A few years ago, I had the pleasure of learning from the impelling Debra Kidd at an ISTA event. During a masterclass, she introduced us to a scheme of work using Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem. Through inquiry, dramatic role-playing, storytelling and literary deconstruction, she uses the nonsense words and adventurous story to develop students' investigative skills, language, empathy, creativity, presentation skills, collaboration and more.
I've always wanted to try out this scheme, I just haven't had the perfect opportunity yet. But this year, starting a new program of Expressive Arts in Grade 2, I saw a chance. The Jabberwocky is a wonderfully rich poem, full of juicy, evocative language however, I felt it was perhaps going to be more challenging for this younger group, and for the students for whom English is their second, third, even fourth language.
I searched online for a similar poem, one that was a little lighter on the nonsense words but still had a rich story with some possibilities for conflict, intervention and discussion. Though The Spangled Pandemonium has a mythical beast to investigate, The Owl And The Pussy-Cat has the strange land and the journey, The Walrus And The Carpenter has points of discussion and plenty of nonsense, I came across none with everything I wanted. So, what else to do but have a go at writing one myself...
I give you- Didn't You Hear About The Lizzerbee?
Didn’t you hear about the Lizzerbee?
It came in the morning for the town’s Cannerlee.
Though the town didn’t see, nor hear, nor know,
So the Kort sent a crew to the land capped in snow.
A boat soon was crafted, to sail away,
On a mighty adventure for eleventy days,
With dangers to dodge, Fuzznillers to flee,
But the town truly wished to return the Cannerlee.
The chief of the crew, with her stinging Snick,
Kept it hidden from sight, in a sack close and quick.
The rest they held tightly, their spirits free,
As the ship left the port to a miserly sea.
They came to the shore, the boat they did beach,
Then trudged through the trilling, ‘till a cave they did reach.
A snow bank took clearing, revealing the lair,
And a sign of foreboding, “Lizzerbee- Beware!”
Yet, the cavern lay empty, the beast had gone,
And a trace of the Cannerlee, the crew found none.
Just a message left, encrypted in moen,
“I needed the Cannerlee, to feel less alone.”
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| Mysterious Dark Music- Youtube |
The poem is designed to have two parts, split up and only revealed across at least two sessions. The first part until the ship sails, then the twist of the ending as the second part. There are eight nonsense words to investigate and for the group to develop their own meanings from: Lizzerbee, Cannerlee, Kort, Eleventy, Fuzznillers, Snick, Trilling, Moen. Also, some possibly new vocab to discover and interpret: capped, trudged, miserly, foreboding, encrypted.
What is the Lizzerbee? What does it look/sound/move like? What's a Cannerlee and why does the town want it back, so badly? Is a Kort a group of people, or just one? What are Fuzznillers and why do you need to flee them? What is a Snick used for? What are the material properties of trilling? What is moen and how do you create codes with it?
Part 1
We will use the poem to develop our own mythology of the town and then role-play the events of the story. Did we already know about the Lizzerbee before it came? Had we made preparations, defenses? Why didn't we see, hear, know it at first? We will create personas for everyone within the town, jobs and hierarchies, families and groups. Who should be the Kort? We will make the boat, (perhaps turning the actions of building into dance moves set to a funky beat), form a crew and get ready to leave. Then lastly, at the end of this session or sessions, full of emotion and expectation, we will set sail into the miserly sea.
Part 2
Expectations and assumptions established, we will arrive at the land capped in snow. Is this the first time someone has been here? Does anyone else inhabit this place? We will abandon the boat and head off to find the lair of the Lizzerbee. Using physical actions, sounds, perhaps some maps or created sets we will explore this new land. What challenges, obstacles, wildlife and peoples will we discover along the way? Finally, we will have reached the cave, only to discover that the beast is not there! How does the crew react to this? Only on closer inspection is a message discovered, in the moen (heather?), which after decryption (a chance to sidestep into some codebreaking/numeracy) reveals that the Lizzerbee took the Cannerlee to alleviate its own loneliness. How do we feel now? Should we continue our search for the Lizzerbee or let it be? Who needs the Cannerlee more?
For now, this scheme is just a plan, though soon to be initiated. I'll update and extend as and when. My thanks to Debra for the invaluable lessons learned from her and please check out her blog for more great ideas.
