Distance Learning: Day 5

Okay gang, I'm a bit worried about your understanding of rhyme. I mean, looking at the work that's been handed in so far it's clear that some people DO have it, but some of you definitely don't. So before I jump ahead to today's lesson, here's a little recap:

Words rhyme when the WHOLE END OF THE WORDS sound exactly the same. Not just when they have the same sound in the middle, and not just when the end of the word is spelled the same. It has to be the same sound.

Most rhymes with post, ghost, roast and toast, but not with lost or frost.

Most, post, ghost and toast all have a long "O" sound in the middle, like in hole.

Lost and frost both have a short "o" sound in the middle, like in hot.

It doesn't matter that the spelling pattern is the same - you have to make sure that the SOUND is exactly the same at the end of the word.

Remember, poetry is about patterns of SOUNDS IN THE AIR rather than patterns of spelling.

If the end of the word sounds NEARLY the same, that isn't rhyming. Rhyming means the ends of the words sound EXACTLY THE SAME.

So "Mean" rhymes with "Seen" (even though the spelling pattern is different - you remember your phonics lessons! There are lots of different ways to spell the same vowel sounds in English) but it doesn't rhyme with "Team", because "m" and "n" sound different.

Try saying them out loud. Listen to the sounds.

If you're not sure what a word sounds like, don't just guess - try looking the word up on Dictionary.com, where you can click on an icon and listen to the word being pronounced by a native English speaker.

TODAY'S LESSON

Learning Objective: To successfully compose rhyming couplets, using rhyme and rhythm

We're going to try another rhyming exercise today because I want everyone to be confident with this and right now it looks like we aren't all there yet.

RHYMING COUPLETS.

A rhyming couplet just means two lines that come right after each other, where the words at the ends of both lines rhyme with each other. You can have a rhyming couplet on its own, as a teeny tiny poem, or you can use lots of rhyming couplets together to make a longer poem.

Here's the beginning of Roald Dahl's poem "Little Red Riding Hood", where you can see some rhyming couplets in action:

Little Red Riding Hood

As soon as Wolf began to feel
That he would like a decent meal,
He went and knocked on Grandma's door.
When Grandma opened it, she saw
The sharp white teeth, the horrid grin,
And Wolfie said, ``May I come in?''
Poor Grandmamma was terrified,
"He's going to eat me up!'' she cried.
And she was absolutely right.
He ate her up in one big bite.

If I was going to talk about the structure of this poem (I mean the way that it is built), I would say that it has a simple rhyme scheme of rhyming couplets. ("Feel" rhymes with "meal", "door" rhymes with "saw", "grin" rhymes with "in", "terrified" rhymes with "she cried", "right" rhymes with "bite".) I would also mention that it has a regular rhythm - if you try clapping it, and you'll see there are the same number of beats on every line.

So, today's task is pretty simple - I want you to make rhyming couplets. They're like teeny tiny little 2-line poems.

I want you to be sure that they make grammatical sense (even if they're a bit crazy) and that they rhyme and that both lines have the same rhythm.

Here are four different examples that I've done for you:


My brother has a great big nose
He also has enormous toes.

(if you clap you'll see there are 8 beats in each line)

Michael Jackson sang a song
But he got the words all wrong.

(this time I've used 7 beats in each line)


I like apples, I like pears,
I like playing games with bears.

(again, 7 beats in each line for this tiny poem)



The secret to making a perfect pancake
Is adding 3 eggs that you stole from a snake.

(this time I put 11 beats in each line!)


It doesn't matter how many beats you put in your first line - you just have to make sure that the second half matches the first half, with the same rhythm and a rhyming word at the end.

I hope these examples have helped you understand how to do it!

YOUR MISSION TODAY IS TO WRITE ME TEN DIFFERENT RHYMING COUPLETS.

Distance Learning: Day 4

Happy Hallowe'en, my lovelies!

I'm a wee bit worried that not everyone is working on these assignments; I do understand that it's tempting to think "Whoopee! Holiday!" but the thing is that we'll still be assessing your progress the same as usual, and those people who aren't doing the work now are going to fall behind.

:/

However, a massive HURRAH for those people who are doing the work! Good for you!

I get the impression that we're maybe not all super confident with rhyme and rhythm and alliteration and all these sound patterns that happen in poetry, so today we're going to do some nice simple exercises to build up your confidence with rhymes:

RHYMING WORDS ACTIVITY

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: TO LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE SOUNDS OF WORDS AND HEAR THE RHYMES.

Some of these words rhyme with other words, but some of them don't. Put the rhyming words together into sets. (There might be more than 2 in a set of rhyming words! There will also be some words that don't have any rhyming words to go with them - they will have to go into their own sets of one word per set.)

Remember to say them out loud - sometimes words in English might have the same groups of letters in them but still SOUND different, and with poetry it's the sounds that count!

moon witch wolf vampire spooky

ghost toast haunt scream bat spoon

most dream lost cloud mean switch

breeze fleas cat golf soon post loud

crowd cow now go crow shoe glue

pumpkin cheese that true bones

walk moans frosting broomstick

castle shiver snow talk trees

free pork fireworks quiver team

I suggest that you write them out in groups, like this:

1) bat, cat, that

2) moon, spoon, soon

3)

* * * * * * *

In the spooky spirit of Hallowe'en, and just for fun, here's a recording of me reading a narrative poem I wrote a few months ago, with illustrations by a friend. It's a little bit like 'Little Red Riding Hood'...and a little bit not.

http://hitrecord.org/records/393817

Here's a link to what it looks like written down:

http://hitrecord.org/records/380616

And here's a different version of my poem being performed by a gentleman I know, with sound effects:

http://hitrecord.org/records/538625

(No, you don't have to do any writing activities based around it! Not today, anyway. But I thought you might enjoy the poem, and it's kind of spooky, so I thought I'd share it with you.)

Distance Learning: Day 3

Good evening, lovely people!

I do apologise for the delay in today's blog entry - I was unable to access the internet during the day because I was moving apartment. However, luckily we've got the whole weekend to fit in this piece of work, so not to worry!

Today's Learning Objective is HEARING and USING rhyme and rhythm - we've been looking at features of poems like rhyme, rhythm and alliteration over the past couple of days, so I hope you're feeling ready to get stuck in to doing some writing of your own!

We're going to use one of Michael Rosen's poems, and make our own versions. Here it is:

DOWN BEHIND THE DUSTBIN

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Ted.
‘Leave me alone,’ he says,
‘I’m just going to bed.’

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Roger.
‘Do you own this bin?’ I said.
‘No. I’m only a lodger.’

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Sue.
‘What are you doing here?’ I said.
‘I’ve got nothing else to do.’

by Michael Rosen



You may remember this is one of the poems we watched being performed a couple of days ago. You'll notice that when he performs it in public, he doesn't stick precisely to these words - he makes it into a game and makes something new each time, just making sure he sticks to the same pattern but improvising with new names for fun.


This is the version he performs in the video:

DOWN BEHIND THE DUSTBIN

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Jim
He didn't know me
And I didn't know him.

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Sid
He could smell a bone inside
But he couldn't lift the lid

Down behind the dustbin
I met that dog called Sid
He said he didn't know me
But I was pretty sure he did

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Barry
He tried to lift the bin
But it was too heavy to carry.

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Jack
"Where are you goin?", I said.
"Nowhere, I'm just coming back."

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Nichola
She looked a bit like an onion
So I thought that I would pickle her.

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Felicity
It's a bit dark down here
'Cause they cut off my electricity




Okay, now what you're going to do is make your own version. I hope you can see the pattern of the poem? Every verse goes:

a Down behind the dustbin
b I met a dog called____________
c .........................................................
d ..................................._________

Line b and Line d both have to rhyme. That means that whatever name you put at the end of line B, you have to think up a rhyming word to fit right at the end of Line D.

I'm going to start you off with a couple of the verses, but then you'll need to start using your own imagination.

Please type it up into some kind of word document and hand it in via Edmodo by Monday. Thank you kindly!

DOWN BEHIND THE DUSTBIN

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Mary
I screamed when I caught sight of her
Because she was so............

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Tao
I said "Will you be here later?"
He said "No, I'm just here.........."

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Mark
I thought that I might stroke him
But then he began to ...........

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called Pete
I said "Do you like vegetables?
He said "No, I like............"

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called.................
.................................................
.................................................

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called...................
................................................
................................................

Down behind the dustbin
I met a dog called...................
................................................
................................................


by................................ <-----------write your name here!

Good luck, my budding poets! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Distance Learning: Day 2

Morning my lovelies! If you haven't received the email I sent out asking you to get your bottoms over to Edmodo.com and join up, please do so asap!

Yesterday I posted an assignment for the first time - you had to explain several vocabulary words that we'll be using in our Poetry topic, and identify rhymes and alliteration in a short poem. Then you had to come over here, read yesterday's blog, listen to the poems, decide which one you liked best and explain to me why, and do the same for the one you liked the least.

Today's assignment is:

1) choose one of those poems from yesterday (it can be the one you like best, but it doesn't have to be)

2) type it up in a word document of some kind.

3) read it out loud to yourself.

4) do that again, listening carefully for sound patterns. (You might want to click on the Youtube links again, to listen to other people reading them out loud.)

5) Underneath where you've typed the poem, tell me about all the SOUND PATTERNS you can find in the poem. So it might have rhymes, it might have alliteration, it might have repetition etc. It might also have a regular rhythm - try clapping along in time to the words to see if it does.

6) Hand in the assignment.

Here are links to written down versions of some of the poems:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-ning-nang-nong/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dis-poetry/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-highwayman/

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/29.html

Distance Learning: Day 1

We’re going to be looking at POETRY this half-term.

What is a poem?

Poems are music made of words.

Poems can be short.

Poems can be long.

Poems can be silly.

Poems can be jokes.

Poems can be prayers.

Poems can be love letters.

Poems can be puzzles.

Poems can be patterns.

Poems can be stories.

Poems can be snapshots.

Poems can be patterns.

Poems can be comforting, like a warm old blanket to snuggle into.

Poems can make you laugh out loud.

Poems can break your heart.

Poems can bore you to tears.

Poems can disgust you.

Poems can be word games.

Poems pin somebody's thoughts to the page.

Poems can change the way you see the world.

Basically, there are all sorts of poems. I even made a poem out of my answer, up above, using a simple structure of repetition! Some poems rhyme, some of them don’t. Some of them are serious, some of them aren’t. Some of them are complicated, some of them are simple.

Just about the only thing they have in common is that poems need to be spoken out loud.

I'm not kidding. That's what they're for - they're sounds in the air, just like music. Don't just read them in your head, read them out loud and listen to the patterns of sound. (When I read a new poem, I don't really switch my brain on and start worrying about what it means the first time I read it. I just listen to the sounds, like it's a piece of music, and enjoy any pictures that the poem puts in my head. It's only later on that I start playing with it like it's a puzzle, and trying to figure out what it all means.)

Poems are a mixture of music and meaning. The way they are written out on the page is important because it usually helps you understand the sound patterns in the poem. (There are nearly always patterns of sound - sometimes they're really obvious and structured, sometimes they're a bit more freeform.)

In English, these sound patterns are usually made of things like rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance and repetition.

Here are some poems being read aloud - sometimes by the poets themselves, sometimes by other people. (Don't worry about what the poems mean right now. For now, just listen to them like they're music and try to catch the patterns of sound.)

Spike Milligan performing 'On The Ning Nang Nong':

Val Bloom performing 'Pindar Cakes'

Benjamin Zephanaiah performing 'Dis Poetry'

Michael Rosen performing 'Down Behind The Dustbin'

Alfred Noyes' poem 'The Highwayman', performed by an unknown reader:



Matthew Macfayden performs William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29:

Homework Essay!

We're spending two weeks on retelling Neil Gaiman's horror story 'Babycakes' through a collection of different media - basically we're making lots of non-fiction-style documents that act like clues to retell our fictional story (like in the story we read called 'Before I Wake'.)

So far we have created the front page of a newspaper for the day that the animals all vanished. We've also created some emails to demonstrate how people react to this news - puzzled and panic-stricken, thinking maybe it's the end of the world.

Your homework this week is to create a Blog Post for a nonexistant blogger called Swifty. Swifty's blog post will be an essay entitled 'A Modest Proposal' which sets out the reasons why he thinks we should start using poor people's babies in place of animals, now that all the animals have vanished.

You need to pretend to be Swifty and write your blog post addressing the general public and telling them why your idea is awesome. You've all worked on PERSUASIVE WRITING before now - that's the kind of thing you need to do here.

If you aren't sure how to start, it might be a good idea to set it out this way:

PARAGRAPH 1: Introduction. Explain what your blog post will be about and persuade your readers to stick with you and read the whole thing.

PARAGRAPH 2: Talk about how much poverty there is in the world - poor people begging on the street with their babies, orphans stuck in orphanages etc. Explain how your great idea can help solve these problems.

PARAGRAPH 3: Talk about how much medical research needs test subjects, now that all the animals have vanished. Talk about the need to find a cure for cancer and for AIDS and other serious illnesses.

PARAGRAPH 4: Talk about how one body can be used for many purposes - not only meat, but also to make leather from the skin and perhaps other uses for bones and hair and things.

PARAGRAPH 5: Concluding paragraph. Recap your ideas and wrap it all up neatly.

I've written an example here:

http://unlockaflockofwords.blogspot.com/2011/10/modest-proposal.html

I've only done the opening paragraph and the first paragraph, though - this is just the beginning of an essay, not a whole finished essay.


(SURPRISING TRUE FACT: The real Jonathan Swift, author of 'Gulliver's Travels', wrote his own mega-sarcastic essay 'A Modest Proposal' in 1729, doing just what we're doing for homework. He wasn't SERIOUSLY suggesting that rich Englishmen should start eating poor Irish babies, though. He was basically trolling; he knew that the reason people were hungry and poor in Ireland was because they were being exploited by the rich people in England and in Ireland. He was trying to shock the rich people into thinking about their own selfish behaviour.)

If you're a VERY confident reader, you could check out Jonathan Swift's original essay 'A Modest Proposal' which you can find here: http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html (It was written around 300 years ago, so it's not as tricky as Shakespeare but it's pretty hard to read.)

Neil Gaiman's short story isn't satyrical (this means mega-sarcastic), but just like Swift, he's trying to shock his readers and make them think about the real world they live in. With 'Babycakes', Gaiman is making his readers think about man's inhumanity to man - about the scary ways that we break the world up into 'us' and 'them', and accept terrible things being done to people we've decided are 'them' rather than 'us'. When we discussed this in class, you guys picked out the point about World War II and the Nazis' treatment of the Jews - it probably won't surprise you to know that Neil Gaiman's family were Jewish, so the thought of people being categorised unhuman and processed like animals and products will have been particularly meaningful for him, because that must have happened to people in his family.

http://ljconstantine.com/babycakes/