Poetry Recitation Competition

Hi Folks,
You may have seen in the Primary Post that we are having a Poetry Recitation Competition at school. We will talk about this in class this week but I wanted to give you some words of inspiration from my favourite living poet, Michael Rosen. Recently, he visited a Primary School in the UK and the Year 6 children interviewed him. One question they asked was:

Can you give us a tip on how to read and perform a poem aloud?

If you're reading and performing on your own, you have to think that you're an actor. You're making the sounds and pictures of the poem live in other people's heads. You have the words to do this with,which means that every word and phrase has to have the right sound. You have to think of these words as flying into people's heads. If you say them too quietly or too quickly, they won't fly. You have to think of your voices, faces and bodies as part of the way in which people will enjoy what you're saying. This means thinking about how you stand, how you look, and what movements you make. If a poem is very rhythmic, you may want to make your head or your hands or your body carry the rhythm. If it's several of you performing a poem, think how you can use your different voices. It's possible for a 'chorus' (that's a group of people who aren't saying the main part of the poem) can carry emotion, rhythm and feeling. They could do this by repeating words as an echo, by being the voice of say the last line of each verse, or the first line, or single words that you want to emphasise. It might be good to mime some of the poem or alternatively to turn some of the moments into a 'tableau' or a still photo shot. A chorus can also make a rhythm behind the main voice by whispering a sound or a word. This could start before the poem begins, carry on through the poem and carry on afterwards. It's a good idea to play around with many of these ideas just to see which effect sounds best.


That should give you something to think about!

See you tomorrow.
Mrs. Ward
XXX