Hello, it's Mrs. Butterworth here and I am ready for today's English lesson.

And I hope you are too because today's lesson is all about performing a chosen gothic poem.

So we're going to be thinking about what makes an entertaining performance and how we can deliver a really confident performance of our chosen poem.

Sound good? Great.

Let's get started.

So in this lesson, you will effectively perform a gothic poem using a range of performance techniques.

But before we delve into the main parts of our lesson, let's look at those all important key words will help with our understanding.

These words are performance, tone, pace, and fluent.

Let's look at those words in a sentence.

So a performance is a way of entertaining an audience with speech, acting or music.

So today, when you are considering your own performance, we want to think about how we can make it entertaining and engaging for our audience.

How speakers use their voice to convey their feelings is known as tone.

So you may notice when people are delivering or performing, they have different tones in their voice.

So they might have an angry tone or a high pitch tone.

And this can help convey feelings.

And then to change your pace is to change how quickly or slowly you speak.

So pace and tone are additional ways that you can emphasise the meaning of your poem that you are performing.

And then finally, we call performers fluent if they speak without hesitation or mistakes.

So the outline of our lesson looks like this.

We're going to begin by considering what makes a good performance so we know what we're aiming for.

And then we're going to move on to performing the chosen poem.

So let's start with that, what makes a good performance? And I'm going to begin by asking you that question.

So I'd like you to discuss, please, what do you think makes a good performance? You'll need to pause the video to give yourself time to answer this question or just think quietly to yourself.

Pause the video and off you go.

Thank you.

Some excellent suggestions already there.

So we have some of our Oak pupils here who are going to deliver some of their answers.

So ears listening, here's what our pupils have to say.

So Aisha says that learning what you are going to say so you don't mumble makes an effective performance.

And I have to agree with this.

You don't have to learn every single word, but learning enough so that you feel confident and you're not mumbling is a really good thing to do.

Andeep says about vary the pitch and tone as it makes your talk or performance more engaging.

Absolutely! I think if you deliver or perform a poem and you keep it all monotone, it's not going to be very entertaining.

But also you're going to lose some of the meaning of the poem.

Jacob has said look at your listeners, not the piece of paper.

It's an excellent piece of advice because we want to create a rapport or a relationship with the audience.

We want them to feel connected to us.

So looking at our audience is a really good thing to do.

And Jun said, share your excitement so we get interested.

And I think this is a really interesting point for Jun because you may be delivering or performing a poem that you are not particularly that interested or excited about, but it's up to you to make the audience interested and excited.

So you need to think about how your delivery can show some enthusiasm and excitement, even if you're not particularly interested in it.

So I just want to give you a few moments to pause a video and think to yourself, what can you add to these? So think back to your discussions and what the Oak pupils have said.

Is there anything that you would like to add? Pause the video and just think to yourself quietly for a few moments.

Okay, so we've thought about the most important things to remember when delivering a performance.

And what I would like you to do, please, is I would like you to select three answers that answer this question.

Which things are the most important to remember when delivering a performance? Select your three answers now.

Okay, so hopefully you are feeling confident because the answers are A, B, and D.

So we've said that to know your poem well enough to recite it fluently.

We've got one of our key words there in fluently.

So look at your audience and engage them in the poem.

And finally, to vary tone and place to reflect the poem's meaning.

We have reached our first practise task.

In a moment, I'm going to share a video recording with you of one of our Oak teachers.

They're delivering a performance of, "The haunted palace", and you are going to need to listen to that performance.

Now, as you listen to that performance, I would like you to use the following list to evaluate how well the poem was performed.

So tick what they did and cross what they didn't do.

So we're looking for things like, did they make eye contacts with the audience, spoke clearly, knew the poem well enough to recite it fluently, varied tone and pitch to match the poem's meaning, sounded interested and enthusiastic in the poem.

So in a moment, I'm going to press play so you can watch this recording.

So please do evaluate this using that checklist.

I'm going to press play now.

<v ->I'm gonna read the last three stanzas</v> of "The Haunted Palace." "And all with pearl and ruby glowing Was the fair palace Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing And sparkling evermore, A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty Was but to sing, In voices of surpassing beauty, The wit and wisdom of their king.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; Ah, let us mourn!-for never morrow shall drown." Sorry, sorry! "Shall dawn upon him, desolate! And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.

And travellers, now, within that valley, Through the red-litten windows see Vast forms that move fantastically To a discordant melody; While, like a ghastly rapid river, Through the pale door A hideous throng rush out forever, And laugh-but smile no more." <v ->So what did you think?</v> Did you think it was a good performance or did you think it required some improvement? Let's see the marks that we gave the performance.

You may have something slightly different, which is fine, but let's just compare.

So, made eye contact with the audience? Well actually in this performance, the speaker didn't really do that, did they? Because they were spending a lot of time looking down and looking at the poem they were reading from.

So we didn't really see they make eye contact that much.

Spoke clearly? Actually, I would say that this performance, they did speak quite clearly.

I could hear most of the words and mostly understand what they were saying.

Knew the poem well enough to recite it fluently? They didn't, did they? And you could tell that by the way they continually looked down at the poem, which meant that they weren't able to make eye contact.

And I think it's important to know that you don't have to know every single word, but you need to know enough to feel confident to be able to look up from the paper.

And likewise, in this performance, when the speaker did forget her words or did make a mistake, she said, "Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry." And actually drawing attention to it can sometimes make it worse.

So if you do make a mistake, just pause and start again or just keep going.

They didn't really vary their tone and pitch, did they? So hopefully you agree with it to match the poem's meaning.

It was very monotone, very the same.

So it didn't really bring the poem to life.

And then finally, sounded interested and enthusiastic in the poem? You may have something slightly different to this, but I think the speaker did do a good job of trying to bring some of that interest and enthusiasm, but I think they could have done even more with it.

Don't you agree? So we now have another recording of our Oak teacher delivering the same poem again.

And I'd like you to listen to this and decide, is this better? So is this performance better? Okay, in a moment, I'm going to play the video.

So you'll just need to sit, watch, and listen.

I'm pressing play now.

<v ->"And with pearl and ruby glowing</v> Was the fair palace door, Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing And sparkling evermore, A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty Was but to sing, In voices of surpassing beauty, The wit and wisdom of their king.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; Ah, let us mourn!-for never morrow Shall dawn upon him, desolate! And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.

And travellers, now, within that valley, Through the red-litten windows see Vast forms that move fantastically To a discordant melody; While, like a ghastly rapid river, Through the pale door A hideous throng rush out forever, And laugh-but smile no more." <v ->What did you think of that one? Better?</v> Should we see what some of our Oak pupils said about the recording? So here are our wonderful Oak pupils.

Let's see what they say.

So Aisha says that this was better.

And I would agree with this because they actually looked at the audience this time, didn't they? They looked up and you felt like you were being spoken to.

Andeep said it's better because they use their voice to emphasise the dramatic parts.

Absolutely! Jacob has rightly said that there was much more variety in pace.

Yes, there was definitely.

It wasn't so monotone and one-note, was it? There was lots of other things going on.

And Jun has said, even better if they acted it and not just said it.

And I would have to agree with Jun here.

I think this speaker could push it even further in their performance.

Maybe they could use some gestures on particular words.

And I think just spending a bit of time preparing this performance, so thinking about the gestures and the different aspects can really elevate this performance even further.

Okay, so we are onto the second part of our lesson, and this is over to you to perform your chosen poem.

So I want you just to spend a bit of a moment now, just thinking to yourself, how do you decide which poem to perform? So what you going to do to choose your poem, okay? So pause a video just to give yourself time to think about this and think about how you're going to decide which poem to perform.

Off you go.

Okay, so I'm going to give you some responses from our Oak pupils here, which may help you to decide if you haven't already.

So Aisha said that what she's going to do is she's going to choose "The Raven" because the rhymes, rapping and tapping are fun to say.

So Aisha's done something really interesting here.

She's found an element that she likes in a particular poem.

So the rhyme, and for her, this is what's gonna make her performance really fun and interesting.

Now, Andeep has worked out that he can make the hideous throng sound frightening in "The haunted Palace." So for Andeep, he's focused on something that he knows he can perform really well or is interested in performing really well.

Jacob wants to say, 'I will say "Nevermore" from "The Raven" very solemnly.

' So Jacob again has picked a key line and a keyword that he knows he can perform in a specific way.

So he knows that that's the poem he wants to choose.

And then finally, Jun has said that the start of "The haunted Palace", where it's all joyful is interesting.

So Jun is focused on the start, which he finds interesting, which is a good place to start when we're thinking about performing a poem.

So you can see here all of our pupils have focused on small parts of the poem that interest them, that will help them to give an entertaining and convincing performance.

So maybe you can think about this too.

Look at the poems, what sounds out to you, even if it's just a word that will help you in your performance.

So when performing your chosen poem, remember the following.

I like to think of the skills like this.

Remember, eyes looking.

So you should look out to your audience generally and vary your eye contact.

So you don't have to lock eyes with one person.

You can look out and look at everyone.

And speak clearly.

So make sure every word can be heard, okay? This isn't about shouting as loud as you can, but just make sure that you project your voice enough so that people can hear.

You should also vary your tone and pace to bring the poem to life.

And it's also worth noting here, I would make sure that you speak even slower than you do in everyday life.

Because actually when you are performing or delivering something, sometimes nerves or sometimes other things can make you speak more quickly.

So you should slow it right down so that everyone can hear you and vary that tone and pace.

Body still.

Now remember this when you are performing, because it can be very easy to start fidgeting when you are performing so you might start twiddling your hair or putting your hands in your pockets, but try not to fidget.

You can use gestures, but too much movement can be distracting.

So really think about where you're going to put those gestures and make them purposeful and really do try to stay on the spot and stay still where you can.

And then finally, standing to speak.

So if you can stand up to speak, or even if you are sitting, you can have an upright and open posture, which will allow you to speak clearly and tackle any nerves.

So just make sure that your posture is upright and that you are open and it will really help with your performance and how you are feeling about your performance.

Okay, so when performing a poem, you must remember A, B, C, and D.

So you need to select your answers now.

Has everyone got their answers ready? I hope so, because I'm about to reveal that the answers are A, B, and C.

So let's read them through, When performing a poem, you must remember to be aware of the sounds of the poem, to be aware that everyone is listening to you and to be aware of how your voice affects the poem's meaning.

And I think that's a really important point.

You can really use your voice to emphasise certain parts, to create mood, to create atmosphere.

Your voice is such a powerful tool in this.

Okay, so your final practise task.

So what you are going to need to do is learn the standards of your chosen poem and practise them.

Now, I should reiterate, this doesn't mean you have to learn the word for word, but learn them enough so that you feel confident enough to read most of it by heart.

And then you'll need to recite your poem.

So you could do this in pairs, in small groups or to the whole class.

But remember, eyes looking, think about that eye contact, speak clearly, think about your pace and your tone, body still, try not to fidget, but use gestures where appropriate so those meaningful gestures and stand to speak or have an upright posture.

Okay, so you're going to need to pause your video to give yourself plenty of time to complete these tasks.

And I can't wait to hear what you come up with.

So pause the video and off you go.

Okay, great! So what I would like you to do now is I would like you to think about the performances that you have seen, and then I would like you please to use this checklist to evaluate the performances.

So, did the performance know the poem well enough to perform it, not just say it? They varied tone and pace to reflect the poem's meaning? They looked at the audience so they felt involved? Spoke clearly so all the words could be heard? Seemed confident? So you may want to pause the video to allow yourself time to evaluate the performances using that checklist.

Off you go.

Okay, great.

So hopefully you have some feedback yourself now.

So what I would like you to do please, is write a short reflection of your performance and use the following sentence stems to support your reflection.

So one thing I did well was.

So make sure you put down something you feel proud of and next time I will.

Okay, so write a short reflection of your performance using those sentence stems. So pause video so you've got time to complete this feedback and reflection task.

Off you go.

So in case you are struggling, I'm just going to give you some ideas.

So you could have written something like, one thing I did well was bring my poem to life with my voice and the way I changed the pace.

And next time, I will learn the poem more thoroughly so I don't have to keep checking the paper.

So if you want to add to your reflection sentences, now's the time to do it or move on.

So a very well done to you everyone.

I'm so proud of you performing your poems because it's a really tricky thing to do and it can be quite scary.

So very well done to you all.

Excellent work! So we know that performing a poem means bringing out the drama of the poem, which lots of you did brilliantly.

It's important to vary the pace and tone in your performance.

It's best to learn the poem so you can perform the poem and not just say it.

You should make eye contact with the audience when performing a poem.

And like we saw at the end, peer assessment can be a useful tool to help each other make a range of improvements.

So again, thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson.

I've had so much fun.

It's been brilliant hearing all of your wonderful poems. Can't wait to see you all again in a lesson soon! Goodbye!.