Poetry

English

Primary

Britain's 'alternative poet laureate', accompanied by a handful of leaves, a suit and a ukulele, tries his hand at teaching poetry.

Poet and stand up comedian John Hegley visits Eleanor Palmer Primary School in London for his Teaching Challenge and uses unconventional methods to get pupils thinking creatively. He keeps the children focused on task by using fun activities to help learning, and explores words which describe what an object actually does. His methods include collecting in the playground and handing them out in the lesson, asking the Year 6 pupils to think of descriptive words for an elephant while looking at the leaves. Hegley also asks for volunteers to come to the front of the class and sing their answers as he accompanies them on a ukulele.

John Hegley

Bring the emotion out of Shakespeare with music

Students in groups are given different instruments to represent different emotions. Drums, for example, can portray anger. As you read a monologue, the students play instruments that are most appropriate to the mood.

Musical Shakespeare

Michael Rosen shows how to make poetry fun in the classroom

Watch Children's Laureate Michael Rosen as he goes on a crusade to make poetry fun in the classroom. Starting by reading his favorite Christmas poem, Michael then visits St Alban's Primary School in London to show how poetry can be made exciting and enjoyable through performance. He talks to the teacher about the use of actions to enhance the poems and gives tips for other teaching staff who might want to use similar techniques with their own classes. A programme for pupils, teachers and anyone interested in making poetry come alive in the classroom.

Poetry in Motion

Reviewing three resources to assist in teaching primary poetry

This edition of Resource Review looks at three resources to help with teaching poetry in primary schools. Expert Louise Dollings, literacy coordinator at Goldstone Primary School in Hove, East Sussex, recommends: <ul> <li>Primaryresources.co.uk</li> <li>The Works 5</li> <li>Black's Rhyming and Spelling Dictionary</li> </ul> Our roving reporter Matthew Tosh is out and about to see a couple of the resources in action. Louise and presenter Hermione Cockburn are joined in the studio by panellists Fiona MacCorquodale, assistant head at St Luke's CE Primary School in London and Peter Taylor, headteacher at Worth Primary School in Cheshire.

Primary Poetry

KS2 English lesson starter on the events of 9/11 in New York

This unique KS2 English lesson starter focuses on pupils' written and spoken responses to the events surrounding 9/11 in New York. Two New York teenagers reflect on their writing about 9/11, which they wrote in primary school. The work is from a collection of writings and drawings called Messages to Ground Zero, pieced together by district superintendent Shelley Harwayne. A brief explanation of what happened to the Twin Towers, for pupils unaware of the events, is followed by pupils Jacob and Ali's responses at the time. Jacob's poem imagines what his father would have written, had he been on one of the planes, and Ali's writing is more about the perpetrators and their motives. This video aims to encourage speaking and listening, as well as writing activities.

Primary Writing - 9/11 New York

The writer and poet Ruth Padel talks about poetry

This programme has a strong poetry theme running through it. Presenter Michael Rosen: Offers his top five tips on how to teach poetry Discovers how the book Love That Dog by Sharon Creech inspired creative classroom poetry work at a high school in Halesowen Meets writer and poet Ruth Padel who reveals that the right verse helps her cope with all manner of adversity, including whitewater rafting In this episode, our experts discuss Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, a gripping story of boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy and fear, set in war-torn Kabul. The panel includes: Julia Eccleshare of The Guardian Teacher Stacey Jordan Youth worker Gulham Hassan

Ruth Padel

Cross-curricular work in Year 6 literacy, science and ICT

Find out how the creative curriculum can help with teaching literacy, science and ICT to Year 6 pupils, with these three creative lesson-planning ideas. See how school grounds can be used as a resource in Key Stage 2 science lessons, as Helen Porter, a teacher at Kings' Forest Primary School, Bristol, gets pupils gathering information from the surroundings. The KS2 pupils can then analyse the data in their ICT lesson, learning how to use databases and illustrate figures using graphs. Helen also takes her pupils through a literacy lesson using WH Auden's Night Mail poem as part of a larger project on biography.

Science, Data Logging and Poetry

A teacher films his pupils as they create stop frame animation

Pupils at Bishop Bronescombe Primary School in Cornwall have been using stop frame animation to explore poetry. In this programme, we see Year 5 and 6 pupils animating The Land of Counterpane, in a video recorded by teacher Stewart Gynn. Stewart's video reveals the children's changing views of poetry and demonstrates how their speaking, listening and teamwork have improved as a result of the animation project. Significantly, Stewart has seen an improvement in the boys who had previously been reluctant to read poetry. The video is followed by a studio discussion between Stewart, headteacher Adrian Massey, AST Literacy co-ordinator Sally Berry and consultant Adrienne Jones. Amongst other things, the panel looks at the reasons why animation engages boys, and how it helps to make poetry more concrete and accessible.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Primary English

> Poetry