Lesson video

Hello, everyone, my name is Mr. Brown, and I'm your English teacher for today's lesson, and we are going to be writing, writing a free verse poem.

And that poem is going to be about a small object.

So writing a free verse poem about small objects.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can write a free verse poem about a small object.

The keywords we will be using are verse, kennings, and rhyme.

Let's have this together, my turn and then your turn, verse, kennings, rhyme.

Fabulous.

Let's take a look at some definitions.

Verse refers to a single line or group of lines within a poem, often characterised by rhythm, metre, and rhyme, forming a unit of poetic language.

Kennings are phrases of two words that replace a noun and are often used in poetry.

Rhyme in poetry is the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables of words, creating a musical quality and pattern in the poem.

We'll start today's lesson by preparing to write a free verse poem and then move on to writing a free verse poem.

We have written a free verse poem before about a big object.

In today's lesson, we will build on this by writing a free verse poem about a small object.

Free verse poems are any poems that do not rely on consistent patterns of rhyme or rhythm.

As a result, free verse tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.

So the poem may sound more like how a person might speak.

In free verse poetry, poets may still use poetic techniques, such as alliteration, repetition, and similes, to create their desired effect.

They may also use rhyme, but it's usually irregular and doesn't follow a particular pattern.

Discuss this free verse poet about a small object.

I'd like you to think about what the poem is about, and did the poem make you think about any memories from your own life? So I'm going to read you this free verse poem about a small object now.

"In dark caves, canine-wobblers wriggle, A dance of change and growth, Smiles with charming gaps, Missing minuscule, precious pearls.

Each wobble a sign of growing up, Another step on life's journey, One by one, replaced by something new, A line of pearly whites, a joyful view." Okay, it's over to you now.

Have a discussion with your partner.

What was that poem about? And did the poem make you think about any memories from your own life? Pause the video and have a discussion now.

Welcome back.

Okay, I'm really intrigued to see if you managed to spot what this poem was about.

Well, well done if you said that I think the poem is about baby teeth and losing them as you grow up.

Yes.

Last lesson, Jun came up with a fabulous idea to use baby teeth as his small object for his poem, and I think you'll agree what a fabulous poem it is.

I think that the poem is about baby teeth and losing them as you grow up, and the poem made me think about when I first started to lose my baby teeth.

Did you think about that when you were reading this poem? Did you think about the feeling of starting to lose your baby teeth? Great.

Okay, let's move on.

Now, although they do not follow poetic rules or a set structure, free verse poems may still include a range of poetic techniques, such as alliteration, kennings, and a rhyme.

Now, rhyme in poetry is the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables, so not just the ending sound, the ending syllables of words, creating a musical quality and a pattern in the poem.

Sometimes they have the same spelling at the end of words, which helps us know they rhyme.

For example, cat ends with A-T and hat ends with A-T.

So that helps us to know that cat and hat will likely rhyme, house and mouse, boat and coats.

Now, sometimes they have different spellings at the end, but they're still rhyming words as they make the same sounds.

The last syllables of those words make the same sounds.

For example, snail ends with a al, and whale ends with a al.

Now they are spelled differently.

We have A-I, spelling the A sound in snail, and A split E, spelling the A sound in whale, but they both make the same sound, so snail and whale rhyme.

Same with chair and share, and blue and zoo.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these words rhymes with the word train? Is it A, boat, B, plane, C, car? Which of these words rhymes with the word train? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

Which of these words rhymes with the word train? Well, it is plane.

Well done if you said B, plane.

Another poetic technique you may wish to use in your free verse poem is a kenning.

A kenning is a two-word phrase that can be used to replace a noun, and they're often used in poetry.

For example, instead of using the noun dog, we can call the dog a tail-wagger, or a ball-chaser.

These are kennings.

Kennings are created by putting two words together to make a noun phrase.

The second word in the phrase often ends with a suffix -er, spelled E-R.

The two words are often joined by a hyphen.

For example, the words mouse and chaser can be joined together with a hyphen to make the noun phrase mouse-chaser, mouse, hyphen, chase.

This phrase can be used as a noun to refer to something or someone, which commonly chases mice.

Let me check your understanding on kennings.

Which of these kennings could be used to refer to a key? Is it A, door-unlocker, B, secret-revealer, or C, wind-rider? Hm, what do you think? Which of these kennings could be used to refer to a key? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, I can now tell you there are two correct answers.

So if you only have one, quickly pause the video and see if you can find the other correct answer because we are moving on to reveal those answers now.

Which of these kennings could be used to refer to a key? A, door-unlocker, and B, secret-revealer.

Of course, yes, a key unlocks doors.

So A was the obvious answer.

But B, a key can open anything.

So it reveals secret.

It's a secret-revealer.

Well done if you said A and B.

Time for a task.

Look through the poem with a partner and try to spot examples of these poetic techniques.

I would like you to look out for alliteration, kennings, and rhyme.

So I want you to read through the poem about baby teeth and see if you can spot any poetic techniques, like alliteration, kennings, and rhyme.

Pause the video and work with a partner to spot these poetic techniques now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you manage to spot them.

So the example of alliteration was, of course, "Missing minuscule, precious pearls." So on that line, you've got four words, M followed by M, and then P followed by P, "Missing minuscule, precious pearls." That's example of alliteration.

Then kennings, we had, "In dark caves, canine-wobblers wriggle." "Canine-wobblers wriggle." Interesting.

So we know that canine is another word for some specific teeth that you have.

So we have canine teeth in our mouths.

Now, canine-wobblers, we know that the wobbling of a tooth, when they get wobbly before they come out.

So canine-wobblers wriggle is a really nice kenning.

Canine-wobblers is the kenning.

And then rhyme, "One by one, replaced by something new, A line of pearly whites, a joyful view." New and view are the two rhyming words.

Well done if you spotted those.

Okay, it's time to move on to writing a free verse poem.

When writing a poem, a poem must carefully consider and decide what atmosphere they're trying to create.

Now, it might be a positive or negative atmosphere.

The atmosphere could try to encourage the reader to think back on their own personal experiences.

In this poem about baby teeth, the poet is trying to create a positive atmosphere of affectionate nostalgia, which means to look back on something fondly.

Furthermore, the imagery of dark caves and canine-wobblers wriggling evokes, which means creates, an atmosphere of innocence and discovery.

And replaced by something new emphasises the theme of growth.

When preparing to write a poem, a poet should spend time developing their ideas.

This is an important part of the planning process to go through, and it involves taking ideas of things that may be included in a poem and extending them by adding two things, adding detail and emotive language.

Now, as language, which helps the reader or listener to feel an emotion.

Here are the ideas I generated in the last lesson for the small object I chose to make the subject of my poem, a seedling.

So the ideas I had for my seedling poem were the nutrients in the soil.

I could include that in my poem.

Bright rays of sunshine, water, raindrops, minuscule roots, stem and leaves, shooting and sprouting, and then gardening, or gardeners, growth, with care.

So looking after plants.

So these are the ideas I had.

What was the small object that you chose to be the subject of your poem? If you haven't done so already, generate ideas for your object.

These should be ideas that you may wish to include in your poem.

Share your ideas with a partner.

Pause the video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at an example.

So this is Izzy.

And Izzy says, "My chosen small object is a daisy." Oh, that's a really nice idea, Izzy.

"An idea I have is to include the daisy being a symbol for spring in my poem." Lovely.

I really like that.

So that's an idea that she has.

We will now extend these ideas by adding detail and emotive language.

So for example, I have the idea of nutrients in the soil and I will add precious pearls of nutrients in the soil.

So I want my seedling to be in, talking about the nutrients in the soil, I'm going to describe that nutrients as precious pearls.

Then we have bright rays of sunshine, golden, life-giving, bright rays of sunshine fall like rain.

Lovely, I like that a lot.

Describing the sunshine, which is, obviously, the opposite of rain, describing the sunshine as falling down like rain.

Really creative way, very poetic.

The water and the raindrops, like minute crystals, like tiny crystals, the way that the light passes through them, like crystals.

Minuscule roots, and I'm gonna refer to those as a kenning.

I'm gonna use the kenning earth-grabbers.

So those roots, instead of calling them minuscule roots, I'll call them earth-grabbers.

Then we've got stem and leaves shooting and sprouting.

So that's nature's gentle flow, leaves begin to grow.

So that's an example of a rhyme that I'm going to try and include in my poem.

I've got nature's gentle flow, the way that there's the flow of the stems and the leaves starting to shoot and sprout, and then leaves begin to grow.

And then gardening, growth, care.

I put patient, caring, gardening, growth, care.

And then plant-nurturer is another kenning that I might look to use to describe the person looking after plants, the gardener.

So look at my extended ideas.

Are there any opportunities for me to plan to use rhyme or kennings in my poem about a seedling? Can you see anywhere that I've planned for me to use kennings or rhymes? Ah, of course.

Yeah.

There is my rhyme.

Nature's gentle flow, Leaves begin to grow.

So I've already mapped out my rhyme and how I'm going to use that.

And then kennings, we had plant-nurturer and earth-grabbers.

Great.

So I've got kennings and rhyme planned for already.

Now, I may not choose these in my poem.

I am not by any means committed to these.

These are just parts of my planning process.

Now extend your ideas on your own mind map.

For example, Izzy says, "My idea is to include a daisy for being a symbol of spring," in her poem.

So that was her idea.

Now how is she extending that idea? I'll extend this idea by using the kenning spring-signaler.

Lovely.

So the idea is that she is going to use the daisy as a symbol for spring, and so she can do that by referring to it as a spring-signaler.

Great.

Okay.

Over to you now.

Pause the video and extend your ideas on your mind map.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at another example of how someone is extending their idea.

So we have Jun, and his idea is to include the waves of the sea in his poem about a pebble.

I will extend this by using rhyming words sea and free in my poem to describe the movement of the pebble in the waves.

Lovely.

So he's planning for a rhyme.

The last thing to decide before you start writing a poem is how you'll present it in verses.

Verse refers to a single line or group of lines within a poem, often characterised by rhythm, metre, and rhyme, forming a unit of poetic language.

As a free verse poem, there are no rules to follow, so you can present your poems in verses of however many lines you like.

It's up to you.

This free verse poem is presented in two verses of four lines each.

So you can see you have verse one and verse two.

Here are some things to consider when deciding how to present your poem in verses.

Consider the natural pauses and breaks in the poem.

Reading it's aloud can help with this.

This will help you to know are there any natural pauses and breaks in your poem that can be the end of a verse, and the beginning of a new one.

Try things and see how different length verses affect the flow of the poem.

So experiment.

Think about the themes or ideas in the poem and how they can be reflected in the presentation of it.

You might choose to divide the poem into verses based on the themes within it.

Ultimately, the goal is to present the poem in a way that enhances its meaning and impact.

So feel free to experiment as you divide your poem into verses.

I'll now read my free verse poem about a seedling out loud.

I know I want the reader or the audience to feel peaceful and positive.

So I will try to incorporate this into how I read the poem.

"In soil rich, where precious pearls like deep, Roots, the earth grabbers reach out.

Rays of warm sunshine fall like gentle rain, Nourishing the earth from nurturing skies.

In harmony with nature's gentle flow, Minuscule stems and tiny leaves grow.

The delicate seedling thrives, it's beauty clear, A patient gardener always near." Now, the amazing thing about poems is that we will all respond differently to them.

We will all respond in an individual way because we are all unique.

Let's have a look at some responses.

So Lucas says, "The poem made me feel peaceful and calm.

The poets achieved this through using phrases like warm sunshine and gentle rain." I completely agree.

It made me feel very peaceful and calm.

And we have another response, "My favourite phrase was earth grabbers reach out because I could really picture the roots reaching out and grabbing the soil." Lovely.

That's exactly what we wanted that kenning to do.

What did you notice about how the poem was read out loud? Did the reader manage to convey a feeling of peacefulness and positivity? If so, how has this achieved? What do you think? Pause the video and either have a think on your own or a discussion with a friend and do this now.

Okay, welcome back.

So what did you notice? Now here's an example answer.

The poem was read in a way that created a sense of warmth and care.

This was because the poet used a very gentle and peaceful tone when reading.

A seedling is something that needs to be treated and looked after with great care and in a very gentle way because it's so delicate and small.

So the poem was read in a way that would reflect that and create that atmosphere.

Okay, now it's your turn to write your free verse poem about your small object.

Here are some poetic techniques that you may wish to include, alliteration, kennings, and rhymes.

But of course, you may use more if you want to.

Remember to decide how you'll present your poem verses too.

This is your free verse poem and you can create it however you wish, but you should still try to create the intended atmosphere, whether that's positive or negative, and show the feelings you have as the poet about your chosen object.

It's over to you now.

Write your free verse poem about your small object now.

Welcome back.

I am sure you enjoyed writing your own free verse poem.

But now I would like you to read that free verse poem aloud and share it because that's what poetry is about, sharing our poems. Once you've done that, I want to reflect and think about what was your favourite line, phrase, or extended idea in your poem.

So pause the video and have a go at sharing your poem out loud to a partner or an audience, and then think about what your favourite line, phrase, or extended idea.

Pause the video and do this now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So let's have a look at an example from Izzy.

So this is Izzy's poem.

I'm going to read it to you now.

Remember, Izzy was talking about daisies and using them as a symbol of spring.

So that was her small object.

It was a daisy.

"In fields of green, where sunlight plays, Daisies dance in cheerful clusters.

With petals white as morning dew, They smile up at the serene, sunny sky.

These spring-signalers, their stems so tall, They wave hello to one and all.

In meadows wide, where dreams take flight, Daisies bloom, a pure delight." And as we can see, Izzy has reflected on her reading of that poem.

And her poem, in general, she says, "I like my use of alliteration where I say, 'They smile up at the serene sunny sky.

'" Repeating that sound at the start of three words in a row.

Let's summarise the learning that we've done today.

Free verse poems do not require the poem to follow poetic rules, but tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.

Free verse poems may include a range of poetic techniques, such as alliteration, kennings, and rhyme.

Verse reverse to a single line or group of lines within a poem.

Rhyme in poetry is the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables of words.

Poems can evoke a positive or negative emotion, and a poet must carefully consider and decide what atmosphere they're trying to create.

Superb work today.

I hope you enjoyed writing your very own free verse poem about small objects.

I'll see you again very soon.