Year 4 Poetry lesson

The poetry literature that we looked at was full of great ideas which gave me much food for thought. It inspired me to think of different ways of tackling poetry and making it accessible to children. I particularly liked the part in the O’Flynn/Powling paper that emphasised Tom’s thoughts being that ‘poets are not superior beings with a gift beyond any that he can lay claim to but simply people like himself’. This is a good perspective for a child to have about poetry and it seems important in accessing children’s imagination with poetry they need to feel engaged and unafraid of it. I was also interested in the idea of poetry being mad, bad and dangerous as well and also coping with reality however harsh. This is relevant in the Blake poem that I’ve chosen to plan a lesson around ‘The Poison Tree’ which tackles some fairly realistic and serious human emotions (see below). The chapter I read on Boyles exudes a similar ethos to the Flynn/Powling extract, that poetry shouldn’t be viewed as purely academic with secret meanings which only ‘clever people’ can understand. This article made me think of the everyday poetry that is going on all the time, even Chris Moyle’s makes up different rhymes and jingles on Radio One to amuse the listeners usually to comic effect. Boyle’s article actually gave me an idea for my lesson in Blake’s poetry by stating how useful culture and media are in creating language activities which access children’s literary worlds. This leads me straight into the lesson plan…..

Teaching The Poison Tree to Yr 4


• The poem would be shown to the group via a youtube video. This video is brilliant as it involves two adolescents acting out ‘the Poison Tree’. The reason it captured me is because it is read in the teenage girl’s voice which makes it immediately accessible to the children. Also the meaning of the poems at first complex message is acted out. For example the first two lines…
‘I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.’
These are illustrated with two teenagers acting frustrated with one another and then making amends by hugging. This gives the children a reference to begin to understand the text.

• Secondly the first stanza of the poem would be read out by a volunteer. The first stanza would then be dissected by a serious of teacher led questions to the group e.g. What do you notice about the language? From what you’ve seen on the video what do you think the poet is trying to say?
• The rest of the stanzas would be explored using this method.
• Thirdly children would be asked to choose the theme of anger or theft in the poem. Working in pairs they would be asked to write a short poem which either rhymed or had a distinct beat to it about either of these themes. Before this activity started children’s experiences with anger and theft would be brainstormed.
• After this activity children would be given the opportunity to share their poems.
• The video would be shown again and children would be divided into groups of four (narrator, director and two actors). Children would be asked to act out the poem. The lesson would finish with group performances.