Hello there, thank you so much for joining me today.

My name is Mr. Barnsley, and welcome to today's lesson as we continue to explore unseen poetry.

Today we're gonna be writing a response to an unseen poem, and we're gonna be using the poem "Next Door" by Helen Dunmore, which is available to you in the additional materials.

You're gonna want to make sure you've got a copy of this poem available to you in front of you, because you're gonna need it to be able to write a response about it.

All right, once you are ready, I think it's time for us to begin, let's go.

Okay, so our outcome today.

By the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to write and then build on a response to an unseen poem.

So five key words to look out for: ambiguous, reflection, merge, perspective, and judgemental.

The definitions of these words are all on the screen, so if you want to pause the video and read through these carefully or even note them down, please do that now.

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

Okay, so there are gonna be two learning cycles in today's lesson.

We're gonna start by writing our response, and then we are gonna build on that response.

We're gonna do that through some discussion.

All right, let's start though by writing a response.

So today, we're gonna be writing a response to Helen Dunmore's "Next Door." You will find a copy of this poem in your additional materials.

Now you may have already read this poem before, this might be the first time that you are seeing this poem, but it doesn't matter.

We should always, always read the poem before we start writing.

The reason for this is that you can never read a poem too many times.

Of course, okay, maybe you can read it too many times, but you certainly want to be reading a poem two, three, four times before you start trying to write about it.

You really want to make sure that you've looked at it from every angle, and you really thought about what your personal response might be.

So make sure you have a copy of this poem from the additional materials, and pause the video and have a read.

Okay, pause the video, over to you.

Press play when you are done.

Welcome back.

Now you might remember that our next step is always to write a one sentence summary to make sure we have got our view on what we think this poem is about.

So again, over to you.

How would you summarise that poem in one sentence? You can do this verbally if you've got a partner, otherwise you can just jot some notes down if you are working independently.

But one sentence, how might you summarise this poem? Pause the video, over to you, and press play when you are ready to continue.

Lots of different ideas there.

I heard ideas about two neighbours.

I've heard about arguments and differences.

I've heard about reflections.

Loads of different ways you might have interpreted this poem.

Fantastic.

Doesn't matter what your interpretation is as long as you can justify it using evidence.

I'm gonna share this one on the screen, but this is just one of many different summaries that you could have said.

So one of our Oak pupils said, "The speaker of Dunmore's 'Next Door' reflects on their relationship with their neighbours and wonders whether they are in fact reflections of each other." So those relationships reflect actually how we behave and how we act.

Okay, so when we are approaching an unseen poem, a poem we've never seen before, and we want to share our personal response, whether that's verbally or in written form, and obviously today, it's gonna be written form, we might ask ourselves the following questions.

Whose voice are we hearing from in the poem? Whose perspective do we see him? Whose point of view are we seeing this situation from? What does the poem look like on the page? How does it appear, what shape is it? How many stanzas are there? Are the stanzas all the same size? And are there any words, is there a word or any words or images, that really stand out to us, that are really evocative, that really create really clear and interesting images in our mind? They're all some of the questions that would be running through my mind when I was reading a poem for a first, second, or third time round, a poem that I hadn't looked at in loads and loads of detail, and I was trying to form my own personal response to.

All right, let's pause for a minute and check how we're doing.

True or false, you should always approach an unseen poem by first considering which images stand out to you.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you think you have an answer.

Well done if you said that was false.

Let's justify that now, shall we? Is it A, that yes, considering the imagery could be an important part of your approach, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the first, or is it B, that you should always approach an unseen poem by first considering the title as it's the first thing you read? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you think you have an answer.

All right, pause the video, over to you.

Yeah, well done if you said A.

There isn't a firm and fast rule on what order you should do things in.

The title might be a sensible place to start, but not all poems will have a title.

And imagery, yes, it's important, but it shouldn't be the first thing you do.

You shouldn't be just reading through a poem and think, "What images stand out to me?" There should be a collection of questions that you should be asking yourself of which is there any interesting language, are there any images that jump out to me is one part of that, but it doesn't necessarily have to be your first.

You might think about perspective, voice, who's talking you, what's the message, what's the poem about? All of those things might come before worrying about what images are jumping out from the poem to you.

All right then, over to you then to get your ideas on paper.

I want you to write a response to this question.

How does Dunmore present the relationship between the two families in "Next Door?" Things you might want to consider as you are writing.

We only hear the speaker's voice and perspective in the poem.

We don't hear from the other family.

Why might that be, what might that tell us? We know that the title merges into the opening line.

What's the impact of that? Why do you think that the stanzas might be short and separated? What might that be telling us about the relationship between the families? And we know that the poem ends on a question.

What's the impact of this? We also know that there's some mirror imagery.

Let's have a think about what that might represent.

Okay, it's over to you now.

You're gonna want to pause the video.

Give yourself plenty of time to do this writing.

Press play when you are done.

Best of luck.

Welcome back, I saw some fantastic writing there, and an absolute bonus well done to anyone who checked their spelling, punctuation, grammar before they put their pen down.

That is what we like to see.

All right, I want you to consider.

Two of my Oak pupils have given this a go, and they've summarised the main idea of their writing.

And I want you to think about whose ideas most closely align to yours.

Is that Aisha who says she thought that this was a poem where the speaker was being really judgmental of the other families, judging them, creating their own opinions of them, maybe looking down their nose at them.

And so this was a poem all about judgement and the way humans can be very judgmental.

Andeep said, "Well actually I think these families are presented as being quite distant from one another, and the speaker's really reflecting how little they know about their neighbours." So this might be a poem much deeper about how separate we can be as a society.

Why don't you pause the video, and if you've got a partner, you can share your ideas, and tell them whether Aisha or Andeep was more closely aligned to your ideas.

But if you work it by yourself, just think through this independently.

All right, pause the video, have a quick reflection, and press play when you are ready to move on.

Okay, it's now time for us to build on our response.

So we're gonna consider how we can use discussion and other people's ideas to build on our initial response.

So first of all, let's think about why do you think it might be important to hear other people's ideas when we're trying to help build our own responses, build our own ideas to a text.

In this case, we're thinking about unseen poetry, but we could apply this to any literature or lots of topics.

Why do you think it's important to hear other people's ideas? Why don't you pause the video.

If you've got a partner, you can discuss with them.

Otherwise, you can just think through this question independently.

Pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to share your ideas.

Welcome back.

I heard some great ideas there, and I could see you really thinking carefully about this question.

This skill of discussing and sharing ideas and being open to other people's ideas is a really important life skill, not just when we're studying unseen poetry.

So let's look at some of the things that you might have said.

You might have said that actually if we just take our responses, they can be very individual, they can be very personal to us.

And that's not a bad thing.

But actually by listening and speaking to others, we might see how the text could be interpreted differently.

And actually, we understand the world better by understanding someone else's perspective, someone else's point of view.

However, talking through our ideas might make us more certain of our ideas.

It might say, "Actually look, I've listened to this idea, I've heard, I've listened to you, but actually, I don't agree with you.

And this makes me more convinced that my idea feels like the right one and where I want to move forward with." And also, it can help us understand if we're talking to other people, it can make us convince other people that our idea is right, and that can make us feel more confident in presenting our own argument.

So lots and lots of different reasons why it's beneficial to share ideas and listen to others.

So what we're gonna do now for the next few slides is we're going to practise having this discussion and having conversations about these poems. Now if you're working with a partner, that's great.

You've got someone to discuss with.

If you're working independently, I want you to really challenge yourself and think how people might have had a different perspective to you.

I will be sharing some examples of our Oak pupils.

So if you're working independently, you will still be able to see some examples of discussion on the screen.

All right, so the first question I want you to discuss then, how is voice used in the poem? What is the significance of voice in this poem? All right, pause video, have a discussion, and press play when you have got some ideas that you're willing to share.

All right, pause the video, over to you.

Welcome back, some really interesting and contrasting ideas about voice.

Let's take an example of conversations that our Oak pupils had to see how we might have had different ideas.

So Laura said, "I thought it meant the speaker thought they were above the other family." Okay, so just the fact that we heard from one voice meant that it was this person looking down.

They thought they were better than the other family.

Alex said, "Well that's interesting.

What gave you that impression?" And Laura said, "Well, you only hear the speaker's voice, and that suggests they think they're more important.

What do you think?" Well Alex said, "No, I think it showed their similarities since you don't know which of the other neighbours are speaking." So actually, it shows these voices almost merge together.

Interesting ideas.

I wonder if you have something similar to Laura or Alex or maybe something completely different.

So pause for a minute and think whose ideas align more with yours.

Did you have something similar to Laura? Something similar to Alex? Or maybe you have something completely different.

Why don't you just take a moment, pause the video, and have a quick reflection.

All right, next we're gonna consider the title of the poem.

I want you to think if you had similar or different ideas around how the titles merged in the poem.

What were your thoughts? Have a discussion or just think, if you're thinking independently, how might someone have a different idea to me, okay? What kind of ideas did you have around the title and why it merged in the poem? All right, over to you.

Pause the video, give this a go.

Welcome back, some really interesting ideas there, great job.

So Laura said she thought it made it feel like the title was part of an ongoing conversation.

And Alex said, "Actually I never thought about it like that.

Why do you think it's significant that this is part of an ongoing conversation?" And Laura said, "Well, I think it adds this idea of judgement since it suggests the speaker is always talking about their neighbours, always got them on their mind, always judging them and thinking about them.

Does that sound similar?" And Alex said, "Well, I read it as this idea, a more conceptual idea, and actually that merging in the title represents actually the neighbours are quite similar, more similar than you think.

And there seems to be this blurring of the lines, blurring of the distinction between the speaker and the neighbours." So you can see Laura and Alex have very, very different interpretations of why the title is merged.

Why don't you pause and reflect whose ideas align more to yours? Or do you have something different or something somewhere in between? Pause the video, have a think.

Has this changed your thoughts? Press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, time for us to consider the structure of the poem.

Think about do you have similar or different ideas around the use of structure in the poem to your partner, or if you're working independently, how might someone have a different viewpoint to you? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you are ready to share your ideas.

Some lovely, lovely contrasting ideas there.

Let's compare them to our Oak pupils.

So Alex said, "I thought the similar stanza lengths could represent the similarities between the neighbours.

What about you?" Laura said, well, she thought the separation of the stanzas represents the separation of the neighbours.

Alex said, "I hadn't considered that.

What do you think it shows about their relationship?" Well, Laura said, "I think it shows a distance they have from each other and how they don't really interact." Again, let's pause for a moment and reflect.

Whose ideas align most with ours? Are you now, listening to a different viewpoint, you think, "Hmm, I think that's interesting.

Maybe that changes my interpretation of the poem." Pause the video, have a moment of reflection, and press play when you're ready to move on.

Right, time for us to consider the imagery in the poem.

Again, do you think you have similar or different ideas around the image of the mirror that we see in the poem? What do you think about that image of the mirror? Pause the video, have a discuss or have a think, and press play when you are ready to move on.

Again, lots of interesting, different ideas about the use of the image of the mirror.

Isn't it interesting when we talk to others, we can see that we don't all interpret the poem in the same way? So Laura said, "I thought the mirror represented the speaker's character." Whereas Alex said, "Okay, well what do you think it shows about the character?" And Laura said, "Well, it shows that they are two-faced, that reflection, two faces, and judgmental of the neighbours.

Is that what you think Alex?" Well, Alex said "No, I thought it showed how our relationships are a reflection of how we view ourselves, how we behave ourselves and our behaviour.

So our relationships with others are a reflection of who we are." Again, two different interpretations of that image of a mirror.

Do you agree with either of those, are you somewhere in between, or do you have a different idea? Pause the video, have a reflection about that image.

What do you think? Have you got a different idea now moving forward? Pause the video, over to you.

Okay and let's now consider the ending of the poem.

Do you have similar or different interpretations around the ending of the poem? Pause the video, have a discuss, have a think, and press play when you're ready to move on.

All right, welcome back.

Again, loads of great different ideas.

Alex said he thought the ending shows how the speaker isn't sure whether they see themselves in the neighbours or not.

And Laura said, "I thought the ending shows how the speaker is worrying about what she will see and find in the neighbor's garden and house." Laura also says, "I think the speaker calling the neighbor's garden a 'scab' shows she's really concerned about its appearance." And Alex says, "Well, I hadn't really thought about it like that, but I still think by ending on a question, we've got this ambiguous ending.

It's unclear, it's open to different interpretations." So what do you think? Whose ideas align more closely to yours? Is it Laura's, is it Alex's, or are you somewhere in between? Why don't you pause the video and take this moment to really think about all of the discussions you've had and whether your interpretation of the poem is changing because you've listened to others.

All right, pause video, have a think, and press play when you're ready to move on.

All right, welcome back.

Let's just check our understanding before we move on.

Which of the following statements would you say is true? Is it A, having discussions about unseen poem, or any unseen text, is a really useful way of building your ideas? Is it B, you shouldn't have discussions about an unseen poem, as it might confuse your own interpretation? Or is it C, you should have discussions about an unseen poem in order to convince everyone else that your ideas are correct? Why is discussion such an important life skill? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you think you have an answer.

Yeah, great work if you said A, well done.

Right, over to you now.

I want you to return to your response that you wrote in the first half of the lesson in response to this question.

How does Dunmore present the relationship between the two families in "Next Door?" I want you to rewrite your response now in light of discussions you've just had.

Things you might want to consider.

Have your ideas about Dunmore's use of language, voice, and structure changed through these discussions? If they have changed, how can you use those to build your initial ideas? Maybe you want to add alternative interpretations.

If they've not changed, how could you use more evidence to convince someone that your ideas are the most convincing? All right, pause the video, time for us to rewrite, redraft our response and try and build on our previous ideas by using the discussions we've had.

All right, pause the video, give this a go, press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back, some fantastic writing there.

Okay, we're gonna finish the lesson by doing some reflections on the writing that we have just done.

Izzy has verbalised these reflections.

Let's have a listen to what Izzy said.

Izzy said, "I largely agreed with Alex that I thought the poem was about how we can be reflections of each other, but I hadn't considered how the title or ending of the poem might add to this.

So I built on my response to add in how merging of the title and opening line creates the impression of these two different entities merging together, which could reflect how the neighbours are actually merging together themselves.

Furthermore, I also added in how the ambiguity of the ending could show how ambiguity around who we are as individuals and how we can just be reflections of others." So this is Izzy's reflection of our her work.

I want you now to pause and think.

What did you learn through this process? Did you learn similar things to Izzy? Did you learn different things to Izzy? Okay, pause the video, and just really take a moment to reflect on the process that you've just been through and think about how your work has improved because of it.

All right, pause the video, press play when you're done.

Okay, fantastic work today.

Thank you so much for all of the brilliant conversations and discussions that you have had.

Let's have a quick look at the summary of everything that we've covered so we can feel really confident before we move on to our next lesson.

So we've learned that when approaching an unseen poem, you might ask questions about the voice, perspective, structure, and imagery.

And in order to build on that initial response, you might use discussions in order to build on your ideas.

Dunmore's "Next Door" may be interpreted as the speaker being judgmental of others.

On the other hand, it may be interpreted as an exploration of how we are all reflections of each other.

Great work today, thank you so much for joining me, and I really hope to see you in one of our lessons again in the future.

Have a great day, see you all soon, bye-bye.