Plum by Tony Mitton
Publishing details
Tony Mitton (1998) Plum Scholastic Press ISBN 0590542915
Curriculum content
This collection of poetry is most suitable for reading and study in KS2.
However, the following ideas are ideal for inclusion in a whole school poetry event and could be linked with Children’s Bookweek or a poet visit.
The outlined activities therefore also include suggestions that are suitable for KS1.
With regard to curriculum coverage, this unit includes:
poetry in a range of forms (Y4 term 3 and Y6 term 2)
narrative poetry (Y5 term 2)
Plum is a particularly interesting collection because it includes diverse poetic forms and styles. Tony Mitton writes about a wide range of subjects creating different moods and allowing for a variety of emotional responses.
He also writes the nature of poetry itself. The range allows for interesting discussions about the nature of poetry and the many inspirations and impulses for writing and makes the collection particularly good for reading with a whole school.
The workshops detailed below provide some suggestions for ways of developing response to poetry and ways into poetry writing.
How many things can a poem be?
'Instructions for Growing Poetry'
This poem provides a great starting point for a poetry project. The juxtaposition of the title and the poem create a humorous and thought-provoking tension, encouraging reflection on the essence of poetry writing.
Children can make their own poetry seed packet, including images, sounds, words and phrases. Older children might include news stories in their seed packets. The activity can be carried out using traditional materials i.e. making and filling an envelope.
Alternatively, PowerPoint or digital editing software might be used to create multi-media seed packets. Children can include their own digital photographs. Older children might create a presentation for a younger class to inspire poetry writing.
Through the evaluation of the responses children would be able to begin to identify common themes and interests.
For a display or focal point, a school poetry collection could be started, perhaps in the form of a ‘poet- tree’. Children write the name of a poet on a paper leaf and on the reverse write the title of the poem with a comment or their favourite line of a poem.
'Forbidden Poem'
This poem provides a good starting point for discussion about the perceptions of suitability.
Start with discussion about what might be beyond the door
Ask children to consider what constitutes suitable and unsuitable subject matter in poems written for children.
Survey anthologies and identify common and less common themes and subjects – possibly linked to data handling work in maths.
Draw conclusions and evaluate them, expressing their own opinions about what is suitable or unsuitable.
Children can share poems which they have read and changed the way they think about something, opened their eyes to another viewpoint or helped them to empathise with feelings which they have never experienced.
Open the door – exploring images and imagination
This is a good poem for stimulating children’s sensory imagination.
They can be invited to role play opening a door, describing details of what they can see, hear, smell, taste, feel.
Using a collection of images of doors of different kinds as a starting point, children can paint their own picture of an open door and the view beyond it, including shapes, pictures, colours to create an imaginary world and mood.
Explore the work of other artists or illustrators to help children think about the effect of shape and colour on the creation of mood.
Art work can be used to stimulate poetry writing, perhaps beginning with the line: ‘Open the door!’
Older children could be encouraged to consider the importance of poetry in providing a voice for the suppressed.
Reading The Door by Miroslav Holub may further refine a response to Tony Mitton’s poem. Compare the structure of both poems, considering the effects of using wither free verse or rhyme.
Alternatively, choose some pieces of film music which evoke moods and are used at key moments of discovery.
Ask the children to listen and draw shapes and suggested by the music. If preferred they could move straight into writing free verse poems based on the mental images generated by listening to the music.
Caring about every word – the writing process
Creating Writers: a Creative Manual for school by James Carter has a poetry section with contributions from Tony Mitton, including a transcript of him talking about the creation of 'Rainforest Song' and 'Green Man Lane'.
He describes his starting points for writing, his choices of style, structure, words. This could be usefully shared with older children, perhaps modelling the drafting process of 'Rainforest Song' using 'Track Changes' if working with Word. (see appendix).
Tony Mitton says 'You’ve got to care about every word, every pause, every last detail of what you put in.'
Looking at transcripts of writers’ work in progress is a good way for children to begin to understand this process.
They could discuss and consider the effects of re-drafting and use it as a model for their own editing and re-drafting.
Tony Mitton’s phrase ‘spinning lines’ to describe the early improvising and playing with ideas is useful for encouraging children to see their first thoughts as beginnings for further experimentation and refinement.
Tony Mitton talks about the sources of the poem – a real ‘Green Man Lane' in Cambridgeshire - his interest in the Green Man myth and the potency of this image in the modern world.
He also talks about the re-drafting of this poem, his satisfactions and dissatisfactions, the importance of the narrator in an imagined form, the fascination of ‘encounters’ in his poems, the idea of Arcadia, the rural idyll and the duality of nature: malign and benign. He alludes to 'The Ancient Mariner'.
Older children might be able to identify some of these themes and ideas and can be guided towards others as appropriate.
'Green Man Lane'
Creating Writers suggests using 'Green Man Lane 'as an inspiration for writing about a well known road, imagining how it may have been years ago.
Alternatively children might write a poem which describes nature gone wild, reclaiming something man made – a pavement, road, building.
Following a reading of 'Rainforest Song' children could create posters celebrating the positive aspects of nature.
Dreaming the Unicorn and Child from the Future
After reading 'Dreaming the Unicorn' and 'Child From the Future', explore Tony Mitton’s theme of encounters.
Compare the poems and discuss responses to them.
As well as looking closely at how Mitton uses questions, repetition and imagery, children could begin to think about why these encounters are important.
What messages do they have for the narrator or the reader? Is this different for different readers? Explore the connections between dreams and visionaries e.g. Martin Luther King, John Bunyan.
The poet in an imagined form as narrator
'Rainforest Song'
'Rainforest Song', is written as if spoken by an imagined person. Television and video documentaries could be used as a starting point for writing poetry.
For example, David Attenborough’s 'The Blue Planet' combines commentary, music and visual images in powerful ways which would inspire and support poetry.
Children could title the poem with a phrase from the documentary, or use it to provide a frame, or commentary within the poem.
The structure of 'Rainforest Song' could be used as a starting point for organising ideas, substituting ocean for forest.
The organisation of stanzas (1 and 3 exploring the physical realities of the forest and 2 exploring mystical ideas) could provide a writing frame.
The children could write as one of the creatures of the ocean, exploring the many aspects of the ocean from the creature’s point of view.
'The Hag of Beara'
'The Hag of Beara' offers another example of an imagined voice.
Here Tony Mitton has given a voice to a strange stone in Southern Ireland, which according to legend is the writer of one of the oldest poems in the Irish language, who turned herself to stone rather than convert to Christianity.
There may well be local legends which could be used in similar ways.
Paintings of figures in a landscape could be used to evoke a similar response. Suggestions are:
Pieter Bruegel, particularly 'Hunters in the Snow'
Marc Chagall 'Above the Town' and 'Over Vitebsk'
Edward Hopper, particularly 'Nighthawks' and 'Cape Cod Morning'
Gustave Courbet’s 'The Meeting/ Good Day Monsieur'
After reading 'The Hag of Beara' write a conversation poem as an exploration in character.
Older children could think about the voices in the poem might be different from their own.
Younger children could write their response as a monologue in the character’s imagined voice.
Alternatively, write a whole class conversation poem in response to a painting by developing a range of thought provoking questions and imaginative answers.
Playing with rhyme
'The Minstrel and the Maid'
'The Minstrel and the Maid' is another conversation poem: a courtship lyric.
Read the poem aloud to identify the strong rhythm and rhyme pattern and the effect.
Reflect on and discuss the purpose of the writing and narrators’ characters.
Children could write modern conversation poem about friendship and the kinds of rituals of give and take which happen in the playground using the same verse structure and rhyme pattern e.g
I’ll climb to the top
Of the climbing frame
I’ll come straight away
When I hear my name.
'Mrs Rummage’s Muddle Shop'
'Mrs Rummage’s Muddle Up Shop' offers a model which might be adapted for children’s writing allowing for the juxtaposition of odd ideas and some silly rhymes.
A context for writing a new class poem might be created. For example:
When I tried to find my teddy bear
My mum and I looked everywhere
I needed my bear for a bedtime cuddle
But everywhere was a terrible muddle.
Was he:
Working in pairs and using a rhyming dictionary children can create lines of poetry which use the same rhythm and line structure with a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the line and ‘with’ or ‘where’ joining the two halves of the line. Encourage the children to read their poems expressively.
'Nits'
Poetry has been descried as ‘auditory imagination’. Encourage verbal play with rhyme using Tony Mitton’s poem 'Nits' which uses one rhyme throughout the poem.
Investigation of a rhyming dictionary will help them identify the most common rhymes.
Play games like ‘Id rather…..than’ (Sandy Brownjohn Word games) where a rhyme is chosen and carried through the whole game, for example:
1st person: I’d rather have silver than gold,
2nd person: I’d rather drink tea hot than cold
3rd person: I’d rather be young than old, etc
Telling a story
'The Selkie Bride' and 'The Ballad of the Little Boat'
Tony Mitton has included two ballads, different in structure and subject: 'The Selkie Bride' and 'The Ballad of the Little Boat'.
'The Selkie Bride' written in a traditional ballad form tells a traditional story in a third person narrative in the form of two couplet quatrains with each line a four stress line.
Children could use this poem as a starting point for finding out about traditional ballad form, exploring patterns of rhythm and rhyme, subject matter and language choices.
They could compare this retelling of the story with other versions in print (e.g. Shirley Hughes’ in Stories by Firelight, Jackie Morris The Seal Children) or film (e.g. The Secret of Roan Inish) and identify the common elements and the distinctive details added by the teller.
Make a selection of ballads available for children to read independently or in groups. Sung ballads can also be used and audio versions made available in a listening corner. This will help them recognise flexibility with the form.
Children may need support with unusual and archaic vocabulary.
They can investigate the historical and geographical origins and context and produce a glossary of words to help younger readers access the poem.
Collections of archaic and dialect words could be produced, perhaps turning to older members of the family for ideas.
Write ballads based on a folk tale or legend. Read different versions of the story before writing. Remind the children to read work in progress aloud to help them keep the rhythm.
Alternatively, rap could be investigated as a contemporary popular storytelling form. Children can identify the patterns of rhyme, rhythm and language in some of Tony Mitton’s raps, particularly those which re-tell traditional tales. The same story might be told in ballad and rap form.
Rhythm and performance
Tony Mitton’s poems are wonderful for exploring rhythms and great for reading aloud or performing. Although he often follows a strict rhyme scheme sometimes it is the rhythm that holds the poem together.
Read poems aloud and perform them frequently to aid appreciation of rhythm. For younger children this will be intuitive but older children might be encouraged to identify the rhythms and the stress patterns.
'Rainforest Song'
'Rainforest Song' needs to be chanted and performed. It was written by Tony Mitton for a primary school in Cambridgeshire as part of a music festival to accompany an opera written and performed by the children and this musical quality is evident in the rhythms and patterns.
Allocate voices encouraging children to experiment with tone, volume and pace to convey the meaning. Movements and percussive accompaniments could added and the performance could be developed using movement, dance and the words of the poem chanted by children as they move to a piece of music.
'Old Noah’s Animal Dance-Hall Ship'
'Old Noah’s Animal Dance-Hall Ship' is crying out to be danced to. This would be enjoyable for younger children and promotes kinaesthetic learning.
Narrate the poem while the children perform the dance and the caterpillar’s dialogue. The performance could begin by banging, tapping or clapping the beat of the poem.
The subsequent verses could follow a pattern of narrator, dance, choral speech. It is easy to find suggested songs for each music genre using internet sources.
Finding a voice
'My Hat!' and 'These Old Shoes'
Some of Tony Mitton’s poems are about everyday objects and these could be used as a starting point for poetry about children’s experiences. Read 'My Hat!' and / or 'These Old Shoes'.
Make a collection of children’s favourite items of clothing. It is important to allow an open response and encourage children to find their own voices. To begin they might talk in pairs about their clothing, telling their own stories about it.
(Michael Rosen’s book Did I Hear You Write? gives excellent support and ideas for developing poetry this way).
Share stories, ideas and new vocabulary, asking questions to extend children’s thinking. For example:
encourage them to use their senses to describe the clothing
think about how they feel when they wear it,
who they are when they wear it,
what they do/ have done when they wear it
The can write their own poems and create an interactive display where other children in the school could read the poems and match them to the clothing..
'The Bag'
'The Bag' was inspired by a writing class held by Catherine Byron.
Create a bag full of objects which may give clues to the owner or which may be more enigmatic and raise questions.
Pulling each object out of the bag as a lucky dip activity would provoke interesting ideas, vocabulary and questions. Extend children’s thinking through questioning:
Where did it come from?
Why is it in the bag?
What might it be used for?
Why is it precious?
Who owned it previously?
A simple list poem allows children freedom in their choice of vocabulary (modelled on something like Ian McMillan’s 'Ten Things Found in a Wizard’s Pocket').
Tony Mitton’s two line stanza form, using the first line of each stanza to describe something about the physical aspect of the object and the second line to offer an idea provoked by one of the extension questions could also be used as a model.
Depending on the children’s experience and confidence, and the necessity of giving the children real objects to feel and describe, the children’s bags could be imaginary and belonging to a whole range of characters, which the children may also want to spend time developing, pirate, actress, explorer etc or linked to a historical topic.
Playing with words and images
'Elegant Elephant Delicatessen'
Reading Elegant Elephant Delicatessen is a challenge for any age! Apart from the fun of it, children could identify the poet’s vocabulary choices, sound patterns and alliteration. Play simple tongue twister games based on different animals.
Nightwriter
Older children may enjoy Nightwriter and discovering the poet’s delight in language. There are some tricky words which children may need support with. In developing their vocabulary they will begin to make morphological links (e.g. moonlight and illuminator). Mitton uses alliteration, not just with beginnings of words, but also within words.
Children can be guided to appreciate the effect created by the inclusion of so many long words; reading aloud will help them to understand how it slows the pace providing a conceit – the structure of the poem is a metaphor for the journey of the snail – slow and rambling, going nowhere and ending simply in a question.
Children may decide this is simply rhetorical or may want to explore it through discussion or writing – are there secrets of the night is the snail recording?
Children may enjoy thinking about the effects of different words.
What would a poem made up of monosyllabic words sound like?
What about two syllable words.
Do they create different moods?
How does the pace change?
Do they suit different animals?
Older children could be encouraged to experiment with mono and polysyllabic words in their own writing.
'Tree Song'
'Tree Song' provides an opportunity to think about imagery. Read and reflect on the images that have been used.
They might be introduced to Kevin Crossley-Holland’s approach to teaching riddles: 'The Universal Apple' in which children are shown an apple and encouraged to tell him about it, finding more and more original ways of doing so is another way into helping children to describe everyday objects in unusual and original ways and perhaps write riddles or poems based on these observations.
