Lesson video

Hi everyone, my name's Mrs. Tweedie and I'm so looking forward to teaching you today's poetry lesson.

You'll need a quiet space to work, a pencil and paper to write on and someone or the screen to talk to.

If you are ready, I'm ready.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can give a personal response to different poems and read them aloud.

We're going to look at lots of different poems today, some by James Carter and others by some other poets at the end of the lesson.

Our keywords for today are here.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Mischievous.

Let's try that one again, mischievous.

Well done.

This means showing a fondness for causing trouble in a playful way.

Humorous.

And again, humorous.

Well done.

Humorous is an adjective that means something that makes a person laugh or smile because it is funny or silly.

Conversation.

This is a verbal exchange of ideas, thoughts or information between two or more people.

We have a conversation by speaking aloud.

Today's lesson is split into three sections.

We'll start with introduction to the poem, "What Did You Do At School Today?" and the poet, James Carter.

Let's get started.

James Carter is a British writer who was born in Reading in 1959 and now lives in Oxfordshire.

There he is on the screen.

Say, hi, James Carter.

He is a poet, musician and author who has celebrated for his humorous, remember one of our keywords, meaning funny and playful and entertaining poetry for children.

James Carter has written many collections of poetry and picture books that are enjoyed in lots of schools, libraries, and homes around the world.

He enjoys visiting schools to run poetry workshops with children and is also an ambassador for National Poetry Day.

An ambassador is somebody who represents a company or a country, and in this case, James Carter represents National Poetry Day.

Let's check your understanding.

Select the statements out of A, B and C that are true about James Carter.

Pause the video now whilst you do that.

Welcome back.

Well done for selecting B and C.

He does not live in London, so A was not correct, but he is an ambassador for National Poetry Day and he is a poet, musician, and author.

James Carter loves to write poems about all sorts of unusual things from aliens to woolly mammoths and ghosts to garden sheds.

Wow, so exciting.

Some of his poems sound like nursery rhymes and some take the form of questions and answers.

They're often easy to remember and fun to read.

James Carter loves to bring the feeling of fun and play to his poems and also likes to write mischievous poetry too.

Remember, mischievous is one of our key words.

Mischievous means showing a fondness for causing trouble in a playful way.

I wonder if you know anybody mischievous in your life or maybe you've read a book or a poem before about someone or something mischievous taking place.

James' poem, "What Did You Do at School Today?" is a clear example of mischievous poetry.

Now, before we read the poem, I'd like you to discuss what the title, "What Did You Do at School Today?" makes you think of and expect from the poem.

What words or images come to mind? Pause the video as you discuss what the title makes you think of.

Let's hear your examples.

This child thinks, "It makes me think the poem is going to be a child explaining all the different things they did at school that day." Absolutely, it's a question asking all about what happened at school.

So it definitely makes me think of lots of different things that the reader is going to talk about.

"I imagine the humour might come from a child being mischievous and not telling the truth about what they did at school that day." Yes, good idea.

I wonder if any of you had similar ideas to these.

Just thinking now, are these two examples positive or negative images? As you have a little think about that, you can then decide if you expect James Carter's poem to be positive or negative.

Now it's time to read poem.

The poem is also available in the additional materials if you would like to read along whilst I read you the poem.

"What did you do at school today? Nothing.

Nothing? Well, nothing much.

You did nothing much all day long? Well, all right, mum, if you really want to know, I had four lessons and 45 minutes of playtime in which I went around with three friends.

For lunch, I had 22 baked beans, two fish fingers, a quarter of a bread roll and one banana.

I fed Nibbles, the class hamster, two sunflower seeds.

I wrote one poem.

I got seven outta 10 for a spelling test.

I did 16 fairly tricky maths questions and I learned five very interesting things about the ancient Egyptians, including how they used to remove the brains of their dead with a hook.

Mum, do you ever listen to a word I say? Oh sorry, darling, what was that? I said I removed my teacher's brain today.

What? Oh, well done you.

What would you like for tea?" Now let's hear James Carter introducing and reading the poem himself.

<v ->When my children were young,</v> when I used to pick them up from school, I'd always want to know what they'd been up to all day and it's the last thing they wanted to tell me because their heads were full of school and all they wanted to do was to go down the park or get an ice lolly or go home and have tea.

And then later when I was busy cooking or something, they'd wait just for the right moment to come and tell me everything.

And years later I thought, "Hmm, that's an interesting idea for a poem", a conversation poem between a parent and a child, and it goes like this.

"What did you do at school today? Nothing.

Nothing? Well, nothing much.

You're telling me you did nothing much all day long? Well, all right, mum, if you really want to know, I had four lessons and 45 minutes of playtime in which I went around with three friends.

For lunch, I ate 22 baked beans, two fish fingers, and a bit of a banana.

I fed Nibbles, the class hamster, one sunflower seed, I wrote one poem, I got seven outta 10 for spelling test, and I did 16 fairly tricky maths questions and I learned five very interesting things about the ancient Egyptians including how they used to remove the bra.

Mum, do you ever listen to a single word I say? Oh, sorry, darling, what was that? I said I removed my teacher's brain today.

What? Oh, well done you.

What would you like for tea?" <v ->I hope you enjoyed that reading by James Carter.

</v> I'm now going to give my initial or first response to the poem and I'm going to think about these questions, what did I like about the poem and do I have any questions about it? Well, I loved the poem and I liked that it used playful humour and had a funny twist at the end.

I would like to know if the poet was writing from his own experience, either as a child or as a parent.

Now it's your turn.

You are going to give your initial response to the poem with somebody nearby.

Think about these questions to guide your discussion, what did you like about the poem? Do you have any questions about it? Pause the video now as you discuss.

Welcome back.

I hope you had a wonderful discussion about the poem.

Now let's explore the meaning of the poem a little more.

It's written in the form of a conversation between a child and their mother.

And you'll remember that conversation is one of our key words, a verbal exchange between two or more people.

It begins with the poem's title, "What Did You Do at School Today?" acting as the mum asking the child what they did at school and the child giving a typical response, which is to say, "nothing".

I know that from my own children often when I say, what did you do at school today? I'll get a very limited response back about what they did.

The poem is written about an everyday experience that the reader can relate to.

In the next section, the child responds to their mother by sharing an over the top list of all the tiny details of their day, such as how many baked beans they ate and what they scored on their spelling test.

And you can see that James Carter includes so many numbers, so many specific numbers for details of what the child has done at school.

This is all shared in a humorous or funny or playful way as the child is being playful and mischievous by giving so much detail.

The child now in the final section tries to share a gruesome fact they learned about the ancient Egyptians, but becomes frustrated.

You see the part where they're frustrated in capital letters when it seems their mom isn't listening to them? And then the mom's response is shown to be true, that they haven't been listening.

The child mischievously tests whether she is listening by saying they removed the teacher's brain today and the mother simply says, "Well done", and asks what they'd like for tea.

If she had really been listening, I don't think she would've said well done to the child for removing the teacher's brain.

Let's check your understanding of the poem so far.

Put the following events that occur in the poem in order, which goes first, which goes second, which goes third.

Pause the video now as you complete this check.

Welcome back and well done.

First, the mother asks the child what they did at school today.

Then the child shares a detailed list of what they did at school.

Finally, the child says they removed their teacher's brain.

Great work.

Now it's time for another discussion.

How did this poem make you feel? Pause the video now as you discuss this key question with somebody near you or to the screen.

Welcome back and I hope you had a rich discussion.

Izzy said, "This poem made me laugh so much because I often say nothing when my mum asks me what I did at school." That's right, Izzy.

I know that from firsthand experience from my own children when I ask them what they did at school.

And Andeep says, "I loved the way the poem was written as a discussion between the child and their mother.

I found it funny that the mother asked what the child did at school but then didn't listen to the answer." Nice work, Andeep.

Now it's your turn to discuss again how this poem made you feel.

Pause the video now as you complete your discussion and remember, our personal responses to the poem will be different because we are all unique.

Welcome back and great work in your discussions.

It's time for task A.

It's another discussion task.

You are going to refer to the poem in the additional materials and discuss these questions with your partner.

How did James Carter the poet add humour to the poem? Did you notice a structure to the poem that showed who was talking? You might use these sentence scaffolds to help you.

The poet added humour by and I noticed that the poem had a structure of.

Pause the video now as you complete task A.

Welcome back.

Alex said in his discussion, "The poet added humour through the child's mischievous responses, especially when they said they'd removed their teacher's brain." "I noticed that the poem had a structure of putting a blank line to show a change in who was talking and the mother's responses were in a different looking font." Great spot, I wonder if you spotted that too.

It's coming up in the next section of our lesson, we're going to explore the poem.

The poem "What Did You Do at School Today?" is a humorous poem, a funny poem, which is written as a conversation between two people and you'll remember that conversation is a noun, which means a verbal exchange of ideas, thoughts, or information between two or more people.

Anything verbal is spoken.

A poem written is a conversation between two people can be a fun way to explore everyday situations and different themes.

Let's listen to James Carter reading the poem again.

Listen out for that conversation style of the poem as you watch James Carter.

<v ->When my children were young,</v> when I used to pick them up from school, I'd always want to know what they'd been up to all day and it's the last thing they wanted to tell me because their heads were full of school and all they wanted to do was to go down the park or get an ice lolly or go home and have tea.

And then later when I was busy cooking or something, they'd wait just for the right moment to come and tell me everything.

And years later I thought, "Hmm, that's an interesting idea for a poem", a conversation poem between a parent and a child and it goes like this.

"What did you do at school today? Nothing.

Nothing? Well, nothing much.

You're telling me you did nothing much all day long? Well, alright mum, if you really want to know, I had four lessons and 45 minutes of playtime in which I went around with three friends.

For lunch, I ate 22 baked beans, two fish fingers and a bit of a banana.

I fed Nibbles, the class hamster one sunflower seed.

I wrote one poem, I got seven outta 10 for spelling test and I did 16 fairly tricky maths questions and I learned five very interesting things about the ancient Egyptians including how they used to remove the bra.

Mum, do you ever listen to a single word I say? Oh, sorry darling, what was that? I said I removed my teacher's brain today.

What? Oh, well done you.

What would you like for tea?" <v ->Welcome back.

</v> Oh, it's so wonderful to hear the real poet reading the real poem for us.

Thank you, James.

James Carter uses a particular layout and structure in the poem to show the reader that it is a conversation between two people.

He starts a new verse each time the conversation changes speaker and leaves a line between each verse to make it even clearer.

Remember, a verse in a poem is a single line or a group of lines within a poem.

Also, Carter puts the lines spoken by the mother in a slanted font called italics.

Can you say italics? Well done.

Regular font is shown here on the left and italic font is shown here on the right.

You can see that the italic font is slanted.

Let's have a look in action in the poem.

The mother's line, in this case the title, is written in regular font.

The child's line is written in regular font.

Going back to the mother, we now see her next line in italics.

The child responds in regular font and we move back to the mother during the conversation in italics font.

Let's check your understanding.

What is the name for the font used for the mother's lines in the poem? A, Lexend, B, Bold, C, italics.

Pause the video now as you decide.

Welcome back and well done.

It was C, italics.

When reading the poem out loud, you can use your voice to show the listener that the person speaking has changed.

For example, you might use a fast voice for the child and use a deeper and more stern sounding voice for the mother.

Oh, yes, I definitely found this earlier at the beginning section of our lesson when I read you the poem that I naturally used a different sounding voice between the mother and the child.

You can also face a different direction when speaking as each person to add an element of performance to the poem.

For example, you might look up when the child is speaking and look down when the mother is speaking.

This will emphasise the height difference between the two and make it clear for anyone watching you read the poem which person is speaking.

Let's check your understanding.

Which direction might you look in when speaking the child's lines in the poem, A, up, B, down, C, straight ahead? Pause the video now as you decide, welcome back.

Correct, it was A, you might look up to show that you are looking up at the mother as the child.

It's time for task B.

It's another discussion task.

You are going to read the whole poem out loud to a partner.

The poem is available in the additional materials.

You're going to use your voice to read the poem clearly and with expression.

Also, you're going to use your voice and gestures or physical movements to show the listener that the poem is a conversation between two people.

Good luck and enjoy completing task B.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

Let's reflect on how you read the poem to your partner.

Did you read the poem in a loud clear voice? Did you use your voice and gestures to express that the poem was a conversation between two people? Did you enjoy reading the poem aloud most importantly? Pause and reflect on how you read to your partner.

Pause the video now.

This child says, "I changed my voice when I was speaking the mother's lines to be deeper and sound more grown up." Great idea.

Using that voice and the expression to express the two different characters in the conversation.

Maybe you had a similar idea and reflection about your own performance.

Well done.

It's time for our final section of our lesson, more humorous poems. Another poet that writes humorous poems is Rachel Rooney.

You might have read her poem, "Home Time" before.

Now I will read the poem "Wide Open" by Rachel Rooney to you.

This poem is available in the additional materials If you would like to follow along with me.

"My magic eye sees the sticky beak of a baby chick before the egg shell has broken.

It can catch the sun as it squints and the stars as they wink at me.

My magic eye has discovered an unnamed planet spinning at the edge of the galaxy.

It watches a woolly mammoth give its last sigh, then sink gently beneath the ice.

My magic eye stares hard at the soft hairs vibrating on an ant's belly.

If you have scribbled your secrets in a diary, my magic eye will have read them.

Yesterday, it spied on your nightmares and tomorrow it'll spy on your dreams. My magic eye is wide, wide open." What a beautiful poem.

Now it's your turn to read it aloud.

Remember, the poem is available in the additional materials.

To begin, read the poem silently in your head.

Then read out loud.

You might like to read it with a partner taking turns to read every two lines.

Good luck and enjoy reading "Wide Open" by Rachel Rooney.

Welcome back.

How did your reading go? I hope you enjoyed it.

There were so many wonderful words in that poem to enjoy reading aloud.

And now time for another discussion.

What is your reaction to the poem "Wide Open"? What did you like about it and did you find it humorous? Did you find it funny? Like "What Did You Do at School Today?" by James Carter.

Pause the video now as you discuss these two questions.

Welcome back.

This child says, "I liked reading Rachel Rooney's ideas about what her magic eye sees and then imagining what my own magic eye would see in the world.

I didn't find it humorous or as humorous as 'What Did You Do at School Today' by James Carter, but it made me imagine lots of different things." Yes, I agree, it wasn't as funny as James Carter's poem, but it definitely was as imaginative and it had so much imagery in it.

Another poet that writes humorous poems is John Foster.

Now I will read the poem, "10 Dancing Dinosaurs" by John Foster to You.

It's available in the additional materials to follow along with.

"10 dancing dinosaurs in a chorus line, one fell and split her skirt, then there were nine.

Nine dancing dinosaurs at a village fete.

One was raffled as a prize, then there were eight.

Eight dancing dinosaurs on a pier in Devon.

One fell overboard, then there were seven.

Seven dancing dinosaurs performing magic tricks.

One did a vanishing act, then there were six.

Six dancing dinosaurs learning how to jive.

One got twisted in a knot, then there were five.

Five dancing dinosaurs gyrating on the floor.

One crashed through the floorboards, then there were four.

Four dancing dinosaurs waltzing in the sea.

A mermaid kidnapped one, then there were three.

Three dancing, dinosaurs headbanging in a zoo.

One knocked himself out, then there were two.

Two dancing dinosaurs rocking around the sun.

One collapsed from sunstroke, then there was one.

One dancing dinosaur climbed aboard a plane.

Flew off to Alaska and was never seen again." What a fun poem.

Now it's your turn.

It's available in the additional materials to read aloud.

First, just like before, read the poem silently in your head.

Then read out loud and again, you might like to read it with a partner taking turns to read every two lines.

Enjoy as you pause the video to read aloud.

Welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed reading that poem aloud and now let's discuss your reaction to the poem, "10 Dancing Dinosaurs" with somebody near you or to the screen.

Use these questions to guide your discussion.

What did you like about the poem and did you find it humorous? Pause the video now as you discuss.

Welcome back.

Andeep says, "I found '10 Dancing Dinosaurs' very humorous.

It made me have lots of funny pictures in my head of huge dinosaurs doing lots of silly things." I agree, I really enjoyed picturing all those dinosaurs doing all those silly things.

Now it's time for task C.

You have read two more poems and with your partner, you're going to discuss the following question.

From reading these two extra humorous poems. do you like reading poems that are humorous? Why or why not? Pause the video now as you discuss this key question.

Welcome back.

The key question was, from reading two more humorous poems, do you like reading poems that are humorous? Why or why not? I wonder what sorts of responses you had.

Here's an example.

"I love reading humorous poems because they make me take a break from thinking hard in the lessons I find tricky at school.

Sometimes I find reading and writing quite difficult, so reading funny and silly poetry really helps.

I'd like to be a poet one day, I think." Thank you, Jim.

I agree, poetry can be a wonderful escape from things that we find challenging or difficult or tiring.

Let's summarise our learning from today's lesson.

James Carter is a British poet who is mostly known for his entertaining poetry written for children.

"What Did You Do at School Today?" is a humorous poem.

The poem is written as a conversation between a child and their mother about what the child did at school.

The poet uses a particular layout and structure in the poem to show the reader that it is a conversation between two people.

He starts a new verse for a new speaker, and the mother's lines are in italics.

Rachel Rooney and John Foster are poets who also write humorous poetry.

I've really enjoyed teaching you today's poetry lesson and I hope to see you again soon in another lesson.

Keep reading lots and lots of poetry aloud and to yourself and enjoy it.

Bye-bye.