Poetry Unit 3.1Performance Poetry

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Poetry Unit 3.1Performance Poetry

About this unit:

The children share and enjoy three poems, identifying and giving reasons for their likes and dislikes. They discuss poetic features, the poems’ structure and the poet’s language choices.They look at the poet’s use of personification in depth and then draft and write their own versions of The Sound Collector.

Stimulus synopsis: Roger McGough Collected Poems

Wordsmith doesn’t offer just another anthology of poetry. Instead, each whole collection is dedicated to the voice of one poet. The ‘single voice’ collections mean that the children get to know the poets as individuals: they understand their views and their styles, and gain insights into the inspiration behind their poems. All this helps to bring poetry to life for the children and increases their understanding and enjoyment. There are two poetry collections per year throughout Key Stage 2. In Year 3, the poet covered by this recommended route is Roger McGough.

Recommended Route

This recommended route is a varied learning pathway through the lessons available, which ensures full coverage of the curriculum objectives for the year group within a given number of weeks. It will typically progress from comprehension to composition, with grammar and depth focus lessons scheduled where relevant.The learning objectives for each lesson are listed in the lesson plans below, and national curriculum coverage can be viewed in The National Curriculum for England Correlation Chart Year 3, The National Curriculum for Wales Correlation Chart Year 3, The National Literacy and Numeracy Framework Correlation Chart Year 3 (Wales), The Curriculum for Excellence Correlation Chart P4 (Scotland)andThe Northern Ireland Curriculum Correlation Chart Year 4.

Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5
Comprehension 1:
Bully Night(Roger McGough)
Discuss first impressions
Give reasons for likes and dislikes
Make inferences and predictions
Identify poetic features / Comprehension 2:The Fight of the Year(Roger McGough)
Discuss use of language / Comprehension 3:
The Sound Collector(Roger McGough)
Discusspoem structure
Discuss onomatopoeia / Depth focus 1:
Looking at personification
Discuss personification / Short composition: Writing based on The Sound Collector(Roger McGough)
Draft and write

Lesson Bank

If you would prefer to develop your own route through the material, the lessons detailed below, alongside additional lessons, are available in the lesson bank for the unit.This lesson bank contains all available lessons for the unit, including comprehension lessons, composition activities (both long and short), and depth focus and sentence grammar lessons where relevant. If you are planning a thematic curriculum, or using Wordsmith alongside other resources, you can select appropriate lessons from the lesson bank for your own planning.

Spelling list

The complete spelling list for Year 3 contains all the spellings children will come across in Year 3. They are linked to the spelling requirements for the National Curriculum for England Programme of Study for the year group and can be used to issue spellings to children on a weekly basis.

Teaching Strategies

Throughout the lesson plans, key teaching techniques such as ‘Babble Gabble’ appear in green. For a definition of each of these techniques, consult the Wordsmith Glossary of Teaching Strategies, which outlines what each technique involves and how it can be used.

Grammar Assessment

At the end of each term, once all four units have been covered for the year group, children’s individual knowledge of the grammar concepts taught during the unit can be assessed using the printable grammar progress check and mark scheme.

• About the Grammar Progress Checks
• Grammar Progress Check: Year 3, Autumn Term
• Grammar Progress Check Answers: Year 3, Autumn Term

You can record children’s attainment on the Grammar Progress Checks using the editable Class Record.

Pearsonis not responsible for the quality, accuracy or fitness for purpose of the materials contained in the Word files once edited. To revert to the original Word files, re-download themfrom ActiveLearn.

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Day 1: Comprehension

Session / Main focus / Teaching summary / Activity description
Comprehension 1:
Bully Night
(Roger McGough) / Discuss first impressions
Give reasons for likes and dislikes
Identify poetic features /

• Talk Partnersdiscuss associations of night time – likes/dislikes.
• Show ‘Bully Night’ (P ITP 3.1.5) and watch the performance. What did you like about this performance? How did it make you feel?
• Read Bully Nightby Roger McGough (page 6). Why is night like a bully? Is this a good comparison? Why does the poem stop suddenly after ‘the’? What might the poet mean by ‘fast awake’?
• Reread the poem. Identify and discuss the poetic features. (E.g. rhyme, repetition.) What effect does this have on the reader and the performance?
• Discuss the concept of performance poetry. What makes this poem particularly good for performance?

/ The children work in groups to discuss and write down the things they do not like about night, starting with:
Bully night
I do not like …
Objectives:Discuss words/phrases that capture reader’s interest; Check that text makes sense and is in context;
Spoken language: Listen and respond appropriately; Articulate and justify answers
Photocopiables: N/A
Digital resources: eBook of Roger McGough Collected Poems,P ITP 3.1.5

Day 2: Comprehension

Session / Main focus / Teaching summary / Activity description
Comprehension 2:
The Fight of the Year
(Roger McGough) / Discuss use of language /

• Show ‘The Fight of the Year’ (P ITP 3.1.6) and watch the performance. What do you notice about this performance? What can you hear going on in the background?
• Readthe poem by Roger McGough (page 7), emphasising the commentator’s voice. What words/phrases give clues that it is a boxing match? Who is fighting whom? Who wins/loses? Why is the poem called The Fight of the Year? What are the ‘twelve rounds’? (months of year)Which round is this one? (third; March)
• Discuss the lists of word/phrases. (They are items connected with spring, grouped into flowers, animals, weather and vegetables; the ten lines in the final list reflect the ten-second count-out in a boxing match.)
• What pictures do these words paint in your head: ‘bobtail clouds’, ‘scallywaggy winds’ and ‘pavement artists’?

/ In pairs, children play Word Tennis with words/phrases describing Winter (and then Spring) as they are portrayed in the poem. They use words/phrases from the poem (e.g. Winter: ‘groggy’; Spring: ‘shows no sign of tiring’) and their own descriptions (e.g. Winter: ‘exhausted’; Spring: ‘champion’). Mind Map the results.
Objectives:Discuss words/phrases that capture reader’s interest; Check that text makes sense and is in context
Spoken language: Articulate and justify answers; Participate actively in conversations
Photocopiables: N/A
Digital resources: eBook of Roger McGough Collected Poems, P ITP 3.1.6

Day 3: Comprehension

Session / Main focus / Teaching summary / Activity description
Comprehension 3:
The Sound Collector
(Roger McGough) / Discuss poem structure
Discuss onomatopoeia /

• The children are quiet for two minutes. They then list sounds they hear inside/outside. Talk Partners share ideas. Keep these lists for the Activity.

• Read The Sound Collector by Roger McGough (pages 2–3). Discuss what happens in the poem. What kinds of sounds does the stranger take away? Which are pleasant/unpleasant? Why doesn’t the stranger leave his name? What would it be like without any sounds at all?
• Discuss the structure of the poem.
• Introduce the term ‘onomatopoeia’ (words that sound like the object or action they describe). Identify onomatopoeic words. Ask children to say them aloud with expression. Why does the poet use these words and what effect do they have?

/ The children work in small groups to evaluate and select the best of their sound ideas from the Teaching session to make a final list. They then write onomatopoeic phrases, in the format of ‘the _____ing of the ______’, for their lists of sounds.
Keep this work for the Composition task.
Objectives:Discuss words/phrases that capture reader’s interest; Check that text makes sense and is in context; Draw inferences and justify with evidence
Spoken language: Speculate, hypothesise, imagine and explore ideas; Consider and evaluate different viewpoints
Photocopiables: N/A
Digital resources: eBook of Roger McGough Collected Poems

Day 4: Depth focus

Session / Main focus / Teaching summary / Activity description
Depth focus 1:
Looking at personification / Discuss personification /

• Reread Bully Night and The Fight of the Year by Roger McGough (pages 6 and 7). Discuss similarities.Introduce the term ‘personification’ (presenting things as if they are human).
• Discuss how the poet uses personification in each poem. (Bully Night:night is a bully; The Fight of the Year:Winter and Spring are boxing opponents.)
• Identify words/phrases that suggest the seasons and the night are acting like people. Why do you think poets use personification?
• Ask the children to think of any noun that is not human (e.g. ‘daffodils’). Together, write a phrase or sentence that personifies daffodils. (E.g. ‘The daffodils danced in the sun.’) Repeat so that the children understand the concept of personification.

/ Children work in pairs to generate their own nouns and phrases or sentences to personify them. Choose the best ones to write down to share with the class.
Objectives:Discuss words/phrases that capture reader’s interest; Check that text makes sense and is in context
Spoken language: Articulate and justify answers; Consider and evaluate different viewpoints
Photocopiables: N/A
Digital resources: eBook of Roger McGough Collected Poems

Day 5: Short Composition

Session / Main focus / Teaching summary / Activity description
Writing based on The Sound Collector / Draft and write /

• Show ‘Everyday sounds’ (P ITP 3.1.3) and discuss the sounds on each screen.
• Reread The Sound Collector by Roger McGough (pages 2–3). Explain that the children will write their own versions of the poem using their sound lists from Comprehension 3.
• Discuss and scribe other ideas for use in the Activity.

/ In small groups, the children draft and write their own versions of The Sound Collector, starting and finishing with the first and last stanzas of the original poem.
Some children may be able to include rhyme; some may want to try writing The Smell Collector. Use ‘The Sound Collector’ (P PCM 3.1.3) for support as needed.
Remind the children that they will eventually perform their poems and to think about this when developing ideas.
Objectives:Discuss writing similar to that which they are planning to write
Spoken language: Consider and evaluate different viewpoints
Photocopiables: P PCM 3.1.3
Digital resources: eBook of Roger McGough Collected Poems, P ITP 3.1.3

Pearsonis not responsible for the quality, accuracy or fitness for purpose of the materials contained in the Word files once edited. To revert to the original Word files, re-download themfrom ActiveLearn.