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The poet Benjamin Zephaniah describes how he used to think nurses were women, police were men and poets were boring, until he became one of them. He then performs his humorous poem 'Clever Trevor', which describes how a footballer scores and celebrates a goal, and expresses confusion about how the footballer acts and what he does.
This clip is from:
Smile it could be verse
First broadcast:
8 October 1998

Classroom Ideas

This poem can be used in a lesson on how poetry creates an effect on the reader or listener and on incorporating humour and tone into poetry. Pupils can be asked to each write, perhaps on a mini whiteboard, one thing that made the poem and recital work. When the voice of the reader comes up, this can lead to a thought shower activity where pupils think about how they might get voice and tone across in writing. This can help pupils to think about the place and value of onomatopoeia, alliteration and short versus long sentences in poetry writing.

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