Poetry by Heart

A creative new resource to support your teaching of poetry and performance

Pupils should develop positive attitudes to reading … by preparing poems to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action.
National Curriculum Programme of Study for English, September 2013

The requirement for children to recite and perform poetry is a new part of the National Curriculum for English in which many teachers lack confidence. This brand new resource will support schools in transforming their poetry sessions, building teacher confidence and pupil engagement.

• Includes ‘read-aloud’ recordings of over 50 poems for use in class
• Explores a range of wonderful poems using the detailed, step-by-step teaching notes
• Encourages children to interpret the poems via warm-up activities, discussion and modelling
• Develops performance techniques, particularly intonation, tone and volume

How is Poetry by Heart organised?

There are four Poetry by Heart packs covering Foundation, Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2. Each pack covers 15 poems from a range of popular authors such as Julia Donaldson and Michael Rosen , with multi-cultural themes and a variety of genres.

The step-by-step teacher’s notes support creative sessions where pupils can enjoy learning and performing poems, with a range of activities around each one including:
• Warm up: activities to prepare the body, breathing and the projection of the voice.
• Tune in: ideas to prepare for the poem’s language (especially vocabulary) and content.
• Model and explore: ideas for working with the poem and experimenting with understanding, reading and interpretation.
• Rehearse:  working on a chosen performance idea together or in groups.
• Perform: presenting the work to an audience whether within the class or externally.

The teacher’s notes are supported by a CD-ROM with two different read-aloud performances of each poem, so the class can explore different performance styles, plus PDFs of the poems to project onto the whiteboard or print out and a bank of sound effects to support your performance.

Each pack comes with a permanent whole-school licence meaning that the content can be saved to your network for use throughout the school.

Poetry by Heart is written by authors who are passionate about poetry and good English teaching, so the ideas and activities are both practical and accessible. The lesson notes are easy to follow and clear performance suggestions are provided.

FREE SAMPLES AVAILABLE

To find out more about Poetry by Heart and download a sample unit to try out in your school, go online at www.risingstars-uk.com/poetry or to receive a free sample pack by post, then email your name and school details to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)