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.

Today we are going to be looking at, Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird" and we're gonna think, well how would we perform this poem? Performance was very important to Maya Angelou herself.

She put a lot of thought into how to make her poems come alive for people, and she drew audiences far and wide.

So today we're gonna think, well how would I perform this poem? Now the first thing we need to do is get a copy of "Caged Bird." It was published in 1983 by Penguin Random House.

I'd like you to pause the video and go to get a copy of the poem, "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou, pause the video now.

Welcome back.

Now you have your copy of "Caged Bird." We are ready to get going with our lesson.

I cannot wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas and of course, see your performances.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work through today's lesson together, let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you are going to have performed Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird." So we're gonna get to grips with this poem again, we're going to really think about our audience.

How do we want our audience to feel, and what can we do in order to elicit that feeling? And then we're gonna have a really nice time performing these poems. I cannot wait to hear this poem performed in lots and lots of different ways.

In the way that particularly resonates with you.

There are some keywords which can help us unlock our learning today that can help us achieve our objective.

If you'd like to spend some more time with these keywords, then pause the video, you can make a note of them, you can read through them.

I'm just gonna draw your attention to one of these words just now, and it is triumphant.

It is the first word on the board.

That's how you pronounce that word triumphant.

And it means expressing joy and happiness after victory or achievement.

So you might feel triumphant after you've done a test or participated in some kind of sporting challenge.

So this word triumphant means, expressing joy and happiness after victory or achievement.

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

But they're gonna come up throughout today's lesson and we will explore them together then.

Our lesson outline for today, the first thing we're gonna do is answer this question, how will I perform "Caged Bird?" And we're going to think, well what do I want from my audience? How do I want them to feel at the end of my performance? And what are some of the things that I could do in order to create that reaction? We're also gonna have a really fun time in this first learning cycle, experimenting with different ways of performing "Caged Bird." So trying new things out and thinking, does this work? Does it have more power if I perform it in this way instead? So this idea of experiment, which is one of our keywords being really important to this first learning cycle.

And then in the second learning cycle, we will perform "Caged Bird." And we're gonna give ourselves lots of time to do that so that we can really enjoy not only preparing, but also performing at the poem itself.

So let's start off by trying to answer this question, how will I perform "Caged Bird?" Now, pupils reread "Caged Bird" and discuss how they want their audience to feel after they perform the poem.

Jacob says, "I want my audience to feel inspired by the resilience of the bird in the cage." So the bird's ability to overcome hardship, even it's facing a lot of difficulties.

Aisha says, "I want my audience to really understand the differences between the life of the caged bird and the life of the bird that is free." So we know Angelou employs contrast in this poem.

She relies on that very, very heavily for some of the power, particularly the emotional power, the emotional weight of this poem.

So I think it's a really good idea of Aisha's.

And Alex says, "I want my audience to understand the beautiful rhythm and rhyme that Angelou uses in her work." Now, poems are often meant to be read aloud.

Poets put in a lot of thought to how their poems sound.

So again, a really nice idea to think, I want my audience to understand that there is this beautiful rhythm, there is this beautiful rhyme.

So experimenting with different ways, trying new ways of saying the poem will be really important to you, Alex.

Now I'd like you to reread "Caged Bird." Really enjoy returning to this poem and then discuss how do you want your audience to feel after your performance? Pause the video, read through "Caged Bird" reread through "Caged Bird." And then discuss with this question using the models on the board, the student responses that are already there to support you.

Pause the video and complete these two tasks now.

Welcome back, a really lovely rereading of "Caged Bird" I can't wait to hear some of these performances and a really lovely discussion showing me that you are keen eye on what you want your audience to feel after you have read your poem.

So some people saying, I want them to feel called to action.

I want them to feel frustrated, angry at the idea of oppression, the oppression that exists within our world which is explored in this poem.

The idea that the "Caged Bird" is not enjoying the freedoms that the free bird has, of course, being extended metaphor, some of the oppression the black community has faced but it speaks to anybody who has felt oppression throughout their lives.

Others saying, I really want to focus on the beauty of the "Caged Bird" even though he's stalking in his cage.

He has this beautiful song, he has this powerful song.

And of course the poem ends really powerfully on that word freedom.

And that is what I want to focus on, this kind of concept of freedom.

I want the audience to really understand it after I have read it.

So lots and lots of different ideas.

And of course this learning cycle is going to focus on well how do we get the audience to feel that? And we're gonna practise with doing some performance to help us get there.

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

So experiment, try out different things to see how you can create your powerful performance.

So we've got body language, gestures, so movements, they're often slight movements with hand or head or it can be the position of your body showing how you feel.

Eye contact, looking at your audience, individuals, or as a group can be quite nerve wracking to do when you're performing, 'cause sometimes you feel quite nervous, but it is such a powerful tool within your arsenal when you are performing a poem or any text.

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

And I would really encourage you to slow your pace down.

So it's not as if you're having a conversation with your audience, you are performing.

So you can usually speak a lot slower than you think.

Volume, how loudly you speak at different moments in the poem, so really learning to project your voice so that everybody can hear your performance.

You put in a lot of time to it.

So you want to make sure that everybody, even those quite far away, can hear your performance.

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

So tone one of our key words.

We're thinking about attitude and emotion.

And that can be done by controlling your voice.

Often it's done through pace and volume and also pitch the sort of highness or lowness of your voice.

So we're really gonna be thinking about tone as well.

So here are just some different elements that you can experiment with to create a powerful performance.

Now Alex considers the ways he could experiment with different elements to perform "Caged Bird." So he looks at all these different ideas he thinks, what will I do? He says, "I'm gonna experiment with looking directly at the audience, slowing down the pace and pausing when the standard stanza with the word but." And that stanza as two and five.

This is where Angelou introduces the contrast between the bird that is free and the bird in the cage.

I will also experiment with increasing the emotion in my voice, making it more triumphant.

So expressing this idea of achievement or victory in the final two stanzas because they focus on the bird in the cage's song of freedom.

So really, really nice idea there.

So a really specific tone, a triumphant tone that Alex has decided to pick.

And he's justified that because he's looking at the poem and saying the final two stanzas focus on the bird in the cage and his song of freedom.

And I think that should express some triumph.

So we'd like you to discuss what kind of things we experiment with when preparing for your performance.

Now remember we're just in the preparation phase so you can really think I might experiment with this, I might experiment with that.

You can come up with lots and lots of different ideas because you're going to practise them at the end of this learning cycle.

And then you are gonna decide which one you think is most appropriate for your performance and for your audience.

So I'll experiment with, I might also try, I might see if, so we're still at the stage where we're thinking if, perhaps, maybe, so we are not tying anything down just yet.

So have a discussion.

What kind of things could you experiment with? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, a really lovely discussion there showing your understanding of the different elements of performance and also had lots and lots of different ways that people might experiment with these elements of performance.

So looking forward to seeing what people try out and discussing, well did this work? Did this not work? So some people saying I want to use this particular type of body language, I'm gonna make sure that I know the poem well enough that I can really maintain eye contact with the audience.

I'm gonna alter my pace at certain moments in the poem.

So sometimes I'll go a bit faster, sometimes I'll go a bit slower.

And then thinking about what you can do with volume and tone as well.

So we check for understanding before we start experimenting with all of these different ideas that you have had.

I'd like you to fill in the blanks.

We've got body language, eye contact, volume.

What are the two that are missing? We've got their definitions there to give you a bit of support.

So pause the video and complete the check now.

Welcome back, well done if you identified that pace was missing, so the speed you speak at different moments in the poem and then tone was missing the attitude and emotion in your voice at different moments, you'll remember that Alex wants to experiment with using a triumphant tone at the end of "Caged Bird." Whether there's two stanzas focusing on the idea of the bird singing his song of freedom.

Okay, our first practise task.

I'd like you to read "Caged Bird" aloud a number of times.

You might focus on a particular stanza more than a number of times.

You might focus on it particularly if you want to really focus on that element of performance.

But the whole poem, you're gonna read it out a number of times and I'd like you to experiment with different elements of performance each time.

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

Now remember, this is experimental.

So you're not just reading through "Caged Bird" once and thinking that's my performance.

Try lots and lots of different things so that you can finally think this is what I'm going to do when I perform "Caged Bird." Pause the video, give this practise task the time that it deserves.

And I'll see you back here shortly.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back, it was such a pleasure to see people experimenting with lots of different elements of performance.

And of course hearing the beautiful words of "Caged Bird" being said aloud to elicit very different reactions from the audience.

It was lovely to see people really thinking how am I gonna maintain this eye contact? To hear some different volumes for different moments in the poem.

And you can see how it really affects how the poem lands.

So Alex reflects on the different ways he tried performing "Caged Bird." And he said, "I think one of the most interesting things I experimented with was keeping a steady rhythm.

Ultimately I won't do this in my performance because I want certain words and phrases to stand out rather than merge into one rhythm." So he just kept that rhythm steady, just read it out and thought like what does this sound like when I'm reading it out? "I think one of the most successful things," he says, "I experimented with was using some gestures in stanza six to emphasise the triumphant tone of my voice." So we know that Alex wanted to express triumph at the end of the poem.

And so he used some gestures in order to emphasise that triumphant tone as well as his voice.

Now I'd like you to discuss what your reflections on the different ways you practise performing "Caged Bird." So what was one of the most interesting things you experimented with and why? And what was one of the most successful things you experimented with and why? Pause the video and discuss this question using the sentence Starter to help you now.

Welcome back, a really lovely reflective discussion there about some of the things that you did which really brought the performance alive.

Some things that you thought, yeah, it was interesting to do this but ultimately I won't use it in my performance because I think I found something a bit more successful.

Right, we are ready to move into our second learning cycle.

I cannot wait to hear these performances.

So we've answered this question, how will I perform "Caged Bird?" And we're now gonna think, we're actually gonna get prepared for the performance.

So Alex finalises his ideas about how he wants to perform "Caged Bird." Now he says, of his body language, I will raise my head and look up for stanza six.

That's really specific what he's going to do in stanza six.

Eye contact, I'm gonna look at the audience as often as I can.

We're gonna come back to this idea shortly because it's a nice idea to think about, but there are some strategies that we can employ to make sure you do look at your audience.

Pace, I'm going to speak a bit more slowly than normal and really slow the pace for the final two stanzas.

So that's a really good idea to speak a little bit more slowly than normal so that your audience can really enjoy your performance.

Volume, I'm gonna start quietly but get much louder by stanza six.

I think that'll be a really nice effective tactic to really build the power of this poem.

And tone, I'm going to convey the beauty of the movement of the bird that is free and the triumph of the caged bird.

So Alex experimented with the triumphant tone of his voice in learning cycle one and he wants to maintain that when he actually does his performance.

So some really clear specific ideas there about how he's going to perform.

Now I'd like you to discuss how will you perform "Caged Bird?' And be as specific as Alex was.

What are you going to do at particular moments in the poem? So what are you going to do? You can see all of those sentence starters really push you to be very, very specific about what exactly is you are going to do.

So I'd like you to discuss now using those subheadings to help you in those sentence starters.

How will you perform "Caged Bird?' Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, some really clear specific ideas about your performance.

I can see that people have got really, really keen eye on what they're going to do and when.

And performance really is all about preparation.

So the preparation that you did in learning cycle one and then this really targeted discussion now is a great way to feel really confident for your performance.

Now Alex will have the poem in front of him.

So he is not gonna learn it off by heart.

You don't need to learn it off by heart either.

But he does need to maintain eye contact with the audience, not the poem.

Now I find it really easy if I've got something in my hand, I often am drawn to look at it rather than at my audience.

So let's have a little think about how he's going to maintain eye contact with the audience.

How is he going to look at them as often as he can? So we'd like you to discuss what advice could you give him so that he maintains eye contact with his audience? What are some of the strategies that he could employ in order to do this? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back, a lovely discussion, some really clear advice there for Alex, here are some ideas that you might have had.

So hold the poem low down rather than front of your face.

It can be really tempting if you've got something on a piece of paper to put it in front of your face so it's really close to you because you think that way I'll be able to see all of the words.

But actually if you want to maintain eye contact, you need to have it quite low down so you can just flick your eyes down to it and have a look from time to time.

But most of the time you are looking at your audience.

Practise your performance often.

So you are familiar with the poem, now you have reread the poem multiple times in this lesson.

So you will be familiar with some of the words and phrases, particularly some of the words at the beginning of stanzas and that can be really helpful just to allow you to look up at the audience because you know one or two of the words or one or two of the lines.

Pause when you look down at the poem to gather the next words.

Then look up and say the line.

So you don't need to be speaking saying the poem throughout.

You can pause, your audience will definitely wait for you.

So pause, look down at the poem, gather those words, think these are the next words I'm gonna say.

Then look up and say them.

And we talked about pace, the idea that you can speak a bit more slowly than you think you need to.

And this definitely helps you control your pace and speak a bit more slowly because you've got those nice pauses when you are performing.

So these are just some strategies that you could employ to make sure that you can look at the audience as often as possible.

stanza before we move on to performing the whole poem.

So Alex practises performing just stanza one of "Caged Bird." And afterwards, after he is performed just stanza one he reflects I'm proud that I projected my voice so everyone could definitely hear him.

However, I would like to slow down the pace even more.

So really nice, clear reflection about something that he did really well, but also something that he would like to improve.

Now I'd like you to practise performing stanza one of "Caged Bird." And afterwards discuss just like Alex, what aspect of the performance are you most proud of? And what aspect of the performance would you like to improve? And you might use the subheadings, which are on the board, body language, eye contact, pace, volume, tone.

To think about what you're most proud of, but also what you would like to improve.

So give this practise task the time that it deserves.

'Cause it's gonna set you up for the final practise that's where you perform the whole poem.

So give it the time that it deserves and give those reflection questions really careful consideration.

Pause the video and complete this check now.

Welcome back, oh it was so wonderful to see those performances, you just did stanza one.

I'm so excited to hear the rest of the poem and a lovely discussion about what worked really well.

So some people said my body language was really good, but actually I do need to work on my eye contact.

It's good to know that with stanza one, that means I can practise when I'm doing the whole poem.

Others saying I think I need to control the volume a bit more, I don't think that people will be able to hear me if I speak at this particular volume, but I did like the pace I was speaking at a good pace so that people could pick up on the individual words and ideas.

So a really good way to prepare for performance is just do a little bit of it to begin with and then have a really honest reflection with yourself.

So our final practise task, I would like you to practise performing "Caged Bird." Bring the poem alive by relying on these aspects of performance.

And you can see them on the board, body language, eye contact, pace, volume and tone.

So you're gonna practise performing it.

Give this task the time that it deserves so that you are really ready in our feedback to perform at the poem.

'Cause that's what we're going to do in our feedback task.

We're gonna do the performances.

So spend this practise task, practising performing "Caged Bird." And then we will do our feedback where you actually deliver your performance.

Pause the video and practise performing "Caged Bird" pause the video now.

Welcome back, well done for giving that practise task the time that it deserves.

I'm so excited to hear these performances.

So let's move on to our feedback task.

I would like you to perform "Caged Bird." Before you perform, take your time to feel comfortable and wait for silence.

We all want to listen to you.

You worked so hard, so you deserve that respect.

And as you perform, take your time.

You don't need to rush through this.

Don't worry if you make a mistake, that is absolutely fine.

Just pause, give yourself a moment to recover and then keep going.

And remember to look at your audience.

You really want that eye contact.

We want to see you performing this poem.

So pause the video, you are now ready for your final, your big performance of "Caged Bird." A few pointers on the board in order to help you with your performance.

Enjoy it and good luck.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back, and a big well done for those fantastic performances of "Caged Bird." You put in so much preparation and it really, really paid off with those beautiful and very different performances.

So people drawing out different ideas from the poem, people using tone in different way, body language in different way.

It was lovely to be looked at so directly.

People really, really engaging with the eye contact and thinking, how am I gonna make sure that I look at my audience? Well done.

Now would like you to assess your performance.

We did it a little bit earlier in this learning cycle.

We're gonna use the same questions again.

What aspect of your performance are you most proud of? And what aspect of your performance would you like to improve? We've got our subheadings, which we're really familiar with now by this point in the lesson, body language, eye contact, pace, volume, and tone.

We're gonna use these two questions just to reflect a little bit on our performance.

Pause the video and discuss these two questions now.

Welcome back, a really lovely discussion, a really reflective discussion on your performances there.

Now it was really nice to hear that you were able to celebrate lots of aspects.

It's really good to think of what went really, really well in your performance.

And then thinking, what aspect of my performance would I like to improve? Well some people saying, actually I think the volume would've been good.

I think I could have been a little bit louder, or I'd like to have a bit more variation in my tone next time.

And I really would encourage you to think of it next time.

If you are reading poetry, it's a lovely to read it in your head, but the idea of performing it out loud is a great way to make the poem come alive.

And of course, poets spend so much time thinking, what will my poem sound like? How can I use language to create some really beautiful sounds? And so saying it out loud is a great way to hear that.

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

Your pace, volume and tone could be very different at different moments of 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 off by heart, you should consider how you'll maintain a good level of eye contact with your audience.

It has been such a pleasure to hear your performances of "Caged Bird" today.

and I look forward to seeing you next time.