Overview of Unit
The children engage in activereading and exploration of a narrative poem, The Highwayman.Through practical activities and discussion, the children explorehow writers use language to create dramatic effects.
Children investigate differentaspects of longer, narrative poetry, including the structure. Theywork as part of a group to use drama strategies to explorecharacters in depth. They devise questions to ask the maincharacters and work in roles to explore more complex emotionalissues. A reading journal is used to record inferences anddemonstrate understanding of characters.
Children reflect upon theusefulness of different techniques used through the sequence tosupport their understanding of a historical text. They work as amember of a group to perform the poem using drama techniques beforeselecting and practising stanzas for the choral performance.Performances are evaluated and improved according to chosen successcriteria and the impact of theatrical effects is examined in moredepth.
| Objectives
1. Speaking
Tell a story using notes to cuetechniques
3.Group discussion and interaction
Plan and manage a group task over timeusing different levels of planning Understand different ways to take the leadand support others in groups Understand the process of decisionmaking
4.Drama
Reflect on how working in role helps toexplore complex issues Use and recognise the impact of theatricaleffects in drama
7.Understanding and interpreting texts
Make notes on and use evidence from acrossa text to explain events or ideas Explore how writers use language for comicand dramatic effects
8.Engaging with and responding to texts
Compare how a common theme is presented inpoetry, prose and other media Compare the usefulness oftechniques such as visualisation, prediction and empathy inexploring the meaning of texts
9. Creating and shaping texts
To experiment with differentnarrative forms and styles to write their own stories
12. Presentation
Use a range of ICT programs to presenttexts, making informed choices about which electronic tools to usefor different purposes
| |
LearningOutcomes
Phase 1Learning outcomes
Children understand thedifferences between literal and figurative language and can use thetext to explain the effects of imagery in a poem. To deduce information about a character from a visualtext To offer opinions and provide evidence to supportthem To develop the ability to listen to a story and make notesabout the main points To give views based on response to a text and respondappropriately to the opinions of others To visualise a scene and respond to it pictorially To consider the ways that visualisation helps to gain adeeper understanding of a description of a setting To investigate the meaning of unfamiliar words To deduce information about a character from adescription To identify the key events in a story To use storyboarding as a means of recording the key eventsin a story
Phase 2 Learning outcomes
Children understand the differences between literal andfigurative language and can use the text to explain the effects ofimagery in a poem. Children can reflect on how working in role helps to exploresome of the complex issues within a poem. Children use their understanding of characters, language andplot to write in the first person.
Phase 3Learning outcomes
Children demonstrate that they can work as a member of a groupto plan, perform and evaluate a choral performance of apoem. Children demonstrate that they are able to evaluate andimprove their performance in the light of comments fromothers. To explore how writers use language for dramaticeffect To make decisions about how to perform a section of a poemdramatically To develop the ability to work collaboratively to perform apoem dramatically To experiment with writing in the form of a narrativepoem
| ||
Texts/ other:
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman Britannica dreams video Fleetwood Mac video: everywhere The Listeners Walter de la Mare (Pelican bigbook) | ICT links
Smart notebook file http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbsaj0XHUeg http://www.britannicadreams.com/musicvideos.html http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/hounslow_heath.htm http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/highwayman/index.html
| |
Day | Whole-class worksentence/word level/ speaking & listening | Whole-class work ~ textlevel Sharedreading/writing AFLquestions | Independentwork Success criteria | Plenary | |||
1 PHASE ONE | Focusobjectives: o To deduce informationabout a character from a visual text o To offer opinions andprovide evidence to support them Key teachingapproach: responding toillustration
Introduce the main character (do not revealtitle) by projecting an image of the Highwayman onto theIWB. Who might this be?What do you notice about him? What might he be like?Introduce some of the languageused to describe the Highwayman and ask children to speculate aboutwhat the phrases and words might refer to. Encourage children toexplain their answers and refer to the clues they used to helpthem. Consider how the image of the Highwayman helped.
| Give each group an enlarged copy of theillustration from the front cover of the book. Children to make notes on post its to stick tothe illustration They should make on sticky notes and stick aroundan enlarged copy of the picture. Notes should have evidence. E.g. he lived 150 years ago, I know this becausehe clothes are not modern. Remember to o Talk abouta character o Makeopinions o Back upwith evidence o UsePEE | Share ideas and evidence found. Record onIWB. Show the cover of the book and talk about thetitle. Talking partners what do you knowabout highwaymen? Make list of ideas and then show http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/hounslow_heath.htm SUMMARY ON SNF
| ||||
2 PHASE ONE |
Focusobjectives o To visualise a scene andrespond to it o To consider the ways thatvisualisation helps to gain a deeper understanding of a descriptionof a setting Key teachingapproaches: Visualisation ,Illustration
Read thefirst three lines of the poem, then ask the children to close theireyes and visualise the setting as you read it again. Talk with themabout the language and the kind of pictures it created forthem. What hasthe poet used to describe the scene? (metaphors) Look at each image in turnand discuss why the poet has chosen to compare each of theelements: a) Wind: as though it was ariver rushing through the trees. b) Moon: trying to createthe idea that the sky is a sea and the moon is half hidden behindclouds. c) Road: trying to conveythe shape of the road as though it were on a piece ofclothing
|
Ask thechildren to choose one of the three lines to illustrate, usingpaint, inks, chalk pastels, crayons or coloured pencils, addingtheir chosen line from the poem in pen and ink.
Remember to o visualise a scene from atext o draw your ownrepresentation of that scene o explain yourreasoning |
At the endof the session, ask each group to read out their line together,holding up their illustrations. Then talk with them about the kindof mood these words create at the beginning of the poem and theways that visualisation helped the children to picture the storysetting. Display the pictures on the wall with lines from thepoem.
| ||||
Day | Whole-class worksentence/word level/ speaking & listening | Whole-class work ~ textlevel Sharedreading/writing AFLquestions | Independentwork Success criteria | Plenary | |||
3/4 PHASE ONE | Focusobjectives o Toidentify key points in a story o Todevelop the ability to listen to a story and make notes about themain points o To giveviews based on response to a text and respond appropriately to theopinions of others Keyteaching approaches: readingaloud, discussion
Show children the highwayman book. Explain to the children that this book containsa poem that tells a story involving a highwayman. Ask them tolisten carefully and see if they can follow the story in the poem,who it involves and what happens to them. Read the first part ofthe poem to the class and then ask the children to talk with apartner about: What have you foundout about the story?
Show first part of the video to deepenunderstanding. Listen to and watch the movie clip of TheHighwayman up to the point when the highwayman leaves (hegalloped away to the west). Let the children enjoy it.Explain that this is an adaptation of a very well known poem andthat we are going to spend some time looking at the poem over thenext few weeks. Give the children a copy of The Highwayman to thesame point (part I) so they can see a written version.
| Read the poem again and this time, ask childrento think about what they liked and disliked about the poem and alsoanything that puzzled them. Talking partners: Give all pairs a copy of the patterns andpuzzles grid and ask them to put on there: things they alreadyknow, predictions they might make, any patterns that they can seein the poem and anything that is puzzling to them. Add these to thewhiteboard file as the children contribute them. Remember to o give myopinion about a text o support myopinion with evidence o ask andanswer questions about a text | Give the children thepictures of the items from the story sack in envelopes. Put 2 or 3 items with agroup and ask the children to use these to discuss what is going tohappen next in this narrative poem. Whatclue does their item give us and what could it tell us? Who mighteach item belong to? Once the children have discussed theirown item ask a spokesperson from each group to tell us abouttheir item, who they think it belongs to and what they think itmight tell us is going to happen next. What do we think will happen in the2nd half of the poem? Watch video. Read 2nd half ensure children haveunderstood. | ||||
Day | Whole-class worksentence/word level/ speaking & listening | Whole-class work ~ textlevel Sharedreading/writing AFLquestions | Independentwork Success criteria | Plenary | |||
5 PHASE ONE |
Watch video of the poemagain. | Focusobjectives
Keyteaching approaches
Reread the whole poem, ensuringunderstanding verse by verse. Talk about these words as a class,focusing in particular on the beginning of the poem.
|
Before this lesson, prepare a classdictionary with pages labelled with the letters of the alphabet.Ask the children to work with a partner and give each pair a versefrom the poem. Ask them to look for any unfamiliar words in theirverse and to investigate what these mean, using dictionaries or theInternet. Then ask them to enter the words they have found directlyinto the class dictionary or to write them on paper or sticky notesso that they can be entered properly later. Remember to: o Identifyunfamiliar word o Identify phrasefrom text o Findmeaning o Rewrite in ownwords o Illustrate ifpossible
|
Show another interpretation of the poem:Fleetwood Macs everywhere | |||
Day | Whole-class worksentence/word level/ speaking & listening | Whole-class work ~ textlevel Sharedreading/writing AFLquestions | Independentwork Success criteria | Plenary | |||
6 PHASE ONE | Read the poem. In the first stanzas of thepoem, highlight the mood and atmosphere by asking the children tochoose the words from the zone of relevance board and put them inthe most appropriate places on the board. | Focusobjectives o Toconsider the ways that visualisation helps to gain a deeperunderstanding of a description of a setting / character o To deduceinformation about a character from a description Keyteaching approaches: Visualisation, Illustration , annotation
Shared read children to readverses of poem individually focus on use of voice, expressionetc. | HAhighlight all the phrases and lines that are relevant to Tim theOstler. Draw a picture of Tim and annotate it using the words andphrases from the text. Around the outside of the picture, writewords that describe Tims thoughts and feelings when he saw Bessand the highwayman. (mainly inference and deduction) MA- highlight all the phrases and lines that are relevant to Bess.Draw a picture of Bess and annotate it using the words and phrasesfrom the text. Around the outside of the picture, write words thatdescribe Besss thoughts and feelings about the highwayman. LA- highlight all the phrases and lines that are relevant to thesetting. Draw a picture of the setting and annotate it using thewords and phrases from the text. SEN highlight all the phrases and lines thatare relevant to the highwayman. Have a large original picture ofthe highwayman and annotate it using the words and phrases from thetext. Colour it in so that it matches the description.
| What do we learn about the characters in thepoem from looking carefully at words used?
Make statements about the characters, usingevidence from the poem to back up opinions.
| |||
Day | Whole-class worksentence/word level/ speaking & listening | Whole-class work ~ textlevel Sharedreading/writing AFLquestions | Independentwork Success criteria | Plenary | |||
7 PHASE ONE | Rhyming words listeningactivity Fold paper in vertically. Inthe column on the left going down, write the followingwords: Daughter, thigh, instead,jest, breath, coat, hill, trees. Listen to each word as I read it look at the words on your paper and find the word that rhymes withthe word you hear. Then write the word you hear next to the wordthat rhymes with it. Find the word that rhymes withsky and write sky next to it. Deaththroatstillwaterseasbreastbed. | Focusobjectives o Torecognise similes and metaphors Keyteaching approaches: annotation
use the whiteboard to read the poem againas a shared read. Talk about the poetry techniques personification, metaphors and similes, alliteration used byNoyes in The Highwayman. Use website http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/highwayman/index.htmlto explore similes &metaphors in poem
look only at the first part. Personification though hell should bar the way Metaphors the wind was a torrent ofdarkness; the moon was a ghostly galleon; the road was a ribbonof moonlight; eyes were hollows of madness Similes hair like mouldy hay; dumb as adog; her face burnt like a brand Alliteration ghostly galleon; breeches ofbrown; cobbles clattered and clashed;whistled..window..who..waiting
| Give children the second part of thepoem and askthem to identify the different poetic techniques used byNoyes.
HA alliteration, personification, metaphor and simile MA alliteration, metaphor and simile LA alliteration and simile SEN rhyming words? Ask the children to underline examples of thesein different colours and to annotate why they areunderlined. Personification death at every window, hellat one dark window; hours crawled by like years Metaphors - road was a gipsysribbon Similes her face was like a light down likea dog Alliteration barrel beneath her breast;blank and bare
Use recording format | Discuss the various methods and techniques andidentify some favourites. Review with website. | |||
Day | Whole-class worksentence/word level/ speaking & listening | Whole-class work ~ textlevel Sharedreading/writing AFLquestions | Independentwork Success criteria | Plenary | |||
8/9 PHASE ONE |
Cloze passage (see SNF) |
Focusobjectives
Keyteaching approach
Reread the poem with the class againusing snf. Talk about the separate verses andthe sequence of events in the poem. You could note the key eventsnext to each verse as the children begin to identify them. Read the summary of the poem(p552) Ask children to plot the mainevents of the poem and invite them to think about the structure ofthe narrative. Use the IWB to plot and explore the narrative shape.Use children's previous understanding of story structure to explorethe opening, setting, build-up, problems and resolutions within thepoem.
|
Ensuring that each pair has a copyof the poem, ask them to work with a partner and create astoryboard to illustrate the sequence of events in the poem. (SEN/LA: 3 parts beginning, middleand end)
Remember to: o identify keyevents in a story o sequence thekey events correctly
|
Oral retelling of the story using thestoryboards. | |||
