An option I may use will be to mix elements of the 'syllable clapping approach' with the accompaniment idea and the montage idea. Indeed, I hope to use all these combinations on the student's work unless one approach or the other is so clearly superior on a given poem as to make the other methods unneeded.
Little Boy Blue
is suitable as a combined performance.
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Little Boy Blue,
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come blow your horn,
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The sheep's
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in the meadow,
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The cow's
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in the corn.
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Where is the boy
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who looks after the sheep?
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He's under a haycock
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fast asleep.
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Will you wake him?
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No, not I,
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For if I do,
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he's sure to cry.
I would begin this rhyme by having a clapping or drummed introduction. The introduction rhythm would be based on the syllables of the first two lines, beginning with Little Boy Blue, and ending with come blow your horn. Then the recitation of the poem would begin with the clapping (or drumming). The clapping would continue into the next stanza. At the end of the sheep in the meadow line there is a natural pause, here some preassigned students would make a baa- sound. At the close of the cow line in the same slight pause the same students would make a moo- sound. We might use pantomime to imitate the action of the question; where is the boy- we would hold out our hands. We could also gesture sleep, hands folded at the side of our heads and some students could make a snoring noise. At the last stanza I would have the syllable clapping halt and the students who weren't reciting gesture a finger in front of their mouths (to be quiet) and then wiping away make believe tears.
Another example is
Boys and Girls.
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Boys and girls
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come out to play,
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The moon doth shine
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as bright as day.
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Leave your supper
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and leave your sleep,
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And join your playfellows
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in the street.
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Come with a whoop,
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and come with a call,
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Come with a good will
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or not at all.
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Up the ladder
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and down the wall,
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A tuppeny loaf
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will serve us all.
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You bring milk
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and I'll bring flour,
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And we'll have a pudding
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in half an hour.
We could start with the clapping introduction with the rhythm from the syllables of the first two lines, and then begin reciting. We could have a vocal glissando in a downward direction on the word leave both times. On the word join we could have a vocal glissando in an upward direction. Some students would make the whoop and call and after the good will line there would be a cued pause to elicit 'not at all'. A glockenspiel glissando would be played upward and then downward for the 'up the ladder' and 'down the wall' lines. We would complete this rhyme with gesturing the mixing of the pudding.
