Lesson video

Hi, everyone and welcome to our lesson.

This is actually the final lesson of our unit, so I'm really hoping that you enjoy it.

In today's lesson, you will be able to recite "The Highwayman" and memorise one stanza.

Here are some keywords we are going to be using.

Recite.

Projection.

Diction.

Body language.

Pace.

To recite means to read aloud a text from memory in front of an audience.

Projection is using our voice to speak powerfully and clearly.

Diction involves pronouncing words clearly.

Body language refers to how we use our posture and gestures to communicate meaning and feelings.

Pace refers to the speed at which we speak.

Today we are going to be learning and reciting stanzas four to six of "The Highwayman." We're going to begin by reciting stanzas four to six, and then we are going to select one stanza to learn off by heart.

To recite means to read aloud a text from memory in front of an audience.

Reciting can be an important final stage of the writing process.

We have spent a huge amount of time learning about this narrative poem, analysing the first six stances in lots of detail, and then also planning and writing a setting description and a buildup for our narrative.

So this is a really nice opportunity to round off our unit with an opportunity for some speaking and listening.

Reciting involves speaking in front of others and also listening to others and thinking about what it means to be a good audience member.

When we're reciting, we need to think about all of these things.

Projection.

Diction.

Body language.

Pace.

Match the key aspects of successful reciting to their definitions and pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that projection is when we speak powerfully, clearly, and at an appropriate volume.

But projection is not the same thing as shouting.

Diction is when we pronounce all of our words clearly and speaking with clear diction might involve us practising saying some unfamiliar language to make sure that we're pronouncing it correctly and feel comfortable with saying it.

Body language refers to our posture, stance and gestures, which help convey meaning and emotions.

We can also make ourselves look confident if we use strong body language.

And pace is the speed at which we speak.

If we speak too slowly, our audience may lose interest in what we have to say.

And if we speak too quickly, our audience may struggle to hear what we are saying properly.

If we speak at an appropriate pace, this makes sure that everyone can hear and understand what we are saying.

And it also encourages us to slow down and focus on projecting our voices, speaking with clear diction and using strong body language.

Another key recital skill is eye contact.

This involves looking into the eyes of the people in our audience.

Eye contact is very important because it helps us connect with our audience and it helps for them to feel connected to us.

This can be a bit of a skill in itself and it can require a bit of practise.

It may not feel very natural to pause and be looking at audience members in the eye.

We don't need to look every single member of the audience in the eye, but we might choose a couple of people to make sure we're making eye contact with.

This then helps us to look more confident and makes us look a bit more like we're actually meaning what we say and are conveying our speech with proper understanding of what we're saying and really connecting to our message rather than simply delivering the spoken language to the room.

When the audience feels connected to us, they find what we have to say more interesting.

So if we can engage our audience, just like when we think about engaging our reader with our writing, we want to engage our audience when we are speaking as well.

We may need to speak more slowly so that we have time to make eye contact with the members of our audience.

Remember, if we speak nice and slowly and clearly, everyone can understand what we are saying.

True or false? Eye contact helps us connect with our audience.

Pause the video while you decide whether this is true or false.

Well done if you spotted that this is true.

Now, let's read through the two options to justify our answer.

A, eye contact helps us connect with our audience because it involves looking people in the eye as we are speaking to them.

Or is the correct answer B? Eye contact helps us connect with our audience because it involves looking around the room as we are speaking.

Pause the video now while you decide whether to justify your answer using A or B.

Well done if you spotted that the correct answer is A.

Eye contact is not just looking around the room, but actually looking audience members in the eye to help them feel connected to us and help us connect with them.

Now it's time for your first task.

Read stanzas four to six of "The Highwayman" using the reciting skills we have been learning about.

Now, before I set you off on your task, let's take a moment to reread stanzas four, five and six together.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked where Tim the ostler listened.

His face was white and peaked.

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, but he loved the landlord's daughter, the landlord's red-lipped daughter.

Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say, "One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night, but I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light; yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, then look for me by moonlight, watch for me by moonlight, I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way." He rose upright in the stirrups.

He scarce could reach her hand, but she loosened her hair in the casement.

His face burnt like a brand as the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast; and he kissed its waves in the moonlight, O, sweet black waves in the moonlight! Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

Now that we've taken some time to reread stanzas four, five and six, pause the video now while you complete your task of reading these stanzas using the reciting skills we have been learning about.

Well done, everyone.

I hope that you enjoyed rereading through stanzas four, five and six and practising using those recital skills.

Just as a quick self-check, did you remember to use all of them? So did you make sure to project your voice so that everyone could hear you? Did you speak with clear diction where you pronounced all of your words clearly? Did you adopt strong body language? So thinking about standing with your feet shoulder width apart, shoulders back, chin up.

Did you speak at an appropriate pace, so not too slow and not too fast? And did you make eye contact with members of your audience to help connect with them and to help them feel connected to you.

If you managed to do all five of those recital skills whilst completing your task, well done.

Okay, everyone, that's now bringing us on to the second part of our lesson where now we are going to learn one stanza off by heart.

Now you're going to choose which stanza you would like to learn off by heart.

So you can either choose stanza four, which is all about Tim, stanza five, which is the highwayman's speech, or stanza six, which is where the highwayman leaves Bess.

You might choose a stanza on the basis of which one is your favourite, which one you think brings the most tension and hooks the audience in the most, or which one you think you remember the most already.

This means that you will be able to recite the stanza from memory without reading the words from a page.

Learning a text by heart means that you can focus more on the other skills like projection, diction, body language, and pace.

If you're too focused on reading a text from a page, what can very easily happen is you end up just focusing on the reading and you forget to actually recite and use the recital skills.

So really, we want to get to a point where we know one stanza off by heart and we we've memorised it so that then when we're performing it, we can focus on projecting our voice, speaking with clear diction, using strong body language, making eye contact, and speaking at an appropriate pace so that everyone can understand us.

Can you recall any strategies we could use to help us with memorising a stanza? So thinking back maybe to our previous lesson or any other time where you've had to memorise something and learn it off by heart, so it could be lines in a play or words of a song, or maybe you've done a poetry recital before.

Can you think of any strategies that you find really helpful to help you memorise the words? Have a moment to have a little think, and if you've got a partner with you, you could share your ideas with them and also listen to their suggestions.

Great work, everyone.

I'm sure you've got a few ideas and techniques up your sleeve that'll really help you and you've used in the past.

Here are some things that I have found very useful when I've been trying to memorise something.

Firstly, writing the stanza down, whether that's trying to learn a key fact for a test or learn a spelling or learn some lines, I always find that writing things down really helps.

Also, I really enjoy colour coding, so maybe using a highlighter or a coloured pencil to underline any keywords or words or phrases that I find particularly tricky.

If I highlight them in a bright colour, it really helps them stand out to me when I'm practising.

When sometimes I'm practising learning how to spell a word, I might use, look, cover, write, check in my spelling.

So I look at the spelling and cover it up and then try writing it without looking and then check to see if it was right.

But we can adapt this strategy to our speaking and instead of writing anything down, we could look at a line at a time, cover it up, say it out loud, and then check it.

We could also make up some actions for keywords in each line of the stanza.

So you definitely don't want to be coming up with an action for every single word 'cause otherwise, it's going to get too confusing.

But maybe choosing one or two keywords in every line so that then when you know what the action is, it helps you make that link to what the words are from the poem.

Now it's time for your final task.

You're going to decide whether you want to memorise stanza four or five or six.

You only need to choose one for now.

Then use the strategies to help you memorise the full stanza.

So a quick reminder of my suggestions, but you don't have to use just these.

You might want to write the stanza down and highlight some keywords.

Look, cover, say, and check, and you can get a partner to help you with this or make up some actions for keywords in each line of the stanza.

It's really important if you're gonna come up with actions, you make them up yourself because if they're your idea, they're gonna stick in your head much more easily than just using actions somebody else told you to do.

When you've decided which strategies you're going to use, pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

I hope you really enjoyed having that opportunity to choose your stanza and memorise it.

Did you use some of these strategies to help you? So did you try writing the stanza down? Did you use look, cover, say, and check? Did you make up any actions for keywords in each line of the stanza? And did you use something different all together? Take a moment to think about which strategies you found really helpful because everyone's brain works slightly differently and something that your partner finds really helpful, you might not have found as helpful, and also the other way round.

Now that you've memorised the words, we're going to recite your stanza using the recital skills.

So going back to the first part of our lesson, thinking about projection, diction, body language, pace, and eye contact.

So now that you know the words off by heart, you can really, really focus on using these recital skills whenever you're reciting your stanza.

Pause the video now while you complete your task.

Well done, everyone.

Did you remember to use all of these skills? So did you project your voice? Did you speak with clear diction? Did you adopt strong body language? Did you speak at an appropriate pace so that everyone could understand what you were saying? And did you make eye contact with some members of your audience? Well done if you managed to do all of those things in addition to memorising your stanza.

That's excellent work.

Well done, everyone.

That now brings us onto the end of our final lesson of this unit where we have been learning and reciting stanzas four to six of "The Highwayman." Reciting a text aloud is an important skill.

When reciting a text, speakers should consider how to engage their audience through their diction, projection, body language, pace, and eye contact.

We can use a range of strategies to support us with learning a text by heart.

Eye contact is another tool that helps the performer to engage with the audience.

I really hope you enjoyed this lesson and that you enjoyed our "Highwayman" unit as a whole.

I certainly did, and I'm hoping to see you again soon for a different unit.