TEACHING POETRY UNIT III

 

TEACHING POETRY

(“Poetry beings in delight and ends in wisdom:” – Robert frost)

S. T. Coleridge believes that ‘poetry is the best words in their best order’.

Poetry is for pleasure. To Robert Frost “Poetry beings in Delight and ends in Wisdom”. It is clear that we read poetry in order to get some pleasure and enjoy the beauty of the language. We not only appreciate the ideas and thoughts but also the way in which the thoughts and ideas have been presented.

 

The place of poetry in a second Language.

At the secondary school level, the learners can understand and enjoy poetry in their mother – tongue (e.g, odia) because they

- Know the language well,

- Are familiar with the culture, context and the experience of the poem,

But the learners cannot understand and enjoy poems in a second language (English) because they:

- Do not know the language very well,

- Are not familiar with the culture, the context and the experience of the poem.

- Have not yet developed their linguistic and communicative competence,

- Find everything foreign to them: the language, the ideas, the culture, the context, etc

 

The Importance of poetry

Despite the above arguments against teaching poetry in English at the secondary level, there are some advantages of poetry lessons which are as follows:

 

(i) Develop in the pupils a favorable attitude towards the language,

(ii) Help in teaching some idiomatic and grammatical constructions

(iii) Help in improving learner’s pronunciation.

 

Objectives of Poetry Lessons

The objectives of teaching poetry at the secondary level may be as follows:

(i) To give listening practice to the students

(ii) To give speaking practice to the learners

(iii) To enable the students to recite the poem in proper way so that they may enjoy its music and rhythm.

(iv) To enable them to understand the beauty of thought.

(v) To enable them to improve their power of imagination

(vi) To enable them to appreciate the poem by awakening in them the aesthetic qualities of appreciation.

(vii) To make them familiar with the back ground of the poem.

(viii) To develop love for English language.

 

 

The Process of Teaching the Poem can be in three Main Stages.

1. Preparation

2. Presentation

3. Discussion

 

1. Preparation:

a. Equipping the students for a quick grasp of the main out of the poem.

b. Familiarizing (not through explanation) them with the most important words and expressions.

c. Ensuring that the ideas involved in the poem are not beyond his reach.

 

The lesson should be introduced on the basis of previous knowledge.

 

 

2. Presentation

The teacher recites / reads out the poem with the proper pronunciation, intonation and facial expression (a second reading/ recital can also be done if necessary).

Afterwards, the teacher should present the Main Idea of the poem in few lines so that the students become familiar with the theme of the poem. After the Introduction and Main Idea, the teacher

should make a First Model Reading of the poem with students listening keenly and not opening their textbooks. 

After this, for a proper understanding of the poem, the teacher should make its Second Model Reading with students keeping their textbooks open.

3. Discussion-Books Open

The teacher need not explain every word or every line. She can ask simple questions to ensure whether the pupils have understood the poem. Even if a few students ask the meaning of words like catamarans, leaping wealth, she can show pictures, or pose questions to the clan and elicit the answer.

Further reading

When the whole poem has been presented and discussed this way , it may be read over by the teacher again once or twice (depending on the students need).

As a concluding part of discussion you may initiate the children.

a. To quote parallel incidents /recite poems in their mother tongue with parallel themes.

b. To draw pictures or point some beautiful scenes that appeal to their mind.

c. To enact the poem.

d. To pick out the rhyming words.