YOUNG AND DYSLEXIC?

EDEXCEL IGCSE
ANTHOLOGY A

8/7/21

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

BENJAMIN
ZEPHANIAH
Contexts:
Use your devices: 5 minutes to find all you can about
Zephaniah! You might want to start here:
http://benjaminzephaniah.com/

Then answer these questions:

How old was he when he was thrown out of school?
In what year did this happen?
What infamous speech was made in 1968 in Wolverhampton?
How may this have impacted his early life and how is it reflected
in the attitudes shown in the article?

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

THE ARTICLE
From The Guardian Online – internet site of major broadsheet
paper. Generally perceived as Left Wing. Highly inclusive and
supportive of minority voices

Adapted from a book in which famous people share their

experiences of Dyslexia

Who might wish to read

This book, and why?
What would be the purpose
Of publishing this book?

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

THE WRITING
As a child I suffered, but learned to turn dyslexia to my
advantage, to see the world more creatively. We are the
architects, we are the designers.
I’m of the generation where teachers didn’t know what dyslexia
was. The big problem with the education system then was that
there was no compassion, no understanding and no humanity. I
don’t look back and feel angry with the teachers. The ones who
wanted to have an individual approach weren’t allowed to. The
idea of being kind and thoughtful and listening to problems just
wasn’t done: the past is a different kind of country.

Let’s discuss the ideas I have underlined.

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

idea Comment
“I suffered” Uses emotive verb at opening
– possibly suggests physical
abuse
I Immediate and repetitive use
of 1st person – will pluralise
and use 2nd sparingly
“but turned… to my advantage Introduces negative idea and
then looks ot the poisitive
No compassion, no Triplet idea. Used sparingly so
understanding, no humanity / important to note when it does
being kind, thoughtful and appear.
listening to…
The past is a different kind of Intertextuality: The Go
country Between by LP Hartley. Full
quotation drops “kind of” and
adds: They do things
differently there.
Jonathan Peel JLS 2016
effect
Engages sympathy – no child
should suffer. Honesty and
frankness estabished
Honest, vivid, engages with
reader as a “team” when
needed – sharing experience
Establishes the idea that
however bad things look, it is
possible to make them into
benefits
Triplets draw attention to an
idea and emphasise the
importance. The negative first
triplet is very powerful for the
repeated sense of frustration
created.
If we know the whole quotation
we know that things have
changed for the better. Also
establishes Zephaniah’s
intellectual credibility
PULLING STRANDS
TOGETHER
Zephaniah writes in the first person and suggests honesty and
frankness
He mixes INFORMATION text such as Paragraph 1 with
EXPLANATION such as found in Paragraph 2.
He also DESCRIBES his school days vividly. He offers ADVICE a
the end of the passage

Looking at Paragraphs 3-6, what feature of the writing makes this

description especially vivid.
How likely is it that this is accurately recalled after nearly 50 years?
How does Zephaniah make the teacher’s response in paragraph 4
particularly upsetting?

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

A LONG PASSAGE
You will not have time to write in detail about the whole
passage, citing every paragraph.
So far we have looked at the opening and how it creates
mood.
We have also looked at Zephaniah’s use of Direct Speech to
create emotional impact for the reader – think about the
purpose of the passage: will readers generally recognise his
experience?

The next focus will be structure:

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

STRUCTURE
What do we call this kind of temporal structure? It moves
through the story in the logical order of events.

List the major events in Zephaniah’s life which he recounts

here: school, borstal….

How do you respond to someone who is being this open about

their past – when it contains much which is not seen as
“good”?

How does the structure relate to the idea we discussed in the

opening sentence? (“but…”)

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

“A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF THE PRISON
POPULATION ARE DYSLEXIC, AND A HIGH
PERCENTAGE OF THE ARCHITECT
POPULATION.”
What surprises you about this statement that is made in
paragraph 9?
Why do you think Zephaniah chooses to open the paragraph
with this statement?
What sort of discussion does it prepare the readers for?

Where else in the passage does Zephaniah make a direct link

between Dyslexia and creativity as well as Dyslexia and
negativity? Which pairing is the dominant feature of the
writing?

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

TENSE
The chronology reaches the present day.

What happens to the tense in paragraph 13 which reflects this?

In what way would you support the idea that from this point the
writing is much more positive?
How does Zephaniah ensure tha this readers fell that he is talking
directly to them?
What elements of the content would allow the readers to feel that
they share the experience with Zephaniah?
What is the intended effect in the short paragraph 15? How is it
achieved?

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

COLLOQUIAL
LANGUAGE
Zephaniah is famed for poetry which used natural speech
rhythms and patterns – writing in the Vernacular.
Occasionally this passage is allowed to reflect the natural
speech patterns of many of his readers – he uses
colloquialisms – “don’t be heavy on yourself”, “kids”. What
is the effect of this?

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

DEFIANCE
Can you find evidence to suggest that Zephaniah is being
defiant and trying to engage his fellow dyslexics and
standing up to the rest of society?

Look at the last 5 paragraphs if you are stuck.

Jonathan Peel JLS 2016

 Offers
Offers advice
advice to
to 2p
sufferers
sufferers and
and to
to addresses
addresses
parents.
parents. Short
Short
CLOSING COMMENTS
parents and
sentences
sentences builds
builds
positivity
positivity
So don’t be heavy on yourself. And if you are a parent of someone with dyslexia don’t
think of it as a defect. Dyslexia is not a measure of intelligence: you may have a Info:
Info:
genius short
short
on your hands. Having dyslexia can make you creative. If you want to construct a sentence
sentence
Collo
Collo
q. sentence and can’t find the word you are searching for, you have to think of a way to and
langwrite round it. This requires being creative and so your ‘creativity muscle’ gets bigger.explain
lang explain --
longer

Kids come up to me and say, ‘I’m dyslexic too,’ and I say to them, ‘Use it to your
advantage, see the world differently. Us dyslexic people, we’ve got it going on – we
are
the architects. We are the designers.’ It’s like these kids are proud to be like me and if
1stst plural to
that helps them, that is great. I didn’t have that as a child. I say to them, ‘Bloody Humour
Humour in in
nondyslexics Sentence
Sentence is is establish defiance
defiance ––
informal
informal – like a unity
unity positive
positive tone.
… who do they think they are?’
conversation
conversation --
colloquial
colloquial
Jonathan Peel JLS 2016