Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

I'm so glad you've decided to learn with me today.

We're in the unit Single Poet Study: Maya Angelou.

Today we are going to be looking at Maya Angelou's poem "On the Pulse of the Morning." Now, first thing we need to do is get a copy of this poem "On the Pulse of the Morning," so I'd like you to pause the video and go and get a copy of "On the Pulse of the Morning" by Maya Angelou.

Now you'll see it's a very long poem.

We are just gonna look at the final four stanzas of the poem today, but I'd like you to pause the video now so we can dive into the lesson and get a copy of "On the Pulse of the Morning." Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

Now you've got a copy of "On the Pulse of the Morning." We are ready to get started.

I cannot wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas about this poem.

It's a really important poem in terms of Maya Angelou's career and in terms of American history.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work through today's lesson together.

Let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you're going to have explored Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of the Morning," including understanding why and how it was written.

So this poem is really important in terms of Angelou's career and also American history, so we really need to understand the context, why was it written, and we can also start to understand that we're gonna look at this in our second learning cycle, how it was written.

We're gonna look at Angelou's writing routine, which certainly when I first heard about it, I found very inspirational, so I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas about what her writing routine looks like and why it might be helpful to her.

There are some keywords which are gonna help unlock our learning today.

They're gonna help us achieve our objective, they're gonna be referenced throughout today's lesson, and we'll go through them as and when.

However, if you wanna spend a bit more time with our keywords now, you can pause a video, you can read through them, you can make some notes.

I'm gonna draw attention to just one of the words and it's the first word on the board, inauguration.

That is how you pronounce that word, inauguration, and this is when in politics, a new leader and government is sworn in.

There's usually some kind of ceremonial aspect and you might have heard this word inauguration connected to American politics.

So when a new president is sworn in, that is called their inauguration.

As I say, we are going to go through the rest of these words throughout today's lesson, but if you'd like to pause the video and have a look at them now, please do.

A lesson outline for today.

We're gonna start off by reading "On the Pulse of the Morning," a fantastic poem.

We're gonna look at the final four stanzas as I said in the introduction and we think what are the main messages of this poem? And then we are going to look at Angelou's writing routine.

It was very clear, it was very specific.

It's not a writing routine that all writers follows, but it is one that she followed and we're gonna think, well, why did this work for her, what might it tell us about her as a writer, and how can we use it to help our own writing? Let's start off with reading "On the Pulse of the Morning." So "On the Pulse of the Morning" was written in 1993 for President Bill Clinton.

He asked Angelou to write and perform a poem at his inauguration.

A president's inauguration is an important ceremony, so it's when they are sworn in and become the new leader of the country.

So it's an important ceremony because there's a sense of a renewal, so a refresher.

You are saying goodbye to the previous government and welcoming the new government, so renewing, restoring, getting some of that original vigour and energy back.

A chance for a president to speak to their citizens and say what they intend to do for the country, so this is when they're sworn in, it's the very beginning of their presidency so they can say this is what I intend to do for you who have voted at me in.

And finally, it's watched by millions of people, so lots and lots of people, of course, lots and lots of American citizens watch President Clinton's inauguration because he was gonna be the leader of their country.

It's watched by millions of people live and across the world.

So by 1993, Maya Angelou was a known and celebrated American poet.

So by 1993, which is when President Clinton had his inauguration ceremony, Maya Angelou was a known and celebrated American poet.

She was a respected and powerful civil rights activist, Civil rights activist, one of our keywords and phrases today.

She fought for the equality of those who typically not had equal rights.

She had lived through America's Jim Crow laws.

These were laws which in today's term we would think of as racist, which separated people based on the colour of their skin and facilities like transport, education, healthcare, housing, were typically much, much worse for those people who were non-white, the non-white citizens of America whereas the facilities in housing, healthcare, education, et cetera, were much better for white citizens, so that is why we think of the Jim Crow laws now as racist.

And Maya Angelou had written five autobiographies, including presenting childhood trauma and her varied career as an adult, both in America and in Ghana.

So by 1993, Mayan Angelou was very, very well respected American writer and she had really given America so much of her work in terms of her writing and in terms of her civil rights activism.

Now I'd like you to discuss why might Angelou have been asked to write and perform at the inauguration at this really important ceremony swearing in the new President and how do you think Angelou might have felt when she was asked? Pause the video and discuss these two questions now.

Welcome back.

A really, really lovely discussion there, having a think about why Angelou might have been asked to perform and how she might have felt.

So let's start off with this first question.

So why might she have been asked? Well, she was a very distinguished poet, so she certainly would be able to perform and recite a beautiful poem that would really speak to the American people as so many of her poems had done before, but she had also been really instrumental in terms of America moving forward to move towards civil rights and so kind of recognising this magnificent achievement from one of the citizens seems right lots of people said at a President's inauguration.

How do you think Angelou might felt when asked? Well pretty nervous and actually she did say that she was nervous about performing at the inauguration and she asked lots of the people who watched her during her performances leading up to the inauguration to pray for her, to help her perform really, really well at this most important ceremony, so definitely quite nervous, probably quite honoured and maybe thinking a little bit about her career, what it means to be asked to speak at a president's inauguration when you have experienced, as Maya Angelou did, these laws, these Jim Crow laws when she was an American citizen.

It might have felt quite strange to move from a place where you were really treated as an inferior citizen to one where you are lauded as a magnificent and wonderful example of America.

So lots and lots of conflicting feelings potentially going through Maya Angelou as she was asked to perform at the inauguration.

Now, here are some words from "On the Pulse of the Morning," the poem that she wrote and performed at this inauguration ceremony.

So here's some words, species, planet, come, destiny, ignorance, country, proud, prophet, peace, all, humankind, courage, dream, forward, and hope.

Now I'd like you to discuss what do you think the poem might be about and why and does it remind you of any other Angelou poems and why? So we haven't read the poem yet, we're just looking at some of the individual words, so no wrong answers here.

Just have a little think.

What might the poem be about and does it remind you of any other Angelou poems that you have read.

Pause the video and discuss these two questions now.

Welcome back.

Some really lovely prediction skills here.

People looking at individual words and thinking, well, maybe the poem might be about this.

All of these words seem to suggest that, so we've got some really, really nice ideas about this poem now, So particularly these final five words at the bottom, humankind, courage, dream, forward, hope that maybe the poem is about some idea of hopefulness, some idea of moving forward, some idea that America is ready to move forward into an even better society and this idea of humankind, all, peace, and country, really unifying words, ideas that draw people all together.

And then does it remind you of any of other Angelou's other poems? Well, some people saying lots of Angelou's poems talk about the idea of unity, how important it is, and of course, the idea of equal rights and so perhaps this poem touches on some of those ideas as well.

So "On the Pulse of the Morning," has 13 stanza, quite a long poem.

We're gonna look at the final four today and it focuses on America's past and its future.

In terms of America's past, it looks the speaker explores enslavement, war, division, and environmental destruction, so it looks at some very, very challenging things in America's past.

And in terms of the future, the speaker explores a chance for a new start in which there is unity and compassion for each other and for the planet, so it's definitely a very, very hopeful poem, but it doesn't shy away from looking at some of terrible things that have happened in America's past.

Now I'd like you to discuss why do you think Angelou chose to write about America's past as well as its future and why do you think this poem was appropriate for the inauguration? Pause the video and discuss these two questions now.

Welcome back.

It's a really nice discussion there about why this poem might be appropriate for the inauguration and why Angelou might have chosen to write about the past as well as the future.

So lots of people saying, well, you've got to focus on your past if you are going to move forward into a better future, you've gotta face the things that have happened, you can't ignore them and certainly Angelou was drawing attention to some very, very difficult things that had happened in America's past, but also thinking about the future, so the poem ultimately is a hopeful poem.

And then why do you think it was appropriate for the inauguration? Well, it's that word hope that lots of people have been mentioning, that inauguration is the start of a new term for a new president and so there will be ideas of hopefulness for the future as that new term begins.

A check for understanding before we move on to our first practise task.

So which statements are correct? I'd like you to read through all four, A, B, C, and D and select which you think are correct.

Pause the video and complete this check now.

Welcome back and well done if you selected D.

"On the Pulse of the Morning" suggests that America's future could be better than its past.

Let's have a look at the others and work out why they are not correct.

So President Clinton selected "On the Pulse of the Morning" from Angelou's previous collections of poetry.

Incorrect, she wrote the poem for the inauguration.

President Clinton performed "On the Pulse of the Morning" at his inauguration.

No, he didn't perform it, it was Angelou.

Angelou performed at the inauguration.

And C "On the Pulse of the Morning" launched Angelou's career as a poet.

She was already an established poet by 1993, so it didn't launch her career, though it did revive lots of interest in her poetry, so lots and lots of people buying "On the Pulse of the Morning" itself as a poem, but also lots of her other poetry after the inauguration ceremony because so many millions of people had watched it.

Our first practise task, I'd like you to read the final four stanzas of "On the Pulse of the Morning" twice.

So this is stanza nine to 13 and it starts with the word lift, so stanza nine starts with the word lift.

After reading, I'd like you to discuss these questions.

What are the main ideas and messages of these stanzas, what is the speaker telling us to do, how do you think Angelou hoped her audience would feel at the end of the poem, why do you think it's called "On the Pulse of the Morning," and consider one other Angelou poem you have read, what are its similarities and differences to "On the Pulse of the Morning." Pause the video, really enjoy reading through these final four stanzas of "On the Pulse of the Morning." You might want to read them aloud just as Angelou did when she was performing at the inauguration and then have a really nice discussion about these questions.

Pause the video and complete these tasks now.

Welcome back.

So lovely to hear people reading this beautiful poem and then having a lovely discussion about some of these questions.

I'd like to focus on the main ideas and messages and we're gonna do that in our feedback.

So pupils discuss what they think the main messages are.

Aisha says, "I think the main message is take action "if you want a better world." Andeep says, "I think the main message "is that this moment is an opportunity for renewal," seeing that keyword, the idea of restore or refresh.

And Izzy says, "I think the main message is that equality "and kindness are the most important human qualities." So three different ideas about the main messages of this poem.

I'd like you to discuss who do you agree with most and why and I'd like you to refer to specific parts of the poem in your discussion.

Pause the video and complete this discussion now.

Welcome back.

Such a lovely exploration of this poem, people finding specific moments in those final four stanzas which really support either Aisha, Andeep, or Izzy's argument.

So the idea of the main message is to take action if you want to better world.

Lots of people focused on the commands that Angelou uses throughout this poem, especially in those final four stanzas and then the idea that the main message is a moment.

This is an opportunity for renewal.

Well, that really links to the title of the poem.

Some people said the idea of "On the Pulse of the Morning," so morning has these ideas of starting again, a new day, a fresh start.

And then Izzy's idea, "I think the main message is that equality "and kindness and the most important human qualities." Well, we've got this idea of drawing people together.

Angelou lists people who should come together and work together in order to have a brilliant and beautiful America.

She says people should think of each other as brothers and sisters and that they should say good morning to each other, so these are just some of the ideas that I heard to support these three different interpretations of the poem.

We're gonna move on to our second learning cycle now.

We're gonna learn about Angelou's writing routine and that will help us understand how she wrote "On the Pulse of the Morning." So we know why she wrote it, we looked at that in learning cycle one, and we're now gonna think, well, how did she write it? So when President Clinton asked Angelou to create a poem for his inauguration, she followed her usual writing routine.

She worked from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM in a hotel room, so she didn't work in her house.

She would always rent a hotel room and she had a dictionary, a bible, a deck of cards, and a bottle of sherry by her side.

so Sherry, it's a type of alcohol.

After choosing her theme and for this poem, "On the Pulse of the Morning," she chose a theme America.

She wrote down everything she could think of to do with it and then developed her poem, so you can think of it as a sort of enormous spider diagram on loads and loads of bullet points, but she thought, I've got to think of everything I can think of to do with this particular theme and then I'll be able to select what I want to write out, write about in my poem and she read her work aloud to hear what sounded good and what needed further work, so she often did this in the afternoon after she'd been working in the morning, she would read her work aloud.

We know how important sound was to Maya Angelou's poems. They sound absolutely brilliant.

They've got this amazing rhythm and rhyme that doesn't happen by accident because she puts work into it and so reading aloud is part of that work, she can hear what is working and what is not.

Now she describes, Angelou describes this routine a routine she followed whenever she was writing as lonely but marvellous, so she does hide herself away in this hotel room.

She doesn't work with other people, so she is secluded, but she described it as marvellous.

She would feel inspired by it.

She would feel very, very focused.

Now I'd like you to discuss these three questions about Maya Angelou's writing routine.

What might the objects tell us about how Angelou writes her poems, would any aspect of Angelou's routine be helpful to you, and what is your writing routine? So not everyone has the same writing routine, what is your writing routine? Pause video and discuss these three questions now.

Welcome back.

Such a lovely discussion there exploring this idea of a writing routine.

Let's start off with these objects.

So lots of people saying, oh, well, it tells us that Angelou was very focused because she doesn't have much in front of her.

She doesn't have a phone or a computer screen, which might be some of the things that we might have in front of us now, which might provide some distraction, but she has a dictionary so she can look up all these amazing different words and you might have seen that "On the Pulse of the Morning," some of the words are quite complex.

You might have had to look them up yourself in the dictionary.

I know that I definitely had to look up the word mastodon, which is sort of a type of mammoth when I first read the poem "On the Pulse of the Morning," a deck of cards, lots of people had different ideas about what this deck of cards might be useful for, sort of games of chance.

Maybe she was enjoying playing cards, maybe that kind of relaxing games would help her to unlock her creativity or maybe there was something in terms of the numbers or the suits of cards which helped her in terms of her writing and then a bottle of sherry just to keep her going when she's doing her writing.

Would any aspect of Angelou's routine be helpful to you? So some people saying the seclusion would actually be really helpful to me, that is a way that really helps me with my writing.

Others, like me saying, reading my work aloud often proves really, really helpful and then a few people noting she works long hours, 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM is a long stint to be writing and that focus actually could be very, very helpful to me.

And what is your writing routine? People having lots of different ideas.

Some people say I need to go out for a walk in order to feel inspired, others saying, yep, I really need to sit down and not get up for a couple of hours if I want to write really, really well.

Others saying, unlike Angelou, I actually need collaboration.

I like talking to people so that I can explore my ideas.

So lots of different ideas about what makes a good writing routine for you.

Now pupils discuss what theme, big idea they would write about if asked to create a poem for a powerful leader.

So we know that Angelou, when she was asked to write the inauguration poem, she thought I need to think of my theme, my big idea and she chose America.

Now, Aisha, Andeep, and Izzy, they think, well, what theme would I wanna talk about if I was writing a poem for a powerful leader? Aisha says, "I think I would focus on the importance "of home and family.

"Citizens deserve to feel secure." Andeep says, "I think I would focus on the importance "of equality.

"Without it, society's unfair." So inspired there by Angelou, lots of her poems are about equality.

And Izzy says, "I think I would focus on the idea "of taking action against injustice." Again, a key idea across lots of Angelou's poems. So lots of nice ideas there about what they would focus on if they were writing a poem for a powerful leader.

Now I'd like you to discuss.

If you were asked to write a poem for a powerful leader, what theme, big idea would you focus on? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

Such a lovely discussion.

I really hope that you are asked to write a poem for a powerful leader one day because you've got such brilliant ideas.

Some people saying, yep, I can see Izzy and Andeep, they have chosen these big ideas about equality, about injustice and that's what I would like to take forward because if I was speaking at an event with a powerful leader, I'd have a big platform, I'd be speaking to millions of people and it'd be really important for me to talk about these big ideas.

Others saying, no, like Aisha, I'd like to focus on something that seems personal, but actually is so important to every citizen of country and then others saying, well, Angela focused on her country, America, and that's what I would like to do.

I'd like to focus on my home country and I would like to talk about that if I was asked to write a poem for a powerful leader.

Now in our final practise task today in our final section of our lesson, you are going to be like Maya Angelou and you are going to spider diagram bullet point all the different ideas that you might have for your particular poem.

We're gonna write, we're gonna be inspired by Angelou's own writing routine.

So we're gonna do a quick check for understanding and then move on to that practise task.

So true or false, I'll check.

Maya Angelou followed a strict writing routine.

Is this true or false? Pause the video and select your response now.

Well done if you selected true.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Why, what writing routine did she follow? Pause the video and complete this justification now.

Welcome back.

Well done if you said to create her poems, Angelou followed routine of working in a hotel room for a full morning with minimal distractions and then editing her work in the afternoon.

So we've got a bit of an insight there into Angelou's writing routine.

So our practise task, I would like you to imagine a powerful leader has asked you to write and perform a poem at an important event.

Use part of Maya Angelou's writing routine to plan this poem, so the first thing is I want you to decide on your theme, your poem's main focus.

You have had a really nice discussion about that already and the second thing I'd like you to do is bullet point.

everything you can think of in relation to this theme.

Now no idea should be rejected at this point.

Write down as many, many ideas as we possibly can because then in our feedback, we are going to start selecting the ideas that we think would be best for our poem.

So really write down everything you can think of in relation to your theme.

Of course you can discuss your ideas before writing them down.

Pause the video and complete this practise task now.

Welcome back.

It is lovely to see so many different ideas down on paper.

Lots and lots of interesting themes which would be amazing to read at an event for a powerful leader and I can see that your poems can can really begin to take shape because you've got so many different ideas.

Now we can't write about all of these different ideas.

You've got loads and loads of bullet points, so let's have a think about how we would select the ideas that we want to focus on.

So here is Aisha's plan.

Now her theme was the importance of home.

She's got loads of bullet points here, security, family, warmth, food around the table, fighting with siblings, cleaning and tidying, important celebrations, breaking things by accident, returning to it after school, music, singing, laughter, inviting people over, privacy, welcoming others, being proud of your home, protecting people in your home, wanting to leave home, and relaxing, so she has written down loads of ideas that this big idea, this theme, the importance of home made her think of.

Now Aisha can't include all these ideas in her poem.

She starts to consider which are the most interesting and which she will discard.

So let's have a look at one section of Aisha's bullet pointed list and she says, "I think I'll keep the ideas "that explore unity and love," so the idea of togetherness, "I want to keep ideas about fighting in because like Angelou did with America, I want to explore the good and the bad, so Angelou, you remember, in "On the Pulse of the Morning," she does reflect on America's history and some of the really difficult moments in America's history and so Aisha was inspired by that while got to keep in the good and the bad.

However, I think cleaning, tidy, and breaking things don't connect with my main focus, which is unity.

So she's really considered that I want to focus on this particular idea about home and so which ideas in my bullet pointed list will help.

So I'd like you to review your plan, your bullet points, circle the ideas you want to keep, and just put a line through the less important ideas and then finally, I'd like you to discuss why you have made these decisions.

Now we've got some sentence artists to support that discussion.

I think I'll keep the ideas that.

I also wanna keep ideas about because and however, I won't include these ideas because.

So we've got three steps there.

Circle the ideas we want to keep put a line through the less important ones, and then discuss why you've made these decisions just like Aisha did.

Pause the video and complete this review task now.

Welcome back.

Well done for completing that review task so carefully.

In front of you now you have a brilliant Angelou style plan for a poem where you've selected ideas that you really want to explore and you've got rid of the ideas that you think these are a bit less important.

They did help me with my thinking, but I'm not gonna include them in my poem.

Now, if you would like to, you could now write this poem and then you could practise performing it as if you were at an important event, an important ceremony, just like Angelou was at the inauguration.

In summary, in 1993, President Bill Clinton asked Angelou to write and perform a poem at his inauguration.

Perhaps President Clinton asked Angelou because of importance as an American poet and a civil rights activist.

Angelou wrote "On the Pulse of the Morning," a poem focusing on America's past and its future.

"On the Pulse of the Morning" emphasises the idea that Americans should see each other as equals and practise kindness.

Angel followed a strict writing routine, rising early and working with minimal de distractions for a full morning.

It has been such a pleasure to work through this lesson today with you and I look forward to seeing you next time.