Year 5/6 Additional text-based unit - Sensational! by Roger McGough

Teaching sequence phase 1

Session 1

Focus objectives

• To talk about how the poet uses language to create images
• To reflect on the poem through discussion and making notes

Teaching approaches

• Reading aloud and rereading
• Discussion
• Making notes

Introducing the anthology

Explain to the children that you will be sharing a range of poems from one collection over several days and that they will be listening to, reading, talking about, performing, writing and presenting poems and choosing their favourites.

As part of their work, they will be asked to keep their own 'poetry journal'. This can take the form of a separate exercise book or stapled sheets. The children could decorate the cover of the journal.

Reading aloud and discussion: 'The Magic of the Brain'

'The Magic of the Brain' is the first poem in the collection and discusses all of the senses.

Without disclosing the title or displaying the text, read the poem aloud, asking the children to close their eyes and visualise the poem as you read. You might suggest that they try to run what they hear as a film in their heads.

Ask the children to work with a talk partner and discuss their initial responses to the poem, for example: a part that they particularly remember or liked about the poem, or the kinds of pictures they saw in their heads.

Discussion and rereading

Record the feedback from the discussion by making notes on a large sheet of paper or in a class poetry journal.

Ask the children to describe any pictures that they saw in their heads. Ensure that your questions are asked in an open way - there is no 'right' answer. The children need to feel confident that their contributions are valued.

Then read the poem again, this time displaying the text, and ask the children to join in with you. Ask them to notice in detail as they read any words or phrases they think are particularly striking. During the discussion, record two or three points in the class reading journal. Then give out copies of the poem and ask the children to work with a partner to note in their own poetry journals any words or phrases that they identify.

Record feedback by making notes in the class poetry journal or on a large sheet of paper. The children may identify phrases such as 'It cleared my head as water refreshes the skin' or 'Smooth-on-tongue soup'.

Alternative titles

The poem is called 'The Magic of the Brain'. Ask the children whether they can think of an alternative title. Ask the children to work in pairs, then in groups of four, to compare their titles. Share some of their titles at the end of the lesson.

Sessions 2 and 3: Using the structure of one poem to help write another

Focus objectives

• To think about how poets use pattern to structure a poem
• To use the structure of a poem to write their own verses, thinking about language choices
• To reflect on own writing, edit and improve it

Key teaching approaches

• Discussion
• Planning using a spider diagram
• Shared and individual writing
• Revising and editing

It is likely that this work will require an additional session for revising, editing and presenting the poems.

Explain to the class at the beginning of the session that they are going to reread the poem, look at how the poet has created the poem, and then begin to work on their own poems.

Put a copy of the poem 'The Magic of the Brain' on an OHP, an interactive whiteboard (IWB) or flip chart and reread the poem with the class. Ask the children if they notice any patterns in the poem. Then ask the children, working in pairs with a copy of the poem, to reread it and highlight any patterns that they can spot.

They may notice that:

• the first and last line of each verse is similar within each verse and throughout the poem
• the poet not only describes the object that she sees, hears, smells, feels and tastes, but also how it makes her feel.

Highlight the first and last lines of each verse and explain to the class that they are going to write their own verses, using a similar pattern.

Planning the poem

Create a spider diagram on a flip chart, IWB or OHP and choose one of the senses, for example, taste.

Ask the children to discuss with a partner which sense and sensation they are going to write about, and then use the framework below to think about how they might describe it and how it makes them feel.

Working with the whole class, choose one of the senses and fill in the spider diagram below.

See resources for a spider diagram planning sheet.

Then ask children to work with a partner in their poetry journals and draw a spider diagram of their ideas, focusing on one of the senses.

Once the children have done this, gather the class back together and model the process of writing the poem, by taking the opening and closing lines of one of the verses, for example 'Such a sight I saw'.

Work with the class, using the ideas you collected earlier when you began the spider diagram. The following example uses the sight of a tree blowing in the wind:

Next, encourage the children to work individually in their poetry journals to write a first draft of their verse. Some children could work in a small group with additional support from an adult on individual verses or a shared verse.

Editing and revising

Choose two or three examples from verses written by the children - read them aloud to the class and choose one to write up on the flip chart or IWB. Discuss with the class what they like about the verse, for example the things the child has chosen to describe, or the use of particular words or phrases.

Ask the children whether they can think of ways of improving their verses - this may involve omitting or adding words, or choosing alternative words. Then ask them to work with a partner to read their verse aloud and discuss ways of improving it. The children can then work individually on a final draft of their poem.

One of the outcomes of this unit could be an illustrated presentation slideshow of the children's poems, choosing or creating illustrations, background colours and other features. They could record a reading of their poems, using the 'record' facility in the presentation slideshow programme.

Alternatively, the children could carefully write up or type their verses and choose photographs to illustrate their poems or, in an art session, create their own illustrations. These could be collated to make a class anthology.

Extension activities

Some children may wish to create verses for each sense. Poetry journals can be taken home for work on the poems.