Lesson video

Hello and welcome to Drama.

This is exploring narrative poetry through drama and this lesson title is "The Lady of Shalott, Part 1." My name is Mr. Wood, let's get going.

In this lesson, you are going to need plenty of space.

Can you make sure that you're taking part in the lesson inside, your shoes and socks are off, the floor you're using isn't slippery, and you are wearing comfy clothes ready to move.

We're going to start today's lesson with a warm up.

We'll then continue by looking at the story of "The Lady of Shalott".

We'll then continue our lesson with creating setting before we move on to some role play for the main character.

So your keywords for today's lesson are Isolation, and that's is being separate from something or someone.

Curse, and that is a negative spell, which inflicts harm or punishment on somebody else.

A still image, is a moment which is like a painting, it shows details or themes in a scenario.

And internal monologue, which is one I hope you recognise, and that is talking your thoughts out loud, almost as if nobody else can hear them.

So let's begin with our warm up.

Go to the space that I asked for at the start of the lesson, and let's get moving.

For this warm up, we're going to start with a little bit of jogging on the spot.

So if you've cleared the space and you're ready to move, let's get going.

Just from side to side.

You can bring your hands up to the side, like that.

If you're in a wheelchair, you can modify this by simply bringing your arms up, and you can add a slight bounce in your shoulders as well, okay.

Let's see if we can change this up with our hands now.

Our hands are going to come up to the side as we're still jogging, and let's see if we can bring them up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

This time, we're going to make muscles gestures and we're going to go, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

Lovely.

Okay, let's put our hands out to the side.

What I would like you to do, is just very simply bob your arms up and down.

It's not going all the way up like a star jump.

It's just going a little bit and it's bouncing, okay? Now what I'd like you to do is, make that a little bit wider.

Starting to look like a baby bird trying to fly, and now a bit wider again.

A teenage birds, ready to fly.

And now, can you guess? We're going to be like an eagle, top to bottom, top to bottom, top to bottom, top to bottom.

Okay.

Shake your hands out, and repeat after me.

Sss, sss, sss, sss.

Your turn.

Sss, sss, sss, sss.

Shh, shh, shh, shh.

Shh, shh, shh, shh.

Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.

Vuu, vuu ,vuu, vuu.

Vuu, vuu, vuu, vuu.

Ku, ku, ku, ku, ku, ku, ku, ku.

Uu, uu, uu, uu.

aa, aa, aa, aa.

Uu, aa, ii.

uu, aa, ii.

Ready to stretch your face.

Your turn.

We go again, uu, aa, ii.

Uu, aa, ii.

Okay, now this is a fun tongue twister.

Are you ready? Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Say that for me.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Now I'd like you to repeat that, alongside me at the same time and we're going to try and get quicker as we get on.

Okay, so three, two, one.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Red, yellow, Ugh, I'm out of it there.

Hopefully you can get even quicker than I can there.

If you feel like your body is warm enough to move.

If you feel like your voice is safe, and ready to speak, then we can continue with the lesson.

But if you feel like it needs a little bit more, you can pause the video and rewind to do any of those activities again.

Now let's start with the story, about "The Lady of Shalott." This story is broken down into four clear parts.

So the first part, it begins with a description of a river and a road that passed through long fields of barley and rye before reaching the town called Camelot.

There was an Island called Shallot, which lies further down the river.

It has flowers, plants and a woman known as the Lady of Shalott.

Unfortunately, she is isolated inside the four grey walls and four grey towers.

Only the reapers of the barley and rye, have heard her singing.

Part two, The Lady of Shalott weaves a magic colourful web.

She's heard a voice and that voice whispers to her that she's going to be cursed if she looks down to Camelot through her window.

So she sits down and she carries on weaving.

She has a mirror and that shows her the shadows of the world.

In other words, it shows her what's going on outside and she sees everybody else free, happy.

She enjoys her solitary weaving but yearns to leave the tower and to see what she's missing.

I think we all would.

Part three, a Knight in armour or brazen greaves rides by and look noble.

As he passes by the river, his image flashes onto the Lady of Shalott mirror and he sings, she must only look out at life from the mirror.

Unfortunately, the Lady stops her weaving and she goes a couple of paces to the window.

At this moment, the web flies from the loom the mirror cracks, as the curse is activated and the Lady realises, the curse has come upon me.

Part four, in a storm, the Lady of Shalott, leaves the tower and finds a boat.

She lies down in it and the river carries her to Camelot.

The Lady of Shalott wears white and sings her last song until she dies, her boat sails silently into Camelot, all the knights, lords and ladies look and cross themselves for fear.

Only the knight Lancelot pushes people aside and says, she has a lovely face.

God in his mercy lend her grace.

And that is the story of the Lady of Shalott.

The Lady of Shalott is cursed.

She has to stay in a dungeon.

Is that true or is that false? Have a think back to the information that you've just heard about.

Three, two, one, the answer is, false.

She is cursed but she has to stay in the tower not a dungeon.

Now I'd like us to start developing how we create setting.

Similar to what we did with the pied Piper in lesson two.

In order to create our setting, we need to be able to visualise what is in this story.

So let's start with the river.

The quote is, "On either side the river lie, long fields of barley and of rye." Now I'd like you to close your eyes.

listen to the instructions and the questions and see if you can piece together in your mind what this scene looks like.

Can you see the river? See how it flows freely, has a trickle sound there as well.

Can you hear it? Watch how it moves, it's almost like it's never ending.

What else do you see, up in the sky Over the distance? Did you see that, at the end of the field, all the way back there look at something closer to you, perhaps down by your feet.

What is it? What colour is it? Reach your hands out.

Touch the barley growing to your left.

Now on your right, the rye.

It's all prickly to touch, but full of life.

If you were to squeeze it, it does that noise.

Can you hear it? That crackle.

What else can you hear? I can hear the workers cutting sheaves of barley.

Do you hear the river again? The way it's flowing, take a deep breath.

The air, it tastes fresh, crisp, dry.

I wonder what you can smell.

Can you smell that in the air? Is that the rye? Is that what rye smells like? Well done.

I wonder what key parts of this visualisation are standing out in your mind.

Now we're going to talk about the Island of Shalott.

The quote is, "Willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver through the wave that runs forever by the Island in the river." Now, I'd like you to close your eyes again and follow along with the activity.

Reach your hands up, touch the willow tree, the leaves that are hanging down, they're crisp but they can bend, they're malleable.

What colour would you say that is? Look at that leaf in your hand? What kind of green is that? It's a rich green, quite powerful, strong colour.

Look to your right.

Do you see that in the water? You see how it's flowing quickly? Well, these reeds at the base of the water, in between you and the fast flowing water, they're hiding the water's edge, you should be careful.

Do you see that further across in the water? It's just floating there, it must be water lilies, they're so colourful.

What colour would you say that is? Smell that, you can almost smell them from here.

It's as if, it's as if the smell is purely coming this way, as if it's aiming for us.

Can you hear that, up in the tree? Are they swallows? Well done.

Okay, now we look at the lady's tower.

It's described as having four grey walls and four grey towers, overlook a space of flowers.

that's your contrasting ideas there, something quite strong and something quite beautiful.

So again, I'd like you to close your eyes and listen as you follow along this activity.

Look up.

Do you see how tall that is? How tall do you think it is? It must be at least 50 feet if not more.

I didn't think I can bend my head back any further.

I've never seen anything go so high up and the stone, look at that stone.

You can almost touch it, reach out, touch it.

So compact.

It's really dense, but smooth.

Run your hand across it, just like that.

Do you think that smooth, so most smoother than smooth, it's like silk.

Now look down at your feet, the edge of flowers, if you turn around, they look like they go on for miles.

This small little Island could never seem so big.

Absolutely radiating with flowers.

You've got grey, such a harsh grey on the tower and then as you turn around and look at the flowers, what colour would you say that is? It's almost as if you can hear the petals pursing open as they grow and that sound.

You can hear everything.

Can you hear can you hear the rabbits burrowing underground? Can you hear the worms moving through the mud and what? What's that noise? That must be the lady singing in the tower.

Okay, well done.

I hope you can now start to visualise some of the key parts of this story, the river, the fields and the lady's tower.

This is going to be really important to us and really powerful when we move forward to the next few tasks.

Now we're going to begin looking at some role play.

How do you think the Lady of Shalott feels? She sits alone all day long.

She's watching other people live their lives through a mirror.

Do you think she feels sad? Do you agree that she might feel jealous of the other people? The knight that rode past, the workers in the fields they are able to go and touch nature.

She has to sit inside.

Do you think she might feel peaceful? Do you think she's quite content? Would you think she feels lonely? She can't speak to anyone, but she can watch as they live their lives through the mirror.

So, now my question is.

what is a still image? Can you remember from the key words, it is like a painting.

So it's being able to summarise what's going on and what I would like us to do, is to create a still image imagining that you are the Lady of Shalott.

I would like you to show me what she looks like.

Now we know her emotions.

She can be sitting, she can be standing think about your facial expressions and your body language.

Okay, so for example, you could be sat down.

You could be looking across at your room and you could be despairing at the fact that this is your life.

So for example, instead of being smiley, she's looking across and that could be a still image.

She might be wondering.

So she could be, quite sad wondering when life is going to start for her.

she might be looking through the mirror, thinking, I wish I had their life.

Okay, so there are a few different options that you could explore here, but be creative.

You need to pause the video to complete this task and then click resume once you're ready to move on.

Have you ever felt alone or lonely? If so, then you automatically have that in common, with the Lady of Shalott.

I like to think of this lady as quite similar, to princess Fiona from Shrek, if you've ever seen that film.

Now she is cursed and she lived in a tower.

So there are some similarities between the two.

If you were in a tower, what would you do to pass the time? Would you weave? Which is a bit like big knitting, would you sing? Would you watch reality? Almost like reality TV from a mirror.

Think about what this lady is able to do and how that then becomes a massive part of her life.

Imagining your own tower, I would like you to pretend that you are the Lady of Shalott, you are in your bedroom, okay.

Up in the tower.

Now you can either use items around you, to build the setting or if you feel like you're able and you would like to challenge, only use your imagination.

Okay? That's what we've worked on so far.

You need to have the following in your tower bedroom, a bed, a big loom to hold all the weaving and that may be in the corner, you need a chair, you need a bowl or a basin to wash in, okay Consider what setting is in the room and walk around the space as if you are engaging with those materials.

So you might sit down on the chair, you might set the bed you might give it a pat, you might sit down on it.

You might go up to the chair and move it.

You might pick up the bowl or basin in and put it over on the edge of the bed for the moment, okay? But what I would like you to do, is interact in this space, okay? Move around.

You need to pause the video to complete this task and you can click resume once you're ready to move on.

What a day kind of.

I just seem to be repeating the same day, again and again.

Do you know what I mean? I wake up.

Seems to just wake up from something that isn't real life, it's almost as if I'm waking up just to go into another dream.

Although the dream is, not one of my choice.

I don't understand.

I don't understand why, why this is happening.

What, what the purpose of it all is, I wake up.

I sit at the loom.

It just doesn't make any sense.

It would be easier if I could just look out the window.

Just, just for a glance.

Just one look.

No, no, there's this worry in my head about the curse.

I don't even know if it's a real thing.

Probably is.

Either way, although I'm tempted, I won't.

I won't look out the window or leave.

I will stay in the tower, I will work at the loom, I will wash.

I will sleep.

I will clean I will sleep.

I sit down at the loom.

I stand up from the loom.

I repeat.

That's about it.

It's my life.

What a life.

So, the sooner I go to sleep, the sooner I wake up to another day.

Okay, so your last activity of today, is to imagine you are the Lady of Shalott.

I would like you to imagine you're laying down at the end of the day.

The day has been almost exactly the same, as yesterday was and I'd like you to tell us, by speaking your mind about what today has felt like, what parts did you enjoy? Were there any parts to enjoy? What can you do during the day? And what sorts of activities make it worthwhile? What goes through your mind on an average day? To do this you need to pause the video to complete the task and then click resume once you're ready.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Have you found the activity okay? We've come to the end of the lesson now and we'll do a quick summary before we say goodbye.

What have we learned today? Well, we've learned the story of the Lady of Shalott, we've created and understood a lot of the setting around her life, including her bedroom and we've explored how she might feel in her life as well as exploring a day in her life.

So thank you for taking part in the activities today.

I hope you've enjoyed them, just as much as I have.

As ever if you would like to share your work with us here at Oak, this is what you need to do.

Simply ask your parent or carer for permission first, where they can tag us on Twitter using @OakNational or #LearnwithOak.

Please join me for the last lesson in this unit next lesson, but until then, goodbye and take care.