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Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.
I'm so glad you've decided to learn with me today.
We're in the unit, Myths, Legends, and Stories that Inspire.
Today we are going to look at two fantastic poems that were inspired by the same painting, Pieter Bruegel's "Hunters in the Snow." Now, Walter de la Mare's "Bruegel's Winter," this is his poem that was inspired by Pieter Bruegel's painting.
You'll be able to find in the additional materials, but you'll be, you'll need to get a copy of William Carlos Williams's "The Hunters in the Snow." His poem is the same name as the painting.
Now, William Carlos Williams's "The Hunters in the Snow" can be found in the 1991 edition of his collected works volume 2, 1939 to '62.
It's published by New Directions.
So I would like you to pause the video and make sure that you have both of these poems, which you will need for today's lesson.
As I say, you will find Walter de la Mare's "Bruegel's Winter" in the additional materials, but you will need to get a copy of William Carlos Williams's "Hunters in the Snow," that edition published by New Directions.
Pause the video and get your copies of the poems now.
Welcome back.
Now you've got your copies of the poems, we are ready to get started.
So by the end of today's lesson, you're going to have written a comparative paragraph, which explores two poems inspired by the same painting.
Now, I love writing analytical paragraphs there, an enjoyable challenge.
And that challenge can sometimes feel increased when you have to compare two texts, when you have to include two texts in a paragraph, but we're gonna go through some steps today which really show you how to write a comparative paragraph that's very clear.
And so by the end, you're gonna feel a real sense of success and achievement when you've got your comparative paragraphs, which explores two poems, which are inspired by the same painting.
There are some key words, which are gonna help us unlock our learning today.
They're gonna help us achieve our objective.
If you'd like to spend some time with these key words, maybe making a note of what they are, then pause the video now.
Otherwise, they're gonna come up throughout and you'll have a really good grip of what they mean and how they apply to our work today by the end of today's lesson.
I'm gonna draw your attention to just one of the words.
It's the first one, enjambment.
That's how you pronounce that word, enjambment.
And this means when there is no punctuation at the end of a line of poetry.
So William Carlos Williams in his poem inspired by Bruegel's painting, "The Hunters in the Snow," he doesn't use any punctuation throughout the whole poem.
So we say that every single line of Williams's poem is enjambed.
De la Mare, the poem that we're going to, or the poet we're gonna compare William Carlos Williams to, he does sometimes use enjambment, but he also does use punctuation.
So sometimes he does have punctuation at the end of a line of poetry.
As I say, if you would like to spend some more time with these keywords, pause the video now.
Otherwise, they will come up throughout this lesson.
Our learning outline for today.
In the first learning cycle, we are going to read through "Bruegel's Winter" and "The Hunters in the Snow," and we're going to determine the differences between these two poems. And in the second learning cycle, we're gonna apply these differences.
We're gonna think, well, we've discussed the differences, we know what the differences are, how do we then construct a really good comparative paragraph? So let's start off with determining differences between texts.
So both Walter de la Mare and William Carlos Williams wrote Poems inspired by Pieter Bruegel's painting, "The Hunters in the Snow," and you can see it on the board now.
Today, you're gonna compare how they interpret and describe the painting.
Now, Andeep rereads both poems and generates some initial ideas about their differences and similarities.
So he's reread both poems and the first thing Andy notices is both de la Mare and Williams start by describing the mountains.
Williams describes them as icy, but de la Mare calls them jagg'd.
I would like you to reread both poems and discuss what your initial ideas about their similarities and differences.
So you found William Carlos Williams's "The Hunters in the Snow" at the beginning of this lesson, and Walter de la Mare's poem "Bruegel's Winter" can be found in the additional materials.
So you're gonna read, read both poems, spend time doing this, really enjoy rereading the poems and noticing new things, and then discuss just what are your initial ideas about their similarities and differences.
You don't need to be too worried at the moment.
We haven't got to the comparative paragraph yet.
So this is just your initial ideas about their similarities and differences.
So pause the video and complete these two tasks now.
Welcome back.
It was so lovely to you here and see people rereading both of those poems, noticing new things, enjoying new things from both of those pieces of work.
And then a really nice initial discussion about some of the similarities and differences.
So we know that del la Mare uses two stanzas to describe the painting, whereas William Carlos Williams uses seven.
Some people using that word enjambment.
Well done.
So William Carlos Williams uses in enjambment throughout his poem, whereas de la Mare does not.
What does that do to the pace of the poem? How quickly we might read it or how slowly we might read it, where we might pause, where we might not.
So just some initial differences between these two poems. You'll have had lots and lots of different ideas.
Keep those because we're gonna use them throughout the lesson.
So Andeep uses a table to help him compare the two poems, that can just really help with clarity.
So we've got aspect to compare, description of the mountains, "Bruegel's Winter" by Walter de la Mare, jagg'd.
"The Hunters in the Snow" by William Carlos Williams, icy.
How are they similar? How are they different? And Andeep has used his discussion to form a really nice comparative sentence.
Both present the mountains as treacherous, but de la Mare focuses on the sharp, rough points, whereas William focuses on the cold, slippery terrain.
So Andeep has focused on a similarity, both present the mountains as treacherous.
So he has drawn the two descriptions in the poem together, but he has also drawn a difference between them.
Both present the mountains of treacherous, so drawing them together, but de la Mare focuses on, so drawing a difference, whereas Williams focuses on, again, drawing a difference.
So it's a really nice comparison there 'cause he draws them together, but he also notices the differences.
Here is another section of Andeep's table.
Aspect to compare, he selected description of the hunters.
And he can see in at de la Mare's poem, they're described as mute and that they trudge.
In William Carlos Williams's poem, "The Hunters in the Snow," William Carlos Williams describes the hunters as sturdy, and it says that they lead their dogs in.
So I'd like you to discuss what would you say about their similarities and differences in terms of the descriptions of the hunters.
We've got Andeep sentence starters there to help us.
Both de la Mare presents them as, whereas William developed the idea of that.
So pause the video and using the first section of Andeep's table, where we've got the description of the hunters, can you discuss what you would say about the similarities and differences in the way they are presented? Pause the video and discuss the question now.
Welcome back.
Some really lovely analytical and comparative discussions there.
Let's have a look at what Andeep said.
So Andeep said, "Both present the hunters as returning home, but de la Mare presents them as dejected," so downcast, a bit depressed, "whereas Williams develops the idea of their power." Now you might have had a different interpretation of these particular descriptions of the hunters.
The key is did you draw together how de la Mare and Williams present them? So both present the hunters as.
Andeep has focus on the idea that they're returning home, which is a good idea.
You might had a slightly different one.
But de la Mare presents them as dejected.
So Andy has got that from the adjective mute and the idea of them trudging, that verb there.
Whereas Williams develops the idea of their power.
And you can see where Andy has got that idea, sturdy, which means strong, quite robust, and then leading the dogs in.
So if you are a leader, you are in some way powerful, you are able to bring people with you.
And in this case, the hunters are able to draw their dogs along with them.
So we check for understanding.
We've looked at Andeep's table.
Two rows of that table, looking at the description of the mountain and description of the hunters.
Our check is going to be, can you find how de la Mare and Williams each described the skaters in their poems? Now this is really going to help you for our practise task where we're gonna return to this table.
So pause the video, complete this check.
It's gonna require you to look at both poems and find the descriptions of the skaters.
How are they described in both poems? Pause the video and complete this check now.
Welcome back.
A very careful reading of both of those poems. And well done if you saw that in "Bruegel's Winter" by Walter de la Mare, the skaters are described as ink-black shapes, curling, skating, and sliding.
So we've got those present participle verbs there, curling, skating, and sliding, the sense of that energy, the sense of that movement.
And in "The Hunters in the Snow," William Carlos Williams's poem, they're described as a pattern.
We've got a metaphor here.
They're described as a pattern of skaters.
Now we're gonna think a little bit about the effect of this slightly later on, but well done for completing that check and being able to identify how the skaters are described in both poems. So I would like you to compare two aspects of "Bruegel's Winter" and "The Hunters in the Snow," the poems that we've been looking at throughout this learning cycle.
You could focus on how each describes the same feature of the painting.
So we've looked at the skaters so far, we've looked at the mountains, we've looked at the hunters.
Feel free to rely on those, or you might want to look at a different feature and any method, for example, their use of punctuation.
Now method is one of our key words.
It means the tool that a writer uses to create their work.
Punctuation is a tool a writer can use to create their work, the choices they make impact, the way in which we read it.
Enjambment is a method, a tool that a writer uses to create their work.
And we know that William Carlos Williams relies on this method enormously.
Adjectives, present participant verbs, any choice, any word choice that a writer makes accounts as a method.
So you can pay a close attention to methods when you are creating your table.
So we've got this table below, you've seen it many times.
So you're used to using now the aspect to compare.
Then you're gonna look at "Bruegel's Winter" by Walter de la Mare and then "The Hunters in the Snow" by William Carlos Williams. How are they similar? How are they different? And again, we've got Andeep's sentence starters there to support us.
So give this task the time that it deserves.
It's a really gonna help you in the second learning cycle when you come to write your comparative paragraph.
So pause the video and complete these tasks, comparing two or more aspects of "Bruegel's Winter" and "The Hunters in the Snow" using the table to support you.
Complete this task now.
Welcome back.
Well done for reading through those poems so carefully yet again and selecting different aspects to compare.
The tables in front of me are beautiful.
They are perfect.
Jumping off point for our comparative paragraphs in the learning cycle two.
Let's do a bit of feedback so we're really secure in these tables before we move on to writing our own comparative paragraphs.
So here's another section of Andeep's table.
Now, the aspect he chose to compare was punctuation.
You might not have chosen to compare this aspect, you might have chosen a different aspect, but this is one that Andeep wanted to focus on.
So in "Bruegel's Winter" by Walter de la Mare, Andeep noticed there's an interesting use of commas to divide lists.
So there are a couple of lists in his poem, and this is the aspect Andeep wants to focus on.
In "The Hunters in the Snow" by William Carlos Williams, there is no punctuation, it is enjambment throughout.
So really nice use of that key word there, enjambment, which meaning no punctuation at the end of a line of poetry.
How are they similar? How are they different? Well, I'd like you to discuss what would you say about their similarities and differences in terms of their punctuation.
So what do they both do? De la Mare presents them as, whereas Williams develops the idea that.
Can you discuss the similarities and differences in terms of their use of punctuation? Pause the video and complete this question now.
Welcome back.
Some really interesting discussions there about the effect of enjambment.
What does it do? Lots of people agreeing about pace.
And you can see this in Andeep's response as well.
So both create pace in their poems. They both create speed in their poems because punctuation, no punctuation means that we never get a chance to pause.
At the same time, de la Mare using commas, having all those ideas, those present participle verbs in a list, especially about the skaters, seems to create some pace.
So both create pace in their poems, but de la mare does this at specific moments through listing, whereas Williams does it throughout the poem.
So again, that looking at this idea of pace, this idea of speed.
Well, how do both poets achieve it? Now, you have your fantastic tables.
We are ready to move on to learning cycle two.
So in this second learning cycle, we're gonna write our comparative paragraphs.
We're gonna start off by looking at a really good model.
What does a good comparative paragraph look like? And then you are going to write your own.
So Andeep compares de la Mare's and Williams's description of Bruegel's painting.
He writes, "Both de la Mare and Williams describe the beauty of the skaters in Bruegel's painting." So he's focusing on the skaters here.
And he starts by creating a topic sentence that states the paragraph's main idea.
Now the main idea is he wants to focus on the skaters in both poems. "For example, de la Mare describes them as curling, skating, and sliding." He supports his idea with a quotation from de la Mare's poem.
So he's put in his first quotation.
This list creates a sense of graceful energy and speed, especially as he use as the present participant verb.
So there's a feeling of constant movement.
Now he analyses the quotation, focusing on methods.
And the method he has focused on is the use of the present participle verb.
So the method is a tool that the writer use to create their work.
And in this case, Andeep has described, decided to focus on the method of present participle verbs.
So some really, really nice analysis there.
Now, I'd like you to discuss what does Andeep have to do next? Look at the paragraph and think, well, what does he actually have to do to complete this paragraph? Pause the video and discuss the question now.
Welcome back.
Lovely pointers there for Andeep, and absolutely what he needs to do if it is a comparative paragraph is he now needs to talk about William Carlos Williams's poem.
Some people also saying, "Well after he's talked about William Carlos Williams's poem, he then needs to sum up his paragraph by linking to his topic sentence." So we can see that we've got lots of people who are really, really know what a comparative analytical paragraph looks like.
Well, let's see Andeep complete his paragraph.
So Andeep continues his paragraph, comparing Williams's description to de la Mare's.
He says, "By contrast, Williams describes as skaters as a pattern.
The metaphor suggests that skaters are forming beautiful shapes that are structured." He analyses a quotation from Williams, including exploring methods.
The methods that he is focused on.
The method that he's focused on this time is the use of metaphor.
"Unlike de la Mare who uses the word slipping, Williams suggests skaters have more control over themselves." So he clearly compares Williams and de la Mare.
So he returns back to de la Mare, and he says, "Look, I really want to compare the two uses or two descriptions of the skaters." And finally, his last sentence links to his topic sentence.
He writes, "Ultimately, both poets see Bruegel's skaters as an attractive part of the scene." So some people in an earlier discussion said, "Not only does Andeep have to now analyse William Carlos Williams, his final sentence also needs to link to his topic sentence." And he has done that.
So he's got a beautiful comparative paragraph here that follows a very clear structure.
Now we're gonna do a check for understanding before we move into our writing our own comparative paragraphs.
Which is the most successful opening sentence comparing de la Mare's "Bruegel's Winter" and William Carlos Williams's "The Hunters in the Snow"? Is it A, both de la Mare and Williams use lots of methods to describe the painting, B, both de la Mare and Williams present the mountains as treacherous, or C, de la Mare describes the mountains as jagg'd, whereas Williams describes them as icy? Pause a video and select your response now.
Well done If you selected B, both de la Mare and Williams presents the mountain, present the mountains as treacherous.
We have a really clear idea there.
We know that the paragraph is going to focus on the mountains and the idea that they are treacherous, that they are quite dangerous, in some way.
If we look at both de la Mare and Williams use lots of methods to describe the painting.
You need to be more specific than that in a comparative topic sentence or any topic sentence.
You can't just say that methods are used.
You need to be more specific about the clear focus of your paragraph.
C, de la Mare describes the mountains as jagg'd, whereas Williams describes them as icy.
This will be more useful later on in your paragraph when you are looking at to analyse particular words or particular methods that a writer has used rather than a topic sentence.
So not leaping straight into putting your quotations in, but leaving that for a little bit later in your paragraph.
Your topic sentence should state really clearly what you are going to focus on, and that is what B does.
So I would like you to use your table from learning cycle one and write a comparative paragraph in response to this prompt.
Compare how de la Mare's "Bruegel's Winter" and Williams's "The Hunters in the Snow" describe Bruegel's "The Hunters in the Snow." So these two poems describing this painting.
Now you've got a table, which is really gonna support your comparative paragraph.
You've also got the memory of Andeep's model paragraph and the structure of that to support you.
And I put that structure on the board because it's one that you might want to follow.
So both de la Mare and Williams draw the two poems together.
For example, put in an example, by contrast Williams, put in your second example, and ultimately, drawing your two poets together, again, linking to your topic sentence.
Now the table is going to really, really support your writing.
So it's really lovely to see that everyone's got their tables right next to them as at they start to do their comparative analytical paragraph.
I hope you enjoy it.
All the discussions we've had suggest we're gonna write some really beautiful careful analysis, and I look forward to reading through these paragraphs once you have finished writing.
Give this task the time that it deserves.
Pause the video and complete the analytical comparative paragraph now.
Welcome back.
Well done for giving that comparison the time that it deserves.
I can see everyone's got a really, really clear structure, some beautiful quotations, and lots of people have decided to focus on different things from these two poems. Some people were focusing on the mountains, some on the skaters, some on a different part of the scene.
Let's do some self-reflection before we celebrate your work.
So I'd like you to consider the structure of Andeep's paragraph.
You remember that he had a topic sentence where he told us he was gonna focus on the description of the skaters.
Then he had a quotation from de la Mare's poem.
He analysed this quotation.
He focused on list and present participant in terms of the methods.
Then he had a direct comparison.
So by contrast, Williams describes the skaters as a pattern.
And again, of course, he had the analysis of methods.
This time, he focused on metaphor.
And finally, his final sentence linked to his topic sentence.
Ultimately, both poets are see Bruegel's skaters as an attractive part of the scene.
So a really careful comparative paragraph there.
I'd like you to identify where you have met this checklist in your own writing.
So read through your paragraph.
Where's your topic sentence? Where's your first quotation? Have you got the analysis of methods in there? Where does that comparison begin? And have you got that final link to your topic sentence in your final sentence? So of course, when you're identifying that you've met these aspects of your checklist.
If there is something that you haven't quite done, you can write a note to yourself, or you can include it at this point in our self-reflection.
So pause the video and identify where you've met the checklist in your own writing.
Complete the self-assessment now.
Welcome back.
Lovely to see that self-assessment being taken so seriously so that you've got really beautiful comparative paragraphs.
Lots of people saying, "Yep, I can see my topic sentence." I was focusing on the mountains, or I was focusing on the hunters, or I was focusing on the use of in enjambment, a particular idea about punctuation.
Can see some really nice quotations in there.
Some people adding in that final sentence.
It's always one that I forget as well to make sure that my final sentence links to my topic sentence.
So really good bit of self-assessment and editing there.
In summary, the opening of a comparative paragraph could start with a topic sentence, which states the paragraph's main idea.
Next, the comparative paragraph could focus on analysing the first text.
Then a comparative paragraph could focus on the second text, comparing it to the first.
Comparing the methods, writers have used can help develop the comparison.
The final sentence of a comparative paragraph could link to the topic sentence.
It has been such a pleasure to look at both of these poems side by side, to draw their differences and similarities, and then see your fantastic analytical writing.
And I look forward to seeing you next time.