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EAL Nexus resource
Checking Out Me History
Lesson 3: Structure and images
Subject:
English
Age groups:
12–14, 15–16
Topic:
Poetry
Licence information | This resource is free to use for educational purposes.
Source | This resource was originally developed by EAL Nexus.
©British Council 2015
Lesson 3 – Learning objectives:
To look at the structure and images used
in ‘Checking Out Me History’
To learn some key words for describing
poetic techniques
‘Checking Out Me History’:
digging deeper
Think back to SMILER . What aspects do we
need to look at in more depth now?
 Structure *
 Meaning
 Images *
 Language *
 Emotion
 Reader’s response
*These three aspects
– structure, images
and language - are
what help to make
the meaning and
emotion clear. They
also influence the
reader’s response.
Poetic techniques: key words
Before we can really start to analyse a
poem in depth, we need to check we
understand and can use some key words.
Which words do you think we will need?
Poetic techniques: key words
Working in small groups, match the key words
with their meanings on your cards.
Stick or copy these key words and meanings
into your book.
How confident are you in using these terms?
You won’t need all of them to talk about this
poem, but you will need to use them all to
analyse other poems you will study.
Relating the techniques to our poem
Work in pairs. Find examples of where in this
poem John Agard has used the following
techniques:
 repetition
 rhyme
 narrator (1st or 3rd person?)
 metaphor
 alliteration
 enjambment
Annotate your own copy of the poem to show
you can identify the techniques.
Relating the techniques to our poem
Did you find these examples, or others?
 repetition
Lines:
1,2; 6,7 ... – ‘dem tell me’
 rhyme
6-9; 17,18; 22-25; 32-35 ...
 narrator
1st person – 1...52
 metaphor
4,5; 18; 20; 29-31; 46; 48
 alliteration
4,5
 enjambment
2,3; 10-21 ...
Language, images or structure?
Which of the techniques can be used to talk
about these different aspects of the poem?
language
alliteration
repetition
narrator
rhyme
metaphor
images
structure
metaphor
enjambment
short lines
italics
stanzas
What else do you notice about the poem’s structure?
The effect of using the techniques
Extension:
What effect do these techniques have on
our understanding of the meaning and
emotion in the poem?
Choose a technique. Write a few sentences to
show how and why it is used in the poem. For an
example, see the next slide ...
The poet emphasises his message by using
repetition, beginning many of the stanzas
with ‘Dem tell me’. This calls attention to
his words and gives them an assertive,
accusing tone. He repeatedly challenges
these points with ‘but dem never tell me
...’, which shows that the problem is
ongoing. People keep telling him about one
version of history, but they never tell him
about his own history.
Plenary
 Turn to somebody you have not worked with
yet today.
 Tell them about one poetic technique that
you have learnt in this lesson.
 Show them an example of where it is used in
the poem.
 Try to tell them why the poet used this
technique – what effect does it have?