Lesson plan: I will be your friend (part 1 and 2)

Lesson one

Song Bank link

I will be your friend (words and music by Andrew Brooke)

Subject links

• Primary Framework for Literacy: Y2 Narrative Unit 4 - Stories which raise issues / dilemmas

• Music QCA Unit 15: Ongoing Skills

Duration

1 hour

Learning objectives

• Children will use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues (Year 3).

• Children will identify and summarise evidence from a text to support a hypothesis (Year 4).

• Children will reflect on how working in role helps to explore complex issues (Year 5). 

Resources

• I will be your friend – all audio tracks

• Whiteboard

Introduction

• Share the Learning objectives with the children at the start of the session.

• Discuss songs that the children have recently sung. What was the purpose of each?

• Ascertain that song lyrics can, eg. be amusing, help us to learn, allow us to reflect, explore difficult issues etc.

Main activity

• Don’t tell/show children the song title! Display lines 1-7 of the lyrics to I will be your friend. Ask the children to listen and follow the words as you play the start of the song.

• Discuss the lyrics, encouraging the children to consider, eg. the song’s theme; who the two characters might be; what each character is feeling; what they would like to happen next in the song.

• Ask the children to support any comments with reference to the song lyrics.

• Explain that the song is about a newcomer to school who is finding it difficult to make friends. Play the same excerpt again, encouraging children to join in.

• Ask the children to think about the line, ‘I can hear what people are saying’. Can children suggest who the people are, and what they might be saying? Get the children to discuss this briefly in pairs, and then ask volunteers to suggest phrases or sentences (in the first person), as one of these people.

• Ask for a volunteer to take the hot seat as the newcomer. Invite questions which allow a better understanding of him/her, eg. How do you feel about being on your own? Why were you crying? How have you been treated at this school so far? Tell us about your friends at your last school. What would make you happy?

Independent activity

• Play the song I will be your friend and ask children to follow the lyrics. Then ask the children to identify words and phrases from the first seven lines of the lyrics which show how the newcomer is feeling. 

• Higher-attaining children can look at the adjective on their handout and describe an aspect of how the newcomer is feeling. They should add two more adjectives and then write out words or phrases from the text to illustrate each. 

• Medium-attaining children can find evidence in the text for one adjective, and find a new adjective and illustration from the text of their own. 

• Lower-attaining children can find one new adjective of their own and then highlight words/phrases in the text, which illustrate each of the three.

• Explain that the head teacher of a local school has asked her school council to produce a policy on how to help new children adapt to their new school. Do the children think this is a good idea? Take a few suggestions of what they feel ought to be included in such a policy. Organise children into small groups of two to four, and ask them to make some suggestions for a policy for your school. Appoint a note-taker, as well as a spokesperson to feed back to the class later on.

Assessment for learning

Can the children:

• Ask pertinent questions to a character in role, using ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘how’, ‘why’, and ‘where’ prompts if necessary?

• Suggest visual indicators (eg. facial expressions, body language) that could indicate a range of emotions?

• Use adjectives to describe a range of emotions?

Plenary 

• Children feed back to the class.

• Formulate a whole-class integration policy together. Would the children like to take it to the school council?

Differentiated success criteria

Most children will:

• Recognise that some children who move schools encounter 

• Think about how pupils should react to a newcomer to their class.

Some children will:

• Identify potential difficulties for children who move schools.

• Consider how such difficulties might be addressed.

A few children will:

• Empathise with a child who moves schools.

• Reflect on ways in which a new child, the school and other pupils can assist the transfer process.

Lesson two

Song Bank links

• I will be your friend (words and music by Andrew Brooke)

• I'm gonna be your friend (words and music by Chris Williams)

Subject links

• Primary Framework for Literacy: Y2 Narrative Unit 4 - Stories which raise issues / dilemmas

• Music QCA Unit 15: Ongoing Skills

Duration

1 hour

Learning objectives

• Children will use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues (Year 3).

• Children will identify and summarise evidence from a text to support a hypothesis (Year 4).

• Children will distinguish the spelling and meaning of common homophones (Year 4).

• Children will reflect on how working in role helps to explore complex issues (Year 5).

Resources

• I will be your friend - all audio tracks

• I’m gonna be your friend - all audio tracks

• Whiteboard

• Camera (optional)

Introduction

• Share the Learning objectives with the children at the start of the session.

• Review what you did in Lesson 1. Discuss the issue that the song I will be your friend raises, describe the characters who appear, recap the strategies the children came up with for welcoming newcomers etc.

Main activity

• Display the song lyrics to the first verse and chorus of I’m gonna be your friend, and ask the children to listen to the performance track. Discuss the lyrics, focussing particularly on the difference in mood between the verse and chorus.

• Establish that the verse concerns people’s difficulties, whereas the chorus focuses on how to address them.

• Encouraging the children to join in, display the lyrics to I will be your friend and play the start of the song. This time reveal line 8: ‘But I don’t want you to worry anymore’. With this in mind, how do the children think the mood will change in the chorus that follows?

• Working in groups, ask the children to create freeze-frames of a difficult scenario for the newcomer. They can use the lyrics to the first verse of I will be your friend for ideas, or make up their own. Perform, photograph and discuss some of the freeze-frames.

• In the same groups, ask the children to fast forward and create a second freeze-frame of a moment when the newcomer is helped by the character who is singing. Again, present, photograph and consider some of the freeze-frames.

• Alternatively, you could direct whole-class freeze-frames if you prefer.

• Play the start of both songs once more. If you can, print out the photographs while the class is listening.

Independent activity

• Complete a spelling/phonics activity from the Literacy Strategy Spelling Bank. For example, practise homophones: I/eye, see/sea, you/ewe/yew, seem/seam, stare/stair (see Year 4, Term 1, Objective 6, p22). Or explore compound words: nobody, everyone, anymore (Year 4, Term 3, Objective 11, p38).

• Explain that the children are going to suggest and write their own lyrics to the chorus of I will be your friend (without having heard the original). They should write in the first person, as a continuation of the verse, outlining how they will be of help.

• Higher-attaining children should use the previous lesson’s work, eg. the policy on integrating new pupils, as a stimulus for this activity.

• Medium-attaining children could also use this and the lyrics to I’m gonna be your friend for further inspiration.

• Lower-attaining children could look at photos of the second freeze-frames as a stimulus for writing their own chorus.

Assessment for learning

Can the children:

• If the first independent activity is chosen, either
  
  o (a) identify the shorter words in compound words and suggest their own for others to work out?
  
  o (b) or identify both homophones for a given word?

• Use drama techniques (eg. narration, hot seating, ‘conscience alley’*) to offer advice?

• Develop freeze-frame work by adding a ‘thought tracking’* activity?

* For explanations of these drama techniques and for further drama ideas, take a look at www.dramaresource.com. 

Plenary

• Learn the chorus from I will be your friend and perform the first verse and chorus.

• Discuss whether any of the strategies for integration that the children devised are included in the actual chorus. Do the children feel that they accurately represented the character of the protagonist in their own song lyrics?

Differentiated success criteria

All children will:

• Use drama to demonstrate the potential difficulties for children who move schools.

• Understand that ideas and feelings can be expressed through song lyrics. 

Some children will:

• Use drama to examine and explore potential difficulties for children who move schools.

• Express ideas through song lyrics.

A few children will:

• Use drama to resolve potential difficulties for children who move schools.

• Express their thoughts and feelings through song lyrics.