A TASK-BASED LESSON PLAN IN ENGLISH GRADE 11
I. FOCUS TASK: African Poetry “Home” by Warsan Shire
II. LEVEL: Grade 11
III. OBJECTIVES/COMPETENCIES
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
A. understand major issue
B. expand their vocabulary
C. stimulate conversation about the subject
D. improve writing skills
E. enjoy reading the poem with intensive reading
IV. MATERIALS/RESOURCES
1. Handouts
2. Powerpoint Presentation
V. PRE-TASK
A. Motivation
Procedure
1. Watch the powerpoint presentation
2. Introduction on the poem and writer
B. Learning New Vocabulary
Procedure
1. The teacher will write on the board words from the poem.
2. The students will try to give the meanings of each word.
Vocabulary List
Border
Neighbours
Anthem
Refugee camp
Asylum seekers
Savage
Limb
Damp
VI. DURING TASK
1. The teacher reads the poem orally.
2. The student will read it afterwards.
3. The students will share what they have understood in the poem.
VII. POST TASK
Poem Discussion
1. Capturing the essence of the poem by asking questions like
-Can you imagine how it must feel to be in a situation, as described in the
poem?
- How do you feel when you think of the circumstance these people find
themselves in?
-Why do you think these people left the safety of their homes?
-In what way are refugees welcomed when they arrive in a new country?
-What do you think of this, how does this make you feel?
VIII. Free Practice
1. The students will pick keywords from the poem and let them use it
to get their own poem started.
2. The students will write a (short, but not shorter than 12 lines) poem to express
their emotions.
3. Reciting poems to each other .
4. Collect poems.
Home by Warsan Shire no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border the
when you see the whole city running as well go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
your neighbors running faster than you
asylum seekers
breath bloody in their throats
sucking our country dry
the boy you went to school with
niggers with their hands out
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin
they smell strange
factory
savage
is holding a gun bigger than his body
messed up their country and now they want
you only leave home
to mess ours up
when home won’t let you stay.
how do the words
the dirty looks
no one leaves home unless home chases roll off your backs
you maybe because the blow is softer
fire under feet than a limb torn off
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
or the words are more tender
until the blade burnt threats into
than fourteen men between
your neck
your legs
and even then you carried the anthem under
or the insults are easier
your breath
to swallow
only tearing up your passport in an airport than rubble
toilets than bone
sobbing as each mouthful of paper than your child body
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going in pieces.
back. i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
you have to understand,
and no one would leave home
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless home chased you to the shore
unless the water is safer than the land
unless home told you
no one burns their palms
to quicken your legs
under trains
leave your clothes behind
beneath carriages
crawl through the desert
no one spends days and nights in the
wade through the oceans
stomach of a truck
drown
feeding on newspaper unless the miles
save
travelled
be hunger
means something more than journey.
beg
no one crawls under fences
forget pride
no one wants to be beaten
your survival is more important
pitied
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty
no one chooses refugee camps
voice in your ear
or strip searches where your
saying-
body is left aching
leave,
or prison,
run away from me now
because prison is safer
i dont know what i’ve become
than a city of fire
but i know that anywhere
and one prison guard
is safer than here
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
