‘People Equal’ is a fantastic poem to help learners explore equality and difference, through reflecting on people’s different and sometimes opposite personalities.

    

SLN explores ways in which to use the People Equal poem by James Berry and Christopher Corr to inspire classroom activities.  We provide sample key questions, activities and lesson plans for you to work from.  We also include verses written by school children who’ve been inspired by the original poem.

KEY QUESTION: Can we think of ways people can be different AND equal?

Background

This is an activity to help learners think about difference and equality as they look at varied (and sometimes opposite) personalities.

It is inspired by the poem People Equal by James Berry and Christopher Corr which can be found in the Amnesty International publication Dare to be Different (right).

Activity

1. Display and read the poem People Equal by James Berry and Christopher Corr as a group.

2. Clarify understanding of the vocabulary and discuss the meanings of each couplet. You could discuss questions such as What does it mean when we say people are equal? What do we mean when we say people are equal but different? It may be useful to discuss the way in which we use the word equal: In maths equal means ‘the same as’ but in everyday language equal means ‘the same status, responsibilities or rights for all members of society.’ What is the poet’s message to the reader? Do you have a favourite description of a person in the poem? Are there any lines that you would like to think describe you?

3. Next use the poem as a performance poem by giving a couplet each to small groups of learners who can memorise and animate the words, acting them out as they speak them. Examples might be for learners to ‘rush to the front’, nervously ‘hang back’ and ‘shoot up tall’. This could even be developed further to perform in assembly.

4. You could use also the poem as inspiration to write a similar poem in the same structure using the learners’ own ideas about differences. Explain that in groups of two or three, each group will write one or two rhyming pairs describing people who are different but equal. Focus their attention on the structure of the poem, identifying that in each section the first two lines describe opposite personalities, and they also rhyme. The third line forms a refrain. It may help to create an informal feel to the room by allowing learners to move around to look at other ideas and use whiteboards or loose leaf paper. A thesaurus or dictionary might help. It can help to think of some meaningful words that rhyme first.

Note: an example of a learners’ version of this poem can be downloaded here

5. Ask the learners to choose their favourite rhyming couplet to share with the whole group and then collect all the ideas together. You may want to take the ideas away and put together a group poem which could then be used as a performance poem along with couplets from the original. The learners could create actions for each line to accompany the performance.

Inspired Poems

People Equal Poem by SLN & Allerton Primary A wonderful poem to help you explore the theme ‘People Equal’ written by Jupiter Class, Year 4, Allerton Primary, Bradford inspired by the poem by James Berry and Christopher Corr.

Lesson Plans

Four detailed lesson plans created for the SLN People Equal Resource including learning objectives, key questions, ideas for teaching and learning activities and recommended resources.

KS2 | 60 Mins | Teacher led

Lesson 1

People Equal Poetry – Reading for Meaning

Click here for link to Lesson Plan 1

Click here for People Equal Poems for Group - examples of verses based on James Berry and Christopher Corr’s poem People Equal for use with Lesson Plan 1.

Lesson 2

People Equal Poetry – Illustrating the Poem

Click here for Lesson Plan 2

Click here for People Equal Poetry Illustration Example - to be used with Lesson Plan 2.

 

Lesson 3

People Equal Poetry – Writing a Class Poem

Click here for Lesson Plan 3

Click here for People Equal Power Point - an accompanying document for Lesson Plan 3.

Click here for Pupil Work Example – a class People Equal Poem

Lesson 4

People Equal Poetry – Performing the Poem

Click here for Lesson Plan 4