INDIE COLLECTION

LESSON 12: blueeyed boy

Poem: ‘Buffalo Bill’, E. E. Cummings

Resources and lesson preparation

Worksheet 108: poem words to be photocopied and cut up

Worksheet / OHT 109: ‘Buffalo Bill’ text

Worksheet / OHT110: alternative versions

Worksheet / OHT 111: ‘Buffalo Bill’ fonts

Starter

  • Ask students what they know of Buffalo Bill and make a note of responses. Be warned, some may know nothing!
  • Display a picture of Buffalo Bill ( will come up with lots) and jot down key words that students come up with in response to the image (e.g. cowboy, performer, horseman…).

Introduction

Discuss the choices they have made.

  • Divide the class into pairs and give each pair a set of the words. Ask them to arrange them on their desks in any layout they choose. Encourage them to be as experimental as they wish.
  • For less able students, or to help pique their imagination, you may like to display another of Cummings’ poems which uses unusual layout – or any other poem which plays with shape.
  • When each pair has decided on its layout, ask for volunteers to show their arrangement on the whiteboard. If you don’t have a whiteboard, Blu-Tack® or drawing pins and notice-boards are good substitutes.

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom

INDIE COLLECTION

Development

  • Read the poem to the classtwo or three times.
  • Now ask them if they can work out the layout. Give a short time for this before revealing the original.
  • Discuss why Cummings may have chosen his idiosyncratic arrangement and whether it helps or hinders appreciation of the poem.
  • Display some of the alternative poems (James Bond / Dick Turpin / Elizabeth I) and ask students to choose a character and create their own version. This can be done on paper or using the original as a template.
  • An additional activity involves deciding which font is the most suitable for their poem and for the original. You may wish to start this off by distributing ‘Buffalo Bill’ using a small number of differing fonts. Students decide an order from 1 to 4 where 1 is most suitable and 4 is least. Collate responses and ask them to justify their decisions.

Plenary

Why is layout/presentation more important now than it might have been in earlier times? (Poetry is now more often read from a book than listened to, recent technology makes different presentations easier to achieve…)

Suggestions for writing

  • Alternative versions for other real and historical characters (as above).
  • Alternative versions for characters in stories or plays (e.g. Macbeth, Richard III…)
  • Poems about people, whether famous or not, real or not in any kind of unusual layout and with freedom to disobey all the rules of punctuation and spacing! A word processor or desktop publisher is useful for this as it makes the result easier to read but some students may prefer to get out their felt-tipped pens.

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom

WORKSHEET 108

a / a / and
and / Bill / blue
boy / break / Buffalo
Death / defunct / do
eyed / five / four
handsome / he / how
I / is / is
Jesus / just / know
like / like / man
Mister / one / pigeons
ride / silver / smooth
stallion / that / three
to / to / two
used / want / was
water / what / who
you / your

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom

OHT 109:Original poem

Buffalo Bill’s

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

E E Cummings

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom

OHT 110: Alternative poems

James Bond is

defunct

who used to

ride a treaclesmooth-black

Aston Martin

and shoot onetwothreefourfive villainsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your strongjawed boy

Dr No

Dick Turpin is

defunct

who used to

ride a muscleclad-black

mare

and rob onetwothreefourfive stagecoachesjustlikethat

Justice

he was a fearless man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your doublepistolled boy

Mister Hangman

Elizabeth I is

defunct

who used to

steer a roughandtumble

shipofstate

and cutoff onetwothreefourfive headsjustlikethat

England

she was a canny woman

and what i want to know is

how do you like your lace-ruffed girl

Mister Death

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom

OHT 111: Alternative fonts

Buffalo Bill’s

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

Buffalo Bill’s

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

Buffalo Bill’s

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

Buffalo Bill’s

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom