Lesson Topic Poem At the Border 1979 by

Lesson Topic: Poem- At the Border, 1979 by Choman Hardi Name of Teacher: Susan Strikovsky Target Class: 10 th Lesson Place in the Curriculum: Lesson One

Table of Contents • • Introduction Pre-reading Basic Understanding Analysis and Interpretation - Stanzas 1 and 2 Analysis and Interpretation - Stanzas 3 and 4 Analysis and Interpretation - Stanzas 6 Conclusion

https: //commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File: Valico_Ponte_Tresa. JPG#/media/File: Valico_Ponte_Tresa. JPG • What is this? • What are the positive and negative aspects of a border? Swiss-Italian Border

https: //commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File: Valico_Ponte_Tresa. JPG#/media/File: Valico_Ponte_Tresa. JPG • Why would someone leave the country where he / she was born? • Why might that person return? • How would you feel if you were forced to live in another country? Swiss-Italian Border

Pre-Reading What is Connotation? Connotation is the idea or feeling evoked by a word

Pre-Reading • Look at the words from the poem below. • What do you think the poem is going to be about? • Which words have negative connotations and which words have positive connotations? Beautiful, bent, chain, check - in, different, divided, grabbed, guards, homeland, inhale, inspected, landscape, muddy, waited, years.

Basic Understanding The poem is an autobiographical account of Hardi crossing a border back into her homeland in 1979 with her family. We feel the tension and excitement as they wait for the border to be opened.

Analysis and Interpretation Stanzas 1 ‘It is your last check-in point in this country!’ We grabbed a drink – soon everything would taste different. Why will everything taste different? There is a feeling that the grass is greener on the other side of the border.

Analysis and Interpretation Stanzas 2 The land under our feet continued divided by a thick iron chain. What is the effect of placing the word ‘divided’ at the beginning of a line?

Analysis and Interpretation Stanzas 3, 4 My sister put her leg across it. ‘Look over here, ’ she said to us, ‘my right leg is in this country and my left leg in the other. ’ The border guards told her off. What do the border guards do? Why might they do this? What is the effect of the direct speech here?

Analysis and Interpretation Stanza 6 Why does Hardi use repetition? What effect does it have throughout the poem? The autumn soil continued on the other side with the same colour, the same texture. It rained on both sides of the chain. What other words are repeated and to what effect?

Today’s Lesson was about At the Border: Understanding the Poem Next Lesson will be about At the Border: Literary Terms and Background to the Poem