The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, Illustrated by
Charles Keeping
This unit of work lasts three weeks
This narrative poem, written in 1913, tells a tragic tale of love, jealousy and bravery. With evocative
language, a powerful rhythm and strong patterning, it is ideal for performance.
It is important to read the poem to and with the class several times during this unit. Teachers should
read the poem and the teaching sequence before starting work on the unit with the class. Sessions
are for guidance only. The length of time each aspect of the sequence will take depends on the ways
they are developed by the teacher, the amount of time allowed for different activities such as discussion and also the prior experience of the class, for example, with drama techniques.
Phase 1
Phase 1 of the unit (Sessions 1–5) introduces the children to the historical context of the poem and
the characters and setting. They develop an understanding of the story told in the poem and plot the
main events. Children also look closely at unfamiliar language and investigate word meanings.
Phase 2
Phase 2 of the unit (Sessions 6–10) focuses on exploring the characters through drama and storytelling, thinking about their viewpoints and motivations. Story writing in role is the writing outcome for this phase of the unit.
Phase 3
Phase 3 of the unit, (Sessions 11–15) focuses on the language and rhythm of the poem. The children
perform the poem, look closely at the language and experiment with writing in a similar style. The unit
finishes with group presentations of information that the children have discovered about highwaymen
from the poem, class discussions and additional research.
Guided reading
Although the unit is designed for use with the whole class, teachers could also select aspects of it to
use with guided reading groups. Alternatively, individual sessions could be followed up during guided
reading sessions with a closer look at particular sections of the text – looking, for example, at the language or what has been revealed about plot or character.
All children will benefit from regular opportunities for small-group reading, discussion and writing with
a teacher or teaching assistant.
Related core objectives
The overarching core learning outcomes for the Key Stage are indicated in italics. Relevant objectives
from Years 5 and 6 are indicated under the strands. 00390-2007CDO-EN
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Web-based literacy support materials for Year 5 and 6 teachers
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Speaking
Explore, develop and sustain ideas through talk
Y5 Tell a story using notes to cue techniques
Drama
Use dramatic techniques including working in role to explore ideas and texts Create, share and evaluate understanding through drama
Y5 Reflect on how working in role helps to explore complex issues
Y6 Improvise, using a range of drama strategies and conventions, to explore themes such as hopes,
fears and desires
Understanding and interpreting texts
Retrieve, select and describe information, events or ideas
Deduce, infer and interpret information, events or ideas
Y5 Make notes and use evidence from across a text to explain events and ideas
Y5 Explore how writers use language for dramatic effect
Y6 Understand how writers use structure to create coherence and impact
Y6 Understand different points of view
Engaging and responding with texts
Respond imaginatively, using different strategies to engage with texts
Evaluate writers’ purposes and viewpoints and the overall effect of the text on the reader
Y5 Compare how a common theme is presented in poetry, prose and other media
Y5 Compare the usefulness of techniques such as visualisation, prediction and empathy in exploring
the meaning of texts
Creating and shaping texts
Use and adapt a variety of forms suited to different purposes and readers
Make stylistic choices, including vocabulary, literary features and viewpoints or voice
Y5 To experiment with different narrative forms and styles to write their own stories
Web-based literacy support materials for Year 5 and 6 teachers
Primary National Strategy
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Teaching approaches
Reading aloud, rereading
Booktalk and discussion
Responding to illustration
Visualisation, drawing and annotation
Drama: hotseating, freeze-frame and thought tracking For information on drama approaches, See resources
Story telling and story mapping or storyboarding
Shared writing, collaborative writing
Poetry performance
For a description of teaching approaches, See resources
Resources
• A copy of The Highwayman, illustrated by Charles Keeping
• Photocopies of the cover illustration
• Interactive whiteboard (IWB) and/or flipchart
• Sticky notes and large sheets of paper
• Tape recorder (optional)
The teaching sequence
Phase 1
Session 1
Focus objectives
To deduce information about a character from a visual text
To offer opinions and provide evidence to support them
Key teaching approach
Responding to illustration
Organise the class into groups and give each group a copy of the illustration by Charles Keeping on
the cover of the book. See resources for a copy of the illustration. Ask them to discuss what they
can tell about the character from the illustration, who this person might be and what he might be like.
They should make notes in their literacy books, reading journals on sticky notes or large sheets of
paper.
Bring the class back together and share their ideas and the evidence they have found. Record this
on a flipchart or IWB, or by asking children to come up and stick their notes around a copy of the
picture. Keep these notes so that you can look back on them later in the unit.
Show the children the cover of the book and talk about the title. Ask them to turn to a partner and
discuss what they know about highwaymen. Make a list of their ideas about highwaymen and then
show them the following web page on an IWB or alternatively print off copies to share:
http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/hounslow_heath.htm
Read and discuss this page with the class. This will give them useful background knowledge and
create a context for the poem.
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Web-based literacy support materials for Year 5 and 6 teachers
Primary National Strategy
For homework, ask the children to find out some more about highwaymen.
Before the next session, allow time for the children to share any information they have found out
about highwaymen and start a noticeboard to display any pictures or information they have found.
Session 2
Focus objectives
To develop the ability to listen to a story and make notes about the main points
To give views based on response to a text and respond appropriately to the opinions of others
Key teaching approaches
Reading aloud Discussion
Explain to the children that this book contains a poem that tells a story involving a highwayman. Ask
them to listen carefully and see if they can follow the story in the poem, who it involves and what
happens to them. Read the poem to the class and then ask the children to talk with a partner about
what they have found out about the story. Discuss their ideas and make notes together about the
characters and the story. Read the poem again and this time, ask children to work in mixed-ability
groups and think about what they liked and disliked about the poem and also anything that puzzled
them. Give each group a large grid to record their thoughts. A more experienced writer within the
group should take the role of scribe. (To download a grid, see resources). Allow time for the children
to discuss their responses and questions.
Session 3
Focus objectives
To visualise a scene and respond to it pictorially
To consider the ways that visualisation helps to gain a deeper understanding of a description of a
setting
Key teaching approaches
Visualisation
Illustration
Reread the first three lines of the poem, then ask the children to close their eyes and visualise the
setting. Talk with them about the language and the kind of pictures it created for them. Ask them
to choose one of the three lines to illustrate, using paint, inks, chalk pastels, crayons or coloured
pencils, adding their chosen line from the poem in pen and ink.
At the end of the session, ask each group to read out their line together, holding up their illustrations.
Then talk with them about the kind of mood these words create at the beginning of the poem and
the ways that visualisation helped the children to picture the story setting. Display the pictures on the
wall with lines from the poem.
Session 4
Focus objectives
To investigate the meaning of unfamiliar words
To deduce information about a character from a description
Key teaching approaches
Annotation
Rereading and investigation
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Before this lesson, prepare a class dictionary with pages labelled with the letters of the alphabet. Ask the children to work with a partner and give each pair a verse from the poem. Ask them to look
for any unfamiliar words in their verse and to investigate what these mean, using dictionaries or the
Internet. Then ask them to enter the words they have found directly into the class dictionary or to
write them on paper or sticky notes so that they can be entered properly later. Talk about these
words as a class, focusing in particular on the beginning of the poem.
Give the children a copy of the second verse of the poem, which provides a description of the
highwayman. Ask them to make annotated drawings of him following the description in the text.
Session 5
Focus objectives
To identify the key events in a story
To use storyboarding as a means of recording the key events in a story
Key teaching approach
Storyboarding
Reread the poem with the class again using an enlarged version of the text, displaying the poem
on an IWB or flipchart so that the structure is clear. To download a text version of the poem see
resources. Talk about the separate verses and the sequence of events in the poem. You could note
the key events next to each verse as the children begin to identify them.
Then, ensuring that each pair has a copy of the poem, ask them to work with a partner and create a
storyboard to illustrate the sequence of events in the poem. See resources for a storyboard outline.
Phase 2
Session 6
Focus objectives
To think from a character’s viewpoint about the reasons for their behaviour
To use drama strategies to explore characters’ feelings
Key teaching approach
Freeze-frame and thought tracking
Split the class into groups of six and ask them to create a ‘freeze-frame’ for the scene when Bess is
tied to the bed, taking the parts of Bess, Tim and the soldiers. Once they have prepared their freeze-frames, ask one or two groups to come to life and voice their thoughts in character. If possible, keep a record of their drama by taking photos and noting what they say in role.
With some of the groups focusing on Tim the Ostler, some on the highwayman and some on Bess
the landlord’s daughter, ask them to look back at the poem and find out all they can about their character and also think about the reasons he or she behaved as they did. They could make notes
on a large sheet of paper. Ask the groups to report back to the rest of the class at the end of the
session. Discuss what has been found out.
Session 7
Focus objectives
To think from a character’s viewpoint about the reasons for their behaviour
To reflect on the ways working in role helps you think about a character
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Key teaching approach
Hotseating
Start the session by discussing the drama activity and what the children thought about the different
characters’ feelings at that point in the story. Ask the children to work with a partner and think about
what they might ask Tim, Bess, or the highwayman (interviewed posthumously!), and what this character might reply about what happened and why they behaved as they did.
With one member of the class in role as Tim, Bess or the highwayman, pose questions as a class to
explore his or her motivation and feelings about what has happened.
If the class are not familiar with this approach, then take the hotseat yourself.
Session 8
Focus objective
To tell the story of The highwayman from the perspective of one of the characters, using notes
Key teaching approach
Storytelling
Ask children to sit in a circle. Displaying an enlarged version of one of the story maps, explain that
they are going to tell the story of the highwayman from the point of view of one of the characters,
using the story maps to help them. Model an opening to the story yourself as told from the highwayman’s point of view. Then invite members of the class to contribute to a joint telling of the
story.
After this activity, explain to the class that they are going to work with a partner and tell the story
of The highwayman from the point of view of one of the characters: Bess, Tim or the highwayman.
They can draw on the drama they have experienced to help them to think about the characters’ feelings, and can also use their storyboards. After they have practised, share some of these stories
at the end of the session or tape-record them.
Sessions 9 and 10
Focus objectives
To write a story from the viewpoint of one of the characters
Key teaching approaches
Shared and individual writing
Tell the children that they are going to write the story of The highwayman from the point of view of
one of the characters, based on the stories they told in the previous session – from the point of view
of Bess, Tim or the highwayman. Demonstrate how they might begin their writing by scribing a possible first line for a story from the highwayman’s point of view. Then take ideas from the class
about how to continue with the next two lines. Then ask the children to work independently and draft
their own stories. When the stories are finished, the children should work with a response partner
to try to improve them, focusing in particular on making sure that they have really shown how their
character was feeling. The finished stories could be published as short chapter books and illustrated.
Web-based literacy support materials for Year 5 and 6 teachers
Primary National Strategy
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Phase 3
Session 11
Focus objectives
To explore how writers use language for dramatic effect
Key teaching approaches
Text marking and discussion
Read the first two verses of the poem out loud together and talk about the way it is written. Ask the
children to discuss in pairs anything they notice about the way the poet uses language. In the whole-class session, ask the children to feed back their thoughts. Record their thinking on a
flipchart. Their observations might include the use of rhythm and repetition, for example, and the
way that this helps to create the effect of a horse galloping. Introduce the concept of metaphor as
children notice phrases such as ‘The moon was a ghostly galleon’.
Session 12
Focus objectives
To make decisions about how to perform a section of a poem dramatically
To develop the ability to work collaboratively to perform a poem dramatically
Key teaching approach
Poetry performance
Ask the children to work in groups to prepare a performance of a section of the poem. Invite them
to make decisions about which parts to read individually and which to perform altogether, and also
where actions or sound effects might be needed. Gather the groups together to practice and then
perform the poem as a class. If possible, find a time when the class can perform the poem to other
classes or perhaps to the school as a whole.
Session 13
Focus objective
To experiment with writing in the form of a narrative poem
Key teaching approaches
Collaborative writing
Poetry writing
As a shared writing activity, introduce the idea of writing an additional verse for the poem, describing a ghostly meeting between Bess and the highwayman. Start the verse with a line from
the poem such as: ‘Over the cobbles he clattered’ or ‘the wind was a torrent of darkness’. Then ask
the children to work with a partner and write their own verses, perhaps from the point of view of a
traveller witnessing the scene. Encourage the children to add their own ideas but ask them to try to
stick to the style and rhythm of the poem as much as possible.
Once they have drafted and improved their work with their partners, share the verses as a class.
The children could then redraft their verses, which could be included in a class book, with accompanying illustrations.
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Sessions 14 and 15
Focus objective
To collate and present information gathered on highwaymen using PowerPoint® and then present to
the class
Key teaching approaches
Discussion
Research
Presentation
Discuss with the class all the information they have found out about highwaymen from the poem and
other sources. Organise the class into groups of three and ask them to gather together information
that the class has already found out. Then ask them to think of a question they would like to find
more about, for example: how highwaymen were punished. They could use the ‘Stand and deliver’
website http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/hounslow_heath.htm and relevant books or online
encyclopaedias to research their question. Once they have gathered a little more information, they
should organise and present it using a presentation programme such as Microsoft PowerPoint®.
Allow time for groups to present their work to the rest of the class or to other classes within the
school.
Opportunities for assessment in this unit
The Highwayman as a narrative poem is particularly strong in terms of plot, themes and character
motivation and also has a powerful rhythm and memorable language. It supports children who are
moving from Level 3 to 4 in empathising with characters and inferring their feelings, thoughts and
motivations over the course of the narrative and also in considering the poet’s use of language and
the effects he has created.
In this unit, children are asked to search the text to locate evidence, to read the text closely for
implicit meanings and to support their opinions by referring to the text.
Some discussions take place in whole-class contexts; others take place in pairs and groups.
Teachers or TAs can listen in and make discreet notes on the discussions. Children are also
frequently asked to make notes in their reading journals – these offer further opportunities for
assessment.
The poem also offers opportunities to explore the themes and dilemmas through drama. These
activities offer all children the opportunity to develop their understanding of the story.
Web-based literacy support materials for Year 5 and 6 teachers
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Ongoing assessment opportunities
Class and group discussions
During the frequent opportunities for class discussion within the unit, the teacher could make brief notes after the
session or a TA, if present, could make notes during a session.
Teachers or TAs could set up guided reading or writing activities, using some of the activities in the unit, to make
more closely focused assessments with particular children who are working towards Level 4.
Notes can also be made, for example, using the following framework, during group discussions and partner work.
See resources for a framework that supports the monitoring of children who are moving from Level 3 to Level 4.
Written work
Children’s understanding can also be noted from their written work. Specific opportunities are listed in the following
grid.
Assessment opportunities
With a particular focus on children moving from Level 3 to Level 4
• To be able to search text closely and to refer to the
text when explaining ideas
Phase 1
Session 5
The storyboards children create will indicate their
understanding of the main events in the poem.
• To begin to make inferences (reading between the
lines) and deductions (pulling evidence together)
including empathising with characters and their
feelings, thoughts, motivations and changes over the
course of the narrative
• To discuss the author’s use of language eg to
describe characters and settings
Phase 2
Sessions 9 and 10
Children’s story writing will indicate their ability to
empathise with a character and infer motives.
Phase 3
Session 11
The teacher or TA could listen in when children are
discussing the language in the poem with a partner to
determine understanding of the reasons the writer has
used language in a particular way.
Sources: NC level descriptions QCA’s SATs analysis at the end of Key Stage 2, published in Implications for teaching and learning (QCA 2004, 2005,
2006), show key pointers in helping children to move from Level 3–4 in reading.
National Curriculum Level descriptions
Level 3
Pupils read a range of texts fluently and accurately. They read independently, using strategies
appropriately to establish meaning. In responding to fiction and non-fiction, they show understanding
of the main points and express preferences. They use their knowledge of the alphabet to locate
books and find information.
Level 4
In responding to a range of texts, pupils show understanding of significant ideas, themes, events and
characters, beginning to use inference and deduction. They refer to the text when explaining their
views. They locate and use ideas and information
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Web-based literacy support materials for Year 5 and 6 teachers
Primary National Strategy