Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

How are you today? I hope you're well.

I hope you're doing really, really well today.

My name is Ms Afzal and I'm doing pretty good, thank you, because we're going to be exploring some poetry today.

We're going to be exploring the poetry of William Blake, and in particular the poem called "The Tyger." So I'm gonna ask you to pause the video here while you go and get your copy of the poem "The Tyger." Alright, you're back.

You've got your copy of the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake.

I hope you are curious, I hope you are up for it, I hope you've got lots of ideas, lots of energy and enthusiasm to explore this incredible poem, "The Tyger" by William Blake, let's begin.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can learn the poem "The Tyger" by heart.

We have keywords in our lesson today, let's go through them, my turn, your turn.

By heart, visualisation, recital.

Great stuff, I liked hearing those.

Let's find out what these words mean.

By heart is to learn something in such a way that you can say it from memory.

Visualisation is creating mental images or associations related to the poem's content.

Recital is to speak or perform a poem aloud from memory, allowing the words and rhythm to be heard and appreciated.

Alright, these are our keywords, let's look out for them and let's listen out for them in our lesson today.

Our lesson is "Learning animal poetry by heart." It has two parts to it.

Learning a poem by heart, and reciting the poem.

Let's begin with learning a poem by heart.

"The Tyger" is a poem written by William Blake in 1794 as part of the collection titled "Songs of Experience." And we can see on the screen there an image of the poem written by William Blake and its accompanying illustration.

What we know so far.

"The Tyger" consists of six verses, each with four lines.

These are known as quatrains.

Each verse has a rhyme scheme of AABB.

The poem describes a speaker marvelling at the sight of a fierce and powerful tiger, depicted as burning bright in the darkness of the forest.

The speaker questions who or what could create such a fearsome and awe-inspiring creature.

After we've taken time to understand its meaning, themes and structure, we can learn a poem off by heart.

By heart is one of our keywords and it means to learn something in such a way that we can then say it from memory.

Learning poetry by art is beneficial because it can strengthen personal expression.

Knowing poetry by heart can improve your ability to express yourself.

It can improve your language skills, you can expand your vocabulary, and develop your understanding of language.

It can enhance public speaking and presentation skills.

Reciting poetry from memory can improve your diction, intonation and confidence.

And it can nurture a deeper appreciation for literature.

Memorising poetry allows you to engage with the text on a deeper level.

What is not to love about learning poetry by heart? Today we're going to be focusing on four different strategies to support us in learning to recite a poem by heart.

Recite is one of our keywords.

It means to perform a poem from memory and to allow the words and the rhythm to be heard and appreciated.

So here's strategy one, speak it.

Practising saying the poem aloud.

Strategy two, hear it.

Listening to recordings of the poem.

Strategy three, visualise it.

Linking illustrations or associated images with the poem.

And strategy four, move with the poem, using movement to support remembering the metre and flow of the poem.

These are just some of the ways you can learn a poem by heart.

And I wonder, do you have a strategy that you would like to share with the class? So pause the video here and if you have a strategy to help to learn to recite a poem, share that with the others around you.

Pause the video here.

Okay, hopefully you have got a lot of good strategies up your sleeves now.

Check for understanding.

Match the strategy with its description.

Move with the poem, visualise it, speak it, hear it.

And the descriptions.

Practising saying the poem aloud.

Using our body to support remembering the metre and flow of the poem.

Linking illustrations or associated images with the poem.

Listening to recordings of the poem.

Pause the video while you match the strategies with their descriptions.

Did you connect move the poem with using our body to support remembering the metre and flow of the poem? Visualise it, one of our keywords, is linking illustrations or associated images with the poem.

Speak it, practising saying the poem aloud.

And hear it, listening to recordings of the poem.

Well done if you made these connections.

So let's get into strategy one.

The first strategy we're going to try is speak it.

Practising saying the poem aloud activates our auditory memory.

It helps us reinforce the rhythm, rhyme, and any intonation patterns.

An intonation, that's a noun, means the rise and fall of the voice in speaking.

Repeating the poem multiple times makes recall of the words and phrases more automatic.

Using varied tones engages our emotional memory.

This can create stronger links in our brains, helping us to remember the poem.

So let's read the verse aloud a few times, varying the intonation.

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" Try saying each line several times using different tones of voice until it feels right.

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" How about you? Your turn now.

Now you read the verse aloud a few times, varying the intonation.

So pause the video now while you have a go at reading this verse aloud varying the intonation.

Fantastic, and again you could try this strategy with someone at home, at school, or even with some kind of a toy, a soft toy or any kind of toy as your audience.

Strategy two, the second strategy we're going to try is hear it.

Listening to our own recordings helps identify areas where we might need more practise.

Listening to a playback of our own recital can help us to remember it.

This self-evaluation is crucial for making improvements.

So now I'd like you to record yourself reading the following verse.

Pause the video while you do this.

And after recording, I'd like now to listen to yourself back and reflect on what went well and what could be improved in your recital.

So pause the video while you listen to your recording and reflect on what you did really well and what could be improved on.

Okay, hopefully that was helpful and you've got some confidence in what you're doing well and some tips on how you can improve.

Here's Andeep, "Hearing myself back, I realised that I was not using intonation to make my voice as engaging as it could be." Great realisation there, Andeep.

The third strategy we're going to try is visualise it.

Creating visual representations of the poem's imagery or visualising scenes can make them easier to remember.

And in fact, William Blake often presented his poems with visuals to go with them, so we'll be doing the Blakian and thing.

We can identify lines or phrases that are challenging to remember and draw or visualise images to accompany them.

Let's take a look at this verse here.

"And what shoulder, and what art," and in particular this line, "could twist the sinews of thy heart?" Hmm, how do we remember this line? Well, here's a tip from Jacob.

"I imagine sinews like muscles to help me visualise the heart." Yeah, 'cause that's quite a tricky word, sinews, so maybe if we are thinking about them like muscles and having that image of a muscle in mind, that could be quite helpful.

It's quite a fun image there as well we see on our screen.

Choose a line that you find hard to remember from the poem.

Describe how you visualise it to your talk partner.

So pause the video now while you choose a line that you find hard to remember and share with someone how you visualise it.

Okay, and here's Sophia.

So Sophia was struggling with this line, "In what furnace was thy brain?" And what did you do, Sophia? "I imagined someone with fiery flames coming out of their head when visualising the furnace." Okay, fantastic, and that again is quite a fun image there.

It's quite helpful if we create something a little bit unusual or memorable in our minds to help us really remember this image and these words.

And you may wish to create an illustration to support you.

Strategy four, the fourth strategy we're going to try is to move with the poem.

Physical movement alongside reading the poem can help us remember the metre and flow.

This method engages different areas of the brain.

We can walk out the poem by moving around an open space, turning each time you encounter ending punctuation.

Clapping or tapping the beat emphasises the poem's rhythm, making it easier to memorise the beat and flow of the poem.

Check for understanding, true or false.

Physical movement can support readers in remembering the rhythm and flow of a poem.

Pause the video while you decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected true.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

"The Tyger" consists of six verses, each with four lines.

Clapping or tapping the beat emphasises the poem's rhythm, making it easier to memorise the beat.

Pause the video while you decide which of these statements best justifies your earlier answer.

Well, both of these statements are true, but it's the second one which is related to your earlier answer and justifies it.

And now it's time for your task.

I would like to read the following verses, clapping or tapping the beat as you read.

So pause the video here and have a go at reading these verses, clapping or tapping the beat.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, it's great to be back with you.

How did you get on? I'd like you to pause and reflect.

Did clapping or tapping the beat help you memorise the poem better? You may wish to try walking out the poem to connect the words to larger movements.

Now we are onto the next part of our lesson, reciting the poem.

Today we've looked at a range of strategies that can support us when learning a poem by heart.

Strategy one, speak it.

Practising the poem aloud.

Strategy two, hear it.

Listening to recordings of the poem.

Strategy three, visualise it.

Linking illustrations or associated images with the poem.

And strategy four, move with the poem.

Using movement to support remembering the metre and flow of the poem.

We're now going to practise our memory recall skills, focusing on the first two verses of "The Tyger." Practise your recall of the poem by saying the missing words from the following verses.

"Tyger Tyger, burning.

In the.

of the night.

What.

hand or eye, could frame thy.

symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies, burnt the.

of thine eyes? On what.

dare he aspire? What the.

dare seize the fire?" Okay, well done.

I hope you managed to fill in those missing words.

And June is wondering which techniques or strategies did you use to remember the missing words? Let's find out what they were.

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies, burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?" Hopefully you remembered all of those missing words.

And now I would like you to practise your recall of the poem by saying the missing words from the following verses.

"Tyger Tyger.

In the.

What.

Could frame.

In what.

Burnt the.

On what.

What the.

." Okay, let's find out which words were missing.

Join in with me.

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies, burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?" Well done if you were able to fill in those missing words.

And now it's time for your task, it's time for you to recite your poem.

You could perform the poem individually, in a pair or in a group.

When reciting your poem, think about our performance tips.

Rhythm and flow.

Use of your voice.

Showing expression and emotion.

So pause the video here, it is time for you to recite "The Tyger." Enjoy your recital.

Well done for reciting your poem off by heart.

Oh my goodness, what a moment.

I'll let you to pause and reflect.

Did you recite your poem off by heart successfully? Did a particular strategy work better for you, and why? Did you enjoy the process? That's the main thing always.

Well done, everybody.

What an incredible achievement, reciting a poem off by heart, or part of a poem.

In our lesson "Learning animal poetry by heart" we have covered the following.

After we've taken time to understand a poem's meaning, themes and structure, we can learn a poem off by heart.

Learning poetry by heart offers a range of benefits, both emotionally and academically.

We can use a range of strategies to support us learning poetry by heart.

These include speaking it, hearing it, visualising it, and moving with the poem.

Once we've been able to practise the poem several times, we can perform the poem aloud in a recital.

Oh my goodness, I'm staggered by how well you've done at learning this poem off by heart, or perhaps a stanza or two.

You've done a really, really great job and I hope you've enjoyed it.

I really loved hearing you and I definitely feel like learning a poem by heart gives us something.

We are now more because now we contain this poem, it's a part of us.

So thank you all for now making "The Tyger" a part of you.

I'll see you in another lesson soon, I hope.

Bye for now.