The Highwayman

My Year 5 English pupils have been working on a long narrative poem called "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes.  The poem was new to me and I must admit that it took me a couple of readings to understand what was really happening in the poem.  So, when teaching it to my lower ability English set, I must admit that I have been incredibly proud of their understanding of the story.  It is a tragic love story, as most great literature seems to be.  It is about a Highwayman and Bess, a landlord's daughter, who are in love.  A jealous groom at the inn hears of the Highwayman's plans and tells the soldiers.  The red coats (it wasn't just the Americans that called them red coats!) come to the inn and tie Bess up waiting for the Highwayman to return from his midnight run.  Realizing she could not save him, she shot herself as a warning to him.  Sadly, he is still caught and killed.  But don't worry, the happy bit of the poem is that now they are ghosts together! :)

The poem has many words in it that I must admit I struggled with.  Words such as galleon, ostler, and claret have had me reaching for the dictionary along with the children.  The kids have worked so hard this week on truly grasping the story, making sense of it and finding ways of putting the difficult words into their very own.  It has been a real treat watching them struggle through and then triumph with their understanding.  I'm very proud of them!

This past week, their homework was to draw a picture of what they thought the Highwayman looked like.  I got some great images that I couldn't resist sharing!









Some were a bit simpler than others! :)



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