Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

How are you today? I hope you're doing very, very well.

My name is Ms. Afzal and I'm doing well because we are getting together to prepare to write poetry about the heat.

I love the heat.

How do you feel about the heat? The warmth, warmth of the sun.

Oh, I really love it.

Anyway, however you feel about it, we're gonna be having a go at expressing how we feel about the heat, and we'll be preparing to write some poetry today.

I hope you're ready.

Let's get started.

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

Let's take a look at the keywords in our lesson today.

My turn, your turn.

Form, tanka.

Great stuff.

Loved hearing those.

Let's find out what they mean.

Form is the way that a poem can be presented.

A tanka is a form of Japanese poetry consisting of five lines with a specific syllable pattern, 5-7-5-7-7, often expressing emotions, observations, or narratives.

Our lesson today, preparing to write poetry about the heat, has two parts to it.

First of all, we'll be exploring tankas, and next, we'll be generating ideas and vocabulary.

Let's begin exploring tankas.

Today we're going to be exploring poems about the heat.

The form of poem we're going to explore today is called a tanka.

An excellent way to prepare to write poetry is to explore some examples yourself.

Reading poems can inspire you and give you ideas and make you feel interested and enthusiastic to write your own.

A tanka is the traditional Japanese form of poetry that was created more than 1,300 years ago.

And we can see Japan on the map in front of us.

It shares lots of similarities with a haiku.

And a haiku is another form of poetry from Japan, which consists of poems made up of three lines with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.

They're often written about nature, inspired by nature.

Tankas consist of five lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7, totaling 31 syllables.

And remember, a syllable is a unit of sound within a word.

A useful strategy to help you count the syllables in each word is to clap each beat.

For example, burning ember.

(instructor clapping) Four syllables, two in each word.

Let's have a go at clapping our names, the syllables in our names.

I'll go first.

So my name is Miss Afzal.

Miss Afzal.

(instructor clapping) Three syllables.

Now it's your turn.

Clap the syllables in your name.

I wonder how many syllables were in your name.

Let's have a look at two example tankas.

I'll read these to you.

Evening's golden glow.

Heat of day begins to wane.

Crickets chirp softly.

Blazing sun claims the skyline.

Shadow seeks solace in night.

And one more.

In stifling classroom, sweat beads trickle down my neck.

Heatwaves shimmer, dance, sweltering summer's cruel kiss.

Relief found in shade's cool breath.

There we have two example tankas, following that structure of a certain number of syllables in each line.

5-7-5-7-7.

So I am curious, what is your first impression of the tankas? What did you like about them? What do they make you think of and how do they make you feel? So pause the video here while you share with someone nearby, what was your first impression of the tankas? What did you like about them? What did they make you think of? And how do they make you feel? Okay, good to be back with you.

Hope you enjoyed sharing your first impressions of the tankas with someone nearby.

Let's hear what Sam has to say.

"I imagine I'm in a field in the first tanka.

Its description of the crickets and the "blazing sun claiming the skyline" appeals to the senses." Thanks for sharing that, Sam.

Yeah, it's really quite a powerful image that, isn't it? The blazing sun claiming the skyline.

And let's hear from Andeep.

"The second tanka tells the story of a child in a hot classroom waiting to escape to the shade." Oh yes, I can remember days like that.

I wonder if you've had days sitting in a very hot classroom waiting to get into the shade.

Check for understanding.

Tankas originated in which country? Brazil, France, Japan.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected Japan.

Traditionally, tankas often explore themes of nature, emotions, and the passage of time.

Tanka poetry often emphasises the expression of deep emotions and personal reflections.

Because of their strict form, tankas encourage poets to convey their themes with clear and precise language.

We can see some very beautiful images from nature on the screen there.

Some real close up, and then some beautiful views.

I'd love to be there now, taking in those views.

Check for understanding.

Sequence the order of the syllables in a tanka poem.

So how many syllables are in each of the lines? Pause the video while you decide.

Does each line have five syllables or seven syllables? Let's have a look.

Line one is five syllables, line two, seven syllables.

Line three, five syllables.

Line four, seven syllables and line five, seven syllables.

So it's 5-7-5-7-7.

Well done if you sequenced the order of the syllables in this way.

And now it's time for your first task.

I would like you to read this tanka out loud.

Which syllables will you place emphasis on? How will you make the poem flow? You may wish to read the poem to an audience and ask for feedback.

So pause the video here while you read this tanka out loud.

It's great to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task, reading the tanka out loud? Did you read the tanka with a sense of rhythm? Did you include any pauses or emphasis on certain words or phrases? I hope you enjoyed reading this poem and maybe you collected some helpful feedback from your listeners.

And now it's time for us to move on to generating vocabulary and ideas.

As we're going to be writing poems about heat, we need to generate lots of vocabulary associated with it.

Let's look closely at these words.

Gleaming, shining, suffocating, clammy, blistering, perspire, burning, sizzling, radiant, roasting.

We'll explore this language in more detail to help us prepare ideas for our poem about the heat.

Here are some specific words that might help us when thinking about the heat.

Do you know all their definitions? Stifling, sweltering, oppressive.

So pause the video and share with someone nearby the definitions for these words.

What do they mean? Okay, let's take a look.

Stifling is an adjective and it means smothering or suffocating.

When the day is so hot, it makes you pour with sweat.

Sweltering is another adjective, very hot or baking, like weather that makes you desperate for some shade.

Oppressive, it's an adjective.

It means heavy, harsh, or overpowering.

Like heat so strong you feel it crushing you.

Oh my goodness, I wonder if you've ever experienced weather like this, a day that is this hot.

Here are some more specific words about the heat.

Searing, scorching, relentless.

Pause the video and share with someone nearby, what do these words mean? Let's have a look.

Searing is an adjective and it means burning or scorching, like a day so hot you could fry bacon and eggs on the pavement.

Scorching is an adjective, red, hot or blazing, the kind of heat that will roast a marshmallow.

Relentless is an adjective and it means constant or nonstop, like the sun when it beats down on you until you nearly melt.

Well done if you came up with definitions such as these.

Check for understanding.

Match the words to the images.

Pleasant, shady, blistering.

Pause the video while you match the words to the images.

Okay, so pleasant describes this lovely scene where the weather's very pleasant.

Shady is where we can see we are underneath the shade of the trees, the branches, and we can see blistering heat there from the bonfire.

When we're describing the heat, we want to be as precise as possible.

Some words describe high heat and some describe low heat.

So for example, on more of the low heat side of things, we've got the words tepid and mild, and tepid means warm.

Moving along, we've got soothing and mellow.

And then more on the high heat side of things, we've got incandescent, meaning when light is given off from something that is heated, being heated and roasting.

So we can really see a progression there from low heat, tepid, all the way to roasting, high heat.

Check for understanding.

Where would you place the following words on a scale left to right from low heat to high heat? Comfortable, balmy, inferno, torrid, gentle, lukewarm.

Pause the video while you decide where to place these words on the scale from low heat to high heat.

Did you place gentle and lukewarm at the low heat end of the scale? Next, comfortable, and balmy.

And at the high heat end of the scale, inferno and torrid.

Well done if you place the words on a scale in this order.

We'll use our heat vocabulary in different ways, depending on its position in a sentence, if it is a verb, adjective, or noun.

So a verb is a doing, being or having word.

An adjective describes a noun, and a noun is a person, place or thing.

So let's take a look at some verbs.

Radiate, roast, sizzle, bake, ignite and warm.

Adjectives, blazing, fiery, scorching, searing, sultry, boiling.

And nouns.

Blaze, fervour, inferno, furnace, ember and heat wave.

You can adapt some vocabulary to fit your purpose by changing the word class.

For example, blaze, which is a noun, could become blazing, an adjective.

Check for understanding.

Match the words to the correct word class.

Radiate, ignite, furnace and sizzle.

And our word classes are noun, a person, place or thing.

Verb, a doing, being or having word.

And adjective, which describes a noun.

So pause the video while you match the words to the correct word class.

We've got radiant is an adjective.

Ignite is a verb, furnace is a noun, and sizzle is a verb.

Well done if you made these connections.

We can use some of this vocabulary, as well as our own experiences to create a mind map about the heat.

I'm going to share some of my ideas on this mind map.

Blazing heat, definitely experienced that.

Scorching temperatures.

The heat hung in the air like.

Waves of fiery energy.

The pavement sizzled.

Air, thick with humidity.

So these are some of my ideas, some of my vocabulary that I would like to use in my poem about the heat.

And now I wonder if you can guess what's coming up.

It's time for your next task.

And I would like you to record your ideas about the heat on a mind map.

You might like to write down examples of words, phrases, or ideas from the lesson, as well as thinking about times when you have experienced being in a hot location.

So pause the video here while you record your ideas about heat on a mind map.

So some ideas that you might like to include in your tanka poem.

Okay, it is great to be back with you.

I'm very curious to find out what ideas did you record? Let's hear from Jacob.

Roasting hot, searing rays, shimmering, sun-soaked sand, heat wrapped around us like.

Sweat dripped like raindrops.

Oh, I really like the way you included those similes there, Jacob.

And some really interesting vocabulary.

I like your mixture of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Great job, Jacob.

And we will be turning these into a completed tanka in the next lesson, so stay tuned for that.

In our lesson, preparing to write poetry about the heat, we have covered the following: a tanka is a traditional Japanese form of poetry.

This originated more than 1,300 years ago.

Tankas consist of five lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7, totaling 31 syllables.

Tankas often explore themes of nature, emotions, and the passage of time.

We can make specific language choices to describe the intensity of the heat.

We can use vocabulary in different ways depending on its position in a sentence, if it is a verb, adjective, or noun.

Well done, everyone for joining in with this lesson.

I really liked finding out about your language choices and exploring tankas together.

Aren't they a fantastic form of poetry? Really, really enjoyed all of that.

I hope you did too.

And I'm looking forward to seeing you for our next lesson where we will be writing tankas together.

I look forward to seeing you then.

Bye for now.