Lesson video

Hello there.

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

And we are going to be reading and responding to poetry, to a particular poem called "If You Could See Laughter." And it's by a fabulous poet called Mandy Coe.

So reading and responding to "If You Could See Laughter" by Mandy Coe is our lesson today.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can give a personal response to the poem and give some evidence to justify my ideas.

The key words we'll use are "theme," "imaginative," and "imagery." Let's say those together.

My turn and then your turn.

Theme, imaginative, imagery.

Perfect, let's look at the definitions of those words.

A theme is a big idea, topic, or message that recurs within a text.

Imaginative means having the ability to create vivid mental images or concepts that may not exist in reality.

Imagery is the use of language to create a mental picture or sensory experience for the reader or listener.

We'll start today's lesson with an introduction to the poem and poet and then move on to exploring the poem themes.

Now, Mandy Coe is a British poet who was born in London but has spent many years living in Liverpool.

She's known for her engaging and accessible poetry for both children and adults.

Coe's poetry has received many awards.

She won the Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition in 2001 and the Greenhouse Pamphlet Prize in 2008.

Also, her collection, "If You Could See Laughter," was shortlisted for the CLiPPA, which is the Centre of Literacy in Primary Poetry Award.

And that was in 2017.

So very prestigious award that she has either won or been nominated for.

Select the statements that are true.

Mandy Coe was born in Liverpool.

That's A.

B, Mandy Coe was born in London.

C, Mandy Coe is a British artist.

D, Mandy Coe is a British poet.

Select the statements that are true.

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

Welcome back.

Let's see if you found the right answers.

Yes, there are more than one.

So if you only have one, quickly pause the video and find the other correct answer, because we are going to reveal them now.

Well done If you said B and D.

Mandy Coe was born in London.

She then moved to Liverpool, which is where she spent a lot of her life living, and she is a British poet, not a British artist.

Well done if you got B and D as your correct answers.

Mandy Coe's poetry often celebrates the wonders of the natural world, the joys of childhood, and the power of imagination.

Being imaginative means having the ability to create vivid mental images or concepts that may not exist in reality.

She writes in a way that is easy to understand and expresses emotion in an imaginative and beautiful way.

In this lesson, we'll be reading and responding to her poem, "If You Could See Laughter." Before we read the poem, what does the title "If You Could See Laughter" make you think of and expect from the poem? What words or images come to mind? You may want to have a discussion with your partner, so you can pause the video and have that discussion now.

Okay, let's have a look at a couple of examples.

So June says, "It makes me think the poem is going to be funny and make me laugh lots." Of course, yeah.

Laughter is in the title.

So "If You Could See Laughter" tells me that there might be some humour in this poem.

Ah, and then we have this response.

"I imagine a huge cloud of giggles or a sea of smiles." What's a really poetic and lovely way to describe what you can imagine is going to be in this poem.

Okay.

Well, it's enough imagining.

Let's read that poem.

Just before we do, I want you to just take a moment to think, are these positive or negative images? We always want to be thinking with a poem, is it a positive poem or a negative poem? Is it trying to create positive feelings like happiness, love, family, friendship, or more negative themes, like sadness, anger? Maybe creating a poem that is designed to scare the reader.

It's now time to read the poem.

Read it out loud and sound out any words you are unsure of to help you.

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

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

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

Okay, it's over to you now.

Read the poem and then we'll come back together to discuss our initial responses to the poem.

Pause the video and read the poem now.

And welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed the poem.

So I'm now going to give you my initial response to the poem, and I'm going to use the questions, what did you like about the poem, and do you have any questions about it to prompt my initial response.

So my initial response is, I liked how fun and imaginative the poem was.

I also liked the idea that laughter could take the shape of different things and that we could see it.

So really creative concept for a poem.

Okay, now it's your turn to give your initial response to the poem.

And again, use those questions, what did you like about the poem and do you have any questions about it to be able to prompt your discussion.

So pause the video and discuss with your partner, what did you like about the poem, and do you have any questions about it now.

Welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed your discussions.

Let's explore what happens in the poem.

So in verse one, the poem begins with a conversation between two people disagreeing on what colour laughter would be.

In verse two, the discussion continues with a suggestion that laughter could be a different colour and spiral shaped.

In verse three, the poet describes laughter as being balloons that have been twisted into familiar shapes such as animals by a children's entertainer.

In verse four, the poet now describes the roof of a venue where a pantomime is taking place as wriggling with colour.

She also talks about the tiny laughter of a baby and the colour a "hiccup" of its laughter would be as it rises into the air.

In verse five, the poem ends by describing how we could float into the air by holding onto strings attached to laughter and float around the planet.

It's time for you to do a task to check how well you read and understood the poem.

I'd like you to put the following events that occur in the poem in order.

So A, the poet says we could float away by holding onto strings wrapped around laughter.

B, a conversation takes place about what colour laughter would be if you could see it.

And C, the poet describes laughter as balloon animals.

Can you put these three events that occur in the poem in order? Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look and see if you are right.

So the first event in this order would be number one here, a conversation takes place about what colour laughter would be and if you could see it.

So this is the very start of the poem, wasn't it? Then number two, the poet describes laughter as balloon animals.

And number three, the poet says we could float away by holding onto strings wrapped around laughter.

How did this poem make you feel? Let's look at some example responses.

Izzy says, "The poem made me feel excited about all the different ways laughter might look." And Andeep says, "The poem made me curious about how I would picture laughter if I could see it.

I liked the way there is no limit to this, and it's just down to our imagination." So how did the poem make you feel? I would like you to have a discussion with the person next to you.

Talk about how it made you feel.

And remember, our personal responses to the poem will be different because we are all unique.

That is the fabulous thing about poetry.

Something that I might love, you might not like.

Something that you might find really funny, I might find really serious.

That is brilliant about poetry.

So have a discussion.

How did this poem make you feel? Pause the video and discuss now.

Welcome back.

Okay, time for a task.

What would you imagine laughter to look like if you were creating a poem about it? So if you were creating a poem about what laughter would look like, what do you imagine? Refer to the poem for inspiration and discuss your ideas with your partner.

Choose things that fill you with a feeling of happiness and fun.

We want our poem to have a positive feeling, so choose things that fill you with happiness and fun.

They can be things that do not actually exist in real life.

There are no limits when you are writing poetry.

You can use this talk scaffold to help you: "I imagine laughter to look like.

." And then tell me what you imagine it to look like, and then use that word because to explain, to justify your opinion, to give us reasons why you think that thing is what you imagine laughter to look like.

Okay, it's over to you.

What would you imagine laughter to look like if you were creating a poem about it? Pause the video and have a discussion now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

Let's look at an example response.

So we have an example response right here.

"I would imagine laughter to look like a huge round bubble floating into the sky, bursting with giggles." What a lovely response from Alex.

Now, was Alex's response similar to yours, or was it different? I liked the way that he described it in such a creative and poetic way, but was his response similar or different to your ideas? I wonder.

Time to move on to exploring the poem's themes.

Mandy Coe's poems are often themed around the joys of childhood and the power of imagination.

And this is the case in the poem, "If You Could See Laughter." A theme is a big idea, topic, or message that recurs within a text.

The poet uses the themes within the poem to create a fun and playful feeling and a world where anything is possible.

For the theme of the joys of childhood, the poet uses her words to create several imaginative scenes for the reader to picture in the head.

This is called imagery.

Imagery is the use of language to create a mental picture or sensory experience for the reader or listener.

The poet creates images of a theatre roof coming to life with movement and colour and balloons twisted into the shape of different animals.

Let's check your understanding.

Which themes are conveyed in the poem? Is it A, the joys of childhood, B, environment, or C, imagination? Which themes are conveyed in the poem? Pause the video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, which themes are conveyed in the poem? Well, well done if you said A, the joys of childhood, and C, imagination.

These are the themes that are conveyed in Mandy Coe's poem.

Let's have a closer look at some of the language used in the poem.

So here are some words which you may not have encountered before.

"Guffaw" is a loud and hearty laugh.

That's not a word that's used very commonly, "guffaw." "Belly-laugh." That's a burst of deep laughter from a person's stomach.

"Pantomime." I wonder if you've been to a pantomime before.

Pantomime is a theatre show which is full of jokes and laughter.

When we read the poem aloud, we can place emphasis on these words to create a sense of fun and convey the theme of the joys of childhood.

"Emphasis" is the act of giving special importance to certain words, phrases, or ideas through variation in volume or tone of voice.

Read the following lines of the poem out loud.

Line 12, line 13, and line 14.

Remember to emphasise the words below to create a sense of fun and convey the theme of imagination and the joys of childhood.

So go "guffaw," "belly-laugh," and "pantomime," they appear on lines 12, 13, and 14.

Your job is to read those lines, putting emphasis on these words to be able to convey that theme of imagination and the joys of childhood.

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

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Because that was your last chance to rehearse.

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

In the previous task, you read through three lines, focusing on emphasising certain words.

You are now going to use that experience to be able to reread the entire poem.

Use your voice to read the poem clearly and with expression to create a sense of the joys of childhood and imagination.

Emphasise any words that will help you to do this, such as those you've already practised reading.

It's over to you now.

Reread Mandy Coe's poem "If You Could See Laughter" now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Did you enjoy rereading the poem? After spending the lesson working on it and looking at the language, I hope you enjoyed pulling that knowledge together to be able to read it.

Take a moment to reflect on how you read the poem.

Did you read the poem in a loud, clear voice? Did you use expression and put emphasis on certain words? What did you do to create a sense of the joys of childhood and imagination? Here's an example from Sam.

She emphasised the word "guffaw" to really show the size of the laughs.

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

Maddy Coe is a poet and is known for writing imaginative poetry for children.

"If You Could See Laughter" by Mandy Coe is a poem about what laughter would look like if you could actually see it.

The poem is imaginative and creates vivid imagery in the reader's mind.

The poem explores themes of the joy of childhood and imagination.

We can read with expression to convey a sense of fun and joy.

Brilliant work today.

Another poem that you have become familiar with.

I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing you again very soon.