Final Assignment – Devora WeillPre- reading activity for We and They by Rudyard Kipling

How do you define yourself as a person?

For example are you: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, an Israeli, an Arab, a teenager, an atheist, a Zionist, a girl, a boy?

Start the sentence like this. My name is __________ I am a/an_______________________________.

In small groups discuss the following questions.

Why do you think people like or don’t like to define themselves?

Can people be close with, or friendly with people who define themselves differently?

Does the way we look, dress, speak define us as who we are?

Is the way you see yourself different to the way others see or define you?

At what age does this process of defining ourselves begin and end?

When you hear the words “We and They” to whom do you think they apply?

“We and They” by Rudyard Kipling

Father and Mother, and Me, Sister and Auntie sayAll the people like us are We, And every one else is They.And They live over the sea, While We live over the way,But-would you believe it? --They look upon We As only a sort of They!

We eat pork and beef With cow-horn-handled knives.They who gobble Their rice off a leaf, Are horrified out of Their lives;While they who live up a tree,

And feast on grubs and clay,(Isn't it scandalous? ) look upon We As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun. They stick lions with spears.Their full-dress is un-. We dress up to Our ears.They like Their friends for tea. We like Our friends to stay;And, after all that, They look upon We As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food. We have doors that latch.They drink milk or blood, Under an open thatch.We have Doctors to fee. They have Wizards to pay.And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree, And all good people say,All nice people, like Us, are We And every one else is They:But if you cross over the sea, Instead of over the way,You may end by (think of it!) looking on We As only a sort of They!

Participant’s name: Devora WeillName of Key Component: Basic UnderstandingAim of activity: To familiarize the students with the vocabulary and to make sure they understand the basic ideas of the poem, who, where and what.

Estimated time: Fifteen to twenty minutes

Basic Understanding

Low Frequency Vocabulary –gobble horrified feast grubs clay scandalous

disgusting spears dress up utterly ignorant latchthatch to fee wizards impudent

heatherquite

impossibleinstead of

1. With the help of your dictionary and the poem translate the vocabulary and place each word under the correct category.

Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs

a. Who are “We”? _____________________________________________________________b. Who are “They”?____________________________________________________________c. Where do “We” live?________________________________________________________d. Where do “They” live?_______________________________________________________e. List five actions that each group does. For example:

WE THEYWe eat pork and beef

High Frequency Vocabulary

2. Use the words below to complete the sentences.Instead of, disgusting, gobble, impudent, wizards, ignorant, scandalous, horrified, utterly, heathen

a. We were __________________ in the movie yesterday. It was so violent and disturbing.b. Another word for _________________ is shocking.c. Personally I think drinking blood is __________________.d. We were ____________________ exhausted when we came home from the school trip.e. Somebody who isn’t educated and doesn’t know a lot may be called ___________________.f. A __________________ is a magician.g. An unwise or unthoughtful comment may be considered ___________________.h. A person who doesn’t believe in any religion is sometimes negatively called a

___________________.i. If you ________________ up all your food so quickly you will get a stomach ache.j. ____________________ staying at home tonight, why don’t you come out with us and enjoy

yourself?

Name of Key Component: HOTSAim of activity: To introduce the HOTS of Distinguishing Different Perspectives and the literary term, tone

Estimated time: 45 minutes

1. Read the last stanza of the poem and discuss what the poet was trying to say.

All good people agree, And all good people say,All nice people, like Us, are We And every one else is They:But if you cross over the sea, Instead of over the way,You may end by (think of it!) looking on We As only a sort of They!

2. Write five sentences about yourself on a piece of paper and then fold it over so no one else can see.

3. Hand it to five different people in the class. Each of these five people needs to write five sentences about you and then fold over the page. They may write about the way you look, your characteristics, and/or your likes and dislikes.

4. When five people have written about you on the page open it up and read what they wrote about you.

5. Do you see yourself the same way as others see you?

HOTS – Higher order thinking skillDistinguishing Different Perspectives is the name we use to describe the ability of recognizing different points of view within a text.

a. Do you identify more with the We or They in the poem?b. Have you ever “crossed over the sea instead of over the way” and seen someone else’s point of

view, or changed your point of view?

Literary Term – ToneThe tone in a text expresses an attitude through the topic or choice of words.The poet’s tone in this poem is (angry, serious, humorous, formal, informal, mysterious, etc.)Circle the correct adjective that describes the tone above and give examples from the poem to support your answer.

1.2.

How old do you think the “Me” in the poem is? _________Could the age of the narrator influence the tone of a piece of literature? __________

Name of Key Component: Analysis and Interpretation componentAim of activity: To discover a deeper understanding of the poem and to use different HOTS to answer questions on the poem.

Estimated time: 45-60 minutes

Answer the following questions.

1. Now that you have understood the differences between the” We” and the “They”, are there any similarities between them? Use the thinking skill of Comparing and contrasting to find the similarities.

2. Where do you think the “We” and the “They” live and why?3. Why are people who live in different places different?4. What can we infer from the last stanza?5. Use another HOT to try to explain what the poet is trying to tell us at the end of the poem?

Answers1. Even though the “We” and the “They” live in different places they both have a place they call

home. Both of them eat and both of them look at the other as a weird, strange and ignorant group. Both groups kill animals for food and both of them consult an important person in the group in regards to their health. Furthermore, both of them think.

2. Except any reasonable answers as long as they can explain why.3. Every single nation has its own history, customs, and culture. This usually sets them apart from

others. Educated people sometimes see these differences just as differences and can even enjoy getting to know different people. However when people’s customs or beliefs negate another person’s rights then it becomes nearly impossible for them to relate to each other as equals.

4. We can infer that the way you see others is based on the way you were brought up and where you come from. We always think that the way we behave is the correct way (sometimes even the only correct way). However if you changed your life (move to another country) you may change the way you see others and yourself. We can infer that the differences could become understandable and even favorable if we had been born or raised in a different place or body.

5. Distinguishing Different Perspectives – I chose this HOTS because if you look at the last stanza the poet is trying to say that where you come from determines the way you look at others and yourself. He says that if you go to live where the “They” live you may come to think of your culture as just another culture and not as the correct and only culture.Uncovering Motives – I chose this HOTS because if you look at the last stanza you can understand that the reason the poet wrote it was to show that people are not so different. Where you come from will determine the way you see yourself and others. His reason for writing it was to show that even though differences can be huge, it is possible to understand them if you walk in their shoes.

Name of Key Component: Bridging Text and Context

Aim of activity: 1. To introduce information about the author that will give a better understanding of the time and background when the poem was written.2. To show the movie “Creation of a Team- Remember the Titans”. This movie shows how difficult it is for people to overcome prejudice which is also spoken about in the poem.

Estimated time: For the first activity sixty minutes. For the movie two hours.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling, was born on December 30th 1865 in Bombay, India to a British family. When he was five years old he was sent back to England to receive an education. As a pampered child from the British colony, living in England was very difficult for him. When he was seventeen he returned to India to work as a journalist and editor.During his time in India he became aware of the resentment the Indians felt towards the British. The British had always thought that it was their job to colonize foreign lands and to spread their ideas, religion, language and way of life to the inferior nations. Kipling himself was considered to be an imperialist.Kipling moved around a lot in his life from India to England to America and back to England where he died in 1936. He wrote many poems, short stories and about Anglo Indian society. His early stories and poems about life in Colonial India made him popular among English readers.

How does the information above help you understand why Kipling may have written the poem “We and They”

AnswerFrom the information above I can understand that Kipling, who was born in India, spent a lot of his life in different countries. He wrote about Anglo Indian society and was aware of the way each culture saw the other culture. These factors may have influenced and been the reason why he wrote the poem “We and They”. The poem deals with the concept of culture and the way each culture sees the superiority of its own way of life. In the last paragraph Kipling suggests that “if you cross over the sea, instead of over the way” you may end up looking at your own culture as a different culture or as a “they”. Maybe this is what happened to him when he went to live in a different country. The information helped me understand the historical and social background of the times and maybe the reason why he wrote the poem.

Name of Key Component: Post Reading Task 8Aim of activity: For the students to express Estimated time: One to one and a half

themselves and their interpretation of the poem creatively. To make a connection to the poem through their own experiences and choices.

hours.

Post Reading Activities-Choose one of the following tasks.

1. Prepare a power point presentation to represent visually what was written in the poem.2. Make up a song/rap song about the theme of the poem.3. Write a poem about two different groups in Israeli society or the world, in which you describe

your own group and the other group. (Please be tolerant)4. Draw a picture of what the “We” and “They” look like and write next to the picture what is

important to them or why they look that way. For example why they wear that type of hat).

State of IsraelMinistry of Education

Pedagogic AffairsLanguage DepartmentEnglish Inspectorate

Rubric for Post-reading Activity – Module F

Criteria D e s c r i p t o r s

Content

Instructions for task were followed.

Content is clearly based on the text.

All information is relevant and accurate.

Content is well organized.

Instructions for task were partially followed.

Content is partially based on the text.

Some information is relevant and accurate.

Content is fairly well organized.

Instructions were not followed.

Content is not based on the text.

Information is irrelevant or inaccurate

Content is poorly organized.

80% 40% 0%

Language

Correct use of basic language structures.

Mostly correct use of advanced language structures.

Hardly any errors of mechanics (spelling, punctuation)

Mostly correct use of basic language structures.

Incorrect or no use of advanced language structures.

Some errors of mechanics (spelling, punctuation).

Incorrect use of basic language structures.

Many errors of mechanics (spelling, punctuation).

20% 10% 0%

Name of Key Component: Task 9 Summative AssessmentAim of activity: To test their knowledge and understanding of the poem.

Estimated time: one hour-one and a half hours

Five Point Summative Assessment (100 points) Name - _______________

LOTS Questions (20 points)1. Write two actions that the author says the “We” do and two actions that he says the “They” do in the

poem. (4 points)

We They

2. What surprises the author about the “They” (6 points)______________________________________________________________________________________

3. What is the tone of the poem? (5 points)_____________________________________________________________________________________

4. Write sentences using five words from the list below. (5 points)disgusting, gobble, ignorant, horrified, heathen, scandalous, utterly

HOTS questions (60 points)5. Give a few reasons why you think the two groups are so different. (15 points)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the message of the poem?(15 points)____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. What does the author infer might happen at the end of the poem? (15 points)_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Use a HOTS skill to answer the following question (Uncovering motives\Distinguishing different perspectives) (15 points)__________________Explain why the author says “And (impudent heathen!)They look upon We As a quite impossible They!”________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Bridging - Look at the quote below and make a connection between the quote and the poem “We and They” (20 points)

“Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.” John Hume___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Answer Key1. We – eat pork and beef with knives, shoot birds with a gun,

They – gobble their rice off a leaf, live up a tree, feast on grubs and clay, stick lions with spears, drink milk or blood.

2. The author is surprised that the “They” look at the “We” as only a sort of “They”. (He is surprised that they don’t see that people like him are superior beings.)

3. The poem is written in a humorous tone.4. Accept all sentences that show an understanding of the words and are grammatically correct.5. The groups are different because each group has its own history, customs and culture. This can make the

way they live their lives very different. For example they eat differently and live in different places.6. The message of the poem in my opinion is that there are differences between different groups but, these

differences don’t have to be a source of conflict. We should try to understand each other and respect these differences and to understand that if we were to move to a different place or learn other people’s customs we may end up looking at own customs as strange.

7. The author infers at the end of the poem that the way you see others is based on the way you were brought up and where you come from. If you were to move to another country or place you may change the way you see others and yourself. Maybe the differences could become understandable and may not even seem weird.

8. Uncovering motivesThe author thinks that all good, nice people like him are “We” and everybody else is “They”. He cannot believe why “They” would look upon him as a “They”. It is too difficult for him to understand that they don’t think that he is better than them even when it is clearly obvious to him. He sees himself as superior and others in the different group as inferior.

9. From the quote it is possible to understand that there will always be differences between different cultures. Diversity should not be a source of conflict, rather the reason why we should respect one another. In the poem “We and They” the poet points out the differences between the two different groups. He writes about where and how they live, how and what they eat and their different customs. The poem also deals with the issue of superiority, the way people see each other is connected to where they were born. Kipling says at the end that if “we” were to live where “they” live we may end up seeing the “They” as a “We”. Hume in the quote wrote that “difference is an accident of birth” and this is exactly what Kipling was trying to say. We should never hate others because they are different. We will

always see others as different, however, this is not a negative thing, it is possible to respect those differences and that is the way we should live and relate to others.

Name of Key Component: Review for the Exam – Tips Activity. Task 2Aim of activity: To help the students review the material in a fun way, by using a Kahoot.

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Description of Activity:Kahoot is a game based classroom response system.Teachers: log on to: https://getkahoot.comSign in, or create an account if you don’t have one.Click on Public Kahoots. In the search box type: “We and They” (created by Devora Weill)You will get a game pin number.Tell your students to log on to : https://kahoot.itStudents enter the game pin number and add their names as players.The following questions are the questions on the Kahoot.

1. The author of “We and They” is:a. Robert Frost c. George Eliotb. Sameeneh Shirazie d. Rudyard Kipling

2. Who does the author consider “We”a. All people c. people who live over the seab. All people like us, who live over the way d. people who eat correctly

3. Name two things that the “They” do.a. Eat pork and shoot birds with a gun c. eat rice off a leaf and stick lions with spearsb. Gobble their rice off a leaf and dress up to d. drink milk or blood and have their friend s to

Their ears. Stay.

4. The tone of the poem is:a. serious c. mysteriousb. humorous d. angry

5. Up until the last paragraph the speaker implies that the “we” are ____________ to the “they”a. superiorb. inferior

6. Which HOTS can we use to understand what the author is trying to tell us in the last stanza?a. Cause and effect c. Uncovering motivesb. Comparing and contrasting d. Predicting

7. Which of the following is the appropriate vocabulary for Distinguishing Different Perspectives?a. cause ,effect c. conclude, assumeb. similar, repeat d. perspective, attitude

8. Which of the following is the appropriate vocabulary for the HOTS Uncovering Motives?a. infer, assume c. repetition, repeat

b. reason, purpose d. perspective, point of view

9. In the last stanza the author is trying to tell us that:a. The school you went to determines how

you see others.b. If you are rich it determines how you will

see others.c. Where you were born and how you were brought up

determines how you see others.

10. In a bridging question you must:a. Refer to the new information c. give examples from the poemb. Make a connection between the poem d. all the answers are correct

and the new information

11. The author lived in :a. Australia c. Indiab. Africa d. Israel

12. The author wrote about:a. Black and White African people c. Black and White American peopleb. British and Indian people d. Aborigines and White Australians

13. The author is trying to say:a. Some people will always be different c. hate others because of their differences.

and that is a bad thing.b. You must love everyone and become d. respect other people’s differences.

like them.

Answer Key1. D2. B3. C4. B5. A6. C7. D8. B9. C10. D11. C12. B13. D

Poem Pouch