Arts, history and language for Schools

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Young people and good English - suggestions for schools
Your words and poems
A sound file (it's an mp3) accompanies this and can be played along with your work plan and the lesson.
The sound file can be heard by clicking here
Sounds and words
An author called Tony Buzen suggest that Sound can be used in teaching to improve retension and to create an atmosphere, even assist creativity by develop ideas< > It could be worth a try?

Poetry, the English language and you
. Go on ....... HELP with a poem or two?
Benjamin Zefaniah is from London and a Professor of poetry, he has published many poems, you can buy his books. He needed to improve his English he says, so he begins reading a poem that he wrote to help him do that
Here it is :-
'Dis poetry’, Benjamin even mentions William Shakespeare the poem

Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops
De tongue fires a riddim dat shoots like shots
Dis poetry is designed fe rantin
Dance hall style, big mouth chanting,
Dis poetry nar put yu to sleep
Preaching follow me
Like yu is blind sheep,
Dis poetry is not Party Political
Not designed fe dose who are critical.
Dis poetry is wid me when I gu to me bed
It gets into me dreadlocks
It lingers around me head
Dis poetry goes wid me as I pedal me bike
I've tried Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops
De tongue fires a riddim dat shoots like shots
Dis poetry is designed fe rantin
Dance hall style, big mouth chanting,
Dis poetry nar put yu to sleep
Preaching follow me
Like yu is blind sheep,
Dis poetry is not Party Political
Not designed fe dose who are critical.
Dis poetry is wid me when I gu to me bed
It gets into me dreadlocks
It lingers around me head
Dis poetry goes wid me as I pedal me bike
I tried Shakespeare, respect due dere
But did is de stuff I like. are, respect due dere
But did is de stuff I like. Shakespeare is shown below Benjamin's photograph

These are among the famous lines from Romeo and Juliet

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I'll O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
no longer be a Capulet

William Shakespeare was born in England Stratford Upon Avon and wrote hundreds of plays, sonnets and poems, one play was Romeo and Juliet, he also wrote wars and history.

English was developing and changing

Is it does today.
Shakespeare was very good at using the language and inventing new words,many of which we use today still Benjamin too uses his own madeup words sometimes;

Here are Romeo and Juliet as Shakespeare might have thought they looked

The Ancient Greeks wrote long poetry and stories of journeys and voyages too, lots about of these adventure which are called Epic Prose A wall carving and a the head of a statue, a bust it is called - perhaps this is Archimedes, an inventor, or one of the Greek Philosophers . I don't know who the two men are shown in the carved wall plaque

These are Greeks at war, they built and empire and had large armies,

The Trojan Horse shown here tellls the story from the Trojan War about the subterfuge (cunning) that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. After a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war. Have you noticed that the Greeks shown here look just like the Roman Soldiers, maybe you have seen them ]in a film. They were verty much alike and the Roman civilisation followed onm from the greeks
Can we write some small poems about this or any other story? Simple ones will be good, about school, or your Mum and Dad, even football , a game you like - even about school dinners!!!