Football Poets

Kick Racism Out of Football Educational Pack

We have now produced a draft pack that has been sent to KIO and the FA. KIO is showing interest in supporting the production and marketing of the materials – and these should be available shortly.
The draft material below gives a flavour of the educational pack we will be producing at Brockworth Enterprise School; the draft below does not include the poems; it just includes the activities:

Kick it out Poetry Pack Questions and Activities

Objectives:- (1)To develop literacy and poetry skills
(2) To develop emotional literacy for the young active citizen
(3) To develop political literacy for the young active citizen

ACTIVITIES

(1) Divide the class into groups-

Group A covers poems 1-7
B: 8-13
C: 14-19
D: 20-23
E: 24-28
F: 29-34
Extension work and/or work for gifted and talented: 35-

(2) Group A

1. Look at poem 1. Which famous black American also had a dream?
2. Poems do not always rhyme at the end of lines. Sometimes they have
internal rhymes. Find 2 examples of internal rhyme in the first poem and
write them down.
3. Look at the last 9 lines of the 1st poem. Can you see why the 2nd from
last here starts ‘u’ instead ‘You’?
4.What do you think is the worst feeling in poem 2? Discuss in your group
and decide. Then re-write the poem with the first line ‘I love being black’
and carry on with a rhyme scheme.
5. How many different pronouns are used in poem 3?
6. Poem 4 suggests the crowd went through different stages of feelings.
Describe those stages. What made the racist feel ‘a clown’ do you think/
7. Poem 5 says we should leave people alone ’unless’- unless what?
Do you agree with the poem. Explain your reasoning.
8. What is the rhyme scheme in poem 6? Give examples. How does the poem
achieve closure with an end of line rhyme?
10. Now write your own anti-racist football poem. If your teacher wishes to
send it in to the football poets website (www.footballpoets.org) then a
spell check will be needed and also permission from parents/ carers. There
is also a submission form on www.footballpoets.org.

-Now go onto the extension/ gifted and talented work.

Group B

1. Look at poem 8. What would you do if you ruled the world so as to make
the world a better place? List 10 things.
2.Do you think line 3 is a good idea? What is this system of government
called? What is the opposite system called? (Both words begin with ‘d’).
3. What is the rhyme scheme in poem 9?
4. Why do you think the last line of poem 10 is so long? ( Clue: read the
first letter of each line downwards. What is this type of poem called).
5. Why is poem 11 so clever?
6. Why is the first word of the 2nd line of the last stanza misspelled?
7. List the causes of racism stated in poem 7. Do you agree with these?
Discuss.
8. Poem 12 is a rugby poem and a what type of poem?
9. Poem 13 states that racism is a shame to the human race. List nine other
shames to the human race and put them in rank order.
10. Now write your own anti-racist football poem. If your teacher wishes to
send it in to the football poets website (www.footballpoets.org) then a
spellcheck will be needed and also permission from parents/ carers. There is
a submission form on www.footballpoets.org.
-Now go onto the extension/ gifted and talented work.

Group C

1. Look at poem 14. Show ways in which you agree and disagree with what’s
said in the poem.
2. What is the rhyme scheme in poem 15?
3. How does poem 16 achieve emphasis?
4. Why does repetition work in this poem rather than make it boring?
5. How would you analyse the rhyme scheme?
6. Do a syllable count for the lines and write it down.
7. Poem 17 is an example of what type of poem?
8. What do you think is the most outstanding quality shown in poem17?
Discuss in you group and reach agreement.
9. Poem 18 states that racism makes the player feel incomplete. Give 3
exampes of that.
10. What suggests the player feels anxious at the start of the game?
11. What is the message of poem 19?
12. Now write your own anti-racist football poem . If your teacher wishes to
send it to the football poets website (www.footballpoets.org) then a
spellcheck will be needed and also permission from parents/ carers. There is
a submission form on www.footballpoets.org. Now go onto the extension/
gifted and talented work.

Group D

1. Would you say poem 20 had a rhyme scheme? If so, describe it.
2. Do you agree with the writer’s recommendationsin the 6th, 4th, 3rd and
2nd from last lines? Do you think that it would ‘clean up the cowards’?
Discuss and list your ideas.
3. Why is the writer of poem 21 cleaver with the 2 ways in which she uses
the word ‘best’?
4. Poem 21 is a very sad poem. List as many words as you can that describe
the different feelings you get from reading this poem.
5. Do you find the image ‘Rain from the skies like crying eyes’ a powerful
one? Discuss the use of this image and list your ideas.
6. How many ‘differences’ are listed in 22 (b)?
7. Which ‘difference’ can result in unfair treatment?
8. What is the main way to get rid of that unfairness in the writer’s view?
9. There is a complicated rhyme scheme in poem 23. Analyse it.
10. There are a number of messages in poem 23. What would you say is the
most important one?
11. Now write your own anti-racist football poem. If your teacher wishes to
send it in to the football poets website (www.footballpoets.org) then a
spellcheck will be needed and also permission from parents/ carers. There is
a submission form on www.footballpoets.org.
Now go onto the extension / gifted and talented work.

Group E

1. Look at the first 2 lines of poem 24. List ways in which this could be
argued to be true and ways in which this wouldn’t be true.
2. The poem ends quite abrubtly- how can we make that wish come true?
Discuss in your group and list 10 ideas.
3. Analyse the rhyme scheme in poem 25 and then do a syllable count for each
line.
4. Look at the 4th stanza of poem 26. List 15 consequences – Have 5
consequences on a personal level, 5 on a local community level and 5 on a
political whole country level,
5. Poem 27 has a play on words (a pun). What is that play on words? Explain.
6. What does the word cosmopolitan mean? Find out.
7. Do this after the lesson- get ths poem translated into as many different
languages as you can within your school community and put them on posters
for a wall display.
8. Poem 28 mentions the word ‘autograph’ . List as many words as you can
beginning with the prefix ‘auto’.
9. List all the messages that poem 28 contains. Which do you think is the
most important and why? In what ways can the whole poem be seen as a
metaphor? Discuss and explain.
10. Now write your own anti-racist football poem. If your teacher wishes to
send it in to the football poets website (www. footballpoets.org) then a
spellcheck will be needed and also permission from parents/ carers. There is
a submission form on www.footballpoets.org. Now go onto the extension/
gifted and talented work.

Group F

1.Poem 29 argues that racism is caused by a lack of knowledge , intelligence
and experience. Do you agree with this? Discuss and list your ideas.
2. Does poem 30 have a rhyme scheme? Analyse it.
3. List all the different messages contained within poem 30. Which do you
think is the most important and why? Discuss and explain.
4. The 1st stanza of poem 31 talks about identity- ‘I’m still me’. List all
the things that help to give you your identity. What is the most important?
5. The last line says, ‘It’s a shame to the human race’. Apart from racism,
list another nine shames to the human race. Now including racism, put them
in rank order (1 = the worst).
6. List all the ways poem 32 suggests that you should go about your life so
as to become a better person. Some things that are listed are almost
opposites- which?
7. Read poem 33. It seems to be a piece of free verse. Now read the first
letter of each line – What sort of poem is this?
8. The poem uses the word ‘mindless’. List as many words as you can to
describe ‘mindless’.
9. Read poem 34. What sort of poem is this?
10. Now write your own anti-racist football poem. If your teacher wishes to
send it to the football poets website (www.footballpoets.org) then a spell
check will be needed and also permission from parents/carers. There is a
submission form on www.footballpoets.org. Now go onto the extension/gifted
and talented work.

Extension/ Gifted and Talented

Extension- If you have computer access, then follow these instructions.
Otherwise, your teacher will print the poems and ….. for you
1. Log on to www.irespect.net. Click on lesson plan.
2. Then click on Kick out Racism with the Football Poets.
3. Then follow the instructions.

Gifted and Talented-
1. Log on to www.irespect.net. Click on lesson plan
2. Click on ‘Becoming a Citizen’. Follow the instructions but substitute
your school for Brockworth.
3. As (1). Then click on The Cross of St. George and Cultural Diversity.
4. Click on www.footballpoets.org. Then click on Butler’s Bench. Then click
on 11th May 2005 ‘Gypsy Chants and Traveller Rants’. You can see from
reading the poem that anti-gypsy chanting is done at some football grounds.
Write a draft letter to your local football club, asking it to ensure that
it will not allow such racialist chanting.

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