Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide

Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
Answers
1 Poetic form
Student Book pages 110–111
Activity 1
1 The shape of the poem suggests its subject matter.
2 a Perhaps Zephaniah saw the hedgehog every day, but now misses it because it
has gone into hibernation.
b It is laid out to represent the shape of a hedgehog.
c All are arguable, but it’s least likely to be a song.
3 a Like the other verses, it begins with the same line.
b Unlike the others, it is shorter, creating a more halting rhythm.
c The last four llines contain more negative vocabulary (‘gone away’, ‘miss’) and
so change the tone: the poet contrasts his love for the hedgehog with his
sadness at its disappearance.
Activity 2
1 b There are four beats per line.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
2 a I am in luv wid a hedgehog,
She’s gone away so I must wait
But I do miss my hedgehog
Everytime she goes to hibernate.
b Because the poem is written in free verse, the rhythm is variable and, so,
arguable. One reading, shown above, suggests that the first and third lines
have three beats, and that, because the second line has four beats, you might
expect the last line to be similar. However, having five beats slows the rhythm
of the poem down – perhaps mimicking hibernation – and further emphasises
the change in tone.
Activity 3
1
love the with my for that this and
luv de wid me fe dat dis an
2 a Look for answers that suggest that the poem sounds less personal or
emotional.
b To reflect the way the poet speaks.
Answers 117
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
3 Poetry is a very personal expression of feeling; Zephaniah often writes to express
personal feelings in his own, unique voice. His Caribbean culture and heritage are
a strong part of that voice.

Answers 118
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
2 Rhyme
Student Book pages 112–113
Activity 1
2 The entire poem is written in rhyming couplets.
Activity 2
1 memorable/chemical, haddock/product, cuisine/protein, perfect/worth it
2 Half-rhyme may be used to avoid the restrictions of full rhyme; it can also help
‘break’ the rhyme, drawing attention to the second rhyming word.
3 Look for answers that suggest that the unifying pattern or structure of the poem is
lost.
4
 people
 Concern
 tummies
 colour
 many
 vegans
Activity 3
1 All answers are arguable with explanation.
2 a Lots of different people are vegans because they care about their health and
the humane treatment of animals.
b Benjamin Zephaniah respects and admires them
c The tone of the poem is very positive.
d Rhyming couplets, in conjunction with positive language, often create a positive
tone; perhaps suggesting children’s rhymes.

Sharpen your skills: Common errors

Student sheet 5.5
Your/you’re
1 You’re the nicest person in the world.
2 I have never been to your house.
3 If you’re going to the shops, don’t forget to take your money.
4 Your shoes are too small.
5 You’re going to need a new pair soon.

Answers 119
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
Who’s/whose
1 Who’s the best singer in the world?
2 I don’t know whose shirt this is.
3 The boy, whose name was Jack, sat down.
4 The girl, who’s older than me, stood up.
5 Whose idea was this, anyway?

Answers 120
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
3 Rhyme and repetition
Student Book pages 114–115
Activity 2
1 a The poet is talking to the people who live in the place where the tourists go on
holiday.
2
He welcomes tourists ‘If they treat us good/They’re
welcome in the neighbourhood’
He hates tourists No evidence
He likes tourists who protect ‘They must respect what we’ve
the environment planted’
He likes quiet tourists ‘Tell them if they can’t keep the
peace/That tourism may have to
cease’
He needs the income from ‘They come here with their money’
tourism
He wants to stop tourism No evidence
Activity 3
1 All are arguable with explanation, except perhaps that he does it to make the
poem longer.
2 The majority of nursery rhymes have a regular rhythm: ‘London Bridge is Falling
Down’, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ all feature
repetition.
3 Nursery rhymes use repetition to emphasise an idea and to make them
memorable. Zephaniah uses it for similar reasons.
Activity 4
1 The most obvious humour is in the last verse.
2 All of these are arguable with explanation.

4 Active reading
Student Book pages 116–117
Activity 1
1 It’s written like a song.
2 a We are destroying our planet.
b It reminds the reader of, and emphasises, the poet’s key point.
Activity 2

Answers 121
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
1 Destruction/loss: No flowers, dissolved, gone, got lost
Business/shopping: sale, bet, sell, bargain, deal
This suggests that the desire to make money is making us exploit and destroy our
planet.
2 ‘It’s the sale of the century’, ‘a deal you can’t refuse’, ‘The price is right’. The
positive statements are all encouraging the reader to ‘buy’.
3 ‘Free of living things that roam,’ ‘Free of people and ozone’, ‘I promise you will find
no trees’. The negative statements are all about the damage we have to done to
the Earth.
Activity 3
1 These characters suggest that we have lost everything; these were characters
from a time of innocence, which has now gone. Zephaniah may have used
pleasant childish images to contrast with the nightmare vision of the future,
making it even more disturbing.
2 a The poet is talking to the person to whom he is selling the planet, but also
directly to the reader.
b Asking for a meal suggests that, despite the vast amount of money made, the
Earth no longer has the resources to make food. Money cannot buy everything.
c The poet emphasises throughout that all life – and therefore the source of our
food – has been lost.
3 The seller seems to be using negative points as positive selling points. The poet is
emphasising how much damage has been done to the Earth.

5 Poetic techniques
Student Book pages 118–119
Activity 1
‘Urdu poets ... are like magical wordsmiths.’ The suffix -smith suggests that the poets
create or make magical things from words.
Activity 2
1 You’re a star! He’s a breath of fresh air.
2 a ‘bring glory to the bazaars / Hope to the pavements’ suggests that the poets
give glory to ordinary people, living ordinary lives. ‘Libraries to the mind’
suggests that their words give us everything that a whole library can; that their
poems offer everything that can be found in every other book. Zephaniah
might have chosen these metaphors because they reflect his view on what
poetry should be and do.
Activity 3

Answers 122
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
Most answers are arguable with explanation. ‘warm’, ‘positive’ and ‘happy’ are most
appropriate.
Sharpen your skills: Homophones
Off: the opposite of on.
Of: a preposition, belonging to, connected to, or ‘coming from’.
Passed: the past tense of ‘to pass’, to move on or ahead.
Past: an adverb, having gone by.

6 Language choices
Student Book pages 120–121
Activity 1
2 A student at school who is bullied because of their race.
3 a The language suggests the pain the writer feels because of how he is treated
and creates both sympathy and empathy in the reader.
b The key issue in the poem is that racism is not the victim’s problem; it is the
racists who need to change their attitudes and stereotypes.
4 ‘on de run’ links to ‘athletic’ in the next line and suggests insecurity as well as
humour– he feels he has to run away and when he is made to run he’s branded
athletic; and criminality.
‘pigeon hole’ suggests he is being organised and categorised, treated like an
object.
‘Mother country’: Zephaniah seems to be reminding the mother country of its
motherly duties – to care for and nurture its children.
Activity 2
1 All identified reasons are arguable.
2 To reflect and emphasise the cultural context of the poem and its narrator.

Sharpen your skills: Common errors

(There, their or they’re and where, were or we’re)
1 a) their b) there c) they’re
2 a) where b) were c) we’re d) were

7 Looking at audience
Student Book pages 122–123
Starter
Student sheet 5.15

Answers 123
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
The main point is for students to explain how and where they see something, if they
can do that then their answer is valid. Some answers may include: a map, a birds-eye
view of car park, a house, a boat, a flagpole, a diving board with diver, a dog eating
from its bowl, steps, a ladder, goalposts.

8 A writer’s point of view

Student Book pages 125–127
Activity 1
2
Statement Line in the poem supporting
statement
All people deserve to be ‘Add some unity, understanding and respect
treated with respect. for the future’
It takes time for people ‘Allow time to be cool.’
to live in harmony.
We have to work at The use of commands, typical of recipes,
getting along with all e.g. ‘take’, ‘add’, ‘simmer’, etc. suggests we
kinds of people. have to take part in this
Throughout history the ‘Take some Picts, Celts and Silures...’
population has changed.
Everyone is equal. ‘All the ingredients are equally important.’
It’s exciting to live in a ‘’Combine with some Guyanese/ And turn
multicultural society. up the heat’, ‘Leave the ingredients to
simmer.’
Benjamin Zephaniah is ‘Give justice and equality to all.’
passionate about justice
and equality.

3 This suggests that Britain has been a mixture of cultures, races and nationalities
for the last two thousand years at least. The British have never been purely
British!
Activity 2
1 a Commands: ‘take’, ‘add’ ‘simmer’, etc.
Temporal connective: ‘then’
Cooking metaphors: ‘remove…after approximately’, ‘stir vigorously’, ‘turn up
the heat’, ‘sprinkle some’, ‘the melting pot’, ‘leave the ingredients to simmer’.
Concludes with serving suggestion: ‘Serve with justice/And enjoy.’
b

Answers 124
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
 Zephaniah wants to show that Britain has become a multicultural society so he
describes it as a mixture of ingredients producing a, hopefully, successful
outcome.
 The poem is set out like a recipe. It starts with: ‘Take some Picts...’ as though it is
describing the ingredients.
 The words ‘stir vigorously’ make me think that the ingredients were mixed very
thoroughly.
 When he uses the words ‘melting pot’, Zephaniah wants us to think that all the
ingredients will be thoroughly blended in the same place to create something new.
 Zephaniah uses the word ‘blend’ to suggest that we are all mixed and integrated
together in this recipe.
 When he writes ‘And turn up the heat’ Zephaniah could mean that we need to
make more effort for this happen; or that there may be some ‘heat’ or trouble, or
just excitement, in putting this mixture together.
 When he says: ‘And enjoy’ Zephaniah means that we should celebrate the cultural
mix in Britain.
2 Recipes do not usually carry a warning. The other two answers are both arguable.

9 Writing about poems

Student Book pages 128–129
Activity 1
2 a Look for answers that recognise our ambivalent attitudes to animals: those we
accept as pets, those we dismiss as pests; those we view as friendly and
attractive; those we see as frightening and wild.
b animals: we remove them from our homes; pets: we look after them; wildlife:
we put them in zoos and watch them on television.
3 a To encourage the reader to question humans’ attitudes to animals.
Activity 2
Your thoughts ‘Pets Control’
Structure and form The short lines like ‘We gazed’ made me think
about the way we treat animals; the word
‘gaze’ suggests that we stare at them for a
long time in the zoo.
Meaning The poem is about how we treat animals and
our attitudes to wildlife.
Imagery ‘we kicked de animals out’ The word ‘kicked’
made me feel sad that we treat animals badly
and brutally.
Language (pick ‘We’ suggests this poem is about all human

Answers 125
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
out key words and beings.
phrases) ‘Civilised’: our treatment of animals reflects on
us.

Answers 126
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
10 Planning
Student Book pages 130–131
Activity 1
1
Paragraph 1: What is the
poem about?
Paragraph 2: How is the poem
structured or organised?
Paragraph 3: What kind of
language does the poet use?
Paragraph 4: How has the
poet used rhyme and rhythm?
Paragraph 5: What was the
poet’s intention in writing this
poem?
Paragraph 6: What is your
response to this poem?
D The poem is about people’s
concerns about animals.
A Each verse describes a person who
is careful about what they eat.
F The poet uses standard English and
it seems as if he is talking to us at the
supermarket.
C The rhyming couplets give the poem
a bouncy rhythm that sounds positive.
B The last two lines seem as if the
poet is answering the question, ‘Why
do people become vegans?’
E Finally, I enjoyed this poem most of
all because it made me think about
what I eat.

Assessment task: Reading: Understanding the author’s craft Mothers and

sons
Student Book pages 132–134
1 A wealthy country where it was easy to make money.
2 mudder – mother; de = the. Both give the poem a very personal tone, expressing
an intimate emotion.
3 The repetition creates a rhythm and emphasises the subject and focus of the
poem.
4 The rhythm is very regular – four beats every line. This contributes to the poem’s
happy, positive tone.
5
‘We try fe live in harmony’ The word ‘try’ suggests that
sometimes they argue.
‘She shouts at me daddy so loud She has a forceful personality and
some time’ is sometimes scary, perhaps.
‘She works so hard down ina He has great respect for her.
Englan’
‘Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes This seems to refer to the weather
Answers 127
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
it’s cold’ but could imply the strength of
their love varies.
6 Verse 1: Focuses on their relationship. Use of word ‘we’.
Verse 2: Focuses on mother. Use of word ‘she’.
Verse 3: Repeats much of verse 1; ending differs, emphasising their love for each
other.
7 The two similar verses about their relationship ‘sandwich’ the verse which explores
the mother’s personality.
8 A mother.
9 Life has not been easy. Similar to ‘life is not a bowl of cherries’.

Answers 128
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
10
Quotation What this quotation suggests about the
mother’s life
‘It’s had tacks in ‘Tacks’ are like nails, and suggests that there have
it’ been hard things which have made her life difficult
at times.
‘And places with Having no carpet on the floor suggests that one of
no carpet on the the difficulties was not having enough money at
floor’ times.
‘I’se been Despite all these difficulties, the mother has carried
climbin’ on’ on and not given up. The word ‘climbed’ emphasises
the effort needed and that she believed she was
moving upwards.
‘And sometimes Even though they were ‘in the dark’ – perhaps
goin’ in the dark’ without enough money for electric light, perhaps a
metaphor for not knowing where she was going, or
a feeling that her life was hopeless – she kept on.
11 It emphasises the word, and the difficulties she has faced.
12 She advises her son to keep going (‘don’t you turn back’), not to give up (‘Don’t
you set down on the steps’) if he finds that life is ‘kinda hard’ and finally not to
lose determination (‘Don’t you fall now’) because she has never given up.
13 Key points:
‘I luv me Mudder’ ‘Mother to Son’
My impressions of the Both mothers are presented as tough, resilient
mothers women whom the poets admire.
How the mothers are Both mothers have worked hard to keep going
similar through difficulties.
How the mothers are Zephaniah’s poem is Hughes’s poem
different written from a son to focuses on the
a mother. relationship from the
mother’s point of
view.
What the poems are Zephaniah’s poem Hughes’s poem
about focuses on his mother focuses more
and his love for her. specifically on a
mother’s advice.
The poems’ structure Zephaniah’s poem is Hughes’s poem is in
in three verses, the one verse, perhaps
repetition in the first suggesting the long,
and last verse making hard, relentless climb
Answers 129
 Text English Book 1 Teacher Guide
Unit 5 Pen rhythm

5 Pen rhythm
it like a song. the mother has had in
life.
The poems’ rhythm The rhythm of Zephaniah’s poem is more
regular, contributing to the positive tone.
The poems’ language Although not entirely positive, the language in
Zephaniah’s poem is more positive than
Hughes’s, which focuses on hardship and
difficulties.
Both use repetition: Zephaniah repeats ‘she’
when focusing on his mother’s personality;
Hughes repeats ‘and’ when emphasising the
difficulties faced in climbing the stairs of life.
The poems’ tone or The tone of Hughes’s poem is a
mood Zephaniah’s poem is more sombre warning.
more positive.

Answers 130