Year 10 - English
Understanding ideas of power imbalance in Femi's 'Thirteen'
'World and Lives'
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupis explore 12 of the 15 poems from the 'World and Lives' anthology. Pupils complete two lessons about each poem: one on understanding and one on analysis. Pupils study the poems in a thematically linked order so they can complete comparative lessons at key points in the unit.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain how Femi presents concepts of power imbalance.
Key Notes
- The title 'Thirteen' has connotations of an unlucky, transitional period.
- The poem implies the officers now perceive the boy as threatening because he has transitioned from child to adolescent.
- There is a power imbalance between the officers and the boy.
- The boy feels physically intimidated and scared by the officers,
- The poem is based on Femi's real-life experience of being stopped by police and falsely accused when he was thirteen.
Vocabulary To Learn
- power imbalance: a situation of inequality between parties that leaves one side relatively unable to defend its own interests
- transition: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another
- visceral: felt in or as if in the internal organs of the body
- liminal: occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold
- intimidation: the action of frightening or threatening someone
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Poems are purely works of imagination.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
The title 'Thirteen' has connotations of an unlucky, transitional period. The poem implies the officers now perceive the boy as threatening because he has transitioned from child to adolescent.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'power imbalance'
a situation of inequality between parties that leaves one side relatively unable to defend its own interests.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Poems are purely works of imagination. Correction: While poems draw on the poet's imagination, many poems are drawn from real-life experiences which is why there is such an emotional resonance in them.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Analysing Berry's 'On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955' Study Guide
- Analysing how Brontë presents nature in 'Shall earth no more inspire thee' Study Guide
- Analysing how Shelley presents ideas of suffering in 'England in 1819' Study Guide
- Analysing ideas of identity and cultural repatriation in khan's 'pot' Study Guide
- Analysing ideas of identity and heritage in Mundair's 'Name Journeys' Study Guide
- Analysing ideas of marginalisation in Parker's 'The Jewellery Maker' Study Guide
- Analysing ideas of prejudice and perception in Femi's 'Thirteen' Study Guide
- Analysing ideas of time, identity and place in Seneviratne's 'A Wider View' Study Guide
- Analysing ideas of voice and identity in Berry's 'Homing' Study Guide
- Analysing mankind and nature in Wordsworth's 'Lines Written in Early Spring' Study Guide
- Analysing oppression and pessimism in Eliot's 'In a London Drawingroom' Study Guide
- Analysing the concepts of strength and resistance in Dharker's 'A Century Later' Study Guide
- Comparing ideas of identity in 'pot', 'The Jewellery Maker' and 'Homing' Study Guide
- Comparing ideas of place in 'In a London Drawingroom' and 'A Wider View' Study Guide
- Comparing ideas of temporality in 'England in 1819' and 'A Century Later' Study Guide
- Comparing liminality, physicality and voice in AQA Worlds and Lives poetry Study Guide
- Comparing Wordsworth and Brontë's views on nature Study Guide
- Exploring connections and ideas across the AQA Worlds and Lives anthology Study Guide
- Exploring ideas of voice and identity in Berry's 'Homing' Study Guide
- Planning a written response on the AQA Worlds and Lives anthology Study Guide
- Understanding Berry's 'On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955' Study Guide
- Understanding connections between identity and artefacts in khan's 'pot' Study Guide
- Understanding heritage and marginalisation in Parker's 'The Jewellery Maker' Study Guide
- Understanding how Brontë presents nature in 'Shall earth no more inspire thee' Study Guide
- Understanding how Eliot presents London in 'In a London Drawingroom' Study Guide
- Understanding how Shelley critiques powerful institutions in 'England in 1819' Study Guide
- Understanding ideas of identity and heritage in Mundair's 'Name Journeys' Study Guide
- Understanding ideas of time, identity and place in Seneviratne's 'A Wider View' Study Guide
- Understanding ideas of youth and education in Dharker's 'A Century Later' Study Guide
- Understanding mankind and nature in Wordsworth's 'Lines Written in Early Spring' Study Guide
- Writing a comparative response on the AQA Worlds and Lives anthology Study Guide
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