Lesson video

Hello there, my name is Mr. Brown and I'm your English teacher for today's lesson and we are going to be preparing to write a poem, preparing to write a poem about a small object.

So this is building on the work we've done previously.

We have been looking at big and small objects in this unit, and in today's lesson we are preparing to write a poem about a small object.

This will be a free verse poem, so let's get started.

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

The key words we'll use are inspiring, synonym, minuscule and diminutive.

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

Inspiring, synonym, minuscule, diminutive.

Fabulous, well done.

Let's take a look at some definition, shall we? Something or someone that is inspiring is exciting and makes you feel strongly interested and enthusiastic.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

Minuscule is an adjective which means tiny or microscopic, like an insect so small you can barely see it.

Diminutive is an adjective which means unusually small, like something so tiny that you don't even notice it or someone so tiny that you don't even notice them.

Okay, our lesson today, we're going to start by reading poetry about small objects.

We'll then move on to generating vocabulary and finally deciding a poem subject and generating ideas.

We are going to be writing poems about small objects.

In this lesson, we will need to prepare to do this.

Now, an excellent way to prepare to write poetry is to read and enjoy poems yourself.

Reading inspiring poems by other poets can give you ideas and make you feel interested and enthusiastic to write your own.

We will read and discuss some poems written about small objects, starting with a rhyming poem.

Now, rhyming poems are common, particularly in poetry written for children.

These poems sound similar to songs and have words that sound the same at the end of some of the lines.

Rhyme in poetry is the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables of words, creating a musical quality and pattern in the poem, for example, snake and rake both end with ake.

House and mouse, both end with ouse.

Let's read this rhyming poem written about a small object.

I'll read it to you now.

"In autumn's breeze, the tiny leaf takes flight, a golden dancer in the fading light.

It pirouettes, twirls and spins as its journey to earth begins.

Falling slowly towards the ground where a sea of others can be found.

And minuscule leaf finally free, a symbol of change for all to see." Okay, now did you notice any rhyming words? Well, at the end of every line there was a word that rhymed.

Now these were in pairs.

So flight and light rhymed together, spins, begins, they go together and rhyme, ground, found and free and see, that's how this rhyming poem works.

So I would like you to discuss the poem.

First of all, tell me what is the poem about and then what did you enjoy about the poem? So have a discussion with your partner and then we'll come back together and look at some responses.

So what is the poem about and what did you enjoy about the poem? The poem is on the right hand side.

If you'd like to read it again, that's absolutely fine.

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

Welcome back, okay, let's see how you got on.

So an example answer, something you may have said is the poem is about a leaf falling off a tree in autumn.

I enjoyed the way the poet calls the leaf a symbol of change as I know autumn is here when I see leaves on the ground.

Absolutely, really nice way to describe a leaf falling off a tree, it's a symbol of change, very poetic.

We will now read a kenning poem written about a small object.

Now, kenning poems are just like riddles, and they hint at the subject of a poem rather than telling the reader.

They consist of a list of kennings.

Kennings are two words often joined together with a hyphen that take the place of a noun.

For example, instead of using the noun coin, we could use a kenning such as pocket-jangler instead, because a coin is in your pocket and it jangles around, it's a pocket-jangler.

Let's read a kenning poem written about a small object.

Can you guess what the object is? Let's see if you can.

"Sky-glider, wind-catcher, bird-rider, air-dancer, soft-tickler." Hmm, do you think you know what this kenning poem is about? Sky-glider, so that tells me it's something that glides in the sky.

Wind-catcher, so maybe something that's designed to catch the wind.

Now this is an interesting one, bird-rider.

What object rides on a bird? Air-dancer, and then soft-tickler, what object rides on a bird and might be used to tickle someone? Hmm, I wonder if you know.

Okay, let's discuss the poem.

What is the kenning poem about and how did the poem make you feel? Have a discussion with the person next to you.

Pause the video and discuss now.

Welcome back, so what is this kenning poem about? It is time to reveal.

I think the kenning poem is about a feather is the correct answer.

It is written about a feather.

So well done if you spotted that.

And this person also says, "The poem made me feel peaceful and I could picture a bird flying through the sky." Lovely, let's move on and we will now read a sonnet written about a small object.

Sonnets are a specific form of poetry that consists of 14 lines and follow a strict rhyme scheme.

Sonnets are often written to express deep emotions or ideas.

These may include love, beauty, time and life and death.

Let's read a sonnets written about a candle.

"In a room dark, where shadows softly creep, a candle flickers, spreading warmth and light, its gentle glow, a treasure we shall keep, in the quiet of night, a soothing sight.

With each gentle breath, it dances and sways, casting dark shadows that flicker and play, tiny flame, like a star in the night's maze, guiding us through the darkness, come what may.

But as the night grows old and the hour late, the candle's flame begins to dim and fade.

Its warmth and light, we bid farewell, our fate, in silence, we watch as the dark invades.

So let us cherish the moments we share, its memory stays, in the still, night air." Okay, it's over to you now to discuss the poem.

How did the poem make you feel? What lines or phrases had the greatest impact on you? Have a chat with the person next to you.

Pause the video and discuss now.

Welcome back, so an example answer might have been, the poem made me feel a little sad, especially the end when the candle went out.

The phrase, "As the darkness invades," made me picture the darkness looming over the candle.

Yes, I had something similar.

The poem painted the darkness to be almost like a another character in the story, invading the candle's space and putting out the warmth and light that it gives off, lovely.

Okay, it's now time to read a free verse poem written about small object.

Now, free verse poems do not follow poetic rules such as rhyme or structure.

And instead, they tend to follow the rhythm of natural speech.

They allow poets to be creative.

Although no rules are required to be followed, poets still may use poetic techniques, such as repetition, to create their desired effect.

They may even still use rhyming words but without any set structure.

So if you see rhyming words in a free verse poem, that's absolutely fine, but they won't be in a set structure.

Okay, let's read a free verse poem written about a pebble, continuing our small objects theme today.

"In the sands of time, a pebble lies, weathered by waves, smoothed by skies.

A silent witness to the ocean's song, it rests for only a breath.

Tossed by tides, endlessly moving, a traveller in a different place each day." Great, okay, time for you to read this free verse poem out loud yourselves.

You are going to read the same poem that I've just read about a pebble, and I want you to focus on using your voice and expression to reinforce the positive feeling the poet is trying to make the reader feel.

We are trying to create a positive atmosphere.

You may wish to read your poem to an audience and ask for feedback.

It is a really useful thing to do, to read your poem aloud to another person, to a partner or an audience, a group of people, and ask for feedback.

What did they like about how you read your poem? Did they want you to do anything differently? Really good to get feedback and improve and get better every time that you read poems. Okay, it's over to you now.

So pause the video and read this free verse poem out loud now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Just a couple of reflective questions for you to think about.

Did you use your voice to make the reader feel happy and peaceful? If so, I wonder how you did that.

Did you use any facial expressions or physical gestures? Well, these are really important to bring your performance to life.

So making sure that you are using facial expressions and physical gestures is a really good thing to think about.

Let's move on to generating vocabulary.

When we're writing poems about small objects, we will use lots of vocabulary to emphasise the size of the objects to the reader.

To achieve this, we want to ensure we know a large bank of words that can be used, so our writing does not become repetitive.

We need to know lots of synonyms for important words such as small.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

Lemme just check your understanding.

Complete the following sentence.

A synonym is a name for a word that sounds the same as another word, that's A, B, has the opposite meaning to another word, that's B, or C, has the same or similar meaning to another word.

Complete the following sentence.

A synonym is the name for a word that A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, let's see if you found the right answer.

A synonym is the name for a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

C was the correct answer, well done if you said C.

Let's generate vocabulary that we can use in our poems to emphasise to the reader the size of the object we're writing about.

Now we are writing about small objects, so let's generate synonyms for the word small.

We start with little, little means the same as small, tiny, miniature, diminutive, that was one of our keywords, wasn't it? Diminutive, minute, if something is minute, it is very, very small and minuscule, that was another one of our keywords.

Minuscule and diminutive, two keywords that we are now seeing are synonyms for the word small.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these words is a synonym for the word small? Is it A, light, B, miniature or C, transparent, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

So miniature, B, is a synonym for the word small.

Well done if you said B.

Light means that something does not weight very much and transparent means that you can see through it.

So B was the correct answer.

Let's look at two of our synonyms in more detail.

So we had diminutive, now diminutive is an adjective and it means unusually small, like something so tiny you almost don't notice them.

And minuscule, minuscule's an adjective, means tiny or microscopic like an insect so small that you can barely see it.

These are two words that I would love to see used in your poems. Which of these objects could be described as diminutive or minuscule? Is it A, a needle, B, a football or C, a car? Which of these could be described as diminutive or minuscule, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, let's see if you found the right answer.

Which of these objects could be described as diminutive or minuscule? Now we know those words are synonyms for small.

Which of those objects is the smallest? It is, of course, a needle, A, well done if you said A.

Okay, time for a task, I would like you to write a list of synonyms for the word small.

Work with a partner to try and include the vocabulary generated in this lesson so far, and add any of your own words if you can.

So we've generated lots of words for small already.

Can you remember them, and can you use them in this list? And can you add any of your own ideas too? Okay, it is now over to you.

Write a list of syn for the word small.

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

Welcome back, okay, let's see how you got on.

So I asked you to write a list of synonyms for the word small.

Here are some of the words you may have come up with.

We had little, tiny, diminutive, minuscule, minute, miniature, microscopic.

These are all words that you may have used.

Let's move on now to deciding a poem subject and generating ideas.

To begin planning for writing a poem about small objects, we need to first decide which small object we will use as our subject.

The subject of a poem is what the poem is about.

We want the subject to be something that interests us and we have some knowledge of, something that others will know and can picture in their minds, and something that inspires poetry.

Let me check your understanding.

Which of these would make a good subject for poetry? Would it be A, something that interests us and we have some knowledge of, B, something that is unexciting, or C, something that is exciting? And there may be more than one correct answer.

Pause the video and see if you can find the correct answers now.

Welcome back, okay, let's see if you found there were two correct answers.

If you only have one, you've quickly got enough time to pause the video and find the other correct answer because we are going to reveal.

Well done if you said A and C, something that interests us and we have some knowledge of would make a good subject for poetry, and C, something that is inspiring.

That would make a good subject for poetry too.

B, something that is unexciting, well, no.

If something is unexciting, then it is not a good subject for poetry.

How do we decide which small objects are inspiring to write poetry about and which are not? One way is to choose an object that will provoke certain emotions, either positive or negative.

For example, I feel excited when I see see a seashell because they're rare and precious.

So Aisha shell feels excited when she sees a seashell because they're rare and precious.

So it would be an excellent subject for her to write poetry about because it brings out an excitement in her.

Andeep says he feels anxious when he thinks about a needle because he knows how sharp they can be and how dangerous they are.

So it brings up quite strong feelings of anxiety for Andeep.

And so while this isn't a positive thing, it's still something that could be a good subject for poetry because it will allow him to be able to express those strong emotions that he feels.

Objects that have a sensory appeal are great subjects for poetry too because they engage the reader's senses.

Again, this can be in a positive or negative way.

The objects will stimulate the reader's senses by describing something very visual, such as a sunset or a flower, something that has a sound associated to it, such as a wave and the crashing noise it makes, something that has a smell associated to it, such as car fumes, or something that has a taste associated to it, such as hot curry.

Okay, let me check your understanding.

Do you think these small objects would make a good subject for a poem and why? Discuss with a partner.

So we have a daisy, a keyboard key, and a water droplet.

Do you think these would make good subjects for poems and why? Discuss with a partner, pause the video and have that discussion with a partner now.

Welcome back, let's see how you got on.

So what did you think? Perhaps you might have thought that a daisy is a good subject for a poem because it makes me feel happy and think of spring.

Maybe you said like Jun here, "I think a key on a keyboard is not a good subject for a poem because it isn't very inspiring or interesting." While we might all know about keys on keyboards and use them every day, it's not that inspiring and interesting, is it? Okay, let's see what Izzy thinks.

"I think a water droplet is an excellent subject for a poem because it is tiny, yet looks very beautiful." I can see what she's thinking about here.

I think if you look very closely to water droplet, the reflections, there is a kind of beauty in it and I think perhaps that that would be an excellent subject for a poem too.

So I am now going to choose my small object to be the subject of my poem.

And I think it is something that makes me feel calm and positive and it's also something that most readers will know and can picture in their minds.

It is a seedling, a seedling.

So when a plant very first starts to grow, it's called a seedling.

And I am going to write my poem about it.

It is a very small object and it's something that makes me feel calm.

I feel positive that this plant is growing.

It gives me fond memories of when I was growing up and growing plants with my parents and grandparents.

So it's a good topic for a poem for me to write about.

I'll now generate ideas about my object that I may wish to expand and include in my poem.

Now these can be anything that comes to mind when I think of a seedling, anything at all.

So when I say seedling to you, what are the things that come into your mind? All of these ideas may work in our poem, some of them may not, maybe none of them will, but that's the point of this process.

We are just generating ideas.

So when I think of a seedling, I think of the nutrients in the soil.

I know that the seedling needs the nutrients in the soil.

I know it needs bright rays of sunlight, water, raindrops I think about, minuscule roots, tiny, tiny little roots growing in the soil, stem and leaves, shooting and sprouting and gardening and growth and care, so a gardener looking after these seedlings, taking care of them, making sure they are watered, making sure they get sunlight.

So these are the ideas that I have when I think of a seedling.

So it's over to you now, I would like you to decide what the subject of your poem about a small object will be.

And remember to try and choose an object that provokes emotions either in you or in the reader, or engages our senses.

These things make great subjects for poetry.

And once you've done that, I then want you to move on to the second part of your task, which is to generate ideas about your object that you may wish to include and expand on in your poem.

Okay, so it's over to you, two parts of this task.

I would like you to pause the video and complete them now.

Welcome back, okay, let's have a look.

So what did you choose and why? I am really interested to find out.

So Jun chose a baby tooth, what an interesting idea, Jun, because they are an important milestone in a child's life and everyone has experience of losing theirs.

That is really crazy, I never would've thought to come up with that idea.

It is something that is so small, it's something that everyone knows, everybody's gone through that process of losing their baby teeth and having their adult teeth grow through, and it says it such an important milestone in a child's life.

Again, let's have a look at the ideas that Jun generated.

So a baby tooth, like a tiny pearl, that's a lovely simile, that is like a tiny pearl, growing up, I think that's gonna be an important part of this poem, smiling with missing teeth, yeah, that really comes to mind.

That's a very clear image that I have in my head when I think of baby teeth, children smiling with gaps.

The tooth fairy, of course, wobbling and the suspense of when will the tooth eventually fall out, and the new teeth replacing.

Lovely, great ideas.

Okay, let's summarise the learning that we've done today.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

Synonyms for small include tiny, minute, diminutive and minuscule.

The subject of a poem is what the poem is about and should be inspiring.

Poems can provoke emotions and engage our senses.

Brilliant work today.

You have prepared to write a poem about small objects, and I hope to see you soon to write that poem about small objects.

Well done, take care, I will see you again very soon.