Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Mr. Brown and I am your teacher for today's English lesson, and we are going to be performing, we are going to be performing our own poems. Poems that we have written, we'll be performing them for an audience.

The poems that we wrote about big and small objects, it's time to perform them.

So let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can perform a poem inspired by big and small objects.

The key words are volume, atmosphere, pace, gesture.

Let's say this together, my turn and then your turn.

Volume, atmosphere, pace, gesture.

Fabulous, well done, let's take a look at some definitions.

So volume refers to the loudness or softness of the voice when speaking or reading a poem, allowing for variations in intensity and expression.

The atmosphere is the mood created in a section or whole of a text.

Pace refers to the speed or rhythm at which a poem is read or performed, and a gesture is a movement that helps express an idea or meaning.

In today's lessons, we will start by preparing to perform and then move on to performing a free verse poem.

After reading lots of poems to inspire us and writing our own poems, the final thing to do is to perform our poem to an audience.

Now, an audience is a group of people gathered together to watch or listen to a performance.

When we are preparing to perform, we are carefully thinking about how we are going to have an effect on our audience.

So what is a performance then? Now a performance in poetry refers to the act of presenting or reciting a poem in front of an audience.

We can use our voice, gestures, and expression to enhance the impact of the poem.

When preparing for performance, we need to carefully think about how we will deliver our poem, and that's what we'll be doing in the first half of today's lesson.

Lemme check your understanding.

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've got this one correct.

The name for a group of people gathered together to watch a performance is of course an audience.

Well done if you said B, an audience.

We are going to prepare to perform a free verse poem.

In previous lessons, you have written free verse poems about big and small objects.

You now need to decide which free verse poem you are going to perform.

So have a think which, free verse poem that you have previously written would you like to perform? Now, you may choose to perform a particular poem for several reasons.

Perhaps it's your favourite one and that's why you want to perform it, and that's absolutely fine.

You might think that it will have a strong effect on the audience.

So it's a poem that you think can have an impact on your audience, and that's why you want to use it.

Maybe it lends itself to being performed rather than just read.

Now, here is the free verse poem that I am going to read.

It's about a small object, it's a seedling.

That's the one that I have chosen to perform.

I'm not going to read it to you now because we're going to look at how I will need to take several steps to be able to understand how to perform this.

But I have chosen which poem I'm going to perform, and it is this one about a small object about a seedling.

Now once you've chosen which poem you will perform, you need to decide what atmosphere you are trying to create.

Now the atmosphere is the mood created in a section or whole of a text.

Therefore, when performing a poem, the atmosphere is the mood or feeling created by the performance and poem itself.

Now let's have a look through this list of different atmospheres, and I'd like you to discuss with a partner which atmosphere you think suits your poem and why.

So we have a happy atmosphere, sad, exciting, scary, peaceful and calm.

Which of these atmospheres suits your poem? How a discussion with your partner and explain why.

Pause the video and do this now.

Welcome back, okay, let's have a look at an example.

So here Izzy says, the atmosphere I am aiming to create for my performance is a calm one.

I think this suits my poem because it is about a raindrop and I want the audience to feel very calm and close to nature.

I think that is a brilliant idea Izzy, definitely seems like your poem about a raindrop and how you want the audience to feel suits a calm atmosphere.

For my poem about a seedling, I'm going to try and create a peaceful atmosphere.

Now that we've decided what atmosphere we are aiming to create, we must now move on to thinking about how we are going to achieve this.

How will I create a peaceful atmosphere? How will Izzy create a calm atmosphere? How will you create the atmosphere you want to create? Now, we will achieve this by using three things.

Number one, volume, we'll use pace and gestures.

Our use of voice can greatly affect the performance of a poem.

We must speak clearly so that the audience can understand every word we say and use volume as an important tool in creating our desired atmosphere.

Volume refers to the loudness or softness of the voice when speaking or reading a poem, allowing for variations in intensity and expression, which means that we can change our volume, we can vary our volume to create different effects.

A loud volume could show excitement or intensity whilst a softer volume could show calmness or mystery.

Let's check your understanding.

I would like you to read through your poem and decide what lines or phrases should be read with a louder or softer volume.

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

Now I'm just going to show you mine.

I've had a look through my poem and I've decided that "Fall like gentle rain" is going to be read in a softer volume.

I want almost the sound, the gentle sound of raindrops tapping onto grass and leaves.

I want to kind of replicate that with my own voice, so I'm going to use a softer volume.

I'm actually gonna do the same for minuscule stems and tiny leaves grow the delicate seedling thrives.

I want to create that feeling of something being very small, and to do that with a loud bellowing voice doesn't seem right, so I'm going to pull my volume right down.

I'd like you now to have a discussion with your partner.

Look through your poem and decide which words, lines or phrases you are going to read with a louder or softer volume.

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

Welcome back, okay, I hope that you were able to look through your poem and decide which lines should be read with a louder or softer volume.

Now let's move on because as well as varying how loud or soft we speak during our performance, we can also vary how fast or slow we are.

Now this is known as pace.

Pace refers to the speed or rhythm at which a poem is read or performed.

Increasing the pace at which we perform means speaking faster, and this leads to an exciting feeling for the audience.

Now slowing the pace down leads to a calm, more peaceful feeling.

I will now read a poem about an escalator.

I will vary my pace to have an effect on the audience.

For now, watch and listen to my performance and see if you can notice how I vary my pace to have an effect on the audience.

"The escalator stands tall inside the station with metal teeth as sharp as knives.

Its rumbling growl echoes through the air.

Each step a journey into the unknown.

It swallows tired commuters whole and goes on and on and on", and okay, what did you notice about how I varied my pace? Pause the video, have a discussion with the person next to you.

What did you notice about how I varied my pace? Off you go.

And welcome back.

Now just before I look at an example, I want to add one more question for you to think about, what effect did it have on you? So I'm sure that you noticed that my pace increased as I read the poem, it got faster, but what effect did it have on you? Pause the video and continue your discussion.

What effect did it have on you when I read the poem at a fast pace? Pause the video now.

Welcome back, okay, let's have a look at an example.

So Lucas says, I noticed that you increased your pace gradually throughout the poem.

It built suspense, excitement and a sense of danger.

Thank you, Lucas, I'm glad that I was able to express that to you because that's what I was aiming for.

I wanted to increase my pace gradually, almost to build suspense like you were getting to the top or the bottom of an escalator, and I wanted to create a sense of danger, like the escalator could be dangerous, and the way that my poem ended with and it goes on and on and on, really helped me to be able to build that idea of steps on an escalator because I could just get faster, faster, faster, faster on each one.

Great, I'm glad you noticed.

Our facial expressions and body language can help us to convey meaning as we perform, we can show surprise, wonder or mystery with our expressions or with body movements, actions and gestures.

I would like you to reread your poem.

Are there any moments in the poem that you think would benefit from a particular action or gesture? Reread your poem and have a little look through now.

Welcome back, okay, I'm now going to read the first verse of my poem about a seedling.

I want you to watch closely to see if I use any gestures to emphasise certain words or phrases and discuss the impact of these gestures with your partner.

"In soil rich, where precious pearls lie deep, roots the earth grabbers reach out, rays of warm sunshine fall like gentle rain, nourishing the earth from nurturing skies." Okay, let's have a look.

So Alex noticed that I used my hands to gesture reaching out and grabbing on the line "Roots the earth grabbers reach out." Now this helped Alex to picture the roots reaching out to grab nutrients from the soil, which is exactly what I was aiming for, so I'm glad that you picked up on that Alex, I wonder what you noticed.

Was it the same as Alex? Did you notice any other gestures? Time for a task.

Think about the different elements of performance you have practised so far.

What element has improved your performance the most and why? Think about how you will vary the volume at which you speak, how you will vary the pace at which you perform the poem and how you will use gestures including facial expressions and body language.

Pause the video and have a think and a discussion about this now.

Welcome back, okay, let's have a look at an example answer.

So we have, I think by adding gestures to my performance, it will make it much more exciting to watch.

Well, I absolutely agree, and someone else thinks, I think speaking louder and more clearly has really helped me.

Absolutely speaking louder and more clearly will help you and it will help the audience to be able to understand everything that you're saying.

Let's move on now to performing a free verse poem.

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

Now, rehearsing means practising something for a later performance, and I'm sure that you have rehearsed before as part of school productions.

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

Those techniques are pace, volume and gesture.

Rehearse using all of these so you get to practise them before you use them in front of an audience.

Let's check, I would like you to rehearse your poem by practising performing it several times, which means maybe three, four, even five times to a partner, and I want you to ask for feedback so you can improve each time.

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

Welcome back.

How were your rehearsals? I hope they went well.

Let's have a look at some feedback that you might have used.

I liked when you increased the pace of your performance as this created an exciting atmosphere, what excellent feedback that would be.

Or I think you could use more gestures to make your performance more interesting.

Again, very interesting, positive feedback that I know will make a difference.

So if you feel like you need to do a little bit more rehearsing or you want to give a bit more feedback to your partner so they can have a go one more time, then pause the video and do that now.

Okay, it is now my turn to perform my free verse poem about big or small objects.

We know that my poem is about a seedling, "Rn soil rich, where precious pearls lie 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, its beauty.

clear, a patient gardener, always near." I would like you now to discuss how I use the following.

How did I use volume, pace and gestures? Pause the video and have a discussion with your partner now.

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed my performance and I hope you enjoyed discussing it, talking about the volume, the pace and the gestures.

It is time now for you to perform your poem.

I would like you to perform your free verse poem about a or small object to an audience.

Remember to think about varying the volume at which you speak, how loud or softly you will speak, varying the pace at which you speak, how fast or how slow, and using gestures such as facial expressions and body language.

Bring your poem to life.

Pause the video and perform your poem now.

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed your poem.

Let's take a moment to reflect on our performances.

Did you speak clearly and deliver your performance with confidence? Did you create a suitable atmosphere for your poem? Did you vary your volume to have an effect on the audience? Did you vary your pace? Did you use any gestures such as facial expressions or body language? Pause the video and have a quick discussion with the person next to you or a moment to reflect on your own about your own performance.

Do this now.

Welcome back, I hope you've enjoyed reflecting on your own performance and maybe getting a little bit more feedback from your partner.

The last question I have for you is, did you enjoy performing? Poetry is so much about enjoyment.

We should enjoy reading poetry, writing poetry, and performing poetry.

Being able to learn and recite a poem is an amazing skill to have, and I really hope you enjoyed today's lesson Performing Your Own Free Verse Poem.

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

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

When performing poetry, you can vary your volume, pace and use gestures to have an impact on the audience.

Deciding upon and creating a desired atmosphere is important when performing poetry.

We can improve our performances of poetry through practise.

Brilliant work today, I hope to see you again very soon.