Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

My name is Ms. Webster.

The first thing I want you to do is tell me what your name is.

Lovely! So, I get to teach you for English, which is really exciting because it's one of my favourite subjects.

And I feel even more excited because our writing for this unit is based on a poem called "The Highwayman", which tells a story, a story of adventure, a story set on a dark and stormy night.

So I hope you're feeling comfortable and I hope you're feeling ready to learn.

In this lesson, you're going to need an exercise book or some paper, you're going to need a pencil or a pen, and you will need your brain.

We will start with a writing warm up, then we will think about what we mean by poems, then we're going to discuss who highwaymen really were, and we will then finish with some reading aloud of the poem.

For your writing warm up, I want you to write these words in the correct word class category.

So on your paper, you might just want to jot down nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, and a little space so that you can put the words next to them.

We'll read these words in the list and we'll do my turn, your turn.

Moonlight.

Countryside.

Urgently.

Galloped.

Desperately.

Cloudy.

Thundered.

Stormy.

And I'm going to give you a little clue, there are two words from each word class category.

So there are two nouns, two adjectives, two verbs and two adverbs.

I want you to pause the video now, set up your page and write down the two words next to each word class category.

Pause the video now.

Okay, hopefully you had a really good go at that and let's just check.

So let's start off with the nouns.

What two words did you think were the nouns? Check your notes, what did you think? We've got moonlight and countryside.

Next, what adjectives did you get? Remember, adjectives describe nouns.

Have a little look at your notes, what did you think? We've got cloudy and stormy.

Okay.

And then the two verbs, what did you think? The two verbs, we've got thundered and galloped.

Which means that these last two words, desperately and urgently, are adverbs, which give us a little bit more detail about the verb and about how it's being done.

So we're using a poem called "The Highwayman" for our writing unit.

It is a narrative poem that was written by Alfred Noyes in 1906, which is a very, very long time ago.

Your first thinking time question is, how would you define a poem? Have some thinking time.

You can note down your answers in your book if you would like to, or you can just have a think about your definition in your head.

If you need a little bit more time, you can pause the video.

So this was my definition, which I'll read it aloud to you.

A poem is a collection of words that expresses ideas or emotions in a vivid and imaginative style.

It is usually written in verses and uses linguistic features such as rhythm and rhyme.

So I wonder if you want to add anything to your definition or maybe note down some of those key words.

So our next question is this, what do you think a narrative poem is? So we've thought about what a poem is, but what do we mean by a narrative poem? Have you heard that word before? Do you know any other words that mean narrative? Okay, so again, have some thinking time.

You can write down your notes, you can say them out loud, or you can just have a think about them in your head.

Pause the video if you need a little bit more time.

So here's what I think a narrative poem is.

A narrative poem is a story that is written as a poem.

So it tells a story through the poem.

It has characters and a plot, where something surprising or unexpected happens in the climax.

And that's why I love "The Highwayman" as a poem so much because it's a really exciting story written as a poem.

Who exactly were highwaymen? To help us find out, let's look at the word.

Highwaymen, highwaymen.

I've broken it down into two different parts.

The first part, highway, the second part, men.

So pause the video and write down what you think both of those parts of the word tell us about who highwaymen were.

Okay, so the first part of the word, highway, well, that's a type of road, okay.

So roads are important to maybe travelling along roads.

And the second part of the word, men, does that mean that only men could be highwaymen? So some interesting things for us to think about.

The next thing I'd like us to look at is a picture.

Now, this is a drawing of a highwayman and I want you to have a really good look at it for 10 seconds.

Okay, I would like you now to pause the video and write down four things that you notice.

So these were my things that I thought were really interesting about this picture.

Well, he's on a horse, so maybe highwaymen rode on horses.

He's wearing a mask.

Now, I wonder why that is.

That's really interesting, he's got a mask on so that you can't see his face, you can't tell who he is.

The next thing I thought of, and I wonder if you thought about this as well, is that he is carrying a weapon.

He's carrying a gun.

The highwaymen carried guns or swords so they always had a weapon on them.

And then he's dressed very, very smartly, isn't he? So, maybe you've got some different things that you wrote down, but those were my four things that I thought were really interesting.

Now I'm going to read a little bit of the poem to you.

It's just a very, very small bit.

And I want you to think about two words that jump out as being really important that might tell us a bit more about who highwaymen were.

And the highwayman came riding, riding, riding.

The Highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

Two words that really stood out for you? Pause the video and write them down.

These are my words, riding, cause it says it about four times in this extract, doesn't it? Four times.

So riding, meaning riding on his horse.

Now, that makes sense because we just looked at a picture where the highwayman was on a horse.

So that tells us a little bit about how highwaymen got around, how they travelled around.

The next word that I thought was interesting, and I wonder if you about this one too, is this word, inn.

Now, it's a word we don't see very much or hear very much anymore.

It's a place, kind of like a hotel, that was historically used as accommodation for travellers.

Meaning it was a place for them to stay overnight when they were travelling somewhere and they had to have a night to sleep or to stop over somewhere.

So, kind of like a hotel, but you'd only stay there, really, for one night before carrying on your journey to somewhere else.

So, here's the thinking time question.

Highwaymen are from the.

Past, present, or future? Thinking about all the things we've just looked at and all your notes you've written, shall we say this sentence together with the correct answer? Our countdown is in.

Have a bit more thinking time.

Highwaymen are from the past, present, or future? Let's do it after three.

One, two, three.

Highwaymen are from that past.

So they lived a long time ago.

And to help us have a little bit more of a think about that, let's look at the timeline.

So you can see at the very end of the timeline, we've got 2020, which is the year that we're in now.

So we call that present day.

Then a little bit before that, we had World War II, you might have studied this at school, and World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945.

Before that was the Victorian era, and again, maybe you've done some learning about the Victorians at school.

And this was a period of time that lasted from 1837 to 1901.

And even before that, that's when highwaymen were around.

So they lived in the 18th century, which is from 1700 all the way up to 1799, but they did live a little bit after that as well.

So they were around about 300 years ago, which is a very, very long time, isn't it? So, here's the picture that we looked at before, but it's a bit bigger.

Have a really, really good look.

And I want you to think about four questions that you would ask.

And I've pointed to some important parts of the picture to give you a little bit of help.

So that first arrow is pointing to his mask.

what question would you ask? Then we can see an arrow pointing to the horse.

Okay.

We can see an arrow pointing to his gun.

So think about what question you would like to ask.

And then we've got an arrow pointing to his clothes.

Pause the video and have a bit of thinking time and come up with four questions that you want to ask about highwaymen.

Okay, shall I tell you the questions that I thought, and you can see if you've got something similar? Well, I was wondering why he's wearing a mask.

I was also wondering why he was riding on a horse.

Then I thought about this, why has he got a gun? What does he need a gun for? And then my last question was, why is he dressed so smartly? I wonder if you got similar questions or something different, maybe.

And I'd like you to pause the video again and just note down, doesn't have to be full sentences, your answers or your thoughts to each question.

So if you've got something about why is he wearing a mask, think really carefully.

Well, why would he be wearing a mask? Why is he riding on a horse? Why has he got a gun? Why is he dressed so smartly? And if you have other questions, you can note down your answers to those as well.

Pause the video now.

So, using everything we've learned so far and your notes get ready for a true or false quiz.

True or false? Highwaymen travelled around in cars.

Should we say true or false after three? One, two, three, it's false.

Highwaymen travelled around by riding on horses.

Cars weren't around until the 19th century, which was much later than when they existed.

Are you ready for the next one? Highwaymen were good and kind people.

Think really carefully about this.

Hmm.

Have some thinking time.

What did we see in the picture before, that might help us with this answer? Should we say true or false after three? One, two, three, it's false.

Highwaymen rode around the countryside and stole valuables such as coins and jewellery from rich travellers, often at gunpoint.

Which is why he was holding a gun in the picture.

So they were not good and kind people.

Our next question.

Highwaymen wanted to remain anonymous.

Now, anonymous means where you don't reveal your identity and people can't tell who you are.

So highwaymen wanted to remain anonymous.

Do you think that's true or false? Again, think back to that picture.

Think back to that first question that you asked about it, and let's say the answer after three, one, two, three, it's true.

Highwaymen wore masks to protect their identity so that they wouldn't be caught.

Because remember, if they're travelling around the countryside, riding around the countryside, stealing from people and using guns to threaten people, and then take all their valuables like their coins and their jewellery, then they wouldn't want to be caught.

They wouldn't want to be found out with it.

So they had to keep their identity a secret, which is why they wore masks.

So before we finish, I feel really excited because I get to read you the first verse of the poem.

So just listen really carefully and follow along.

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor.

And the highwayman came, riding, riding, riding.

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

Now I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at reading it aloud yourself.

And don't worry at all if you think that some of the words are a bit tricky or if you haven't heard of the words before.

Because when I first read it, I definitely didn't know what all the words meant.

So just have a go at reading it aloud as best as you can.

Pause the video now.

Okay, really, really well done.

So, you've worked so hard.

You did a fantastic job in the writing warm up.

Had a really good thinking time about what poems are, and importantly what narrative poems are.

Then we had a good discussion about who highwaymen really were.

And finally, you finished by reading aloud the first verse of the poem, which is so, so cool.

Well done.

So you've completed our first lesson in our highwayman unit.

If you'd like to, please share your work with your parent or carer, and I'm looking forward to seeing you very soon.

Enjoy the rest of your day.