Introduction
Welcome, Year 6.
This is where you will be completing activities for your ballad unit.
Throughout these activities you will learn what a ballad is, how some ballads are written and explore the main features that are found within a ballad. These activities will help you to write your own ballad and create a rhythm that matches.
Task
In your ENGLISH folder on one drive, create a new folder with the title Ballads.
This is where you will be completing all the activities for this unit. Please make sure when you do a new activity you write the activity number up the top and answer the questions below.
Process
Activity 1:
In your groups of 4, you are to split up into pairs. one pair will answer questions 1 & 2, the other pair will answer 3 & 4. Once these are complete you are to join back up with you join back up with your group of 4 and share your information.
You will later come back to your pairs and answer questions 5-8 together.
Read the ballad 'Mulga Bil's Bicycle' and complete the following questions.
- Describe what the ballad is about in your own words.
- Use the letters A, B and C to describe the rhyme scheme of the first verse.
- What sort of person is Mulga Bill? Find words from the ballad to support your answer.
- Find examples of alliteration.
- Which line or lines in the ballad do you like or identify with? Why?
- What appeals to you most in this ballad: the words, sounds, rhyme, rhythm, imagery or story? Why?
- The ballad repeats the phrase ‘’Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk’ several times in the poem. Do you like the use of repetition? Why/why not?
- The poet uses figurative language when he calls the bicycle a ‘two-wheeled outlaw’. Do you like the fact that the poet has compared the bicycle with an outlaw? Why/why not?
Activity 2:
In your groups of four, you are to answer these questions. Pair 1 will answer the questions 1-3, pair 2 will answer questions 4-6. once you have completed this you will share your answers with the group. Make sure once you have completed this activity every member in your group has a copy of the notes you have taken.
- Why were Jack and his dad cleaning up the backyard?
- Who were the main characters?
- What was the most exciting part of the ballad? Why?
- What happened at the end of the ballad? How was the story resolved) (
- How is the structure of a ballad different from a short story?
- How could you turn a ballad into a short story?
Activity 3:
In pairs you are to analyse the following ballad. In your one drive English folder you need to write what is the same about the ballads (rhyme, rhythm, syllables) and what is different (the words, storyline etc.). You are to then write in your own words why the second ballad fits into the first ballad.
Once both you and your partner have finished this you are to re-write the first line from the ballad to start creating your own ballad.
The Wild Colonial Boy
There was a Wild Colonial Boy, Jack Doolan was his name,
Of poor but honest parents, he was born in Castlemaine.
He was his father’s only hope, his mother’s pride and joy,
And dearly did his parents love the Wild Colonial Boy.
The New Girl at School
There was a new girl at our school, her name was Trudy Trent.
Her best friend was a scruffy dog who’d follow where she went.
The other kids would tease and laugh; they didn’t realise,
The scruffy dog was actually a dragon in disguise.
Activity 4:
You are to go through the ballad 'Click go the Shears'.
You are to determine the rhyme scheme, the syllables in each line that create the rhythm. This information needs to be added to your ballads folder on one drive. (copy and paste the ballad into this document as well).
Once you and your partner have completed this to are to rewrite the first verse of the ballad to make it your own. You are then to explain how you changed the ballad and why it would still fit to the rhythm of 'Click go the Shears'.
Click go the shears
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the bare-bellied joe
Out on the board the old shearer stands
Grasping his shears in his thin bony hands;
Fixed is his eye on a bare-bellied joe
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the bare-bellied joe
In the middle of the floor in his cane-bottomed chair
Sits the boss of the board with his eyes everywhere
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention that it's taken off clean
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the bare-bellied joe
The tar-boy is there waiting in demand
With his blackened tar-pot, in his tarry hand
Spies one old sheep with a cut upon its back
Hears what he's waiting for it's "Tar here, Jack!"
Activity 5:
In your english book you are to start planning your own ballad. This is individual work. When planning your ballad you are to consider what you want your ballad to be about (the story line), how many syllables in each line and what you want the rhyme scheme to be.
Make sure this is individual work as this is the start of your assessment.