1. What things irritate and annoy you in everyday life?
How do you deal with feeling irritated and annoyed?
Are there other factors that influence how annoyed/irritated you can get?

2. Hitchhiking What is hitchhiking?
What do you think of people who hitchhike?

4. Lesson objectives:
To understand what the poem ‘Hitcher’ by Simon Armitage is about.
To analyse how the poet has used language and structure to convey thoughts, feelings and ideas.

5. Let’s hear the poem being read
Let’s hear the poem being read. Follow it in your anthologies while you listen (page 30).
Questions:
What happens in the poem?
Does it surprise you?

6. Question: why do you think the driver murders the hitchhiker?
Answer: because he irritates/annoys him.
But why?

7. What do the two men have in common?1. 2.

8. What are the differences between the two men?
Speaker/Driver
Hitcher

9. What are the differences between the two men?
Speaker/Driver
Hitcher
Shackled by work commitments
Freedom from work and commitments
Materialistic possessions
Essential possessions only
Mundane language
Poetic language
Interested only in the impact of the elements
A child of the elements
Realistic
Idealistic
Influenced by other people
Influenced by nature only
Yuppie – astra, ansaphone
Hippy – free spirit
Violence
Peace
Let’s indicate them on the poem:

10. What image does the phrase ‘blowin’ in the wind’ make you think of?
What does it say about the hitcher?
Bob Dylan wrote a song called ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and it is this song that the hitcher references.

11. Let’s listen to the poet talk about the poem and why he wrote it.
What is the conflict described in the poem?
What does the conflict lead to?
What other emotion apart from annoyance is felt by the speaker?

12. So how has the poet used language and structure to convey the conflict between the driver and the hitcher?
Let’s annotate the poem with our ideas….
Poem

13. Plenary – our lesson objectives were:
To understand what the poem ‘Hitcher’ by Simon Armitage is about.
To analyse how the poet has used language and structure to convey thoughts, feelings and ideas.
In your own words, answer the following questions:
What is ‘Hitcher’ about?
How do language and structure contribute to meaning?

14. Homework
Read through the Handout on the poem Hitcher and make any additional notes needed. Then complete the worksheet looking at key lines and what they show.