4 ‘Phenomenal Woman’: Focus on reading For meaning

4.2 First impressions

Exercise 1
a Read the poem together as a class.
b On a scale of 1 to 4, how well do you understand this poem after a first reading?
4 – I understand it perfectly.
3 – I mostly understand it.
2 – I understand some of it.
1 – I don’t understand any of it.
c Write down any words or phrases you didn’t understand.
d Share your responses to b and c with your teacher and classmates and
discuss anything you didn’t understand. Reread the poem. How well do you
understand it now?
Exercise 2
Key term In ‘Phenomenal Woman’, Angelou describes how she doesn’t conform to the
stereotype of a beautiful woman, but celebrates her uniquely attractive
Stereotype: An idea
or belief people have
womanly qualities.
about an object or a In small groups, discuss the following questions:
group that is based i What are some different stereotypes? For example:
upon how they look on – Stereotypes about women and men
the outside; it may be – Stereotypes about younger people and older people
completely untrue or What stereotypes do people have about you that you disagree with?
only partly true ii What are the dangers of stereotyping people?
iii Can you think of any people (they can be private or public figures) whom
you would consider ‘phenomenal’ because they show us that we are wrong
to judge by stereotypes?
Pick a spokesperson (your teacher may help with this) to share your ideas with
the class.
b Reread ‘Phenomenal Woman’ as a class, thinking about the work you have just
done on stereotypes.
c On your own, look at lines 1 to 2 again and write down one word and
one short phrase from these lines that show a stereotypical view of a
perfect woman.
Exercise 3
a The poem is quite long. It is broken down into four stanzas. Think about the
way paragraphs are used in an essay. With a partner:
– think about the reasons that we use paragraphs in our essays
– discuss how paragraphs can help a reader to understand an essay
– discuss any ways in which stanzas in poetry are different from paragraphs
in essays.
TIP
When discussing ways in which stanzas in poetry are different from paragraphs in essays,
a good starting point might be to think about any patterns you can see in the poem.

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