To be seen or not to be seen

About the importance of looks

A penny for your firstthoughts: brainstorm and only write down the keywords, no sentences, please.

  • How important are looks these days?
  • Are looks more important for girls than boys?
  • Who or what determines these looks?
  • What do men/women do to improve their figure?

Write down the keywords can be used here: makeup, liposuction etc.

Benjamin Zephaniah, Miss World

This Rasta poet has a word or two about beauty contests.

Find and listen to this poem on Poetry out loud. You can find this site on Engels op het web - Luisteren en lezen

Copy the lyrics here

1How do people judge other people (especially women) according to this singer-songwriter? Answer in your own words and copy the sentences from the lyrics as a proof.

2Look up the words you don't understand (or that you are not sure about). Use the AllWords dictionary and find out how they are pronounced in British English.

3There is a lot of slang in this song -find these phrases or words and give the correct English word(s).

she don't want to be Miss World She doesn't like to be ...

4Prepare an oral presentation on Benjamin Zephaniah 's views on looks today.

(your listener will not have heard about this poem and poet)

  • What opinion does the poet have?

Make a distinction between what some people do and how he

feels about it.

  • How does he convey his message to the reader?

Make a distinction between the words and the performance.

  • Listen to the poem together.

Answer any questions by your partner on the poem (make sure he or

she understands the poem)

5Do your oral presentation and listen to the presentation of somebody else.

Have you found any remarkable differences or similarities between the two texts?

6(Optional)

Look up a few things about Benjamin Zephananiah. A good starting point might be

Real name:

Date of birth

Nationality

Debut:

Genre:

7(Optional)

Look up a few reviews of the poetry of this writer by copying the words Benjamin Zephaniah review into Google. Find 3 long articles (copy the url's). Copy 25 (or more) keywords that describe ...

The words:

The artist:

The opinion of the writer:

8(Optional)

You can also see this poet at work if you take the other poem on Poetry out loud by the same author: Turkeys. Enjoy yourself!

9(Optional)

Well, have you? Do you like this sort of poet? Why (not)?