I will use six to eight weeks of meeting twice a week with the class to cover these materials. That provides me with from twelve to sixteen classes. Some of what will be done relies on the output of the students. If they are really creative I will have to find more time to work with them, and if they are not inspired I will have to spend more time modeling possibilities for them. The culmination will be a performance of student poems and accompaniment.
The basic ideas that I will be using with the class are:
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1) To become familiar with the poem by reading aloud
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2) To clap the syllables of the poem while reading it
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3) To invent 'rounds' with different percussions while reading the poems
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4) To accompany poems in a homophonic manner
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5) To accompany poems in a sound effect manner
I believe that by using these ideas from music composition the student's ability to write will be enhanced and improved. I hope that the ways in which we will be exploring poetry will intuitively reinforce what the students already know. I believe that this will help their writing in all forms.
Lesson 1
Students will learn the poem.
The students will recite poem and clap the syllables while reciting the poem.
This will familiarize students with the structure of certain poems and nursery rhymes.
Students will expand poems by performing rounds with words and syllables.
(By about the fourth lesson I will be using student work in this manner)
Lesson 2
Students will learn poem.
The students will perform music like background to the poem.
This will highlight a different aspect of poems and nursery rhymes.
Students will expand poem by performing background and recitation.
(By about the fourth lesson I will be using student work in this manner)
Lesson 3
Students will learn poem.
The students will perform sounds that imitate or emulate sounds in the poem.
This will help the students use good imagery in their own writing.
Students will expand poem by performing background and recitation.
(By about the fourth lesson I will be using student work in this manner)
Conclusion
I believe that by exposing students to these compositional ideas their poetry writing and, consequently, overall writing abilities will improve. I realize that the techniques might look somewhat simple, but the ideas are demonstrative and meant to show the students part of what makes poetry work. The students will be able to use these concepts in their own writing. By taking the class through these 'poetry performance'
concepts the student's ability to write, analyze and perform will improve.
Sample Lesson Plan
Materials: "Bumble Bee"- Mother Goose rhyme
Summary: This rhyme has a few manifestations. We are reciting the poem and clapping the syllables as accompaniment. A well-known adaptation is a counting game. The children are put in a circle and the teacher points at a child on the beat in a circular fashion as the poem is recited. When the teacher gets to the 'goodness me if you're not out" part, then that child is out of the game and sits down. At least one version of this rhyme is a song rendition.
Objective: The students will easily learn the rhyme and the clapping or body percussion parts.
Procedures:
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1) Recite "Bumble Bee" nursery rhyme to class a few times. Cue class to join in recitation. Continue rote practice until the majority of the class has the poem memorized.
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2) Recite "Bumble Bee" and clap the syllables simultaneously. Have class recite and clap the rhyme.
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3) Divide class into two groups. The first group will recite the poem once and then clap the syllables once. The second group will do the same but they will start reciting when the first group starts clapping. The groups could be then subdivided into more groups, with other entrance points. The clapping could be replaced by making a buzzing noise instead.
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4) The class will then discuss how we took this rhyme and made a bigger piece out of it. Questions could be; how did we make the rhyme longer? Where do we clap or buzz?
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5) The students will be encouraged to write their own poems so that we can try this experiment on their pieces.
Sample Lesson Plan
Materials: "Hickory Dickory Dock"- Mother Goose rhyme
Summary: The children will accompany the rhyme by making noises and vocal inflections.
Objective: The students will gain critical thinking skills to enhance their understanding of this rhyme and their own poems. This concept will be contrasted with the first lesson in which the accompaniment was the syllable pattern.
Procedures:
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1) Recite "Hickory Dickory Dock" to class. Continue rote practice until the majority of the group has it memorized.
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2) The class will recite the rhyme. Have the group clap once at the end of the first line. Assign a few students to make a squeaking noise with a rising inflection at the end of the second line (the mouse running up the clock). Have the class clap once at the end of the third line. The previously assigned students will make the squeaking noise with a downward inflection at the end of the fourth line. Everyone claps once at the last line.
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3) Have the students switch parts and perform the rhyme again.
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4) Ask for suggestions of what other sounds we could make instead of claps and squeaks; knee slaps, drum rolls, guitar glissandos?
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5) The students will be encouraged to write their own poems so that we can try this technique on their work.
Sample Lesson Plan
Material: "Rain On the Green Grass"- Mother Goose Rhyme
Summary: The students will accompany the rhyme with sounds that imitate the actions of the poem (falling rain sounds).
Objective: The students will develop critical listening and thinking skills by coming up with ideas of what certain things sound like.
Procedures:
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1) Recite the poem with class. Continue reciting until most of them have it memorized.
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2) Assign a group of students to make rain noises while the rest of the class recites. They could drop beans onto a carpet to elicit rain on the grass, they could use a shaker to imitate rain on a tree, and they could drop beans onto a tin plate or tambourine for rain on the roof.
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3) Have a discussion about what others ways they could imitate the action of the poem. Experiment with the student's ideas.
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4) Encourage the students to complete their own poems so that this idea could be used for performance.
