Book status: The book for this planning sequence is currently reprinting or out of print and therefore not in stock at most booksellers. If you do not already own the book, we would recommend this planning sequence as an alternative:
Alternative sequence
KS: Upper KS2
Year Group: Year 6
Literary Theme: Utopia vs. Dystopia
Author(s): Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes
This is a 12-session Literary Leaf for two poems about freedom - Caged Bird by Maya Angelou and I, Too by Langston Hughes. Children will identify the poetic and figurative language used throughout both poems and discuss the motivations of the poets in writing the poems and the impressions created for the reader. They go on to compare and contrast the language and the themes presented in both poems and also perform both with a partner.
We chose these poems for a Literary Leaf as they are a pair of poems threaded together through one particular social and historical context, and yet there is relevance within both that could be discussed with the children to look at human rights and attitudes to race and women today.
Human rights, race, equality, feminism
