The Lesson

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

The Lesson

Literature

Let's read the text together

What do the following words mean?

nooligans

din

throttled

garroted

skive

carnage

bloedbad

spijbelen

tuig

kelen

herrie

wurgen

Let's continue

By answering the questions

1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem? (first three stanzas)

What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

ABCB DEFE GHIH etc.

2. What is the topic of the lesson this teacher wants to teach this particular day?

Answer question 2

violence

Questions 3 - 5

Discuss in groups.

Answer question 3

• He uses violence himself.

Answer question 4

• Personal answers: let's discuss them
  

Personal answers are never wrong, right?

• Wrong!
• If it doesn't make sense what you're saying
• You have to explain or give examples

So...

• It is strange.
  This is a wrong answer.
  
  
• It is strange because a teacher would never do this in real life.
  This is a correct answer.

Answer question 5

• Obviously not. As mentioned in the previous example a teacher would never use (this type of) violence.
  

Types of humour

• Self-deprecating humour
  You make fun of yourself, your religion and/or your culture.
  
  
• Example: Feel free to use me as a bad example. That way, I won’t be totally useless.

Types of humour

• Surreal / absurd humour
  What happens is so strange; it could never be like that in real life.
  
  
• Example: cartoon characters blowing themselves / others up, while not dying (only getting like a black face)

Types of humour

• Dry humour
  Using irony, sarcasm, satire or parody
  
  
• Example irony: the opposite of what you want to happen, actually happens or you say something, but mean the oppossite
  
• Sarcasm is also irony, but used to hurt someone's feeling 

Types of humour

• Wordplay / puns
  Using different meanings to create a joke
  
  
• Example wordplay: two antennes fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was great.

Types of humour

• Dark humour
  Making fun of taboo subjects
  
  
• Example dark humour: Join the army. Travel to exotic distant lands. Meet exciting, unusual people and kill them.

6. What type(s) of humour did Roger McGough use?

Answer question 6

• Absurd / surreal humour
  It is to extreme (absurd) and unrealistic (surreal)
  
  
• Besides that it shows elements of black humour (children dying) and wordplay (first come, first severed)

7. Does this type of humour help to get the author's message across?

Yes

No

What is the author's message?

In other words: what is his goal with this poem?
Discuss in groups.

The author...

criticizes teachers being unable to manage a class and students being unruly.

So, does it?

Yes it does! The only option left for the teachers is to resort to extreme violence.

I think I understand this poem well enough for the test.

Yes

No

Continue

If you have answered yes, focus on your week task.

If you have answered no, please let me know what you do not understand (yet).