Lesson video

Hello there, my name is Mr. Brown, and I am your English teacher for today's lesson.

And we're going to be performing, performing our own imaginative poems, bringing our poems to life through performance.

I'm so excited for this lesson.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can perform my own imaginative poem." The key words we will use are performance, expression, volume, and gesture.

Let's say those together.

My turn and then your turn.

Performance, expression, volume, gesture.

Okay, let's take a look at the definitions.

So performance, that refers to the act of presenting or reciting a poem in front of an audience.

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

Volume is the loudness or softness of the voice when speaking or reading a poem.

Gesture is a movement that helps express an idea or meaning.

Today's lesson will start by preparing to perform, and then we will move on to performing a poem.

Today we are going to be performing our poems. Performance in poetry refers to the act of presenting or reciting a poem in front of an audience.

An audience is a group of people gathered together to watch or listen to a performance.

When preparing for a performance, we need to carefully think about how we will deliver our poem.

We can use our voice, gestures, and expression to bring the poem to life and have an effect on the audience.

Let's check your understanding on what we've learned so far.

What is the name for a group of people gathered together to watch a performance? Is it A, a team; B, an audience; or C, a panel? A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

Well done if you said B, an audience.

That's the name for a group of people gathered together to watch a performance.

We are going to prepare to perform the imaginative poems we wrote in the last lesson.

These poems were inspired by Kit Wright's poem "The Magic Box" and followed the same structure.

Have a go at performing "The Magic Box." Ask a partner to watch you and give feedback on your performance of the poem.

So you're going to perform "The Magic Box" by Kit Wright, not your own poem.

You're going to first perform his imaginative poem.

So, it's over to you.

Pause the video and have a go at performing "The Magic Box" by Kit Wright now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Did you enjoy performing? Did you ask your partner to give you any feedback on your performance? What did you notice about how your partner performed their poem? Was there anything you felt they could do differently? For example, Izzy says, "I liked listening to my partner "perform 'The Magic Box,' but it was sometimes difficult "to hear every word they were saying.

"Next time they could try speaking a bit louder." This is a very common thing that we find when children are performing that sometimes they're not quite loud enough, so it's really important that we're thinking about that when we're performing.

If we speak too quietly when performing, the audience will not be able to hear what we are saying.

Speaking at a suitable volume is a very important part to performing.

Volume refers to the loudness or softness of the voice when speaking or reading a poem.

We can also vary our volume to create different effects.

A loud volume could show excitement or amazement, whilst a softer volume could show calmness or secrets.

However, we must always speak at a loud enough volume for the audience to hear every word.

So even if we're trying to speak a little more quietly, it can't be so quiet that the audience can't hear us.

Read through your poem and decide if there are any words or phrases that need to be spoken more loudly or more quietly.

Discuss your decisions with a partner and have a go at performing your poem varying, which means changing, the volume for your chosen lines and phrases.

So have a good look through your poem and decide are there any bits which should be very loud or much quieter? Okay, over to you.

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

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at my poem.

So this is "My Special Bag" poem, and I have chosen to highlight "huge, heavy rock" to be something that I will push my volume higher on.

I will make sure that I speak in a loud voice to emphasise how huge and how heavy that rock is.

For "icy, fresh snow," that's something very delicate, so I'm going to bring my volume down and speak more quietly.

And then "sound of a speeding, red race car," what do you think, loud or quiet? Yeah, of course, I'm going to speak louder almost to kind of mimic the sound of that race car as it speeds by.

Let me just show you how this will sound.

I'll read you these three verses of "My Special Bag" poem.

"My Special Bag.

"In my bag I will put a fluffy, white cloud "and a huge, heavy rock.

"In my bag I will put thick, yellow custard "and icy, fresh snow.

"In my bag I will put the sound of a speeding, red race car "and the smell of crusty, fresh bread." So I varied my volume to try and bring the poem alive for the audience and emphasise certain parts.

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

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

These feelings may include excitement, surprise, amazement, happiness, and sadness.

We can also use gestures when performing.

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

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

So, if I'm reading a poem and I say rocket and I shoot my hand into the air, that expresses how fast the rocket is travelling.

Or holding your fingers close together when you say the word tiny, like this.

This expresses how small something is.

I will now read the first three verses of my imaginative poem using gestures and expression.

I would like you to watch closely to see if I use any gestures or expression, first of all, to emphasise certain words, and then discuss what these gestures express to the audience with a partner.

Okay, "My Special Bag.

"In my special bag I will put a fluffy, white cloud "and a huge, heavy rock.

"In my special bag I will put thick, yellow custard "and icy, fresh snow.

"In my special bag I will put the sound "of a speeding, red race car "and the smell of fresh, crusty bread." Well, what did you notice? Pause the video and have a discussion with your partner to talk about what you noticed, any expression or gestures, and why I did them.

So what those gestures expressed to the audience, what those expressions that I made expressed to the audience.

Pause the video and have a conversation with your partner now.

Welcome back.

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

"You used gesture to show how big the rock was." I did.

I used this gesture to show it was something very, very big.

"Also, your expression on the word smell "expressed that it was a nice smell." Yeah, I don't know if you notice this.

I closed my eyes and I took a smell in.

I smelled something.

I was miming, I was gesturing that I was smelling, and I seemed peaceful and happy and by closing my eyes.

If it's a disgusting smell, I might be ugh.

But I enjoyed the smell.

I closed my eyes.

Well done for spotting those expressions and gestures.

Time for a task.

Read through your poem and decide which words would benefit from being read with extra expression or gestures.

Discuss your decisions with a partner and have a go at performing your poem with extra expression and gestures.

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

Welcome back, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed performing your poem with that extra expression and gestures.

Let's have a look at an example.

So, here's another verse from my poem in "My Special Bag." So, I have gone through my poem, I've looked through, and I've decided that the word silent would benefit from a gesture.

I will put a finger in front of my lips as I say the word silent to express how quiet the night is.

So, I've already planned in a key gesture that will have an impact on the audience.

Okay, it's time now to move on to performing a poem.

Performing a poem to an audience is something that requires time rehearsing.

Rehearsing means practising something for a later performance.

You should rehearse using the things we have practised to help you feel confident.

So that's using volume, expression, and gesture.

Rehearse your poem by practising performing it several times.

So that means maybe three, possibly four times.

Ask for feedback so that you can improve each time.

So, you will be performing it over and over and over again to your partner and asking for feedback, and taking what your partner says and using that feedback to be able to then improve your own performance.

Here's an example of some feedback that you might have given.

"I liked when you increased the volume of your performance "as this made it easier to hear." Or someone might say, "I think you could use more gestures "to make your performance more interesting." Okay, it's over to you now.

Pause the video and spend this time rehearsing, practising , performing your poem with your partner.

Off you go.

Welcome back.

I hope that time was useful and you enjoyed rehearsing and you now feel much more confident and ready to perform.

I am going perform my imaginative poem "My Special Bag." "In my special bag I will put a fluffy, white cloud "and a huge, heavy rock.

"In my bag I will put thick, yellow custard "and icy, fresh snow.

"In my bag I will put the sound of a speeding, red race car "and the smell of crusty, fresh bread.

"In my bag I will put my baby sister's first word "and my grandfather's loud, deep laugh." Okay, so that was me performing my imaginative poem.

I would now like you to discuss how I used volume, expression, and gestures when I performed.

Take some time and talk to the person next to you.

What did you notice? And when I did those things, what impact did it have on you? What was I trying to express to the audience? Pause the video and have a discussion with your partner now.

Welcome back.

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

So you may have said, "I noticed that you did a gesture "for stirring as you said the word thick," so when I was talking about the custard, "and this really expressed how thick the custard was." If custard is very thick, it takes more effort and is slower to stir.

If it's very loose, you'd be able to do it quite quickly.

So by going very slowly, I was able to express to the audience that the custard was very thick, and that is how I used gesture.

So now it's over to you.

I would like you to perform your imaginative poem to an audience.

Remember to think about the volume at which you speak and using gestures and expression to make your poem fun and engaging to watch.

I am sure you're going to enjoy performing and enjoy being part of an audience as you watch others perform, too.

Okay, it's over to you.

Pause the video and perform your imaginative poem to an audience now.

Welcome back.

How do you feel? Congratulations, you have performed your poem to an audience.

Well done, this is the final part of the process of creating poetry.

And it's a really important part, so congratulations.

Take a moment to reflect on your own performance.

Did you speak at a loud enough volume? Did you use any gestures or expressions to express things to the audience? And did you enjoy performing? Because that is really important, too.

Take a moment to think.

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

Performing poetry to an audience is an important part of the process of creating poetry.

When performing poetry, you must speak at a suitable volume.

Using gestures and expression will make your performance fun and engaging for the audience, we can improve our performances of poetry through practise.

Superb work today.

I am so pleased that you were able to perform your own imaginative poem, and I hope to see you again very soon.