The Living Photograph by Jackie Kay

Today is the first time I taught the new literature components for Form 4. At first I was aghast because I saw three literature books consist of many poems, short stories and dramas. However, after learning that students have to study only a couple of poems and short stories, I was relieved. 

These are the compulsory components:

Poems

1. The Living Photograph by Jackie Kay

2. Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Short Stories

1. Tanjung Rhu retold by Kay West

2. Leaving by M.G. Vassanji

Drama

1. The Right Thing To Do by Martyn Ford

The Living Photograph

by Jackie Kay

My small grandmother is tall there, 

straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt, 

pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun,

a kind, old smile round her eyes.

Her big hand holds mine,

white hand in black hand. 

Her sharp blue eyes look her own death in the eye.

It was true after all, that look.

My tall grandmother became small.

Her back round and hunched.

Her soup forgot to boil.

She went to the awful place grandmothers go.

Somewhere unknown, unthinkable. 

But there she is still, 

in the photo with me at three,

the crinkled smile is still living, breathing.

There is a very good analysis done by an English teacher in her blog. I will not dwell too much on that because my analysis is more or less the same. For good students, I advise you to go to her blog and read the analysis because I think it is quite spot on although she admitted writing it before any reference book is out on the bookshop shelf.

However, I want to share what I did with my 4 Ikhlas class, which is quite mixed in terms of students' learning abilities. At first, I asked them to read the poem. The first read was unsuccessful because I saw so many blank faces all over the classroom. Then, because the class takes Arts, I asked them to draw pictures for selected words taken from the poem. Afterwards, I asked them to paste the pictures on the board before reading the poem one more time. This time, I saw some smile on their faces, mainly because they understand the poem a little bit. 

Nevertheless, to analyse the poem with this class is another problem. Let's hope they can get something from my next lesson.