Hello.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson.

Our lesson today is going to be about exploring memories of home.

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

Our learning outcome is to explore how James Berry presents memories of his hometown in his poem, "Childhood Tracks," and use this to help me write about my own experiences.

I am really excited to be exploring such as special topic with you today about memories of home.

Here are our four key words for today's lesson.

They are vivid, nostalgia, unique, and preposition.

I'll give you a moment to familiarise with those key words and their definitions before we move on.

So pause the video and have a little reflection on those words now.

Brilliant, we'll be revisiting those words throughout the lesson.

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

We're going to start off by reading the poem "Childhood Tracks" by James Berry.

It's a brilliant, brilliant poem, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading myself, so I really hope you'll enjoy it, and I can't wait to read it with you.

And in our second learning cycle, we'll be using James Berry's poem as inspiration to write about our own memories of home.

So let's start off with reading "Childhood Tracks." Read the poem "Childhood Tracks" by James Berry.

After reading, I want you to discuss what you like about the poem, what you noticed about each stanza, and what you think this poem is about.

Pause the video and get reading.

I hope you enjoy this poem.

Off you go.

The poem made me think of a beautiful, beautiful place and all the imagery that James Berry used put a solid vivid picture in my head of his beautiful hometown.

Now, I'll give you a moment to discuss the three questions on the screen.

So pause the video and discuss those three questions.

Off you go.

So as I said, I really liked how James Berry created a vivid image in my head of his hometown, and I felt like I was in his hometown as I was reading.

That's how vivid the imagery was.

Thanks for sharing what you liked about the poem.

Now, each stanza in this poem, you may have noticed, describes a different sense.

The first stanza refers to the sense of taste.

The second stanza refers to the sense of smell.

The third stanza refers to the sense of hearing.

And the last stanza refers to the sense of seeing.

And the fact James Berry has used four different senses in his poem is part of what makes the poem so vivid because we can experience his hometown through a variety of different senses.

And thirdly, what do you think this poem is about? Well, we can assume that this poem is about James Berry's childhood and all his memories of childhoods.

We could even go a bit further to say that potentially this poem is about James Berry's memories of living on a tropical island during childhoods.

And we can assume that through the type of experiences that James Berry talks of.

He talks about the heat.

He talks about the tropical fruits.

He talks about the plants.

And that gives us an image of potentially somewhere tropical.

Well done on that discussion task.

Now, let's check your understanding of the poem.

In each stanza of "Childhood Tracks," Berry describes.

Pause the video and complete that sentence.

Off you go.

In each stanza of "Childhood Tracks," Berry describes a different sensory experience.

Remember we said James Berry talks about what he could taste, smell, hear, and see in his hometown, and that makes his hometown become very vivid in the minds of the reader.

Now, I want you to answer the following questions to explore the poem "Childhood Tracks" in more detail.

Firstly, what does James Berry repeatedly use to make his hometown come alive to the reader? Secondly, why do you think James Berry arranged the poem in the way that he did? What image in the poem is most vivid for you and what exactly makes it stand out? Where in the world do you think James Berry is talking about? Provide evidence from the poem to support your idea.

And finally, how do you think James Berry feels towards his hometown? Pause the video and answer those five questions about the poem "Childhood Tracks" now.

Off you go.

Let's go through some possible answers.

What does James Berry repeatedly use to make his hometown come alive to the reader? James Berry repeatedly uses sensory language to make his hometown come alive to the reader.

And remember, sensory language is referring to the five senses, so what you can smell, hear, taste, touch, and see in a place.

Secondly, why do you think James Berry arranged the poem in the way that he did? Perhaps James Berry started with describing what he remembers eating because the flavours created a deeper and more memorable sensory experience for him, and that could provide the reader with the most vivid insight into his hometown.

So potentially, James Berry's sensory experiences with the taste of things was more vivid than maybe what he heard or saw.

That could be a possible reason why he started with describing what he could taste and ended with describing what he could see.

Question number three, what image in the poem is most vivid for you and what exactly makes it stand out? So the answer to this will vary depending on the person who answers it, because I've asked what is the most vivid for you, so it's a very personal question.

But I'm going to tell you what was most vivid for me.

So I found it very powerful when Berry listed the smells that mixed together in the second stanza.

I really enjoyed hearing about those specific smells.

That was a really vivid section of the poem for me.

Number four, where in the world do you think James Berry is talking about? Provide evidence from the poem to support your idea.

Berry could be talking about a tropical island due to all of the fruits he mentions, as well as the sea and references to warm weather.

We'll find out exactly where James Berry was talking about later on in the lesson.

And question number five, how do you think James Berry feels towards his hometown? Berry seems very fond of his hometown as he lists memories with a sense of nostalgia.

James Berry makes his hometown seem very appealing to the reader, potentially somewhere we might like to visit because of the vivid and mesmerising way in which he describes those memories.

So I think James Berry is very positive towards his hometown and indeed very nostalgic, perhaps he misses that place that he used to live and would like to go back to some of his childhood memories in that place.

Well done on answering those five questions.

I hope that answering those five questions has allowed you to explore and enjoy the poem "Childhood Tracks" much more.

Now, we're going to move on to writing about our own memories of home using James Berry's wonderful poem "Childhood Tracks" as inspiration.

Now, what memories do you have of your hometown? Pause the video and discuss that question now.

Thank you so much for sharing those special memories with each other.

I now want you to come up with a few memories for each sense.

What do you remember smelling, hearing, tasting, and seeing in your home town? Pause the video and discuss.

It's amazing how everyone's memories will be really different depending on the specific place in which they grew up.

For me, I remember seeing beautiful fuchsia, a red, purple, and pink flower growing outside in my nan's garden when I was growing up.

If you grew up in London, potentially you remember the sounds of the tube or seeing the red buses throughout the city.

If you grew up near the seaside, potentially you remember dipping your toes into the refreshing water.

Those memories that you've just discussed are going to make for brilliant poems later in the lesson.

So moving back, so going back to "Childhood Tracks," in "Childhood Tracks," Berry uses a lot of sensory language to describe his fond memories of his hometown.

He creates vivid scenes of his hometown for the reader by describing sights, tastes, smells, and sounds unique to Jamaica where he grew up.

I want you to discuss which references in the poem firmly placed the reader in the tropical island of Jamaica.

Pause the video and discuss.

So we get an inclination that James Berry is talking about Jamaica or a tropical island in the Caribbean, even though he doesn't ever say it because he refers to fresh coconut, tropical fruit, the sea, palm, banana, and almond trees, and references to hot weather.

And those are all things that we associate with the Caribbean or other tropical islands.

Berry also creates vivid scenes of his hometown for the reader by expanding on his memories using prepositions such as with, on, in, under, and from.

So most of James Berry's core memories are given more detail by his use of prepositions.

And a preposition is, of course, a word that tells us where something occurs or when it occurs.

Now, look at how prepositions are so powerful when adding more detail to a memory.

Seeing tired faces nestled into shoulders on the Piccadilly line train.

Now, adding that prepositional phrase onto the end of that memory makes it really clear for the reader that this person is talking about London.

So adding prepositional phrases can make more vivid images of a place in the reader's mind.

Eating strawberries, perhaps that is a memory that you may have had, or eating some other fruits, but how can we make it more vivid and detailed? We could say eating strawberries with sugar in a summer garden.

That creates a much more vivid memory of how it felt to eat those strawberries in the reader's mind.

And next, one that's personal to me, smelling the sweet fuchsia outside my grandmother's porch.

Now that makes the memories of smelling that flower even more vivid and special and unique to that person, allowing the reader an insight into why that flower might be important to that person.

I hope you are going to use some brilliant prepositional phrases to bring your memories to life later on in the lesson.

Let's check your understanding of what we've talked about.

Which of the below is not a preposition? Remember, a preposition can often tell us where or when something occurs.

Pause the video and answer that question.

Well done if you said there is not a preposition.

With and from are both prepositions and using them at the beginning of our prepositional phrase will add more detail to your memory.

Next question, in "Childhood Tracks," what is the purpose of the prepositions? Pause the video and answer that question.

Well done if you said in "Childhood Tracks," the purpose of the prepositions is to give us more detail about certain memories.

Using prepositions such as with, in, on, from, under, et cetera, can help us understand the exact conditions of a memory and therefore create a more vivid image of that memory in the reader's mind.

Now, I want you to list at least one vivid memory about your hometown you have for each sense.

I want you to try and include memories unique to your hometown.

So you need one memory of what you could hear, one memory of something you could taste, one memory of something you could smell, and one memory of something you could see.

You could even add on something you could feel if you have that prepared.

I then want you to expand on each memory with a prepositional phrase to make it even more detailed and vivid for your reader and some useful prepositions to help you write your prepositional phrases are in that box on the right: from, off, with, in, above, under, and beside.

Pause the video now, list a memory for each of the five senses, and expand on each one with a prepositional phrase.

Off you go.

Wow, some of those memories that you've written are absolutely breathtaking and it's really wonderful that you've been able to get them down on paper.

Thank you for sharing.

I hope you feel proud of what you've written.

Now, let's look at Izzy's memories.

Which of Izzy's memories is the most vivid and powerful to you and why? Number one, hearing the hungry seagulls cackle over the windy beach.

Eating crispy samosas with mint chutney from my neighbor's shop.

Smelling fragrant ginger, coriander, and chilli coming from my mother's kitchen on special occasions, and seeing vibrant dresses adorned with jewels at the markets every Saturday.

Izzy has done such a good job with those memories.

She's used prepositional phrases in each one of those sentences.

But which is the most vivid and powerful to you and why? Pause the video and reflect on that question now.

For me, I found Izzy's third memory the most vivid and powerful, the smelling fragrant ginger, coriander, and chilli coming from her mother's kitchen on special occasions.

And the reason I found that quite powerful is because Izzy uses a triplet or a rule of three to list the very specific smells in her mother's kitchen.

I want you to reread your work now.

Could you use a triplet to enhance any of your memories? Remember, a triplet is listing three things, or you describing something using three adjectives to really bring it to life.

So pause the video and reflect.

Can you use a triplet in any of your memories? If you can, add it in now.

Wonderful, it's really impressive how you've been so willing to edit some of those memories.

That's how we become better writers.

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

Berry uses sensory language in "Childhood Tracks" to evoke a vivid image of his hometown Jamaica.

Berry describes details unique to Jamaica to help us have an insight into what it is like to live there.

Berry also uses prepositions to add detail to each of his memories.

Berry creates an nostalgic tone throughout the poem.

And using triplets can add even more detail in writing about our memories.

Thank you so much for joining me in such a special lesson where we explored memories of home.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

I hope you've enjoyed reflecting and writing about your special memories of home today.

And I hope you'll join me for another lesson soon.