1. What does the word ‘trust’ mean to you?
11 November 2010
Homecoming
Starter
What does the word ‘trust’ mean to you?
Trust

2. You must trust your friends to catch you!
Trust Building Game
I need:
one brave volunteer
Volunteer
choose 3 friends you trust
Stand with your back to your friends a let yourself fall back in to their arms
You must trust your friends to catch you!
Must describe the poem
Should critically, sensitively and in detail, using textual evidence
Could explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meaning

3. You weren’t able to see and utterly dependent on your friends - was it easy to give your friends your trust?
Must describe the poem
Should critically, sensitively and in detail, using textual evidence
Could explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meaning

4. Read through Homecoming
Is the owner of the yellow jacket a girl? Does she grow in to a young woman who is comforted by her male lover? Could there be another way to view the poem?
Must describe the poem
Should critically, sensitively and in detail, using textual evidence
Could explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meaning

5. Armitage has deliberately made things vague!
It is up to us to interpret the poem as if it were a jigsaw puzzle
Must describe the poem
Should critically, sensitively and in detail, using textual evidence
Could explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meaning

6. Each stanza explores the idea of trust in a different way
Comment on the following quotes – what do they say about trust.
Stanza
Quotation
Comment 1
‘those in front/stand with their arms spread wide and free-fall/backwards, blind, and those behind take all the weight 2
‘a mother, yours…points the finger’
‘Temper, temper’
The mother accuses her daughter of letting her jacket get dirty and perhaps does not trust her daughter’s denials. 3
‘I’m waiting by the phone’
‘a father figure waits there, wants to set things straight’ 4
‘Step backwards into it’
‘It still fits’
Must describe the poem
Should critically, sensitively and in detail, using textual evidence
Could explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meaning

7. Write 1 question for each person featured in the poem
HOT SEATING
Write 1 question for each person featured in the poem
Girl: How did you feel when you realised that your mother did not believe your explanation about how your jacket became dirty Mother: Why did you not believe your daughter? Was she generally untrustworthy? Father: Were you waiting for your daughter by the gate so that you could make it up with her or punish her? Lover: When you invite her to ‘Step backwards’ into the jacket you’ve made of your arms, are you inviting her to trust in you rather than her family?

8. Structure and Poetic Techniques
Underline enjambement in green
Underline slang expressions e.g. ‘makes a proper fist of it’ in red
Circle borrowed expressions e.g. ‘temper, temper’
Underline colour in blue
What do these elements contribute to the poem?

9. Symbolism: Jacket
Why is it so important that the jacket still fits at the end of the poem? How can trust be represented by a garment that can be put on and taken off again?