RHYTHM AND BLUES
LESSON 3: Out
of this world
Poem: ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’, Craig Raine
Framework Objectives:
Learning Objective:
Year 7, Reading 8 Infer and deduce meanings using evidence in the text, identifying where and how meanings are implied
To read and enjoy the poem, explore the images the poet has created, then add images to the poem in the style of the original
Year 7, Writing 8 Experiment with the visual and sound effects of language, including the use of imagery
This wonderful poem about modern life mixes quirky humour with reflective observations that are tinged with sadness.
Resources and lesson preparation Worksheet 34: Match the images Music and/or Earth image from CD-ROM Images of household objects/collection of mixed household objects on CD-ROM Copies of the poem
Starter Have the class enter to appropriate music, such as the theme from Star Wars, Wars, ‘Mars’ from the Planets Suite (Holst), Also (Holst), Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (used in the film 2001: film 2001: A Space Odyssey ). Display the image of Earth from space on the interactive whiteboard or display a poster with a similar image. Then, either: present the class with the photographs of ordinary household objects taken from unusual angles – students have to work out what the images are.
■
or: ■
show the class a variety of household objects (e.g. a corkscrew, egg-beater, stapler, glass paperweight). Pick up any object and mime using the object in object in any way apart from its intended function (e.g. a corkscrew becomes a dentist’s dentist’s drill). Nominate students at random (taking names from a hat?) and ask them to do the same for each of the other objects.
Both these activities encourage students to see objects in unusual ways.
Introduction Read the poem and discuss the idea that a Martian has come to Earth and sees things that are usual to us with new eyes. ‘Decode’ the images and descriptions – what does each refer to? To To do this, provide students (in pairs or small groups) with a set of cards from Worksheet 34, 34, and ask them to place the cards next to the appropriate lines in the poem. (Alternatively use ICT Activity 1, 1, which asks students to rearrange the image tiles into the order in which the Martian mentions them in the poem).
Teachit Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers 2007.
This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom.
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Talk about the effectiveness of each image, and also how each has been viewed differently by the Martian (i.e. the book is seen as a bird, etc.) Note: you may need to explain ‘Caxtons’ – referring to books, after W illiam Caxton, the inventor of the printing press.
Development Working individually or in the same groups, ask students to invent their own images to add to the poem. For example, how would the Martian describe: computers, sports, the sea, school, a can of fizzy drink, an MP3 player? Ask students to write their own ‘postcards home’, echoing the poet’s style as closely as possible, i.e. with a cool, observational style as if observing humans from some invisible vantage point. Also, if they are writing about several images, can they imitate the style by writing in non-rhymed couplets that are sometimes self-contained (like ‘rain’) but sometimes slip into the next couplet (as in the final four lines)?
Plenary Swap the ‘postcards’ so that each pair of students receives ideas written by other students that they have not seen before. (If possible, ask students to email their ideas to each other – this will further develop the concept of messages being conveyed through space.) Students then have to work out what the other students’ images refer to. Gather recommended images together on the board to create the class’s own version of the poem.
Suggestions for writing Ask students to reverse the process – as if they are on a visit to Mars. They should send a postcard back to Earth, describing what they see in as much detail as possible.
NOTES ●
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This poem could be compared to Dr Xargle’s Book of Earthlets by Jeanne Willis. Both play on the idea that what is ordinary to us could seem extraordinary to alien beings.
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John Cooper Clarke’s ‘i wanna be yours’ (Rhythm and Blues, Lesson 14) also employs ordinary household objects, though to different effect.
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Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift contains a passage when the Lilliputians remove objects from Gulliver’s pockets for inspection, unaware of their true function.
Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollinsPublishers 2007.
This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom.
WORKSHEET 34:
Match the images
Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollinsPublishers 2007.
This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom.
119
OHT
A Martian Sends a Postcard Home Craig Raine Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings and some are treasured for their markings – they cause the eyes to melt or the body to shriek without pain. I have never seen one fly, but sometimes they perch on the hand. Mist is when the sky is tired of flight and rests its soft machine on ground: then the world is dim and bookish like engravings under tissue paper. Rain is when the earth is television. It has the property of making colours darker. Model T is a room with the lock inside – a key is turned to free the world for movement, so quick there is a film to watch for anything missed. But time is tied to the wrist or kept in a box, ticking with impatience. In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps, that snores when you pick it up. If the ghost cries, they carry it to their lips and soothe it to sleep with sounds. And yet they wake it up deliberately, by tickling with a finger. Only the young are allowed to suffer openly. Adults go to a punishment room with water but nothing to eat. They lock the door and suffer the noises alone. No one is exempt and everyone’s pain has a different smell. At night when all the colours die, they hide in pairs and read about themselves – in colour, with their eyelids shut. 120
Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollinsPublishers 2007.
This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom.
