Read the poem in front of you. What is it about? What details do you know about the event? Why do you think the author Carol Ann Duffy thinks we should kneel on the street? What do you think is meant by the words in the last line ‘ nobody’s children’?
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Transcript
Read the poem in front of you.
What is it about?What details do you know about the event?
Why do you think the author Carol Ann Duffy thinks we should kneel on the street?
What do you think is meant by the words in the last line ‘ nobody’s children’?
After the evening prayers at the mosque,
came the looters in masks,
and you three stood,
beloved in your neighbourhood,
brave, bright, brothers,
to be who you were –
a hafiz is one who has memorised
the entire Koran;
a devout man –
then the man in the speeding car
who purposefully mounted the kerb …
I think we all should kneel
on that English street,
where he widowed your pregnant wife, Shazad,
tossed your soul to the air, Abdul,
and brought your father, Haroon, to his knees,
his face masked in only your blood
on the rolling news
where nobody's children riot and burn.
UK Riots 2011
Learning objectives:
• To critically examine the UK Riots 2011
• To gain an overview of the Riots
• To investigate the event from other points of view
PLTS objective
Independent enquirer
I can explore issues, events or problems from different points of view.
Habits of mind
Listening to others with understanding and empathy.
Keywords
Empathy
Citizenship
Birmingham for Tariq Jahan
by Carol Ann Duffy
BBC news clip hyperlinked to photo (www.redcross.org.uk)