National Poetry Day Postcards, Scotland 2012 Teachers Notes

National Poetry Day postcards, Scotland 2012 teachers’ notes Jane Taylor, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, with Scots version by Lorna Irvine

THE POET AND HER WORK Jane Taylor (1783–1824) was born in London, and later lived there, in Suffolk and in Essex. With her sister Anne, and others, she wrote several books of poems for children, including Original Poems for Infant Minds (two volumes, 1804 and 1805), Rhymes for the Nursery (1806) and Hymns for Infant Minds (1808). She also published a novel, Display (1814), and Essays in Rhyme (1816). She died, aged 40, of breast cancer.

THE POEM ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ was included in Rhymes for the Nursery (1806), by Jane and Anne Taylor. The original poem consists of six verses, of which this is the first and last. The words are usually sung to a French melody of 1761, ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman’, on which Mozart wrote a sequence of twelve variations. There are many parodies of the verse; probably the best known is from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), which, spoken by the Mad Hatter, begins, ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little bat’. The Scots version was made by Lorna Irvine, Education Officer at the Scottish Poetry Library, for National Poetry Day 2012.

READING THE POEM – NOTES & QUESTIONS Are there any words in the Scots version which you don’t understand? If so, try to work out what they mean by comparing the Scots version to the English version.

Compare the English poem and the Scots version, and decide which one you like best, after  reading them on the page  speaking them out loud, individually (that is, one voice only speaking)  speaking them out loud, chorally (that is, several voices speaking)  singing them

National Poetry Day Scotland & loads more ideas for working with poetry www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn 2

In the poem, the star is described as being “like a diamond”. Can you think of anything else a star is like?  something small and bright  something big and far away  something shining in the dark  something round and white  something there are lots of, scattered everywhere

DISCUSSION Do you already know ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’? If so, where did you hear it? Do you know any of the Scots words in the new version of the poem?  If so, which ones, and where did you hear them?  Try using some of the Scots words – whether you know them already, or not – in a sentence of your own.

RESEARCH

Find some other poems which are written in Scots, and make a class collection of your favourites. You could look for poems by some of the following poets:  Robert Burns  J.K. Annand  Adam McNaughtan  Sheena Blackhall  James Robertson, Matthew Fitt, and other poets published by Itchy Coo

Find, sing, discuss and display other lullabies, whether in English, Scots, or in another language spoken in pupils’ homes. Ask pupils:  to write down, or have their parents or carers write down, any lullabies they know  to sing the lullabies, so others can hear the tune  to illustrate their own, or another pupil’s, lullaby  to make a class display of the pupils’ lullabies

 as a whole class, to learn some of the lullabies

CREATIVE ACTIVITY Write your own version (or parody) of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’. The simplest way is just to change a few words:  in line one, change ‘star’ for ———  in line two, make sure you end the line with a word that rhymes with your new word in line one  in line four, replace ‘diamond’ with ———  for lines five and six, remember to repeat your new version of lines one and two You could use Scots words, instead of, or as well as, English words.