Hello, welcome to today's lesson on analysing the poem, "Island Man" by Grace Nichols.

I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to be able to understand and analyse the poem, "Island Man".

This is one of my favourite poems and I'm really excited to be sharing and studying it with you today.

We have four important key terms today.

They are sensory language, nostalgia, identity and migration.

I'll give you a moment to pause the video and familiarise yourself with those words now.

We'll be coming back to all of those terms and words later in today's lesson.

So in today's lesson we have two learning cycles.

We'll begin with considering what it means to leave home and how that might feel for someone who was born or bought up in one country and leaves to live in another country.

In the second learning cycle, we'll read the poem, "Island Man", and begin to analyse how Grace Nichols presents that theme of leaving home.

So let's start with considering what it means to leave home.

I want you to discuss what might it feel like to leave the place you grew up in? Pause the video and discuss.

Now, some of you may have experience of leaving the place you grew up in, while others may not have experienced that.

So everyone's answer to this question might be different, but you may be able to still sympathise or empathise with what it means to leave home.

Let's look at what some of the Oak students said.

Sam says, "I know what it's like to leave the country I grew up in.

I found it very difficult to make friends and learn a new language." Some of you may relate to Sam and have been in the same situation in which they found it very hard to adjust to a new place.

Izzy says she hasn't felt what it means to leave home, but she thinks it would feel really odd to leave somewhere where you have lots of memories and start afresh somewhere new.

Izzy says she'd miss her home country a lot.

Now, what would you miss if you left your home country? Pause the video and consider that question.

Potentially you might miss the home cooking of your family if you left home, you might miss the weather, you might miss your school, you might miss your friends.

Now, what do you think of when you see this place? Pause the video and discuss.

This place is very important for the poem that we're going to read today.

This place is very important for our poem, "Island Man".

You may have said that this place looks very beautiful, looks like it has excellent weather, looks very peaceful, looks like it might be a nice place to relax.

And now I want you to discuss what you think of when you see these places.

Pause the video and discuss.

Now, the two pictures, the one in the middle and the one on the right, may look more like the place that we currently live in.

These places represent the United Kingdom and potentially you said that these places are much more busy, maybe more noisy, maybe the weather is less nice in these places, but maybe these places are familiar to you and maybe these places are somewhere that you're proud to call home.

I now want you to think about which words you think describe each picture.

So you've got the words dull, blue, womb, wild, emerald, groggily, wheels, metallic, crumpled, grey, surf and sun.

You need to decide which words out of those match the picture on the left of the tropical island and which words match the picture on the right which represents the United Kingdom.

Pause the video and discuss which words describe which picture.

Great job, let's go through what you may have said.

So we can match blue, wild, emerald, surf and sun quite confidently to the picture on the left, because those words represent somewhere with a lot of wildlife, somewhere with blue waters and somewhere with sunny weather.

You may have matched the words dull, metallic, wheels, grey to the picture on the right because potentially those words match the weather of the UK and the traffic that we're seeing in that picture better.

Now, what might it feel like to move from this place, from this tropical island, to this place? How might that feel? Pause the video and discuss.

Some of you might even have experience of leaving a tropical climate to come to the UK and some of you can speak on how that actually feels, but we could assume that it could feel quite disorientating, because the weather is completely different, the noises you'd experience are completely different and you'll be exposed to more people and more crowds in the United Kingdom than you would on a quiet island.

So potentially that move could feel overwhelming.

It could also be filled with quite positive feelings, but we also have to acknowledge that it could feel quite overwhelming.

Now, I want you to answer this question to check your understanding of what we've been discussing.

True or false, leaving the country someone grew up in is always exciting.

Pause the video and answer, is that true or false? It's false, leaving the country someone grew up in is not always exciting.

It definitely can be exciting, but it's not always exciting.

As we've discussed, it can be quite difficult, emotional, it can be quite overwhelming.

Now, I want you to justify your answer.

Is that because it can be very difficult to adjust to a new setting or because it is never exciting to move to a new place? Pause the video and justify your answer now.

Well done if you said, we know leaving the country someone grew up in is not always exciting, because as we learned through Sam's example, it can be very difficult to adjust to a new setting, because there's new people to meet, there's a new language to speak potentially and there's potentially a new climate to adjust to too.

So imagine you have moved from the place on the left, the tropical island, to the place on the right, somewhere that looks more like the UK.

I want you to write a short paragraph describing your new home.

You can also include things you miss from your previous home.

This is going to allow us to get into the shoes of someone that has moved home if you don't already know what that feels like, and that's going to be really important in helping us understand and enjoy the poem, "Island Man", in the way it's supposed to be appreciated.

So pause the video and get started on writing about what it has felt for you to move from that tropical island to somewhere like the UK.

I want you to make sure that you use sensory language in your writing.

So include what you can smell, hear, see, taste and touch in each of those places.

Pause the video and get writing, off you go.

Now let's read through two responses to this task, Andeep's example first.

I'm finding it terribly difficult to adjust to my new home.

I can't really call it home at the moment.

It is just so different here.

I miss the sun, sea and beautiful wildlife.

I hope I can go back soon.

Now let's read Jacob's example.

My new home is grey, damp and deafeningly loud, not a glimpse of sunlight peaks through the oppressive clouds.

I dream of the emerald ocean and sapphire sky of our island.

I long to wake up to the sweet sound of the tropical birds.

Discuss now whose paragraph do you think is more effective and why? Pause the video and discuss.

Jacob uses more sensory language in his writing to create a vivid image in the reader's mind.

So Jacob talks about what he can hear and see in his new home and he also talks about the beautiful sights that he misses and the beautiful sounds that he misses.

So we could say his example is better in evoking a strong emotional reaction from the reader about what it feels like to move home.

So now reread your work.

Use Jacob's work to help you add more examples of sensory language in your writing.

Pause the video and give your work an edit now.

Off you go.

Excellent work there.

I hope you've been able to consider what it means to leave home from that task.

Now we're going to move on to reading, understanding and analysing the poem "Island Man" by Grace Nichols.

So now read the poem "Island Man" by Grace Nichols.

What did you like or dislike about this poem? Have that in your mind as you read.

Pause the video and get reading.

I really like how Grace Nichols presents a beautiful, vivid image of the island.

I now want you to read the poem "Island Man" again.

What story do you think this poem is telling? Pause the video, read again and answer that question.

You may have said that Grace Nichols seems to be telling the story of someone who has indeed left their home country and now is talking about what it means to live in a new place.

And we see the story unfold much like the one we've been discussing in the lesson of someone that's left somewhere tropical to come somewhere that's potentially more grey, more dull, more noisy.

And lastly, read the poem a third time to really delve in deeper and I want you to this time answer what patterns did you notice? Pause the video and read the poem for the third time.

Off you go.

You may have noticed that the poem seems to be split into two sections.

The first section talks of that beautiful tropical island and the second stanza talks about how the "Island Man" no longer lives there and it talks about where he lives instead and what living in that new place is like.

The two sections do seem to merge into another.

The poem you've just read is by someone called Grace Nichols.

She was born and grew up in Guyana, a country part of the Caribbean, and she then migrated to Northwest London and lived near to a busy motorway called the North Circular.

The scenario we discussed earlier in the lesson is part of Grace Nichols' own story.

In her poem, she uses all of these words to describe the Caribbean, wombing, blue, emerald, sun, surf.

Based on these words, how do you think Grace Nichols feels towards the Caribbean? Pause the video and discuss.

You may have said that Grace Nichols likely feels very positive towards the Caribbean, because we have a really beautiful, rich and vivid description of it in the poem.

If you zoom into the word wombing, you may also get the impression that Grace Nichols feels a sense of belonging to the Caribbean, because womb refers to the place in the mother's body in which the baby is protected before they're born.

And so that may mean that Grace Nichols perceives Guyana as somewhere in which she was protected and cared for and somewhere that gave her life, somewhere that made her the person she is.

Which word do you think is most important in showing her opinion on the Caribbean and why? Pause video and discuss that question now.

You may have chosen the word emerald, because emerald is referring to a precious jewel and that word may show us how valuable the Caribbean is to Grace Nichols.

Now in her poem, Grace Nichols also uses all of these words to describe London, dull, grey wheels, crumpled and metallic.

Do you notice any similarities between the words on the screen now? Pause the video and discuss that question.

You may have noticed that Grace Nichols uses words that contrast to the way in which she describes the Caribbean.

So in the Caribbean section of the poem, we get the words emerald and blue, but in the section about London, we get dull and grey.

So there seems to be quite a big mood change between the first and second section of the poem.

And based on these words, how do you think Nichols feels about London? Pause the video and discuss that question now.

You may have said that Grace Nichols feels more negative towards London, potentially because she's found it hard to go from such a sunny place, somewhere with beautiful wildlife, somewhere that's always colourful and vibrant to somewhere that's more dull with harsher winters and more unpredictable weather.

So she potentially feels quite maybe down and sad and gloomy about her new home in London.

True or false now.

"Island Man" shows that Grace Nichols loved living in London.

Pause the video and answer that question.

Well done if you said false.

The poem "Island Man" does not show that Grace Nichols loved living in London.

Now justify your answer.

Is that because it's clear that Grace Nichols hated London or is it because the poem suggests Grace Nichols found it hard to adjust to the noise and weather in London? Pause the video and justify your initial answer now.

Well done if you said, we know Grace Nichols did not initially love living in London, because the poem suggests she found it hard to adjust to the noise and weather in London.

We can't say that it's clear Grace Nichols hated London, because nowhere in the poem does it say that.

Indeed, Grace Nichols' feelings towards London are contrasted with her feelings towards the Caribbean so all we know is that she found them to be very different places, not that she hates London at all.

Now, from line one to 11 of "Island Man", Nichols describes the Caribbean.

She then uses line 11 to the end of the poem to describe London and I want you to consider the structure of the poem now.

Why do you think Nichols chose to have two sections to this poem? Pause the video and discuss.

You may have said that the two sections of this poem could reflect the conflict the man faces between longing for his past home and coming to terms with London life.

The two sections of this poem could also reflect the duality of the man's identity now he has moved from the Caribbean to London.

Although he lives in London, he still feels like he belongs to the Caribbean.

Now let's answer this question to check your understanding of what we've discussed.

The structure of "Island Man" is interesting, because.

Pause the video and complete that sentence.

The structure of "Island Man" is interesting, because it is separated into two sections, reflecting the two parts of the man's identity.

Well done for being able to explore structure in this poem, structure is something that a lot of people quite find quite hard to analyse and we've looked at it in the poem "Island Man".

Well done.

For our practise task, we're going to show off all our brilliant understanding and analysis of the poem "Island Man".

Firstly, I want you to summarise what "Island Man" is about in your own words.

I then want you to pick out what you think is the most powerful word in this poem.

I want you to annotate around it what it makes you think, feel and imagine.

I then want you to write a few sentences about why Grace Nichols may have written this poem.

Here's an example of task number two to help you feel even more confident.

I've taken the word emerald.

Emerald is a precious gem.

This makes me think the island may be special and irreplaceable to the man.

Emerald is also green, so the island may have the purest nature based on Nichols' use of that word.

And lastly, an emerald is vivid and glittering, meaning the island may be very beautiful.

Pause the video now and complete those three tasks to show off your brilliant understanding and analysis of the poem "Island Man".

Off you go.

Excellent focus and effort there.

Let's take a look at some ideas for the final question now.

Write a few sentences about why Grace Nichols may have written this poem.

Here's Alex's response.

Grace Nichols based the poem "Island Man" on her own experience and so may have written the "Island Man" to express her own feelings, particularly her nostalgia for life in the Caribbean.

She may have also wanted to reveal the difficulties one face as a migrant, such as adjusting to a new climate.

In doing so, "Island Man" gives a voice to all those who have left a place they dearly love and struggle to adjust somewhere new.

Which sentences in Alex's response helped him to write clearly about Nichol's purpose? Pause the video and reflect.

I've highlighted three phrases that help Alex discuss Nichols' purpose.

Those are to express, she may have wanted to reveal and gives a voice.

Those three phrases clearly signposts that Alex is going to write about Grace Nichols' purpose.

I now want you to reread your work.

Can you use any of Alex's sentence starters to help you improve your own work now and to help you write more clearly about Nichols' purpose? Pause the video and edit your work accordingly.

Brilliant.

It's really impressive how you've been able to adapt your work.

Let's go through what we've learned today.

The process of moving home can be very difficult and emotional.

The poem "Island Man" is based on Nichols' own experience of migration.

"Island Man" suggests a fondness and nostalgia for life in the Caribbean.

"Island Man" shows the difficulties one might face adjusting to a new home.

And "Island Man" is arranged in two sections, perhaps reflecting the dual nature of the man's identity after migration.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed studying the poem "Island Man", and I hope to see you in another lesson talking about another poem in the near future.