Inspired by: The Lost Happy Endings - Week 4

Inspired by "The Lost Happy Endings," the fourth week's activities encourage students to delve into the art of performance poetry and play-reading, with an emphasis on the expressive use of intonation, tone, and volume. The goal is to convey meaning to an audience clearly and engagingly. Pupils will explore how different choices in grammar and vocabulary can significantly alter and enhance the meaning of a text. To illustrate this, they are invited to consider the portrayal of witches in literature, discussing whether these characters are invariably portrayed as hideous and evil, and to introduce the iconic witches from Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Students will examine the famous chant "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble," from the play, focusing on its rhyme and rhythm, and perform it in groups, adhering to the tetrameter rhythm.

Building on this understanding, students are tasked with creating their own spell in the style of the witches from "Macbeth," imagining what ingredients a witch might choose to destroy Happy Endings. This activity provides an opportunity to explore abstract nouns by considering whether the witch would include elements such as happiness or kindness in her destructive spell. In another activity titled "It's In The News," students learn about the use of hyphens to avoid ambiguity. They analyse a headline from a local paper and discuss how the addition of a hyphen changes its meaning, preventing potential misinterpretation. Further examples encourage students to consider how punctuation can clarify meaning in various headlines, demonstrating the importance of precise language in communication.