Performing Maya Angelou's ‘Caged Bird’
I can perform Maya Angelou's 'Caged Bird'.
Performing Maya Angelou's ‘Caged Bird’
I can perform Maya Angelou's 'Caged Bird'.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- When performing a poem, you should make informed decisions about the pace, volume, and 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 by heart, you should consider how to maintain a good level of eye contact with your audience.
Keywords
Triumphant - expressing joy and happiness after a victory or achievement
Tone - the attitude of emotion of your voice - written or verbal
Gestures - movement of a part of the body (often hand or head) to signal an idea or meaning
Experiment - to try something out
Common misconception
Performing poetry is just about reading it aloud.
Watching people perform poetry is very popular. The most engaging performers carefully consider how they will say the poem, and how they will engage with their audiences.
To help you plan your year 8 english lesson on: Performing Maya Angelou's ‘Caged Bird’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 8 english lesson on: Performing Maya Angelou's ‘Caged Bird’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 english lessons from the Single poet study: Maya Angelou unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You need access to a copy of 'Caged Bird' by Maya Angelou published by Penguin Random House in 1983.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
- Risk assessment required - physical activity
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
the emotion or attitude in your voice – written or verbal
looking at your audience
how loudly you speak
the bird that is free moves freely e.g. "leaps"
the bird in the cage can't move freely – he "stalks"
we hear for the first time the bird in the cage sings about "freedom"
the bird that is free thinks about "worms" and "owns" the sky
the bird in the cage "shouts" and experiences "nightmares"
a repetition of Stanza 3; ends on the word "freedom"
Exit quiz
6 Questions
movements made with the head or hand to signal an idea
the speed with which you speak
the emotion or attitude in your voice