Yesterday was Read Aloud Day. How could I pass up an opportunity to take part in that? So, I dusted off Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll and we spent part of our classes reading and discussing poem as part of our explorations of poetry. The kids had fun with the made-up words, and we had some deeper discussions about the story underneath the nonsense.
It was interesting how quite a few know of the Jabberwock (the creature) but not the poem because it was featured so heavily in the Alice in Wonderland movie a few years ago. (It also meant they had an image in their mind before we read the poem, which is too bad). Two of my students said their older siblings were memorizing the poem (I had the siblings, too! Can I take credit?) for fun.
We ended our discussion on a note of craziness — watching The Muppet Show version of the poem.
Peace (beneath the TumTum Tree),
Kevin
I have never seen this video, but I love teaching this poem. So glad I haven’t gotten there yet!!! What a fun way to celebrate WRAD! Thank you for sharing!
The video is funny, particularly the asides at the start and end about not knowing what is going on. There’s a Fozzy Bear joke at the end (corny) that had everyone cracking up, too.
I’m a Carrollian (e.g. Lewis Carroll nerd) currently teaching for the umpteenth happy time Alice in Wonderland to my 4th grade. (We played croquet when that chapter comes up and so forth.) I usually do a lesson on Jabberwocky at some point (even though it is in Looking-glass which I’m not doing). There are many great illustrated versions (and I usually ask my kids to try their own hand at illustrating the beast) as well as many, many, many parodies. Links to some are at:
http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/jabberwocky/parodies/
http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/
I also find Jabberwocky fun to do as a whole class performance.
Ooo… that is fun! Probably would have gone over better than the read aloud poem I did! (I read The Raven). I love the way the Raven feels as I read it, and I reassured my class that I didn’t expect them to know all the words. I also took the time to read aloud the other two poems they were discussing, and they made an interesting contrast.
I have never read Jabberwocky to my students. Nor had I thought about teaching the kids croquet as a connection to Alice in Wonderland. What an interesting set of ideas. I shall have to try them.
You are so stinking cool.
I always smile at the mention of the Jabberwocky as my husband had a teacher use it to instruct students how to diagram sentences. Funny that Marie mentions The Raven because I think they both hold that ‘it’s too hard – I’ll never get it’ spot in students’ minds. The Muppets, I am sure, help end it all with a grin.
I love that you shared this with your kids and sure would like to take a peek at some of their own made-up word poetry after you shared it! What a great way to celebrate WRAD!