Lesson video

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our lesson.

I think you're gonna really enjoy this lesson 'cause today we're going to be getting to use some drama to help us analyse the stanzas in a bit more detail.

Today you're going to be using your understanding of stanza five to plan and perform a dramatisation featuring dialogue.

Here are some of the key words we're going to use.

Dialogue.

Dramatisation.

Facial expression.

Gesture.

Intonation.

Well done.

Dialogue is spoken words between two or more people in a text.

Dramatisation is the reconstruction of a text to perform in a dramatic presentation.

A facial expression is a form of non-verbal communication conveyed through the face to show emotions.

A gesture is a movement that helps express an idea or meaning.

Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice when speaking.

Today we're going to be using drama to analyse the next section of "The Highwayman".

Firstly, we're going to be planning some dialogue and then we're gonna perform our dramatisation.

Today we're going to be using drama to further analyse stanza five.

We're going to create dialogue and perform a dramatisation of stanza five to help us understand the conversation between the Highwayman and Bess more fully.

This will involve us putting the Highwayman's speech into our own words.

So we're gonna paraphrase his monologue and put it into our own modern language.

Then we're also going to add additional speech for Bess to make this into a dialogue between the two characters.

Because in the original narrative poem, stanza five is just the Highwayman speaking.

So that's a monologue, when there's just one character speaking and no one else speaks back.

But for the purpose of our dramatisation today, we want to turn this into a dialogue, which is when two or more people are speaking to each other so they're having a conversation.

So we're firstly gonna put the Highwayman's words into our own words, and then we're also going to think up some ideas of what be might have said to him in response to make this more of a conversation.

To do this, we're gonna be working in pairs.

So one partner will be the Highwayman and the other will be Bess.

Let's begin by reviewing stanza five.

Let's read it through together.

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight, but I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.

Yet, if they press me sharply and harry me through the day, then look for me by moonlight, watch for me by moonlight.

I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way." Let's review the meaning of some of the unfamiliar words in this stanza.

Match the words with their definitions and pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that bonny means beautiful, thee means you, though hell should bar the way means no matter what happens, before the morning light means before dawn, and look for me by moonlight means look for me at nighttime.

Now it's time for your first task.

Using stanza five to guide you, put the Highwayman's speech into your own words.

Make sure to use clear language choices that make sense to you.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Brilliant work, everyone.

Now, here's my suggestion, it's obviously not gonna be the same as your suggestion, okay? So here I've highlighted in purple where I've edited some of the words to make them make more sense to me.

I've changed the original stanza into this one.

"One kiss, my beautiful love.

I'm going to rob someone tonight, but I should be back with the yellow gold," or you might have turned that into just money, "before dawn.

Yet, if the guards chase me throughout the day, then look for me at nighttime, watch for me at nighttime, I'll come to you at nighttime no matter what happens." Now that we've put the Highwayman's words into our own words so they make more sense to us, let's have a think about what Bess might have said to the Highwayman in response.

So he's just told her that he's only just got there and now he's got to leave again to go and do this robbery, but I'll be back tomorrow.

How do you think she would've felt at those words? And what might she have said to him in response? Have a little think, and if you've got someone with you at home that you can talk to us about, maybe share your ideas with them.

Some suggestions that I'm thinking she might have said might have been, be careful.

Make sure you come back safely.

Don't take any risks.

I'll watch for you by moonlight.

I'll wait here for you.

She might have also been a bit exasperated with the Highwayman and said, but you've only just got here, I can't believe you're leaving already.

Now, using your own ideas, write down what you think Bess might have said to the Highwayman.

I've put my ideas on the screen for you to use if you need, but it's always good to have your own ideas as well.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Here is my example of dialogue for Bess, or Bess's speech.

"I've been watching out for you all evening.

If you have to leave again, you must make sure not to take any risks and stay safe.

I'll see you tomorrow.

I'll keep a look out for you by Moonlight tomorrow if I don't see you in the morning." Take a quick moment to reread your speech for Bess and make sure it makes sense and that you're happy with it and that it captures how she's feeling.

Brilliant work, everyone.

Now, that brings us on to the second part of our lesson.

Now that we've planned our dialogue, so we've got some speech for the Highwayman and we've also got some speech for Bess, it's time for us to think about performing our dramatisation.

Now we are going to use the dialogue we've just planned as part of our dramatisation of stanza five.

Now, when you are starting to actually perform your dialogue, and if you realise that actually your speech needs to be edited a little bit, or if the Highwayman is speaking for quite a long time and then Bess speaks for quite a long time, maybe you might want to make it a little bit more like a conversation.

So have the Highwayman speak and then Bess speak and then the Highwayman respond and Bess respond again.

That's absolutely fine because this is the time now where we can build on these initial ideas and edit them to make them fit our dramatisation.

When we are performing drama, we need to consider these things.

We need to think about facial expressions, gestures, intonation.

Match the keywords to their definitions, pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that facial expression is a form of non-verbal communication conveyed through the face to show emotions.

So non-verbal means to communicate without speaking.

So you might be able to think of a time when a teacher or an adult or a friend has communicated to you how they're feeling, whether they're really excited or happy or angry or disappointed, not with what they're saying, but just with their face.

Gestures are a movement that helps express an idea or meaning.

So that might be the character doing something with their hands or thinking about their body language to really communicate with their body and their hands rather than just their faces and their words.

And intonation is the rise and fall of the voice when speaking.

And again, we need to think really carefully about how we use our voices when we are speaking, because again, so much of what we are saying isn't about the words that are coming out of our mouths, but actually how we're using our voice.

So if Bess is feeling really frustrated or really disappointed, her voice and her intonation is gonna sound different if she was really excited or really relieved and happy.

So take some time to think about how you're going to use your facial expressions, your gestures, and your intonation to really convey the meaning of the words and how you are feeling as the character.

Now it's time for your task.

You're going to read your character's speech aloud so you get used to saying the words.

And again, now is the time that if you need to make some edits with your partner to the order of language, maybe Bess speaks first rather than the Highwayman, take that time now to really fine-tune what each of you are going to say and what each character is going to say to the other and how they're going to respond to each other.

And when you're happy with that, then make sure that you take the time to read your character's speech out loud so you get used to actually saying the words.

Because we want 'em to sound natural, and if you're sort of tripping over your words or you're not really sure what you're saying and when, you can end up focusing just on reading off the page, and really we want to make it much more natural than that.

When you've done that, stand in a space with your partner and each practise your dialogue using excellent intonation.

So firstly you're gonna focus on just your lines individually so you both get used to saying what you need to say.

Then for part two of your task, you're gonna come together and practise actually doing the speaking, the dialogue together.

So thinking about how you are going to give your partner time to respond and understanding what they're going to say.

As you read, consider how your intonation needs to match the words being spoken.

So just focusing on how you're going to use your voice to convey your character's emotions.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Excellent work, everyone.

So.

Did you take the time to ensure that your intonation matched the words being spoken? And did your tone of voice show how your character is feeling? Now, I want you to take a moment to think about these two questions from your perspective, so thinking about self-assessing now.

Thinking about your intonation and how your tone of voice actually conveyed your character's feelings.

Take a moment to think.

Did you do that? Now, you might have thought, well, I think I managed to capture when Bess was feeling disappointed or when the Highwayman was feeling quite excited about his upcoming mission to go and do this robbery.

But then there might have been other points in your dialogue where you realised that actually you'd focused a bit more on just reading the text rather than using your tone of voice to help tell the story of how the character's feeling.

When you've done that, I want you to think about your partner.

How did they use their voice, their intonation, throughout the dialogue practise? Have a moment to think.

And when you've thought about one thing they did really well with their intonation, and if needed, one area or one line where they could have used their voice more effectively.

Take the time now to share that with them.

But remember, we share that feedback in a really constructive and supportive way 'cause we're working collaboratively here as a team.

So you can pause and take a moment to give that feedback to your partner now.

Great work, everyone.

Now we're going to consider how our facial expressions and physical gestures can be used to further convey our emotions.

So remember, facial expressions are when we show how we're feeling using our face, so our mouths, our eyes, our eyebrows.

We can frown, we can raise our eyebrows to give away our feelings.

And then physical gestures.

So, how are we using our hands? Are they on our hips? Are they folded if we're feeling a bit frustrated? Are they being thrown up in the air for feeling a bit irritated or shocked? Think about how you are going to use your body language and your gestures to also show how your character is feeling.

Take a moment to think about that.

When you're comfortable and you have a good idea of how you're gonna use your facial expressions and your gestures, make sure to practise this at least three times so that you feel more comfortable.

Also, now is a really, really good time to be talking with your partner.

And if you are not really sure what to do in terms of gestures or facial expression, they can help you and you can also help them.

Remember, this is collaborative working, we are here as a team in this dramatisation.

Make sure that you feedback to your partner, and really importantly, take feedback from them on how to improve your performance further.

This requires really excellent communication skills, so it's a great opportunity for us to practise these.

Now it's time to pause the video while you complete this task.

Excellent work, everyone.

So in this task, we were focusing now explicitly on our facial expressions and our gestures, how we're using our hands and our bodies to help tell the story and also bring this dialogue to life.

Take a moment now to self-assess.

Did your facial expressions and gestures match the words being spoken? So if your character is feeling a negative emotion, how are you conveying that? And did you and your partner work together to improve the performance? It's really important question.

How would you rate yourselves in terms of collaboration and communication skills? Take a moment to have a think about that and maybe discuss with your partner how you think you did, but really importantly, explain why.

So you can't just say, oh, I think we were 10 out of 10 collaborators.

Why? What did you do really well? Or what things could we maybe work on in future? Well done, everyone.

And that now brings us to the end of our lesson, where today we've been using drama to analyse the next section of "The Highwayman".

Using drama can be an excellent way to further analyse and develop a greater understanding of characters in a text.

Working collaboratively in a team involves giving and receiving feedback.

Dialogue is when two or more characters are speaking to each other.

When performing a dramatisation, we should consider intonation, facial expressions, and physical gestures, and how these can be used to convey emotions.

I really hope that you enjoyed this lesson today and it's really helped you to bring your understanding of stanza five to life a little bit more.

This is really gonna help us in our writing, so well done.