Walking with My Iguana

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Draw up a list of words to describe the animal. What might it be like to have one as a pet? How would it be differ from having a dog/cat/hamster as a pet? Elicit responses and note on a list through shared writing. Listening. Listen to recording of Brian Moses reading the poem once. What do you notice about the poem and its rhythm, rhymes, use of words? What feelings and responses do you have towards it? Listen to the poem again. Why is it unusual to take an iguana out for a walk? I can’t stand Poetry! Bores me to death,” came the comment from next to me. “Great,” I thought, for next week I would be starting a 3 week unit of Poetry, and I was only in the first week of my 3rd Year Placement. What a confidence booster ;). I actually introduced this poem by reading it myself, in the dullest way possible. The children recognised immediately I was making a point. Then we listened to the performance of Brian Moses, the poet, found on the link.

The Highwayman could also be the inspiration for children producing different types of writing e.g. Bess’s diary entries, a love letter from The Highwayman to Bess, a play depicting the meeting between Tim the ostler and the soldiers prior to the final shooting. A switch in perspective would also be intriguing, perhaps the poem could be re written as a story through the eyes of The Highwayman himself. The effect was amazing. Suddenly, the children were discussing if they had an unusual animal, what would it be and why? What would they do with this animal? How could they describe it? This then led to using features of poems to describe their animal and how they do what they do. They then, after some preparation lessons, wrote their own poems and performed it. Not only that but the children decided to share some for the school’s 50th Anniversary Celebrations.Moses writes about the familiar – Deaths, football matches – and the peculiar – monsters, aliens and angels. CBBC commissioned him to write a poem for the Queen’s 80th birthday and he was invited by Prince Charles to speak at his Cambridge University teachers’ day in 2007. As well as just learning for the sheer joy and enjoyment it brings, performance poems can have additional and powerful fringe benefits. They can, for example, be a great way to inspire children to write their own verses or new poems, they can be an introduction to new and exciting vocabulary and could also be the catalyst that sparks an exciting and informative debate on contentious issues relevant in the KS1 and 2 classrooms. They can also ultimately be the inspiration for all different genres of writing including plays, interviews, diary entries, stories and much much more.

So please, if you’re struggling to find poetic inspiration, feel free to use this amazing poem by Brian Moses, or indeed any others you may find on the Poetry Archive. Where does poetry end and song begin? It’s hard to tell in Brian Moses’ poetry – and you certainly have to listen to his performances to get the full effect! Brian skillfully weaves percussion with the rhythms of the poem, and makes full use of pitch, pace and pause and bring out the drama. Listen to the way he relishes every syllable. I would share a couple of performance audio clips but refrain from doing so as I no longer am at the school (it being one of my placement schools) and I don’t have permission of the parents to share anything online, even if it is only their voice. A new book of history poems: 1066 & Before That (co-written with Roger Stevens), picture books The Frog Olympics and Dreamer: Saving Our Wild World (OtterBarry Books) and his childhood memoir Keeping Clear of Paradise Street have just been published. Ahlberg has created a lovely simple structure to the poem which plays out as a dialogue between the whining child and the indifferent teacher- and we’ve all met that kid Derek Drew!!!Brian Moses has been a professional children’s poet since 1988.. To date he has over 200 books published including volumes of his own poetry such as A Cat Called Elvis and Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses (both Macmillan), anthologies such as The Secret Lives of Teachers and Aliens Stole My Underpants (both Macmillan) and picture books such as Beetle in the Bathroom and Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe (both Puffin).

Brian also runs writing workshops and performs his own poetry and percussion shows. To date he has given over 3000 performances in schools, libraries, theatres and at festivals throughout the UK and abroad.Ask children to note what is going on in each section. What do we learn about the iguana and how it behaves: from the way it is described? and from the way people react to it? Role playing questions. Moses originally wanted to be a musician. [1] That original musical influence can still be heard in his work; he performs so that pauses, tone of voice and speed become a central part of the poem, such as the hiss in "The Snake Hotel" or the Tom Waits growl in "Walking with my Iguana". He is also founder & co-director of a national scheme for able writers administered by his booking agency Authors Abroad. Whole class activities Activating prior knowledge; discussion. Before reading and listening to the poem, ascertain with the class what an iguana is. If possible, play a video or multimedia web image of an iguana in its habitat. This poem was written by Brian Moses to celebrate an unusual sighting on the beach at Hastings, where he lives. Year 3 and 4 used it to think about animal movement and adverbs, and had a go at performing it themselves.