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

I'm so glad that you could join me.

In this session, we are going to be reading and understanding Zaffar Kunial's poem, "Us." So grab your copy of the text, and let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explain how Kunial presents societal and individual conflict.

So let's have a look at today's keywords.

So do pause the video here for a few moments and make sure that you really understand what each of these words means because they are going to turn up quite a lot in today's lesson.

I would also like to just draw your attention to two of the words because they're going to be really important when we come to thinking about the big ideas and messages in this poem, and they are the last two words, abstract and concrete.

Now, if you have a look in the definitions of these two words, you will actually see that the opposite word appears in each of these definitions, which tells us that these words are antonyms. They have opposite meanings.

So let's start with concrete then, that last one.

So concrete is the opposite of abstract, and it's something clear and specific that you can see or feel or sense.

So anything that is around you perhaps that you can touch or that you can see in front of you is an example of a concrete object, and a great way to remember this is concrete itself is a concrete object.

Now abstract.

Abstract is the opposite.

So abstract is something that exists in thought or perhaps is an idea, but it doesn't have a physical existence that you can see or touch.

So emotions are great examples of abstract ideas because we can sense them perhaps, we all understand what they mean, but we can't see sadness, we can't touch sadness.

Another example might be something like friendship.

We know when there is friendship, and we can see perhaps two people that are friends, but we can't see the friendship itself.

So as we go through today's lesson, Kunial uses lots and lots of different abstract ideas, so it's really important to keep that meaning in your mind as we go through.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we are going to get straight down to reading and understanding this poem and also thinking about the wider context.

And then when we've done that, in the second half, we are going to explore and unpick some of the key ideas.

So I'd like to start by just discussing some of the background contextual information that will help us to understand some of the ideas in this poem.

So thinking about the poet, Zaffar Kunial, and his life and his possible experiences.

So Kunial has English and Pakistani heritage.

He has one English parent and one Pakistani parent.

And he was born and raised in Birmingham, which is a city known for its cultural diversity.

So not only does he necessarily have these two cultural influences from his parents, but it's probably quite likely to assume that he grew up around lots of people from lots of different cultures.

So some of our Oak students read the poem, and they summarised their first impressions.

So my first question to you is this.

How could their ideas link to the wider context? So pause the video here while you take some time to have a think and perhaps discuss it with the people around you or make some notes on your paper if you're working on your own.

So pause the video here, and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Some really, really interesting discussions that I overheard there.

So just to summarise some of the great responses I overheard, lots of people were picking up on this idea that Kunial's dual heritage and growing up in Birmingham in this culturally diverse environment could actually inform his views on people's tolerance of others, or lack of, so these relationships that we might see in communities, and also in terms of societal divisions.

So we'll definitely be thinking about these ideas as we go on to look at the poem ourself.

So let's read through the poem together then.

"If you ask me, us takes in undulations, each wave in the sea, all insides compressed, as if, from one coast, you could reach out to the next; and maybe it's a Midlands thing but when I was young, us equally meant me, says the one, 'Oi, you, tell us where you're from' and the way supporters share the one fate, I, being one, am Liverpool no less, cresting the Mexican wave of we or us, a shore-like state, two places at once, God knows what's in it; and, at opposite ends, my heart's sunk at separations of us.

When it comes to us, colour me unsure.

Something in me, or it, has failed the course.

I'd love to think I could stretch to it, us, but the waves therein are too wide for words.

I hope you get, here, where I'm coming from.

I hope you're with me on this, between love and loss, where I'd give myself away, stranded as if the universe is a matter of one stress.

Us.

I hope, from here on, I can say it and though far-fetched, it won't be too far wrong." So now we've had a chance to read the poem.

Do pause for a minute here and just think about your own first impressions.

What did you make of the poem? There are lots and lots of different ideas in here, particularly lots of those abstract ideas that we were discussing at the beginning of the lesson.

So I'd like you to just take a moment to discuss with the people around you or make some notes if you're working on your own.

After this initial read, whose interpretation do you most agree with, and why is that? So pause the video here while you take some time to think really carefully about whose interpretation perhaps best aligns with yours and why, and then click Play when you're ready for us to carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

I heard lots of people who were on Jun's team there, thinking that this poem is a poem about division, and that word us is a way that Kunial is exploring that, and then also lots of people who agreed with Alex, thinking that those references to us are actually exploring togetherness and unity.

I would argue that, to an extent, both of these interpretations are valid because where we see ideas of togetherness and unity, we also necessarily see ideas of divisions because for things to come together, they necessarily need to be separate or apart or divided in the first place.

So let's pause here and check our understanding so far.

So this poem focuses on what? So take a look at these four options, and decide which ones you think best summarise what this poem is about.

So pause the video here while you have a think, and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answers, click Play, and we'll continue.

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

Remember we've got this idea of where we see division, we perhaps might also see togetherness and unity.

So that's a really good way of remembering both of those different ways that we could interpret this poem.

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

So it's gonna carry on thinking about these initial interpretations from Jun and Alex, and what I would like you to do is to identify some evidence from the text that could support each of these interpretations.

So some important things to consider then, Kunial's use of pronouns.

So these are words that we might use to replace somebody's name, so I, you, he, she, they.

So which ones do I identify in the poem? How are they used? Where do we see them? Any other keywords and phrases that might link to this idea of division and then tolerance or togetherness, this idea of how people accept and include one another.

And then finally, how and why each of the quotations you've chosen could link to these ideas.

So remember, we're identifying the evidence, but we also need to form that link between how it links to these interpretations.

So pause the video here while you take some time to go over your copy of the poem and find some supporting detail.

And when you're ready for us to go through it together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at how Alex and Jun completed this task.

So starting with Jun then.

So he was thinking about how the poem focuses on division.

So when he thought about the pronouns that Kunial was using, he noticed that throughout the poem, we actually have these alternating pronouns, I and you, and the speaker seems to keep flipping backwards and forwards between I and you, which is reinforcing this sense of division.

We have got these two distinct figures.

And he also managed to identify some words from the semantic field of division in the poem, so he had words such as separation and opposite, which, again, reinforce ideas of division because things are separated or they're opposites.

They're not in any way united because they could not be more different.

And then over to Alex then.

So when he was looking at the pronouns, because, remember, he was thinking about ideas of togetherness and unity and tolerance, he came up with this idea that there are lots of plural pronouns, so we and us, and obviously us must be important to the poem because it is in the title.

It's something clearly that Kunial wants to highlight, this idea of us and perhaps togetherness.

And then he also picked up on some of the key ideas in the poem because a lot of the examples that Kunial gives explores connections among different types of communities.

So we've got this example of people in the Midlands and how the way that they speak uses us to mean both individuals and groups of people, and then also this idea of football fans, how individual football fans are part of a larger community.

And then also he picked up on the use of repetition at the end, the words love and hope.

So he got perhaps these positive and perhaps optimistic words that, again, linked this idea of togetherness and unity, particularly the idea of love because this in and of itself is an emotion that we would associate with togetherness, with people coming together.

Okay, so we have made it to the halfway point of today's lesson.

Let's unpick some of these key ideas that we've touched upon towards the end of that first half and explore them in a bit more detail.

So this poem uses abstract ideas and extended metaphors to convey lots of the key ideas.

So remember that word abstract is relating here to things we can't necessarily see or touch, but we know that they are there.

So in particular, division and unity, these are both abstract ideas because we can recognise them, but we can't necessarily see the things themselves.

So because the poem uses lots of abstract ideas and extended metaphors, it means that it doesn't necessarily follow a storyline or a plot.

So this poem doesn't necessarily begin by introducing a couple of characters, and then, as it progresses, we see what happens to those characters, as we might expect with a traditional plot.

It also means that key ideas are conveyed using many different examples, metaphors, and images.

So rather than having this quite linear way of moving through the text and exploring what happened, instead, Kunial is perhaps conveying these ideas, conveying his message using lots and lots of different examples to prove similar points.

So let's just explore some of these abstract ideas that we can identify in the poem.

So I'd like to start off then with a discussion.

So we touched upon the idea of pronouns at the end of the first half, so I'd like you just to have a think really carefully about them because we're going to explore them in much more detail now.

I'd like you to think about what pronouns we can see in this poem and who you think they might be referring to.

So pause the video here while you take some time to identify those pronouns, and when you're ready to discuss it together, click Play, and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

So well done if you identified the following pronouns.

So we've got I, you, us, and we, and actually the poet moves between these different pronouns throughout the poem.

So we've definitely got this idea that I is the speaker.

This poem is written in the first person.

However, this idea of you is a little bit more tricky for us to work out because arguably, as the poem goes on, you could refer to different people.

It could refer to a lover or a friend, because I think towards the end of the poem we definitely aren't getting this idea that there is a specific person perhaps that the speaker is talking to, but also, at the beginning, we've got lots of references to perhaps other people in society and even to the reader or the listener.

Maybe Kunial is encouraging the listener or the reader to think about their own views on division and togetherness by perhaps directly addressing them.

So as we track through the text, I'd like you to really think carefully about who you think this you figure could be.

So let's have a go at interpreting some of the key ideas in this poem.

So with abstract poetry, it can sometimes be quite difficult to analyse the entire poem.

Because it doesn't follow a specific storyline or plot, as we've discussed, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to perhaps analyse or interpret the meaning of each of the abstract examples.

So a great way to attack your analysis of an abstract poem is to start by analysing small chunks, so to separate each of these individual images or scenes or examples.

And then when you feel secure perhaps about your understanding of that one part, it becomes easier to see the ideas and the messages in the rest of the poem.

We can then begin to think, okay, well, I know what this bit might mean or what I think it means, so could I apply that to some of the other examples in the poem? It's also a good idea to start with the stanzas that have the most concrete images, so then you can picture them in your mind.

So as you are thinking about which one you might choose, think about which one you can most clearly imagine as you're reading the poem.

So which stanzas do you think have the most concrete images? So pause the video here while you have a think, and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I could overhear lots of agreement there that the beginning of the poem is arguably the bit where we see the most of these concrete images.

So arguably, stanzas 1 to 3 are most concrete because in stanza 1, we've got a familiar natural feature, the sea, which is used as an extended metaphor, so something we can all, for the most part, visualise, and 2 and 3 focus on another relatable human scene, either a conversation or this idea of football fans at a football match.

Again, two quite common scenes that we can picture in our minds.

So let's start by unpicking the meanings and the effects of the language in these three stanzas, and then perhaps afterwards we could see how we might apply that to the rest of the poem.

So starting with stanza 1, we've got these two words that we've got there in green, undulations and compressed.

So here are the meanings of these two words.

So undulations are small waves or wave-like movements, and compressed means to squeeze or press something together tightly.

So what do these two words suggest about the poet's attitude towards us and togetherness? So pause the video here while you take some time to discuss this with the people around you or make some notes, and when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click Play, and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of interesting interpretations of those words that I overheard there.

So just to summarise some of these ideas then.

So we could argue that the opening focuses on togetherness and tolerance because it's going straight in with this us.

It's gonna try perhaps to define it from the poet or the speaker's perspective.

And it does introduce you and me separately before then connecting them.

So what do these words undulations and compressed suggest? Well, undulations gives this idea perhaps that the idea of us and togetherness is perhaps uncertain or fluid.

It's always changing.

It's constantly moving in this wave-like way, up and down, up and down.

It's not moving necessarily in a steady line.

And then that word compressed.

So I don't know about you, but the word compressed makes me feel perhaps quite suffocated, this idea of things being packed in and pushed in tightly together.

So maybe people are forced to be near each other, compressed in together.

So I would argue that straight away here, we're not necessarily getting a positive impression of how the poet feels about togetherness.

It's not necessarily being presented as something positive but perhaps something that's quite uncertain and something that can, at times, be a bit suffocating.

So that's one way to begin unpicking abstract ideas is to choose these words and think about how the meanings of these keywords gives us a bit of an insight into the poet's overall attitude towards the bigger ideas.

So let's try a similar thing then with stanzas 2 and 3.

So across these stanzas, Kunial explores different ways to think about individuality and togetherness, and we get some different examples.

So in stanza 1, as we've just said, we're getting this impression of us as being something that's always changing and then the links to these feelings of suffocation perhaps.

So what about in stanza 2 and 3? So take some time to have a look at this independently or with the people around you.

And just as we did there for stanza 1, can you pull out any perhaps keywords or phrases that give us a bit of a clue into the speaker's attitude towards individuality and togetherness in these stanzas? So pause the video here while you have a think and take some time to discuss it, and then when you're ready for us to be back together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Again, I heard some really, really fantastic and quite creative interpretations of some of these images then from stanzas 2 and 3.

So I've just popped up those two interpretations that we already had there from stanza 1, so now let's begin to explore the rest of the text.

So first of all then, we get this impression that us connects distant or different things because we've got that sea metaphor there.

So I'd like to just think really carefully about that for a moment.

How is this sea metaphor effective in conveying this idea of connecting distant or different things? So pause the video here while you take some time to have a think and perhaps discuss it with the people around you.

And when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So well done if your discussions or your lines of thought were picking up on this idea that one sea can connect coasts from two different countries that could be thousands of miles away.

So there's only this one sea that exists across such a vast distance, so it's connecting two very different things.

And we can also see this as well in the way that Kunial has structured this particular line because, if you notice, it drops over into the second stanza.

We've got those last two words of that idea featuring there at the beginning of the second stanza.

So we're really getting this idea of it connecting two different things because what Kunial's about to go on to discuss in this second stanza is a very different idea from what was being discussed in the first.

So the next interpretation then.

We've got this idea that there's perhaps a fine line between division and togetherness, and we're looking at this line here, "us equally meant me, 'tell us where you're from.

'" So again, over to you then.

How does this example effectively convey the idea that there's this fine line between division and being separate and then this idea of togetherness? So pause the video again and have a quickfire discussion with the people around you or just take a moment to think to yourself.

And when you're ready for us to continue and discuss it together, click Play, and we'll carry on.

Okay, so let's explore this idea in a bit more detail then.

We're getting this impression that in certain places, us refers to one person, which suggests we don't think about it in the same way because here we obviously know that us can refer to more than one person because it's got this idea of you and I throughout the entire poem.

But the speaker is also creating this sense of confusion by giving it this double meaning because in certain parts of the country, us can refer to one person.

So already we're getting this idea of individuality or dividedness in the fact that we don't all think the same way, but we're also getting this idea of togetherness because the fact that maybe it's a Midlands thing suggests that perhaps people in the Midlands all do share a sense of togetherness because they all interpret the word us in this similar way.

So we are getting that double meaning there.

So on to our next example then, this football example from stanza 3.

So over to you one more time.

What do you think is the link between football and togetherness? So think really carefully perhaps about how we as a society think about football and football fans and supporting a team, and see how you can link that to this idea of togetherness.

So pause the video again while you discuss it and have a think, and when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

Some really, really interesting responses there.

And I could definitely overhear that there were some football fans out there discussing this, perhaps thinking about their own personal experiences maybe of togetherness as a football fan.

So links between football and togetherness then.

Well, first of all, we get this idea of the shared experiences or fates.

They share the one fate because no matter where perhaps in the country or the world you are and what your individual experience of your everyday life is, if you support a team, you share that same fate because you celebrate your wins at the same time and you perhaps commiserate your losses at the same time, so we definitely have this shared experience that unites people.

And then if we have a look at this idea of a Mexican wave, which is something that we definitely associate with football games or sports games or anywhere where there's an enormous crowd, lots of individuals coming together.

The key thing about a Mexican wave is it involves a large number of individuals moving and thinking and feeling as one in order for that wave to happen.

Every individual plays a part, but together is where we get that overall effect.

So now we've had a chance to have a look at the first three stanzas then.

Here is how some of our Oak pupils interpreted the poem.

So Andeep said, "The speaker explores the different meanings of us and the ways we try to be individuals within a community." Aisha said, "The speaker explores the power of togetherness but also the challenges that come with it." For example, it can feel suffocating.

And Lucas says, "The speaker explores how us can be many things, good, bad, easy, difficult, helpful, suffocating, comforting, familiar, fluid." So just looking at these three interpretations then, I'd like you to think about who you most agree with, and why do you think that is? So pause the video here while you take some time to discuss this with the people around you and have a think and make some notes to yourself.

And when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click Play, and we'll continue.

So I think it's probably fair to say that all three of these interpretations were valid in their own way, and I think that was definitely reflected in the discussions that I have heard because you all didn't necessarily agree with the same student.

And I think this is often the way with abstract poetry because there isn't this concrete storyline perhaps that we can follow.

The way that we might interpret it can vary, but as long as we're basing our interpretation on evidence from the text, as we have been doing, it is likely that our interpretation is probably going to be valid.

So yes, we've got lots of links here in Andeep's response to this idea of individuals and then larger communities.

Aisha was also picking up on ideas of togetherness, and Lucas was also exploring this idea of us and the different meanings of what it means to be individuals and to come together.

So let's pause here and check our understanding again.

So true or false this time.

You should never just analyse one part of a poem as this cannot give you a full impression of the key ideas.

So pause the video here while you have a think, and then press Play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

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

So why is that? Well, sometimes it can be useful to begin by analysing just one part of the poem because it may contain many of the key ideas that we're going to be able to pick up on later on.

Especially with abstract poems like "Us," it can be useful to focus initially on the most concrete images and scenes to get that initial understanding that we can then perhaps apply to other parts of the poem.

So with that in mind, let's have a go at the final practise task of today's lesson.

So earlier on then, in this part of the lesson, we identified different ways that Kunial presents us in stanzas 1 to 3 of the poem.

And here is a list of all the different things that we came up with, all the different attitudes and impressions we saw and identified.

So my challenge to you is this.

I would like you to annotate another stanza of the poem and make notes on how Kunial presents us in that stanza.

So choose any of the other stanzas outside of 1 to 3, and see if you can spot any of these ideas that we've already identified.

Are there any similarities between these first three stanzas and the one that you've chosen? And there are also lots of different depictions of us, so why do you think that might be as well? So pause the video here while you take some time to really unpick the language of that stanza that you've chosen, and when you're ready for us to feedback together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So let's just explore it then.

So she first of all began by picking up on this idea of when it comes to us, and she identified that that suggested perhaps that there was a bit of a shift from these generally abstract ideas at the beginning, in stanzas 1 to 3, to a specific time or situation.

So here, perhaps us could be referring to the speaker's relationship with somebody else.

And then that links onto that word unsure at the end of the line because this then suggests that perhaps the speaker feels uncertain about their connection to this other person.

And then as the stanza continues, she's able to identify and draw out this idea a bit more.

So this idea of "Something in me, or it," and this description of having failed the course, so maybe our speaker doesn't know if the issue is with them or with the relationship, the connection themselves.

They're wondering if perhaps they personally have the issue with this idea of togetherness, or maybe the relationship between the two people is what has failed the course.

And then in that final line, "I'd love to think I could stretch to it," we get this impression of the speaker's attitude towards this other person again because we can argue that this implies that the speaker would like to, "I'd love to think," but they struggle to apply their feelings about togetherness to this relationship.

So perhaps they find it easier to understand how other people might want to feel togetherness, or even they might want for other people to enjoy feelings of togetherness, but perhaps when it comes to their own relationships, they don't find this so easy.

So how might we help Izzy to summarise these annotations? How is us presented in this stanza? So using some bullet points, how could we bring these ideas together to summarise the meanings and our interpretations of this stanza? So pause the video here while you take some time to think and discuss it or make some notes, and when you're ready for us to go through it together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So here is how we might have summarised Izzy's ideas here.

So the speaker worries that perhaps he cannot live in a united way despite being aware of these powers of togetherness and sort of the advantages of being united with other people, and he struggles to maintain his connection with the you figure and perhaps other people in his life.

So if we were to think about this overall, what this suggests about the overall messages and big ideas in the poem, perhaps this poem is exploring the importance of both individuality and independence and togetherness and unity, in particular, thinking about how these things work together in society and personal relationships.

So looking at the importance not just of togetherness but also of individuality and independence as well, and looking at how these two quite different ideas often end up facing one another in society and in personal relationships.

So over to you for one final discussion then.

Do any of these ideas link to your thoughts and feelings about this stanza? So pause the video here, and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, so we have made it to today's finish line, and a really big well done for all your hard work today.

So let's just summarise what we've covered in today's lesson.

Kunial was born in Birmingham to an English mother and Pakistani father.

Kunial's poems often refer to identity and cultural heritage.

In his poem "Us," Kunial uses the collective pronoun to highlight how society needs to be more tolerant.

Kunial's poem is about both divisions and togetherness.

And although the speaker of the poem believes in unity, they admit this is difficult with their own personal relationship.

Thank you very much for joining me in today's lesson, and I really, really hope that you've enjoyed exploring this poem with me.

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