Lesson Plan 1: What's it all about?

How does this fit into the National Curriculum? Pupils should be taught to analyse and discuss alternative interpretations, ambiguity and allusion (EN2 1b); how ideas, values and emotions are explored and portrayed (1c); how language is used in imaginative, original and diverse ways (1g); to reflect on the writer's presentation of ideas and issues and the overall impact of the text (1h)

Teachers' Note: Photocopy this poem and hand it to the class. Read through it with them and steer a discussion about the poem, including:

What the poet feels about the value of life
How and why the grandmother feels differently
How the style of writing reflects the views of the poet
Why the poet chose to present the poem without punctuation
The impact that this text has upon the reader

'i had a choice to make, between my grandmother & a cockroach' by Coral Hull
when my grandmother asked me how i felt about her in relation to a cockroach, i said 'i love you both the same,' she was very offended & went off her head, i told her that i thought she had misunderstood, that i was naturally more attached to her than the cockroach, because she was of my own species, because she was a grandmother & because i liked some things about her personality that made her dear to me, furthermore that i was not particularly partial to cockroaches, & i had no idea what the cockroaches personality would be like, therefore i was not as attached to the cockroach, but that in reality they were both equal in the eyes of life & death, & that they were both the same, in that they were both worthy of my love & respect in the same way, but nanny never heard any of this, in her mind i had chosen the cockroach