Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mr. Brown and I am your English teacher for today's lesson.

Today we're going to be reading and responding to a poem.

The poem is by Allan Ahlberg, a very famous poet, and it is his poem called "Please Mrs. Butler." It's a really fun poem that I know you're going to love and one that you'll remember for a long time.

So let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can give a personal response to the poem and perform it.

The key words we'll use are character, expression, and gesture.

Let's say this together.

My turn and then your turn.

Character.

Expression.

Gesture.

Fabulous.

Let's take a quick look at the definitions of these words.

So character means a person or animal in a piece of fiction writing.

Expression means reading with feelings and emotion to bring the poem to life.

And gesture is a movement that helps express an idea or a meaning.

We'll start today's lesson by looking at a poem.

We'll start with an introduction to the poem and poets, and then move on to performing the poet.

So Allan Ahlberg.

Allan Ahlberg was born in Croydon, but grew up in a town called Oldbury, which is near Birmingham.

Allan was adopted as a child and during his childhood he spent lots of time reading books.

He even joined three different libraries so he could check out as many books as possible at once.

After leaving school, Allan tried several different jobs.

He was a plumber's assistant, a postman, and even a grave digger.

When Allan was 22, his boss told him that he should become a teacher, so he did.

Let's check your understanding so far.

Select the statements that are true.

A, Allan Ahlberg grew up in London.

B, Allan Ahlberg loved reading when he was young.

C, Allan Ahlberg became a poet after leaving school.

D, Allan Ahlberg worked as a teacher.

Pause the video and select the statements that are true now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you found the right answers.

Well, well done if you said B and D.

Allan Ahlberg loved reading when he was young.

He even joined multiple libraries, so he could check out as many books as possible.

And D, he did work as a teacher after he tried lots of different jobs, including a grave digger, he became a teacher.

A, grew up in London, he did not grow up in London, he grew up in Oldbury and became a poet after leaving school.

No, he tried lots of different jobs and then became a teacher before he became a poet.

Allan Ahlberg is one of Britain's most well known and successful children's writers.

He's known for his fun storytelling, his clever use of words and ability to capture the imagination of young readers.

He writes in a simple and funny way with exciting stories that include magic and adventures.

His wife Janet illustrated many of Allan stories.

They wrote many books that became extremely popular, such as "The Jolly Postman," "Funnybones" and "Peepo." Before we read the poem, what does the title "Please Mrs. Butler," make you think of and expect from the poem? What words or images come to mind? Pause the video and have a discussion with your partner about this now.

Welcome back.

Okay, I hope you enjoy discussing the title of the poem.

It's always interesting when you haven't read a poem and you've just got the title to kind of guess what you think might happen, make a prediction.

So June has made a prediction and he says, it makes me think the poem is going to be set in a school.

And Mrs. Butler is a teacher.

Interesting.

Then we have an idea from Sophia and she says, I think the humour might come from a child asking their teacher for something, and maybe the teacher keeps saying, no.

I see.

So the child keeps saying, please, Mrs. Butler, can I have? And then the teacher keeps refusing them.

Nice idea.

Now, are these positive or negative images? Do you think this poem is going to create positive images, or do you think it's gonna be a bit more negative? It's now time to read the poem, "Please Mrs. Butler," read it out loud and sound out any words you are unsure of to help you.

Once you've read the poem, we will discuss our initial responses to it.

Now, initial is an adjective and it means at the beginning or first.

You might talk about whether or not you liked the poem and why and if it made you think about anything in particular.

So over to you.

Enjoy reading "Please Mrs. Butler" by Allan Ahlberg.

Off you go.

Welcome back.

I am so interested to find out if you liked the poem.

Did you find it funny? Did you enjoy it? Well, I'm going to give you my initial response to the poem and I'm going to use these questions.

So what did you like about the poem and do you have any questions about it to help scaffold my ideas? Now, I liked how the poem was written as a conversation between a child and their teacher.

I don't think I've seen a poem like this before.

You really felt that it was a conversation between these two people.

Now would like to know if the poet based the poem on his own experience as a teacher.

We know that Allan Ahlberg was a teacher before he became a poet.

Is this a poem written about his own experiences? Now it's your turn to give your initial response to the poem.

What did you like about the poem and do you have any questions about it? Pause the video and discuss with your partner now.

Welcome back.

I am sure that you enjoyed a really interesting discussion with your partner giving your initial responses.

But let's explore now what happens in the poem and in verse one, the poem's first verse starts with the title and is written from the perspective of a child complaining to their teacher that a boy is copying their work.

In verse two, the second verse is written as the teacher's response.

Now they are suggesting the child moves away to some unusual and funny places.

An example of this is that the teacher tells the child to go onto the roof with their books.

Well, that is a very unusual thing for a teacher to say, and we're starting to see where the humour in this poem is coming from.

In verse three, the third verse is the child complaining to their teacher about the same boy.

This time, the boy keeps using the child's rubber.

Very frustrating, and we're starting to see a bit of a pattern emerge.

The fourth verse is the teacher's response.

Again, their response is unusual and funny, as they suggest the child might swallow their rubber to stop the boy taking it.

Okay, I do not advise this.

We should not be swallowing our rubbers, but that is why the poem is so funny.

Allan Ahlberg is using the teacher's responses to create humour.

The fifth verse continues the pattern, and therefore it is written from the perspective of the child, again asking the teacher for help with a particular boy in their class.

This time, the boy has been using unkind names to refer to the child.

Okay, are we guessing that this is the teacher's response? But it absolutely is.

It's the sixth and final verse, and it's the teacher's response.

Their suggestions seem to be getting more and more extreme as the poem goes on.

This time they suggest that the child shut themselves in a cupboard, or go to live at sea to escape the child in their class.

The final line is the teacher telling the child not to ask them again.

So perhaps the teacher's patience has finally worn out.

Time for a quick task.

Put the following events from the poem in order.

Refer to the poem for support.

So we have A, the child complains of someone stealing their rubber.

B, the child complains of someone calling them unkind names, or C the child complaints of someone copying their work.

I would like you to put these events in order.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Did you manage to put them in the correct order? The order they happened in the poem? Let's see.

The first one was the child complaints of someone copying their work.

Then the child complaints of someone stealing their rubber, and finally, the child complaints of someone calling them unkind names.

Well done if you ordered those correctly.

How did the poem make you feel? Now, Izzy says, the poem made me laugh because the teacher gave such funny and strange suggestions to the child.

And Deep says, the poem made me wonder why the teacher didn't tell off the child who was doing all these things.

Interesting ideas from both of you.

Okay, it's over to you now, how did the poem make you feel? Now remember, our personal responses to the poem will all be different because we are all unique.

Okay, have a discussion with your partner.

How did this poem make you feel? Pause the video and have that discussion now.

Welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed your discussion, and I'm sure you both had different ideas because everybody is unique and that's the amazing thing about poetry.

We respond in different ways.

Time for a practise task.

I'd like you to refer to the poem and discuss these questions with your partner.

If you were going to add more common complaints from a child, from a school child, what might they be? So if you were adding more things that often children complain to teachers about, what might they be? Why do you think the teacher was telling the child to do such strange things? And the last question I'd like you to think about is, what other humorous suggestions could the teacher have made? So if you were continuing this poem or rewriting it, what other humorous suggestions could the teacher have made? Okay, here's an example of a talk scaffold you could use.

I think the teacher was saying strange things because, or another humorous suggestion the teacher could make might be.

Okay, it's over to you.

Refer to the poem and discuss those questions with your partner now.

welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed your discussions.

Let's have a look at some examples.

We have an answer here from Alex.

So Alex says, I think the teacher was saying strange things because she wasn't really concentrating and just said anything because she was too busy to think properly.

That's a really interesting idea.

Sometimes we get that feeling, don't we? The teachers are so busy, they're not really listening to us, and perhaps her responses were showing that she wasn't really listening.

Nice idea, Alex.

Okay, Jordan says, I add that the child complains about the boy sitting in their carpet space, this space, because this happens to me sometimes.

That's a nice one.

I like that.

And that is common.

It does happen a lot, doesn't it? Then we have Laura and Laura says, to add more humour, the teacher could suggest that the child should climb a tree to hide from the boy.

That is a nice idea.

Well done.

Great suggestions.

Let's move on now to performing the poem.

Allan Ahlberg is known for his fun storytelling, and this is definitely the case in the poem, "Please Mrs. Butler." Ahlberg creates a fun, humorous, and relatable situation, which reads like a conversation between a child and the teacher.

The poem features two characters.

Now characters are people or animals in fiction writing.

Each character has a verse and the speaker alternates back and forth, so we can see verse one is the child.

It's said by the child, it's the child speaking.

Verse two then is the teacher.

Verse three, the child.

Verse four, the teacher.

Verse five of the child, and verse six is back to the teacher.

Let's check your understanding.

Allan Berg is known for his A, serious storytelling, B, sad storytelling, or C, fun storytelling.

Allan Ahlberg is known for his, what do you think? A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

I can reveal the correct answer.

Allan Ahlberg is known for his fun storytelling.

Well done if you said C.

Now, because the poem is written as a conversation between two characters, it works well being performed by two people.

By performing this poem in a pair, you'll be able to get into character and express to the audience more easily how each character is feeling.

Let's prepare to perform, with your partner decide who is going to be the child and who is going to be the teacher.

One of you will be the child who is complaining of all these different problems, and the other one is going to be Mrs. Butler.

Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, so I should now have one child and one teacher.

Let's move on.

Using expression and gestures can make out performances fun and interesting for the audience to watch.

Using expression when performing means reading with feeling to bring the poem to life.

Now, these feelings may include excitement, surprise, frustration, happiness, desperation.

How do you think the child and the teacher are feeling in the poem then? Let's use those feelings.

Do any of those feelings work for the characters in our poet? Do the characters feel the same or do they feel differently? Reread the poem and discuss with your partner.

You can use these feelings to help your discussions.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

I hope that discussion went well and you were able to talk about how the child and the teacher were feeling.

Did they feel the same or did they feel different? Let's have a look at an example from Izzy.

The child is feeling desperation because they keep saying please and almost begging for help.

The teacher is feeling frustration because the child keeps pestering them.

I think that's a really, really good answer, Izzy.

Well done.

We can also use gestures when performing.

A gesture is a movement that helps express an idea or meaning.

For example, shooting your hand up into the air as you say the word rocket expresses how fast the rocket is travelling.

So if you went (whooshing) who that would express how fast the rocket was travelling.

Holding your fingers close together when you say the word tiny expresses how small something is.

Think about what gestures we can use to express to the audience how each character in the poem is feeling.

If a person is feeling desperate, they might hold their arms out with their hands and fingers outstretched, desperately asking for help.

If a person is feeling frustrated, they might clench their fists and look down at the ground.

Okay, I'd like you to now practise performing one verse of the poem to your partner.

If you're the child, you'll perform verse five, and if you're the teacher, you'll perform at first six.

This gives you a chance to perform these verses, so that each character is at their most frustrated or most desperate.

Use expression and gestures to help show how the character is feeling and bring the poem to life.

Ask your partner for feedback on your performance and then have another go.

Use that feedback to improve.

This is your last chance to practise before we're gonna read the whole poem, so practise performing just one verse each, so that you can really express how your character is feeling.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed your performing your last rehearsal because we are now moving on to performing the whole poem with a partner.

Use your voice to perform the poem clearly and with expression, focus on expressing how the characters are feeling and build this emotion as the poem goes on.

You should also use gestures to help you.

Pause the video and perform the whole poem now.

Welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed performing that incredible poem.

Let's reflect on how you performed.

Did you perform the poem in a loud clear voice? Did you express how your character was feeling? Did you use any gestures to emphasise their emotions? Well, we have an example here.

I played the teacher and expressed being frustrated by grinding my teeth.

What a really nice idea.

So we said about clenching our fists of express frustration.

Grinding your teeth can be another way.

Well done.

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

Allan Ahlberg is one of Britain's most well-known and successful children's writers, and is known for his fun storytelling.

"Please Mrs. Butler" is a poem about a child asking their teacher for help.

"Please Mrs. Butler" is written as a conversation between two characters and can be performed in a pair.

Performing a poem using expression and gestures will help to express to an audience how a character is feeling.

"Please Mrs. Butler" by the incredible Allan Ahlberg, another poem you now know.

I'll see you again very soon.