The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“English Ballad”

In this activity, students will compose a ballad using the ABCB method traditionally used with medieval English ballads.

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is based on a ballad. Create your own ballad using a narrative that is similar in some way to a theme or event in the text; utilize an ABCB rhyme scheme. The ballad should be divided into stanzas and use iambic tetrameter for the first and third lines, and the second and last line should use iambic trimeter.

You may set the ballad to music if you wish. Be prepared to read, perform, or display your completed ballad with classmates. Use the questions below to guide you in your writing.

• Develop a topic or story for your ballad. Your story should connect with the text with a similar or parallel theme, event, character, or plot device, but must be an original take on the connection. Alternatively, you may use a familiar story, but the ballad itself must be an original retelling.
• Outline the main points the ballad will convey.
• Create a phrase for your ballad to serve as the chorus.
• Revisit your outline, breaking the story details into stanzas.
• Recreate your stanzas using the ABCB rhyme scheme.
• Draw parallels between your composition and that of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.

As time allows, share your ballad or display your ballad’s lyrics with the group.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may need only a few examples to understand the “beat” of iambic tetrameter. A range for required number of lines and other guidelines may be dependent on class time available and your particular group.  This SuperSummary page on ballads might serve as a support resource.