Teaching resources

Wars in WordsWilfred Owen and Jessie

Pope

(Exposure and Who’s for the Game)

Subjects: KS3 English Literature

Teaching resources:

War of words:

Learning Objectives:

Poetry through time, literature in historical context, perspectives and viewpoints, descriptive writing.

This resource may be of interest to KS3 teachers following AQA English Literature Assessment Objectives and Pearson Edexcel specification

Task 1

Word Association Game:

Along the lines of the TV show ‘Mallet’s Mallet’, engage the class in playing a quickfire word association game. Appendix 2 contains a table of descriptive words or phrases. The teacher begins by writing one on the board and then asks a student to call out the first thing that comes into their head associated with this word. E.g. if the word is ‘hot’ the student might call out ‘cold’, or ‘summer’. Then the person to their left has to shout out a word associated with the word chosen by student one. E.g. is student 1 has shouted ‘cold’, student two might shout ‘ice.’ The game continues until a student calls out a word that isn’t related, or hesitates in which case they are out and the teacher throws in a new starting word. The teacher can set a timer or choose when to end the game. Suggested 5 minutes of play.

By using a mix of the selected words or phrases from ‘Exposure’ and ‘Who’s for the Game’ the teacher can draw attention to the different feelings and images evoked by the language used in these two poems.

5-10 minutes.

Task 2

Grouping words according to meaning / inferred meaning:

Ahead of the lesson, print out four or five copies of the list of words in Appendix 2, and cut them up into individual words so that they can be jumbled. Give each group a complete set and explain that the words belong in two poems we are going to be looking at in today’s class, ask them to try to divide them into two groups based on the feelings and images they produce as discussed above. Let them know that one poem is longer and therefore one group of words will be larger.

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Teaching resources:

5 minutes.

Task 3

War of words:

Divide the class into two groups, team Wilfred and Team Jessie and have them read through the poem for their team individually for a few moments. Explain that both poems were written about WW1 by people who were alive at the time. Within their groups, students should discuss and answer the following:

- Can you find two or three adjectives used in the poem?

- Can you find a simile or a metaphor used in the poem?

- Do you think the writer feels positive about the war? Can you explain why?

- Do you think the writer has fought in the war? Can you explain why?

- What do you think the writer wants to achieve by writing this poem?

- Do you agree or disagree with the writer?

Share your answers with the class, and once answers have been shared, take a few moments to explain that Wilfred Owen is one of the UK’s most prolific war poets, who fought in the war and was tragically killed in action age 26, only a few days before armistice day. Explain that Jessie Pope was a prolific poet, published widely in newspapers such as the Daily Express and the Evening Standard, and her patriotic verses, written during World War 1 were published in the Daily Mail, her poems are often dismissed as jingoistic, romanticising and glorifying war. Wilfred Owen dedicated a poem directly to her, (Dulce et Decorum Est), chastising her for encouraging young people to sign up to such a bloody conflict.

15 minutes

Task 4

Tweetgate:

The teacher writes the following ‘tweet’ on the board: “proudofourboys#signupforglory

And asks each group to respond to this initial tweet, and then to one another’s response with two or three tweets in 150 characters or less to this in the

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Teaching resources:

character of Wilfred or Jessie. Teacher to judge the winning team based on the strength of arguments presented.

5-10 minutes

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Teaching resources:

Task 5

A picture paints a thousand words:

Introduce the current war that is taking place in Yemen to the class, along with the role that the Charity Medecins Sans Frontiers, (MSF) plays in helping people affected by war there.

Yemen is in the midst of a civil war. Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting anti-government Houthi forces, resulting in widespread destruction, bombing and gun battles.

Recent outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and diphtheria and an upsurge in fighting have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. More than three million people have been displaced since the war started in 2015.

With an estimated 20 million in need of humanitarian assistance, our activities in Yemen are among our most extensive worldwide. MSF work in 13 hospitals and health centres in 12 governorates and support 20 public health facilities across the country.

The following video explains what charity, Medecins Sans Frontiers does in conflict zones such as Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan:

https://youtu.be/DfoaVGfJYCg

Ask the class to read Appendix 4 either as a printout or via the link below:

https://www.msf.org.uk/article/yemen-msf-resumes-medical-work-haydan-hospital

10 minutes

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Teaching resources:

Atsuhiko Ochiai

This striking image of modern warfare shows an MSF worker standing among the wreckage at Haydan hospital and might inspire strong feelings in the students. Ask them as a group to come up with some ways to describe the situation in the image. Discuss whether this image fits more with the Wilfred Owen or the Jessie Pope poems they have read earlier today.

Homework:

See appendix 5. Students are to create a poem or paragraph based on the work of MSF at Haydan Hospital, a modern-day view of conflict.

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Teaching resources:

Further informationFor further information on MSF resources for schools please visit www.msf.org.uk/schools-resources .     If you like our resources, help us spread the word among your peers by sharing the link on Twitter,  Facebook or Instagram.    If you are interested in finding out more about MSF, including additional resources, fundraising days and speaker events, please contact schools@london.msf.org .     Missing Maps is a project that MSF is involved in; its aim is to help map areas of the world where the maps are missing or incomplete. Schools can help with this initiative, to find out more about Missing Maps, please contact schools.mapping@london.msf.org .  

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Appendix 1

Exposure by Wilfred Owen

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us . . . Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . . Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . . Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,        But nothing happens. 

Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles. Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles, Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.        What are we doing here? 

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . . We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy. Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey,        But nothing happens.

Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow, With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew, We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance,        But nothing happens. 

Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces— We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed, Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed, Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.        —Is it that we are dying? 

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there; For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs; Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,—        We turn back to our dying. 

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn; Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit. For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid; Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,        For love of God seems dying. 

Tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us, Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp. The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp,Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,        But nothing happens.

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Teaching resources:

Appendix 2: Word Association Game

Iced Knife

Weary Silent

Nervous Whisper

Twitching Flickering

Dull Poignant

Misery

Sag Soak

Melancholy Grey

Nonchalance Drowse

Ghosts Closed

Afraid Shrivelling

Game Crashing

Unafraid Go!`

The Show Eagerly

Fun All right

Fight Calling

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Appendix 3

Who’s for the Game? By Jessie Pope

Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played, The red crashing game of a fight? Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid? And who thinks he’d rather sit tight? Who’ll toe the line for the signal to ‘Go!’? Who’ll give his country a hand? Who wants a turn to himself in the show? And who wants a seat in the stand? Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much- Yet eagerly shoulders a gun? Who would much rather come back with a crutch Than lie low and be out of the fun? Come along, lads – But you’ll come on all right – For there’s only one course to pursue, Your country is up to her neck in a fight, And she’s looking and calling for you.

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Appendix 4:

Yemen: MSF resumes medical work in Haydan hospital

Six months after withdrawing its staff from northern Yemen following the bombing of its hospital in Abs, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has restarted work in Haydan district hospital, in Sa’ada governorate.  Following the 15 August airstrike on Abs hospital which killed 19 people and injured 24 and in the wake of a row of attacks on several medical facilities in northern Yemen, MSF decided to evacuate most of its staff from both Hajja and Sa’ada governorates.On 19 February, an MSF team returned to work in Haydan hospital. Up to 200,000 people in this mountainous region rely on Haydan hospital for medical care.

“The situation is worsening by the day in Yemen and people’s need for medical care keeps rising,” says Ghassan Abou Chaar, MSF representative in Yemen. “The nearest other hospital is two hours’ drive from Haydan, but with the fuel shortages, people struggle to reach it.”

Prior to our withdrawal from Haydan hospital last August, the MSF team provided support to the emergency room, inpatient department, maternity unit and referral system, as well as providing general logistical support. We will resume our previous activities and increase our support to the in-patient department.

Over the past two years, a large number of health facilities in Yemen have been hit by airstrikes, including Haydan hospital itself, which was bombed on 26 October 2015, injuring one staff member. These repeated attacks have put enormous pressure on an already weak health system, while people have become increasingly afraid of visiting hospitals out of fear they will be targeted. 

“The restarting of our work in Haydan hospital, as well as its location, have been communicated to all parties to the conflict, and we expect them to respect its integrity,” says Abou Chaar. “The people of Yemen need to be granted safe access to hospitals and other health services.” 

MSF is working in 12 hospitals and health centres in Yemen and providing support to 18 others in 10 governorates: Taiz, Aden, Al-Dhale’, Saada, Amran, Hajjah, Ibb, Hodaida, Abyan, and Sanaa.

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Appendix 5: Homework

(Rawan Shalf)

This photograph shows an MSF worker clearing away the debris after an airstrike on the hospital in Haydan, where MSF are resuming operations. Create a short poem or paragraph inspired by your reading of conflict poetry today, based on this photograph. Think about:

- What is this man doing?

- Where is this man?

- How does this image make you feel about the war?

- How does the image make you feel about the work of MSF?

- Do you think what he is doing will make any difference?

- How do you feel about the targeting of hospitals during warfare?

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Teaching resources:

- How do you feel about the work of MSF in conflict zones such as Yemen?

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