Walking with My Iguana

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There is lots of great vocabulary to explore here which gives could give children the impetus to find out more about Georgian England. The relatively simple rhythm and rhyme scheme makes it easy for children to write and add in their own verses perhaps supplying the poem with a new and happier ending!? 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.

To find out more about Brian Moses and his poetry, visit his blog at http://brian-moses.blogspot.co.uk/ and be inspired by his and others’ performance poems. 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. I needed to do something or run the risk of losing the children’s engagement and probably the result I wanted from my entire placement as first impressions always count!

Curriculum

He is also founder & co-director of a national scheme for able writers administered by his booking agency Authors Abroad. 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. 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 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.

Find sources: "Brian Moses"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)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.