Choral and performance
(1 week)

• Children hear, read, and experience performance poetry, both on paper and in actual performance. They explore the contribution made by the performance element. They then write, rehearse and present their own performance poem.
• Children read, hear, watch and experience a range of performance poetry (where possible, live, but probably more usually through audio and/or video recordings). This could involve performance by other children and the teacher, but needs to include at least some experience of one or more professional performance poets. Children respond to the experience and discuss and analyse what the performance element adds to the poetry and in what ways.
• Children read a range of poetry texts and identify features that might make good performance poems, for example well-chosen words, powerful verbs, adjectives, adverbs and precise nouns; use of detail and sense impressions; surprising and illuminating combinations of words; repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm and rhyme. They select, rehearse and present some of them, looking to develop effective use of such features as volume, pace, expression and movement, and possibly adding simple music or rhythm, body percussion, etc. They evaluate and self-evaluate their performances and improve them.
• The teacher models and then supports the children in writing/creating their own performance poem text or texts, exploiting as many as possible of the features explored earlier. (Material and ideas from the shared and supported writing of performance poems can be found in the National Literacy Strategy exemplified Unit, Poetry Year 5, Term 3, Choral and performance poems.) Their own poems are then rehearsed, performed, shared, evaluated and improved. A simple digital video camera, which itself can be operated by children, provides an excellent way of recording and reviewing children's own live performances, and ICT media, such as pod casting, can provide a wider audience for such performances.

1998 Framework objectives covered:

Year 5, Term 3: T4 and T11 read, rehearse and modify performance of poetry; use performance poems as models to write and to produce poetry in polished forms.