Case+Study+-+Poetry+&+Identity

IDENTITY & POETRY RICH TASK

This rich task involved Angie Robertson’s year 9 class exploring the theme of identity as a part of their poetry study. The course was designed by Mrs Robertson, using our research as reference. Due to this approach, the rich task was definitely beneficial to not only our research but to Mrs Robertson’s class criteria for the term.

The rich task was designed so that the students would be reflecting on poems as icons of context (social, cultural, historical etc). Their study would then involve reflecting upon this context as part of the poem’s identity. The aim was to end the topic with the students creating their own masks which individual identities upon them. The project was scheduled to last at least two weeks, leading up to the original end of our visit, however, this was disrupted by the unforeseen February 22nd Christchurch earthquake.

Before the earthquake struck, this project had begun with three lessons, two of which were observed.

**__ Lesson 1 __**

The first lesson involved the students identifying key poetry forms and discussing the ideas of context and identity. These aspects where covered by a variety of methods by Mrs Robertson.

To start with, the students individually reflected on their personal knowledge on poetry forms and from here they worked in pairs to formulate a page reflecting their shared knowledge. This knowledge was then shared with the entire class where everyone together creating a web diagram on the white board. This process is also known as**Think-Pair-Share.**

From here, the students **copied information** on a few of these forms into their jotters while Mrs Robertson explained and discussed in more detail.

The question, “what makes up identity?” was then posed to the class, using the same Think-Pair-Share process.

Mrs Robertson handed out a **visual stimuli** in the form of pictures of South African Black Townships. She had the students cut out the pictures, sticking them in their jotters and had them thinking of their **individual ideas** on the predicted identity of the people in the pictures. The class then **discussed** their ideas and only then did Mrs Robertson reveal the details on the pictures.

**__ Evaluation __**

Through using such a variety of learning methods within the one class, Mrs Robertson kept the class constantly on their toes. The variety offered each of the students the chance to find a way of learning which suited them. This specifically related to our research aspect of **“how do you like to learn?”**.

This particular aspect of our research involved questioning Scottish students how they liked to learn best be it teacher-led lectures, pupil-led lectures, teacher-led activity, Group work with discussion or independently with access to resources. The research shows that the most popular mentioned was “independently with access to resources” and “group work with discussion” however, it also shows that students like to learn in a variety of ways and that these should be recognised within lessons.

Mrs Robertson successfully incorporates the majority of these learning types into this particular lesson and thus accommodates for her individual students.

**__ Lesson 2 __**

The second lesson started with a quick quiz relating back to the outcomes of lesson 1. From here, Mrs Robertson handed out a worksheet about identifying poetry techniques. This was individually completed before the students were asked to turn to their neighbour for a discussion about their answers. The lesson ended with a practical activity involving the entire class. Mrs Robertson asked the students to move themselves to a particular area of the classroom depending on their personal opinions on specific statements .e.g. “your environment is the most important factor impacting on your identity”. After all the students had decided whether they agreed, disagreed or were on the fence about the statement, Mrs Robertson selected a few of them to explain their opinions to the rest of the class. This was very effective as it allowed the students to gain an understanding of their classmates outlooks.

**__ Lesson 3 __**

This Lesson saw the students being introduced to the song “My Generation” by the Whos. They were given the song on a handout with just the lyrics to start with:

People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

 This is my generation  This is my generation, baby

 Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  And don't try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  I'm not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

 This is my generation  This is my generation, baby

 Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  And don't try to d-dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my generation)  I'm not trying to cause a b-big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout my generation) <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> This is my generation <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> This is my generation, baby

<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation) <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation) <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation) <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> This is my generation <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"> This is my generation, baby

Mrs Robertson selected a few students at random to take it in turns to read out the song verses to the whole class. This had everyone engaged with the readers being picked as each verse was read so none of the students knew if they were going to be asked to read aloud. After ensuring the entire class had heard the lyrics at least once, Mrs Robertson turned to the following online site: [], to show the class the song being sung live. It was only when the students heard the song and realised that the lead singer of the band had a stutter, did they fully understand the pronunciation in the written lyrics. The class begun a discussion, sharing their interpretations of specific poetic uses e.g. repetition. The students were able to express their understanding and share how they thought the band expressed their own identity, along with their bands’ identity, through their lyrics and structure.

The lesson ended with another practical activity the same concept as lesson 2. The students were asked to move to a particular area of the classroom depending on whether they agreed, disagreed or were on the bench about certain statements .e.g. “your society moulds your identity”.

<span style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-indent: -36.0pt;">**__ After the 3rd Lesson __**

As the rich task came to a halt due to the unforeseen earthquake, we were not able to gained completed outcome. However, as we were able to observe a few of the lesson and the learning techniques used by Mrs Robertson we gained an understanding in how important teaching strategies can be for the students personal understanding of subjects. We were also able to witness an example of the positive impact having a variety of learning processes within one class can have on many of the students, there was opportunities for all of the students to engage in the lesson and take relevant knowledge from the areas covered.

We Would like to sincerely thank Mrs Robertson for all her time, guidance and support in helping us further our research and for taking the time to incorporate our research into her own lessons. Thanks again to all the students who took part in the project. We are extremely appreciative to have been given the opportunity to visit Shirley Boys’ High and learn from the way in which it approaches education.