Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

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

Today, we're in the Unit Single poets study: Maya Angelou.

Now today you are going to plan to write your own poem inspired by all the Maya Angelou poems that you have read.

First things first, you need to gather together those Maya Angelou poems. Now for me, all the Maya Angelou poems that I have read, they are "Phenomenal Woman," "Woman Work," "Still I Rise," "On Ageing," "Caged Bird," "Equality," "On the Pulse of the Morning," and "Life Doesn't Frighten Me." Now, if you, like me, have read those poems, then we need to gather them all together.

If you've read a few of them, then just gather the ones you've had read.

And if you've read some different ones, then you can gather those.

But the purpose of pausing the video in a moment is to gather together all the Maya Angelou poems that you have read.

Don't worry if they're not quite the same as the ones I listed before.

Gather the ones together that you have read and they will be ready to start the lesson.

Pause the video and go and collect those poems now.

Welcome back, well done for collecting all of those poems. We are now ready to start our lesson.

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

Cannot wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas.

Let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you are going to plan a poem inspired by the ideas and methods of Angelou's poems. So we're going to have a review of all the poetry that we have read by Maya Angelou.

We're gonna think, "Are there any ideas in here that I would like to use to write about in my own poems?" And then we're going to consider the methods that Angelou uses.

So she uses lots and lots of really powerful methods to get across her messages and we're gonna think, "Well, where do I want to use refrain? Where do I want to use repetition? Do I want to use a rhyme like Angelou does in lots of her poems?" So you're gonna be making lots and lots of decisions about what you want your poem to look like and why? There are some keywords which can help us unlock our learning today.

They're going to be referenced throughout today's lesson.

But if you'd like to pause the video now and have a look at them, maybe make some notes or read through each one, then please do.

I'm going to draw your attention to just one of the words.

It's the middle one, it says defiant.

And that is how you pronounce that word defiant.

It means boldly disobedient.

Now, I think you'll agree that some of Angelou's speakers are defiant.

They have defiant voices.

They are powerful and they are disobeying aspects of society that they fundamentally disagree with.

So it might be that when you come to write your poem, you also want to write with a defiant voice.

If so, we're gonna have a look at some of the methods that Angelou uses in order to create that defiant voice.

As I say, if you'd like to pause the video and spend a bit more time with some of the other keywords, then please do so.

Now, otherwise, we'll go through them when they come up in the lesson.

A lesson outlined for today in the first learning cycle, we are going to use Maya Angelou's writing routine to plan a poem.

So Angelou had a very strict writing routine.

That's partly what made her such a prolific poet, such a dedicated poet, such a powerful poet.

She had a very clear writing routine that she followed.

We're gonna think, "Well, what can we learn from this master poet today?" And in our second learning cycle, we are going to think which of Angelou's methods are right for my poem? So some of them will be right, some of the methods that Angelou relies on, you will think, "Yes, I definitely want to use those." And others, of course, you will not want to use because your poem is your poem and you must decide which methods are right for it.

So let's start off with using Angelou's writing routine to plan a poem.

So today you will plan to write a poem about a topic of your choice.

The poems of Maya Angelou will inspire you.

Now, you might be inspired by the ideas in Angelou's poem so there might be a particular idea.

For example, about "Equality," which is a focus of lots of her poetry that inspires you.

But you might also be inspired by the methods in Angelou's poetry.

So there are some methods that Angelou relies on again and again.

And as such, she really refines her use of them.

They're incredibly powerful when we find them in her poems, you'll already be thinking of some of them.

For example, her use of refrain or her use of repetition, her use of direct address which one was one of the keywords from our lesson today, which means when the speaker uses the word, you, to really engage with the reader of her poems. So there are some methods that you might think, "Yes, those are going to be right for my poem." So I say, you're going to plan to write a poem today.

Maya Angelou's poems are going to inspire you.

It might be her ideas, it might be her methods, it might be both.

Now first, Lucas and Sam consider all of the Angelou poems they have read.

And for Lucas and Sam, those poems are "Phenomenal Woman," "Woman Work," "Still I Rise," "On Ageing," "Caged Bird," "Equality," "Life Doesn't Frighten Me," and "On the Pulse of the Morning." And Lucas says, "I remember that "On Ageing" explores stereotypical views by being older, and Angelou uses command words like, stop." Absolutely.

That is in that poem "On Ageing." A fantastic poem, really speaking to some important issues, but with a fantastic rhythm and rhyme.

And as Lucas says, a use of those command words to show a very forceful speaker.

Sam says, "I remember that Angelou talks about America's future in "On the Pulse of the Morning." Angelou uses direct address.

Now, "On the Pulse of the Morning" was written for President Clinton's inauguration.

Maya Angelou wrote the poem.

She also performed the poem in front of millions and millions of American citizens when President Clinton was inaugurated when he became president for the first time.

Now, absolutely this poem's focus is America, that was a theme that Angelou decided on and she uses direct address, so she talks to the audience.

She says, you.

Sometimes she calls them sisters, sometimes she calls them brothers.

So a really nice bit of review from Lucas and Sam, as they consider all the Maya Angelou poems that they have read.

Now, I'd like you to discuss what can you remember about each Angelou poem you have read? So just a quick review so that we can start to think, "Well, how might some of these ideas in these poems? How might they start to inspire our own poem?" So pause the video.

What can you remember about each Angelou poem you have read? Pause the video and discuss this question now.

Welcome back.

A really lovely discussion.

Really great to hear you talking about the range of Angelou poems that you have read.

You can see that there are some ideas that Angelou keeps coming back to, ideas about oppression, ideas about equality, ideas about sexism or discrimination.

And those come through in a lot of her poems so some people saying, "I can already see some of the ideas that might inspire me from my own poem." And then people already starting to think a little bit about some of the methods that Angelou uses as well.

So we're just starting our initial discussion about the poems, our knowledge of the Angelou poems and this is gonna form the springboard for our own inspiration, our own creativity for our own poems. Now next, Sam and Lucas discuss their initial ideas about what their poem might focus on.

Now Lucas says, "Maybe I'll write about people telling me I can't do something 'cause I'm too young, a bit like "On Ageing." So you can see that "On Ageing" we've got a speaker who doesn't want to be treated like an old person, doesn't want to be handed a rocking chair, for example.

And the speaker finds that very frustrating.

Now Lucas, he's not an older person, he's instead a younger person.

And he wants to write about people telling he can't do something because he's too young.

He finds that frustrating.

And Sam says, "Maybe I'll write about all the things young people are expected to do, a bit like "Woman Work." Now, "Woman Work" is one of my favourite poems of the Angelou collection.

And absolutely that list of all the things that the woman in this poem has to do.

The beginning is very powerful start to that poem.

And Sam is now applying this to her own life and saying, "Well, maybe I'll write about all the things that young people are expected to do." Now, what I like about Lucas and Sam's ideas is they're very personal and a lot of Angelou's poems are very personal.

So it's not just that they're being inspired by the ideas and methods of Angelou's poems, but also by Angelou herself.

She thought, "I want to write about my own life.

That is gonna make my poetry authentic.

It's gonna make it sincere, truthful." And that's what Lucas and Sam are doing as well.

Now, I'd like you to discuss, what might you focus on in your poem? So you might have some ideas, a bit like Lucas and Sam relating it to your own lives.

That might be some bigger, wider ideas that you want to talk about.

But start to think what might you focus on in your poem? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

Such a lovely discussion.

I'm so excited to read these poems. I've got a real range of ideas in the room.

Some people really relating the poems to themselves like Angelou, like Lucas, and like Sam and some people talking about bigger societal issues that they want to talk about, inspired maybe "On the Pulse of the Morning" or "Equality." So you've already started to think about what you would like to focus on in your poem.

Now to plan, write and edit her poems, Maya Angelou followed a strict routine.

She worked from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM in a hotel room with a dictionary, Bible, deck of cards and a bottle of sherry by her side.

So she didn't work in her home, she rented a hotel room.

And she says she usually went from 7:00 till 2:00, so quite a long stint.

If the writing wasn't going that well, then sometimes she would stop a little bit early, but she would try and push through to 2:00 PM.

Sometimes, after choosing a theme, a bigger idea, she wrote down everything she could think of to do with it and then developed her poem.

So she definitely did that for "On the Pulse of the Morning," she decided that her theme would be America for President Clinton's inauguration and she wrote down everything she could think of to do with America before forming her poem.

She read her work aloud to hear what sounded good and what needed further work.

So once she had written a poem, she knew that that wasn't the end of the writing process, that she needed to do some editing and one of the best ways, particularly with poetry, which is meant to sound really good, is to read it out loud so you can hear what it sounds like.

So here is her writing routine or selected bits of her writing routine.

Now, I'd like you to discuss, let's be a bit like Maya Angelou.

You have chosen your theme, you just had a really nice discussion about what you want your poem to focus on.

And I'd like you to write down just your first three ideas in relation to your poems chosen focus.

Now, what I really like about Maya Angelou's routine where she says, she writes down everything she could think of to do with it.

Is you don't need to feel too much pressure at this point.

You might write down three ideas now, or discuss three ideas down, that you don't end up using in your poem.

That is absolutely fine.

The point is to generate as many ideas as you can so that later you can start to select the ones that you think are really good.

So we're gonna have our first discussion about some of the ideas that you may end up including in your poem, but it is a low stakes discussion 'cause you don't have to be tied to these ideas, it's just what you first think of when you think of your poems chosen focus.

So pause the video and discuss the question.

What are your first three ideas in relation to your poems chosen focus? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back Well done for entering into the spirit of that discussion and being like Angelou.

Just started thinking, "I'm just gonna write down any ideas that I can think of.

There are no bad ideas at this point because the point is just to generate as many things as I can think of.

And then I can start to select what will be useful to me in my poem and what will be less useful." So check for understanding before we move into.

A more focused bit of our planning for our poem inspired by Maya Angelou.

Aisha decides to write a poem about how remarkable she is and where her confidence comes from.

Which Angelou poem might have she been inspired by? Is it "Woman Work," "On the Pulse of the Morning," Or "Phenomenal Woman." Pause the video and complete this check now.

Welcome back.

Well done if you selected "Phenomenal Woman." So absolutely in that poem, there is a speaker who is incredibly confident and she spends the stances in the poem explaining why she's so confident.

I know quite a few people were inspired by that poem and like Aisha are going to write about their confidence and have a really uplifting poem about why they are so phenomenal.

So remember that this is the prompt.

The ultimate goal is that we will end up writing a poem inspired by the poetry of Maya Angelou.

Now, this lesson is gonna be entirely dedicated to planning, but that is the overall goal.

And you might be inspired by the ideas Angelou writes about in her poems and the methods that Angelou uses to write about in her poems. Now, the moment we're in the ideas stage, that first bullet point.

So I would like you to use part of Maya Angelou's writing routine to plan this poem.

The first thing you're gonna do is decide on your theme, your poem's main focus.

You've had a really nice discussion about that in this learning cycle.

And the second thing you're gonna do is bullet point everything you can think of in relation to this theme.

So you already had three ideas and you're going to keep going with those ideas.

You're going to extend them, so you've got a number of bullet points in relation to your poem's chosen theme.

Now, just as I said before, there are no bad ideas at this point, so you should just write down everything that you can think of because then we are gonna do a bit of selection and we're gonna think what ideas do we want to include in our poems and which ones are less important.

So pause the video, go through these two steps of Maya Angelou's writing routine to plan your poem.

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

Pause the video and complete this planning process now.

Welcome back, it's lovely to see these big, long lists.

You've got so many ideas that you're going to be able to do some really nice selection and your poems are gonna be filled with your very best ideas.

Let's do a bit of feedback.

So here is Sam's plan.

You can see that her theme, her big idea, was going to be about the pressures on young people and she's got lots and lots of bullet points here.

Now, Sam cannot include all of these ideas in her poem.

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

So she selects the first three, she crosses off the next two, and then she circles the next one.

We're just seeing one column of her bullet points at this point.

And she says, "I think I'll keep the ideas about physical activities because I want to create a list a bit like Angelou does in "Woman Work." I'm not going to include ideas about extracurricular activities 'cause I like a lot of those, and the world events aren't chores like my other ideas" So you can see a little bit of, as I'm thinking here about why she selected certain ideas and why she rejected other ideas, we are starting to build a picture of what her poem might be like.

Now, I'd like you to review your plan.

Circle the ideas you want to keep, but align through the less important ideas.

And I'd like you to discuss why you have made these decisions.

There are some sentence starters to help you.

"I think I'll keep the ideas that.

I also want to keep ideas about, because.

However, I won't include ideas about, because." So pause the video, review your plan, go through these three steps, circling the ideas you want, putting a line through the ones that you will discard and discussing why you made those decisions.

Pause the video and complete this feedback task now.

Welcome back.

Lovely to see people thinking really hard about what they want to include in their poem.

I hope you can see why part of Maya Angelou's writing routine is so, so helpful because having all those ideas really gives you security before you start your poem.

You know you've got more ideas than you can possibly use, so then you get to go through this nice process of selecting the very best ones.

We are ready to move on to the second part of our lesson.

So which of Angelou's methods are right for my poem? We've been thinking in learning cycle one about the ideas that might be really important.

You've got some fantastic ideas now.

But now we need to start thinking about the methods.

"How are we gonna put this poem together? How we're going to convey our main messages? Where's the poem's power going to come from?" So after creating a list of ideas to include in their poems, Lucas and Sam consider which of Angelou's methods they would like to use.

Now, methods in some ways is a fancy word for techniques.

So things like alliteration, repetition, use of refrain.

These are examples of methods, the tools that Angelou uses to put her poem together and to convey her messages.

Now Lucas and Sam, they reread each poem and record their ideas and here are some of their notes.

So you can see Sam reread "Woman Work." And for the method, she said, "For me, the most important method is the list in stanza one.

I want to create the idea that young people have an overwhelming number of things to do." So Sam's focus is going to be the precious on young people.

And she recognises, she sees this method, this idea of list in "Woman Work." And she thinks, "Yeah, I can see that that's really powerful and I can see it's really going to work for me." She hasn't listed all of the methods in "Woman Work," she said the most important method is and selected list.

Now Lucas, he reread "On Ageing." And he said, "For me, the most important method is Angelou's use of command words.

I want to tell readers to stop thinking certain ways about young people." So Lucas has reread one of the poems that he was drawn to and he can see, "Okay, I'm going to use commands in my poem just like Angelou did." And both of them have justified why they're using that particular method.

So a really nice insight into the thinking for Sam and Lucas into why they selected those particular methods.

So I'd like you to reread "Equality." This is one of Maya Angelou's poems, "Equality." And I'd like you to discuss which method from "Equality" might you use in your own poem.

Now, there's no right answer here.

For each person there will be a different method which will be the most important for your particular poem, for your particular poem's focus.

So I'm not looking for a particular answer here.

You are going to look at "Equality" and think, what might you use in your own poem? What method? What technique would be best for you to steal from this poem and use in your own poem.

So reread "Equality," and then use this sentence starter.

"For me, the most important method is.

Because in my poem, I want to.

." Pause the video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

It was lovely to hear people rereading "Equality." A lot of people choosing to read that poem aloud, which is so, so nice.

It's such a beautiful poem to hear, very powerful poem to hear.

And one of the reasons that it is so powerful is this refrain, which was one of the methods that lots of people said, "I'm actually going to use that in my poem." But me, the most important method is refrain.

Because in my poem, I have a central message that I want readers to remember just like they do, just like Angelou does in "Equality." So refrain a really, really nice method to think about.

Others saying there are some patterns of imagery that Angelou uses in "Equality." Some patterns of imagery that are very figurative and they are very powerful.

Now it's difficult to think of figurative language, but I really want to focus on developing some non-literal words and phrases which are really gonna convey the depth of my speaker, of their emotions or the ideas in my poem.

So lots and lots of different ideas that you might.

Or methods that you might have taken from "Equality" to inspire your own work.

Now, check for understanding before we move on to selecting with a bit more precision and what methods we would like to use in our own poem.

Which of the following are examples of methods? A, use of rhyme.

B, use of stanzas.

C, use of ideas.

D, use of refrain.

Pause the video and select your responses now.

Welcome back.

Well done if you selected A, B, and D.

All of these are methods, techniques that you could use in your poem to build your poem.

C, use of ideas, that is not a method, that is a theme, a big idea, that you want to focus on in your poem.

Methods are a bit more specific.

So rhyme example, of a method, stanzas, refrain.

A few people said are really stanzas.

Is a stanza an example of a method? And it is, because you will have to decide how many stanzas you would like to include in your poem, when the stanzas will end and finish? How long each stanza will going to be? So all of these are choices that you can make for your poem, and that means it's an example of a method.

So our practise task.

I would like you to select your three favourite poems from the list below and reread them.

So there's a list below.

If you've read some other Angelou poems and you want to reread them instead, that is absolutely fine.

And the second thing I'd like you to do is identify one method from each that might be useful to your own poem.

Just like Sam and Lucas did earlier and like you did with "Equality." So you can put the name of the poem and then you can say for the method, "For me, the most important method is.

Because in my poem I want to.

." So first thing, select your three favourite poems, your three favourite Maya Angelou poems and reread them.

And then identify one method from each that might be useful in your own poem.

Pause the video and complete these tasks now.

Welcome back.

Lovely, lovely to hear people rereading those poems. People had such a range of which were their favourites, different poems, connecting or speaking to different people.

And then we've got some really interesting methods that you want to include in your own poem.

What I'm particularly pleased about is that you really started thinking about what your poem is going to look like because you use this sentence starter.

"For me, the most important method is," and select that method.

And then you said, "Because in my poem I want to," so you really started thinking about your poem and how you are gonna convey its messages.

That's a very, very good thing to do.

As you're showing yourselves off as powerful poets.

Let's do a bit of feedback.

So here are further sections from Sam and Lucas's table.

Sam also read, "Still I Rise." And she said, "For me the most important method is repetition.

I think I will use this to show that young people are resilient and keep going, despite all the things they have to do." So really nice justification there from Sam.

And Lucas read "Caged Bird." And he said, "For me the most important method is Angelou's use of contrast.

I will use contrast to show the difference between how people see me and what I am really like." So again, Lucas has selected a really clear method and explained why.

So both Sam and Lucas have selected a method.

So Sam selected repetition and Lucas selected contrast.

And then we've got this justification.

Explains why the method is important to their poem.

And that's that second sentence in their table.

So I'd like you to look at your table now and identify where each section has met the checklist.

You'll have reread three poems, so you will have three moments to look at, three explanations to look at.

Make sure you've got a method, and then make sure you've got that explanation.

Pause the video and identify where your table has met the checklist now.

Welcome back.

Well done for completing that self-assessment really, really carefully.

Now, looking in front of you, you've got a fantastic set of ideas from your poem and a fantastic set of methods.

So you're in a brilliant position to prepare to write your poem.

Well done for completing those two planning activities.

In summary, when writing a poem inspired by a particular writer, their ideas and or methods might inspire you.

You can use Angelou's writing routine to spark your creativity.

For example, generating ideas about a particular theme.

When selecting which methods you want to use in a poem, consider how each method will help you convey their ideas.

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