passing of time in the poem "Afternoons" that you've just read.

Again, if you'd like to consider this independently, that's fine.

If you're able to discuss it, then I would encourage you to do so.

Pause the video and off you go now.

Fantastic discussions, really well done there, and we're going to have a look at some of those themes in a little bit more detail now.

So let's start by looking a bit more at the theme of love and/or relationships in the poem, as this is kind of what we've categorised this poem as in terms of our anthology.

We know that we're looking at the anthology from four main themes, which is obviously war, power, relationships and nature.

And this poem I think sits quite nicely within the relationships clusters.

So arguably Larkin seems to have quite a pessimistic view of family life, so quite that negative view, he kind of sees the worst in things, he perhaps doesn't think family life is particularly valuable.

And what I'd like you to think is, well, where might this idea have come from? Can you find any evidence to support this claim in the poem? Now I know that we don't know that much about Larkin at this stage, so I'm asking you really here to predict what kind of life Larkin might have led if this was his view, and this was the view that he was portraying in the poem.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider that question, and then try and find some evidence from the poem with people around you.

So pause the video and off you go.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic discussions and really, really well done, because actually the final lines of the poem seem to suggest that becoming a parent stifles or reduces or kind of strangles a person's individuality and freedom.

So that's kind of where that pessimistic view is really obvious in the poem, particularly in some of the final lines.

So what I'd like you to think now is, well, what kind of relationship might Larkin have had with his own parents then? If this is how, you know, family life's being portrayed in the poem, what might we be able to work out about Larkin's family life as a result? So, again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you consider that either independently or with other people.

Off you go.

fantastic discussions, and it was really interesting to hear the vast majority of you saying that you don't think that Larkin would've had a very positive relationship with his family.

So let's see, shall we? So there is actually quite a lot of speculation about Larkin's relationship with his family, and actually some of Larkin's work seems to suggest that there's an emotional distance between him and his family.

Though his personal letters that have been recovered reveal a much closer relationship than we might expect, given kind of the way in which family life is portrayed in this poem.

However, this relationship seems to be characterised by mutual cynicism.

So it seems that Larkin was raised by quite cynical parents and that, therefore, may have made him quite a cynical person as well.

So perhaps it's not that they weren't close, it's perhaps just that all of them are quite cynical so they kind of didn't celebrate the joys or the successes of family life as much as they, perhaps, recognised the kind of drawbacks or the limitations of living a family life.

His mother allegedly advised him never to get married.

She advised him that it kills the heart.

Okay, quite interesting advice there.

And Larkin never got married.

He had a cynical view of relationships and a pessimistic view of parenthood, and he viewed it as diluting the self, and that is something that he actually said once, okay? So he held these quite cynical and pessimistic views of married life, and it's very interesting that he never got married.

We're not actually quite sure whether that's a direct result of his mother's advice or whether things just didn't work out for Larkin, because he actually did have some relationships that were of great significance in his life, okay, but he chose never to get married.

So that's quite interesting in itself as well.

Now in terms of Larkin viewing parenthood as diluting the self, if you remember that word, diluting means to weaken or to make something less strong or more vulnerable in some way.

So clearly he felt that having a child or getting married was some kind of weakness that was being demonstrated by perhaps society or the individual, but he definitely felt that parenthood and relationships diluted the self, which is a very, very key kind of piece of contextual knowledge to understand when we read this poem.

(mouse clicking) So let's check for understanding before we move on.

True or false? Thinking that somebody donated money to charity to improve their own self-image is an example of someone being cynical.

Is that true or is that false? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you make your answer selection.

Fantastic, and really well done if you correctly selected true, you're absolutely right.

What I'd like you to do now is justify your answer by choosing one of the justifications below.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you read both justifications, and decide which you think is the correct one for the statement being true.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions, and really well done if you are able to select A, being cynical means thinking the worst of people, being mistrustful of their intentions and their integrity.

So really well done, fantastic work.

So let's have a look at part of the poem in more detail.

So I'd like you to reread stanza two.

Once you've done that, I'd like you to think, well, where do we see this idea that Larkin had a pessimistic view of relationships? Where can you gauge that from the poem, okay, where do we know that? And once you've done that I would like you to think, well, where do we see this idea that Larkin had a pessimistic view of relationships? Can you find evidence to support that view? You're then going to reread stanza three and you're going to think, well, where do we see the idea that parenthood dilutes the self? So what we're doing here is we are taking what we know about Larkin and we're using it to try and understand the poem in more depth, and understand his perspective and his views on relationships, which is what he's writing about.

So you will need to reread both stanzas and then use the questions to help you understand the poem in more depth.

Again, this can be done either independently or with other people, it's up to you.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at finding the evidence of Larkin's perspective in the poem.

Off you go.

fantastic and really well done.

Like Laura, many of you identified that the disregarded wedding albums mentioned in stanza two suggest that parenthood and responsibility has made the couples neglect their relationship.

So really well done if you got that brilliant work.

And secondly, the fact that the children expect their parents to take them home could show that mothers put their lives on hold to bring up the children.

So, again, the idea of parenthood diluting the self, parents having to prioritise their children and therefore not being able to express their own identity, and not being able to have autonomy and freedom is perhaps evident in stanza three.

So really well done if you managed to identify that, brilliant reading of the poem.

(mouse clicking) So we know that Larkin often explored the passing of time in his work as well.

And again, I'd like you to think, well, where do we see that in "Afternoons", okay, can you find evidence for that? So I'm going to invite you again to pause the video while you have a look for evidence of the passing of time in the poem.

Fantastic, and many of you had a lot of things highlighted in your anthology for this question, because it seems that Larkin was very preoccupied with the passing of time.

And we might see that in the following parts of the poem.

So the fact that the poem opens with the fading summer, for one, shows us straight away that there is time passing here, that time is in some way perhaps moving on or maybe even running out, okay, because summer we know is associated with happiness, with joy.

So arguably, maybe, Larkin's suggesting that time for enjoyment is running out for these parents.

Larkin also describes that transitional process between seasons, showing how quickly the time moves throughout the year.

Okay, so again, we get this kind of feeling of the threat of time coming through this poem.

We also see time passing between generations as the new lovers replace the old.

So, again, the idea of replacement and the fact that new things come in and push old things out, or old things make room for new things, whichever way you want to look at it.

It's this idea that the passage of time is inevitable, we can't get away from it.

(mouse clicking) And finally, Larkin ends the poem with a quite bleak statement that illustrates that time is running out for the mothers, okay, he uses that they pushing, okay? That shows that perhaps the mothers don't have any choice in this, that their autonomy is being taken away, they are being forced to do something that perhaps isn't healthy for them or that they wouldn't want to do.

Okay, so again, quite a pessimistic and cynical ending to the poem there, which brings us really nicely onto the last task of the lesson.

"Afternoons" is characterised by a sense of pessimism and in some instances threat.

What I'd like you to do is consider that statement.

Do you agree with it? Do you disagree with it? I'd then like you to place yourself on the opinion scale, making sure that you justify your opinions with evidence from the text.

And whilst you're doing that, I would like you to try and use the keywords from the lesson to justify your position.

So here's our scale from agree to disagree.

If you were to put yourself at the very far left you would be saying, "I completely and utterly agree with that statement," okay? "Yes, I think it's characterised by a sense of pessimism and, yes, I think there is some threat in the poem." If you were to place yourself at the very far right under the disagree or above the disagreed caption, you'd be saying, "I completely disagree, there's not one part of that statement that I agree with." So you'll need to think about where on that spectrum opinion you would sit, making sure that you are trying to use the keywords from the lesson to justify your position.

So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you have a go at considering that statement, and then placing yourself on that opinion spectrum in the correct position that feels right for you.

So, again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you have a go at doing that now.

Fantastic.

Really, really well done.

And lots of you at different points in the scale, which is brilliant 'cause it shows that you've got a really personal response to the poem.

Some of you saying, "I absolutely agreed," some of you saying you somewhat agreed, and then quite a few people saying that you disagreed with some aspects of the statement, but not others.

So really well done there, some brilliant suggestions.

Now here's how our Oak pupil, Aisha, justified her position.

Okay, so she's put herself more towards the agree, she's not completely agreeing, she's mostly agreeing, I would say, here.

And she says, "I agree that Larkin is quite negative in the poem because he seems to have quite a negative view towards family life.

Also, I think that time is presented in quite a threatening way in the poem.

It feels as if time is just stripping away the lives of the young families, especially when Larkin uses the verb pushing, which implies that the families have no choice but to sacrifice their independence and autonomy to bring up their children." So I really like here that Aisha's echoing ideas from earlier in the lesson, and using them to form an opinion.

That's brilliant.

Okay, however, I don't think this answer is as good or is as sophisticated as it could be, and I'd like you to tell me what Aisha might do to improve her response.

So I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you either discuss that with people around you or consider it independently.

So how could she further improve this response? Off you go.

Fantastic.

Really, really well done.

And a massive congratulations if you are able to identify that she does use that word negative too much.

And that word negative is not very specific, okay, because negative can mean all different kinds of things.

If I said to you, "How are you feeling today?" And you said, "I'm feeling a bit negative." That doesn't really tell me how you're feeling.

Are you feeling angry? Are you feeling sad? Are you feeling heartbroken? Are you feeling indifferent? All of those are quite arguably negative emotions.

So the word negative isn't a very specific word to use, and I think that Aisha could really improve that.

So what I'd like you to do is help her to improve that by thinking, "Well, which words could Aisha swap these for to make her answer more specific?" So, again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video now while you try to think of a better word or a more specific word, rather, for the word negative here.

So I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you consider that now.

Fantastic, and I'm really impressed seeing many of you going straight to the keywords and swapping them for pessimistic and cynical, which are much more specific ways to describe Larkin's attitude.

So now we've got, "I agree that Larkin is quite pessimistic in the poem, because he seems to have quite a cynical view of family life." That is so much more sophisticated, it's so much more specific, and this answer is 10 times better now.

So really well done to those of you who used the keywords from today's lesson.

And finally, what I'd like you to do now is think, "Well, we've just watched Aisha improve her answer by adding in some of the keywords from today's lesson." Do you feel that the keywords are missing from your response? Do you think there's an opportunity for you to add any more into your response? So I'd like to think, "Are there any opportunities for me to use more of today's keywords in my answer to improve it?" So I'm just gonna give you a moment to pause the video while you reflect on your own response, and consider whether you might use any more of today's keywords.

So pause the video and off you go to do that now.

(mouse clicking) Fantastic; and great to see so many of you sneaking in at least one other keyword.

So really well done there, great reflection.

So to summarise the learning from today; well, first of all, Larkin arguably presents us with a cynical view of family life in the poem.

And this cynicism could be reflective of his mother's attitudes towards marriage, which she shared with Larkin.

Now, the passage of time is a really key theme in the poem, and Larkin arguably presents time as a threat to the young parents.

Larkin arguably also presents the monotony of family life as unfulfilling and arduous, so not very satisfying and quite difficult.

And finally, he arguably presents the young couples as quite emotionally distant from one another, because their responsibilities have forced them apart.

So there's the learning from today, I really hoped you enjoyed digesting it as much as I enjoyed teaching it.

Thank you so much for your contributions today and your engagement, I've really enjoyed exploring this poem with you in a little bit more detail and I'm massively looking forward to seeing you next time.

Thank you so much for your contributions and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day.

See you later.