Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

I'm so glad you decided to learn with me.

Today, we're in the unit single poet study, Maya Angelou.

Now, today we are going to do some performance.

We are going to perform a poem.

It might be a poem by Maya Angelou, or it might be a poem that you have written.

We're gonna think what makes a really good performance, why is performance so important to the idea of poetry? We're gonna practise some time performing, and then we are going to share our performances.

Now, first things first, you need a copy of a poem that you have written, that you have written that you would like to practise and then perform in this lesson.

Alternatively, you can perform a Maya Angelou poem that you have read and that you have particularly connected to.

So I'd like you to pause the video and you are now going to get the poem that you have written that you are going to perform in today's lesson.

Or alternatively, you can select a Maya Angelou poem that you have read and that you would like to perform.

Pause the video and get the poem that you would like to perform in today's lesson now.

Welcome back.

Now you have your poem, we are ready to start our lesson.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work together today.

I cannot wait to hear your performances, let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you are going to consider different aspects of performance and apply them to a performance of your own.

And I'm so excited to explore this idea of performance in this Maya Angelou unit, because performance was so important to Angelou herself.

She performed her poetry to huge audiences.

She was very, very popular performer when she performed "On the Pulse of the Morning" for President Clinton's inauguration, a poem that she had written especially for the inauguration.

She won a Grammy for her performance of that poem.

And throughout her life, Angelou really thought about what her poems sounded like and how that they would come across to a reader, not just in their head, but when they were spoken out loud.

So we're gonna consider these aspects of performance today.

There are some key words which are gonna help unlock our learning today.

They're gonna help us achieve our objective.

They're on the board now, if you would like to pause the video and read through each one or make some notes, then please do.

I'm going to draw your attention to just two of them.

The first one, ignoble, that is how pronounce that word, ignoble, and it means not honourable or unworthy.

And the third one, idle, which means not doing something, lazy.

That word idle, that is how you pronounce that word.

As I say, if you'd like to pause video and spend a bit more time with them, then please do.

Our learning outline for today.

We are gonna start off by preparing for a powerful performance.

We're gonna think of all the different elements that make a really great performance.

And then in our second learning cycle, it's gonna be devoted to the idea of performance itself.

So let's start off with our preparation.

Preparation for our performance.

Now, Maya Angelou wrote "On the Pulse of the Morning" for President Clinton's inauguration, the ceremony showing he was now president.

Angelou also performed this poem at the inauguration, winning a Grammy, an important music award for her performance.

So it was not just the poem itself was pretty fantastic, but the performance was incredibly, was incredibly powerful as well.

Now I'd like you to discuss, what do you think makes a powerful performance? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, some fantastic ideas.

I'm really excited to see your performances, because you already have such a good handle on what it means to perform really, really well.

So lots of people talked about volume and pace.

So the idea of speaking loudly enough that everyone can hear you, and speaking slowly at some points and more quickly at other points, depending on what you're talking about in your particular poem.

I think it's always worth noting that it is worthwhile speaking a little bit slower than you do normally than you would in a conversation because people want to enjoy your performance, enjoy the words that you are saying.

So you don't need to race through what you're saying.

Lots of people talked about eye contact.

So, so important to be looking at your audience and engaging with your audience.

And some people even extended this and said, "Well, sometimes gestures moving your body in a particular way can be helpful to the idea of performance." And lots of great ideas about what makes a really good performance.

Now today, like Maya Angelou, you'll perform a poem that you have written.

This poem will have been inspired by Maya Angelou.

Alternatively, you can perform one of Angelou's own poems. The list on the board shows some of the poems that you might have read.

You might have a different Angelou poem that you would like to perform.

But either you are going to be performing one that you have written inspired by Maya Angelou, or you are going to be performing a poem that Maya Angelou wrote herself.

Now, here's some different elements that you can experiment with to create a powerful performance.

Now, this word experiment is one of our keywords, the idea of trying something out and discovering something about it.

So definitely before you do your final performance, you should experiment with different ways of performing your poem so you can work out which is best.

So the first element of performance you could play around with is the idea of body language.

So gestures, position of your body, showing how you feel.

You could experiment with eye contact, looking at your audience, individuals or as a group.

There might be particular moments in your poem where eye contact is very, very important.

Pace, the speed you speak at different moments in the poem.

At some point you might want to increase this pace, and sometimes you might want to decrease it.

Volume, how loudly you speak at different moments in the poem.

And then tone, the attitude and emotion of your voice at different moments in the poem.

Now, tone is one of our key words, meaning the attitude and emotion in your voice.

And you can really, really use your voice to create different tones throughout your poem that will engage your audience.

There won't just be one flat tone throughout, but instead you'll be using your voice to convey some of the emotions that your words are expressing as well.

So these are some of the things that you can experiment with, you can try out in different ways in order to prepare for your performance.

Now, Lucas wrote a poem about how people hold stereotypical views about young people.

A bit like Angelou's "On Ageing" which sees a speaker, an older speaker saying, "Don't pity me, don't give me sympathy as I'm ageing, I'm still the person that I was when I was younger." Now, Lucas has been inspired by Angelou's poem "On Ageing", but he's talking about younger people and some of the stereotypical views that people hold about them.

Here are his first two stanzas.

He wrote, "Idle, ignorant, ignoble." So idle meaning lazy and ignoble meaning not worthy, not honourable.

So he's saying, these are some of the insults that get thrown at young people.

"Idle, ignorant, ignoble.

Sullen, selfish, silent.

Words that attack, words that accuse, words that hurt me, words that abuse.

They knock me down.

And when I'm down, what do you say? Get up lazy bones.

Why so silent? Do something useful.

Oh me, oh my, who would be young? Carefree innocence it ain't.

Work, work, work with no complaint." So those are just the first two stanzas of Lucas's poem.

Now I'd like you to discuss what advice would you give Lucas to help him bring these two stanzas alive through performance? So you might consider body language, he could use, eye contact, pace, volume tone.

Pause the video and discuss these questions now.

Welcome back, a really lovely discussion about the kinds of thing that Lucas could do to bring these two stanzas alive.

So lots of people focus on the idea of eye contact.

This is a fantastic poem where Lucas is trying to get across some of the frustrations he feels as a younger person.

He wants to get his audience on his side.

And one way to do that is really to look at his audience as he's speaking.

So the idea of volume that came up, particularly when the adults in the poem, the second speaker in the poem is saying, "Get up lazy bones, why so silent? Do something useful." The idea that you could actually mimic the voice of an adult and maybe shout that a bit more loudly so you get across at the idea that this younger person is being shouted at for being apparently idle, ignorant, ignoble, sullen, selfish, and silent.

So different tones that Lucas could use.

Some people said, "Well, the second stanza, which is actually Lucas's refrain, so he repeats this stanza for a number of times in his poem." We've got this question, "Oh me, oh my, who would be young?" And those phrases, "Oh me, oh my," you do think, oh, maybe he could express frustration there, exasperation about all the things that he's being told he is or isn't as a young person.

So lots and lots of ideas to help Lucas bring these two stanzas alive.

Now here are Lucas's third and fourth stanzas.

So we looked at stanzas one and two.

We're now gonna look at three and four.

And he has written, "Do your homework, wash your face, help your sister, tidy your space.

Don't eat sweets, do eat peas.

Sort your school bag, clean your teeth.

Oh me, oh my, would be young? Carefree innocence it ain't.

Work, work, work with no complaints." So we're looking at his third and four stanzas here.

Now I'd like you to discuss what elements of performance might Lucas change in these next two stanzas? So he is not going to repeat exactly what he did in stanzas one and two because you can see that stanzas three and four are different in some way.

So what could he change in terms of his elements of performance for these next two stanzas? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, a really lovely discussion engaging with Lucas's poem, the third and four stanzas of his poem.

Some people said, "Well, in this third stanza we've got this idea of a list of all the different chores that he needs to do, so maybe he could list them off on his hands." That would be an example of the body language that he could use, the gestures he could use as he's performing this poem.

And he could also increase the pace for this list so that it seems like an overwhelming list of chores that he has to do as a young person.

And then we've got this refrain again.

So either you could keep the same tone as before, that exasperated frustrated tone, but you could also alter the tone if you wanted to show a progression of emotion.

Maybe he's getting increasingly frustrated or increasingly worn down as the poem goes on.

So some different aspects to bring the next two stanzas of his poem alive.

Now here's how Lucas decides to experiment with different elements of performance.

So you gave him some ideas and this is what he's going to experiment, try out when he's practising his performance.

"I'm gonna experiment with using different voices in my poem, like when the adult is telling the child off.

I'll also experiment with looking directly at the audience when I ask my rhetorical question so I can build a connection with them.

In stanza three, I want to speed up the pace to emphasise how many chores young people have." So lots of different ideas that he's gonna experiment with as he practises his poem.

Now, I'd like you to consider the poem you are going to perform.

Now, it might be your own poem that you have written, or one that you've selected from Angelou.

And discuss what kinds of things will you experiment with when preparing for your performance.

Now remember, you can experiment with lots of different elements.

You don't need to tie yourself to any particular type of performance just yet.

You are trying things out to see what works best.

So what are some of the things that you might experiment with when you are performing the poem that you have selected? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, a really careful discussion there.

Lovely to see people looking really carefully at the poems that they are going to perform.

And thinking, well, maybe at this point I could try speeding up the pace.

I think volume is going to be really important here.

Maybe this gesture would work for this particular line.

So some really informed choices and some really nice ideas to experiment with for our first practise task.

Now, check for understanding before we move into practising our poems for the first time.

Fill in the blanks showing your understanding of different elements of performance.

We've got two blanks here.

The first cell of the table is missing, and then you can see for volume what does that word actually mean.

So I'd like you to pause the video and fill it in the blanks to show your understanding of different elements of the performance.

Pause the video and complete the check now.

Welcome back, well done if you identified that body language was missing, that is gestures the position of your body showing how you feel, and volume, that means how loudly you speak at different moments in the poem, you've got a great understanding of different elements of performance that you can experiment with.

Okay, our first practise task, you are going to read the poem that you perform a number of times.

It might be a poem you've written or one by Angelou.

And I'd like you to experiment with different elements of performance each time.

For example, when you look at the audience, the pace of certain lines or words loudly speak and when different tones for certain moments, any gestures that you would like to make.

So reading it through a number of times, considering what you would actually like to do when you perform the poem.

Experimenting with different things to see what works best.

Give this practise test the time that it deserves.

It's really gonna set you up when we move into our performance in learning cycle two.

Pause the video and complete this practise task now.

Welcome back.

So lovely to see and hear people practising their poems and really trying out different things and thoughtfully considering which one of these would actually work best if I were performing to a large audience.

Let's do a bit of feedback.

So Lucas reflects on the different ways he tried performing his poem.

He says, "I think one of the most interesting things I experimented with was changing my voice if there are different speakers in my poem.

I think one of the most successful things I experimented with was slowing down the pace of my refrain.

I really want the audience to go away with that in their heads, and I think a slow pace will help with that." So really interesting reflection there from Lucas about the things that he experimented with.

I'd like you to discuss what are your reflections on the different ways you practise performing your poem? What was really interesting? What do you think was really successful? Pause the video, discuss the question using the sentence starters to guide your discussion.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back, well done for a really honest reflection on what was interesting, what worked really well.

You were starting to refine your choices and prepare for your performance.

So let's move on to learning cycle two.

We're really going to get into the nitty gritty of performance and start to celebrate at some of the choices that you've made in terms of performing your poem.

So Lucas will have the poem in front of him.

He's not gonna learn his poem off by heart, but he does still need to maintain eye contact with the audience, not the poem.

Now, it's really important to think about eye contact.

Obviously when you're performing, sometimes you can feel quite nervous and the temptation to look down and not look at the audience is very great.

It is very, very tempting to do that.

But we are gonna think of some ways in which we can make sure that you are maintaining eye contact with your audience by giving Lucas some advice.

'Cause we know Lucas, like you, like have his poem in front of him.

He won't know it off by heart, how is he actually gonna maintain his eye contact? I'd like you to discuss what advice could you give him so he maintains eye contact with his audience? What could he do in order to make sure that he's looking at his audience when he performs his poem? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, some fantastic advice being given to Lucas.

Here are some of the ideas that I had going around.

So don't hold your poem in front of your face.

We need to see you, so whenever I have a piece of paper in front of my face, I tend to hold it right directly in front of my eyes, because I want to be able to read it really carefully.

But actually this is great advice, to hold the poem a bit lower down so that your eyes can flick down to it, you are not holding it in front of your face.

Practising the poem many times before performing so you're confident you know it.

And this word confidence came through a lot, that you should be confident with your poem.

It is a poem that you have written or you have selected.

You should feel really proud of it.

We are all excited to hear your performance.

So hold onto that idea and feel really confident as you prepare to perform.

And finally, it's okay to pause and look down then look up when you are speaking.

Now, when you are performing, people will be looking at you.

They will wait for you, they're not going to rush you through your performance, they want to enjoy it.

It is okay to pause.

You can look down at the poem, gather the words that you want to say next, look up and then say them.

You don't need to rush through your performance.

The point of the performance is that we are meant to enjoy it rather than just race through.

It's some really, really good advice that you have given to Lucas there, and that you can hold onto for yourself.

Now, Lucas practises performing his first stanza, and after he's performed his first stanza, he says, "I'm proud that I varied my pace.

However, I would like to maintain better eye contact with the audience." So he just performed his first stanza, sort of practise run through, not the whole poem, and he's really proud of his pace, that's great.

He slowed it down and made sure everyone could hear every word, but he would like to maintain better eye contact with the audience.

So a nice honest reflection there.

Now I'd like you to practise performing stanza one of your own poem.

And after discuss, what aspect of performance are you most proud of, and what aspect would you like to improve? Pause the video and practise performing just the first stanza of your poem and then complete these discussion questions.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back, oh, it was so lovely to see you practising stanza one of your poems. I'm excited to see the whole performance and really lovely too, to hear some honest reflections, what you're really proud of.

So some people saying, "I think that my eye contact was quite good." "I think my volume was really good, everyone could hear me at the back." And then aspects of performance that you would like to improve.

So, oh, "I forgot to include this particular gesture that I want to include, and I don't think I varied my tone enough," were some of the examples that came up.

So you can see how practising that first stanza really helpful before you go into performing your whole poem.

So we are now going to practise performing our poems. You've made some really well-informed decisions about how you want to perform your poem.

You've had a really honest reflection about some of the aspects of your performance that have gone really well, and some of the aspects that you want to improve on.

Spend some time now practising so that you can feel really, really confident when it comes to the final performance itself.

Pause the video, take all the time that you deserve to practise before we prepare for this final performance, pause the video now.

Welcome back, well done for practising so carefully, so diligently, and I can see that has really given you that level of confidence that you need to give a fantastic performance.

So I would like you to perform your poem.

Before you perform, take your time to feel comfortable.

We will wait for you.

Wait for silence, we want to hear every single word.

Make sure that your audience is listening respectfully.

As you perform, take your time.

As they say, do not rush through it.

We want to enjoy your performances.

Don't worry if you make a mistake.

Just pause and then keep going.

And remember to look at your audience.

You gave Lucas some fantastic advice about how to maintain eye contact, so you can follow the advice that you gave him.

Enjoy the performance.

As I say, take your time, pause the video and perform your poem now.

Welcome back, and well done.

Wow, what a set of fantastic performances.

Beautiful to hear people saying their poems, which mean so much to them, so confidently, so proudly, great volume, great pace, beautiful variation in tone.

Some really interesting decisions about how you wanted to bring that performance alive.

And they were absolutely brilliant performances, well done.

Now, I would like you to assess your performance.

Now, I know that you are all buzzing after performing your poem, and I want you to really hold onto that and select the things that went really, really well.

So what aspect of your performance are you most proud of? And then consider, you will be able to perform lots of poetry in your life.

You will be able to write poems that you want to perform.

You will read poems that you want to perform.

What would you work on for your next performance? So what aspect of performance are you most proud of, and what aspect would you like to improve? Pause the video and discuss these two questions now.

Welcome back, well done for completing those discussion tasks so carefully, so reflectively, and really thinking there were lots and lots of elements of my performance that were great.

What was I most proud of? And then thinking, well, I know the next time this is what I would like to improve.

Well done.

In summary, when performing a poem, you should make informed decisions about the pace, volume, and tone of your voice.

The pace, volume and tone could be very different at different moments in the poem.

Experimenting with different ways of saying a poem can be a good way to decide on how you ultimately want to perform it.

You will also want to consider body language and eye contact when performing a poem.

When you don't know a poem by heart, consider how you'll maintain a good level of eye contact with your audience.

It has been a true pleasure to see you performing your poems today, and I look forward to seeing you next time.