Do you think this poem should be banned?

[toolly]

Here it is www.sumption.org/2006/05/23/education-for-leisure
An invigilator things it glorifies knife crime. I think rather than watching people taking exams she should take some because this poem in no way glamorises street violence.

Moomin - in one of the news articles I was browsing, it suggested that she was passed over for laureate at one point because it came up at the same time as there was a flurry of media interest in the fact that she's gay. Sigh - the world truly is going mad...

god how utterly depressing

janeite - no worries

StayFrosty - brilliant! A couple of the pupils did these last year for "The Tempest" but they could all do them for R and J - thanks for reminding me.

We can play pass the parcel too - play music and when it stops they get a picture or object and have to say how it relates to the play.

Thank you all for helping me to find my R and J "mojo" (whatever the heck one of those is) again!

I wish I had you for my english teachers! Your lessons sound fab.

You've probably done this janeite, but thought I'd pass it on anyway:

An early lesson we are using in Eng Dept is to divide the group into Capulets and Montagues then get them to devise chants like football fans for themselves and against the others.

This is then followed by work on Shakespearean insults which they devise and sling at each other. Two useful sites are:
this one
and this one
It is quite noisy though!

Roisin - I've done the insults thing before but I've never done the Montague and Capulet "face-off" so will deffo try that - it's a great idea.

Last year we did a creative writing club and did a "Rap-off" where pupils fired poetry at each other like they do in that Eminem film and it was a huge success (I've never seen the film; the visiting writer suggested the activity) - so this sounds like a step on from that.

Moomin, can I have a copy of your R&J stuff? I love the 'Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor' idea...

Janeite - one thing I've done with bottom set Y10 (to build confidence that they CAN understand the language) is a set of double sided laminated cards for the prologue.

One person has 'Two households, alike in dignity' & reads it out. Everyone looks at their 'answer' side, to see if they have something that 'means the same'.

Someone has 'Two families of equal importance' (dull but easy modern translation). That person then flips their card & reads 'In fair Verona, where we set our scene' & the person with modern version of that one 'answer' side has next line on 'question' side, etc etc.

At end of lesson I re-shuffle cards & they have to beat original time to go round class!

I'm going to do the same with R& J's initial conversation (sonnet) in Act I scene 5 - our coursework essay is based on dramatic importance of I,5.

Thanks Raven. I often do that sort of thing but as "domino" cards where everybody gets a question and answer (not matching) and then it passes around the class. Both ideas adapt really well to different activities and abilities. I love the "do it again faster" suggestion.

This is for a Year 9 set one, for SATs - maybe that's another reason why I'm not very excited by it: no coursework essay to get our teeth into!

I did a poetry workshop with Carol Ann Duffy when I was at primary school. It was really interesting, and she was great if a little terrifying at the same time.

And have just realised that that was about 25 years ago

Its not something i find particularly pleasant but i can totally understand why it would be used within a school.
it is very thought provoking and i find its language very simple to understand.

can't see how it glorifies street crime though

I think its a really good poem. A bit funny in parts - the budgie panicking - but sad, understandably sad. You feel sympathy with the way the writer feels.

Moomin your R&J work souds fantastic! I am feeling really inspired! I am still new to this teaching game and often feel my lessons are a little boring. I seeM to worry about behaviour and spend all my time marking- I definity want to try out a few of these ideas (I used to be such a creative person too-I don't know what happened!)

I have been watching this thread and happen to really like education for leisure. Teaching is ruled far too much these day. It really is a shame for those pupils who would respond well to this poem xx

Invigilator barking. Well known poet. Why not ban Romeo and Juliet? Plenty of knife crime in there. Quite a lot in Macbeth as well. Let's ban that too ...

Quattrocento - as well as the underage sex and teen suicide too! For Romeo and Juliet. Not to mention the murder of a family in Macbeth.

And so on.

Very interesting writing...I find it rather uncomfortable. If I were a teacher I'd probably use it as a springboard for a discussion designed to get my students to really think (until their brains hurt)...maybe I'd present it alongside a poem that gets them to place themselves in the shoes of a victim of crime...or, better yet, get them to role-play a victim/ perpetrator situation.

It's a really, really horribly uncomfortable poem but it reflects life for some people. I think it has great potential in the classroom. What a pity that so many great teachers (and invigilators?!) are so caught up in targets that the creativity is squeezed out of them. Our children need that creativity, in spades.

Quattro "Invigilator barking" - what a fantastic image that brings to mind!

I read some of the news reports with my Year 11s today and then got them to write a speech agreeing or disagreeing with the decision.

One of the speeches included, "With the greatest respect to Mrs Schofield, I do not think she can actually be very intelligent, as she has clearly misunderstood the message of the poem." Spot on I thought!

OUR invigilators are of course wonderful and I in no way intend to tar them all with the same brush.

Sounds like a social inept person and only knows how to get attention by being violent in the extreme.
Bet he looks really threatening and no wonder he gets fed up of being ignored.
GROW UP! you stupid person.