POETRY

 

Shared by Remedios Gómez

Last 25th January, Virginia Woolf's birth date was celebrated around the world, above all amongst literature lovers. 

She was an English writer considered one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. I studied and read her pieces of writing during my degree studies and I fell in love with her!!!

I've always included her birthday as a teaching unit for my students, no matter their level. Two weeks ago, that same day, my Bachillerato students learnt about her (they had never heard of this wonderful writer). 

These are some of her most famous quotes:

In this video, you can learn about her life in a different way (sorry, but TikTakDraw is in Spanish).

My students particularly love this Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rETE0IGDqEE

No Man is an Island (1624)

By John Donne

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friend's

Or of thine own were:

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488730

Edward Hopper, Office in a Small City - 1953

          

   Matching poems written in English language 

                    with famous paintings

Shared by Beatriz Monje:

Poems and famous paintings

Level: A2 to C2. Any level secondary school level depending on the poem chosen.

Organization: Single students, pairs or groups. Depending on the teacher’s choice.

Language focus

That on each of the poems. Also descriptive language, colours, shapes, present simple. Describing a picture: on the forefront, on the background, on the right, on the left… you can see or passive voice: it can be seen…

Language for presenting a topic (higher levels).

Objectives

1. Practice reading comprehension by reading and understanding famous poems written in English language.

2. Analyse the meaning of the poem and the reasons why students chose a particular painting to match a poem by focussing on the meaning of both, the poem and the painting and how that is relevant to the students’ personal experiences and previous knowledge of the world.

3. Practice written language by taking notes to prepare an oral presentation.

4. Practice oral production by presenting work to the rest of the students in class.

5. Practice oral comprehension by listening to the presentations of the rest of the students in class.

6. Practice question making.

Access to Beatriz Monje's booket containing the whole lesson plan with quite an amount of matched poems and paintings. 

What Am I?

By Jo Peters

I have no colour,

not even white,

but sometimes I’m wide and blue.

Sometimes I’m still,

and sometimes I rush,

and I can fall down on you.

I can change my shape,

I often do,

but I’m hard to hold in you hand.

You need me to make

your castle stand up

when you’re playing in the sand.

I haven’t much taste

but on a hot day

your tongue’s hanging out for me.

Then I am cold,

but I can be hot

when I’m in your mum’s cup of tea.

What am I?

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/joaquin-sorolla-y-bastida-boys-on-the-beach

Joaquin Sorolla, Boys on the Beach - 1909

Remedios Gómez shares:

If you are one of those who think English has always sounded in the same way, you are wrong. There are clear samples of this change of sound in films, for instance.

In the following video, you'll be able to listen to that sound difference:

A Middle English reading of John Skelton's poem "Speke Parrot". Find the full poem, with notes and glosses: on http://www.skeltonproject.org/spekeparott

Ruby Vurdien shares this poem by James Joyce:

Bright cap and streamers

Bright cap and streamers,

He sings in the hollow:

Come follow, come follow,

All you that love.

Leave dreams to the dreamers

That will not after,

That song and laughter

Do nothing move.

With ribbons streaming

He sings the bolder;

In troop at his shoulder

The wild bees hum.

And the time of dreaming

Dreams is over -- -

As lover to lover,

Sweetheart, I come.

A poem I usually try with higher level students is "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost:

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Carmen Carbajo shares this poem by this Scottish poet: 

I realize that there are lovers of poems in this course, so I would like to share with you this poem by Carol Ann Duffy. Not only can it be useful for teaching vocabulary but it can also promote a discussion on the topic of love and different types of love.

Carol Ann Duffy  is an award-winning Scottish poet known for writing love poems that often take the form of monologues.

“A CROW AND A SCARECROW”

A crow and a scarecrow fell in love
out in the fields.
The scarecrow’s heart was a stuffed leather glove
but his love was real.
The crow perched on the stick of a wrist
and opened her beak:
Scarecrow, I love you madly, deeply.
Speak.

Crow, rasped the Scarecrow, hear these words
from my straw throat.
I love you too
from my boot to my hat
by way of my old tweed coat.
Croak.
The crow crowed back,
Scarecrow, let me take you away
to live in a tall tree.
I’ll be a true crow wife to you
if you’ll marry me.

The Scarecrow considered.
Crow, tell me how
a groom with a broomstick spine
can take a bride.
I know you believe in the love
in these button eyes
but I’m straw inside
and straw can’t fly.

The crow pecked at his heart
with her beak
then flapped away,
and back and forth she flew to him
all day, all day,
until she pulled one last straw
from his tattered vest
and soared across the sun with it
to her new nest.

And there she slept, high in her tree,
winged, in a bed of love.
Night fell.
The slow moon rose
over a meadow,
a heap of clothes,
two boots,
an empty glove.

More Hallowe'en pics by Introverted Wife:

http://intbride.blogspot.com/2020/09/all-hallows-read-posters-2020.html

I'm currently reading a Louis Penny Novel -The Cruelest Month- set in the south of Quebec  in an imaginary villaged called Three Pines. In her poems she always quotes Canadian writers and especially, poems by Margaret Atwood. In this book I've just read this stanza about a witch who was burned in the XVII century.

 

I was hanged for living alone
for having blue eyes and a sunburned skin,
tattered skirts, few buttons,
a weedy farm in my own name,
and a surefire cure for warts;
Oh yes, and breasts,
and a sweet pear hidden in my body.
Whenever there’s talk of demons
these come in handy.

 

Here you can read the whole poem:  Half-Hanged Mary: 

https://loadedliteraturepodcast.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/half-hanged-mary-by-margaret-atwood/

I strongly recommend Louise Penny's novels as a joy and a source to understand the French and Anglo relationships in Quebec and Canada.

Louise Glück -Born in New York City in 1943- has been Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (October 2020), so let's have a look at one of her impressive poems:

 More information about Louise Glück and her work in:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-gluck

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/books/nobel-prize-literature-winner.html

and don't hesitate to use poetry in the classroom, it's a great cultural resource.

Poetry

Focused Skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking

I'm nobody, by Emily Dickinson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBeYgyt6V8

This video is a sample of how unabridged literary texts can be used in Secondary and Bachillerato to foster creative reading. 

The aim of the activity is to encourage learners to create a video inspired by the poem. The video also includes a 15 year old student recitation of the poem.
The video was created using Adobe Spark, which is a free online tool very easy to use.

Source provided by CFP en Idiomas

   Key objectives

•        Why should I use poetry in the classroom?
•        How do I select suitable poetry for the students age and knowledge of English?
•        What resources are there available to assist me in this process?
•        How do I assess poetry?

   How can I use poetry in the classroom?

• As an alternative introduction to a topic or unit

• To focus on a broader cross-curricular or socio-cultural subject

• To practice specific vocabulary

• As an alternative listening exercise

• As a poetry breaks

• Targeted writing practice; developing rhyme and rhythm for example

    Selecting suitable material and links to resources

           ‘Pretty Ugly’, by Abdullah                                                                                                                   Shoaib 

      Read this poem and then bottom up...great resource when working personal image and self-steem.

      Read it below:

I’m very ugly

So don’t try to convince me that

I am a very beautiful person

Because at the end of the day

I hate myself in every single way

And I’m not going to lie to myself by saying

There is beauty inside of me that matters

So rest assured I will remind myself

That I am a worthless, terrible person

And nothing you say will make me believe

I still deserve love

Because no matter what

I am not good enough to be loved

And I am in no position to believe that

Beauty does exist within me

Because whenever I look in the mirror I always think

Am I as ugly as people say?

            Now read the same words, but bottom up.

      

‘Nicolas Was’, by Neil Gaiman

      This very short story by Neil Gaiman belongs to the book: Smoke and   

      Mirrors, which is a fantastic source of short stories to work in the classroom.

Nicholas Was...

older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.

The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.

Once every year they forced him, sobbing and protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves' invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.

He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.

Ho.

Ho.

Ho. 

The foregoing is excerpted from Smoke & Mirrors by Neil Gaiman. 

  ‘The Pig’, by Roald Dahl

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51604/the-pig

https://www.roalddahl.com/blog/2018/february/buzzwangling-beasts-and-how-to-write-them

https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/stories/a-e/dirty-beasts

https://www.roalddahl.com/docs/Lesson1DirtyBeasts_1435152150.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hxPMPMNuBs

Further Resources: 

http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk 

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion had the idea of setting up Poetry by Heart - a nationwide annual competition for secondary schools which asked contestants to learn two or three poems and be judged on their recitations, first at school level, then regional, then in a national final held at London's National Portrait Gallery. It's proved a huge success, with hundreds of schools participating in the first year, and numbers up by 20% in the second.

Click on the links bellow to have access to the Poetry by Heart web page with examples of poems ,its recitation, information about the author and background of the poem. Great resource for the class.

Example: http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/the-dead-kings/

Example: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken

Poetry Fun

·       Writing a limerick step by step following these instructions: 
                                                        https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Limerick

·       Similes

·       
        Calligrams and acrostic poems

Workshop

     This is amazing poem by Carol Ann Duffy to work with older students on Valentine's Day. You can use these worksheets:

    

            VALENTINE

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light

like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears

like a lover.

It will make your reflection

a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,

possessive and faithful

as we are,

for as long as we are.

Take it.

Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring,

if you like.

Lethal.

Its scent will cling to your fingers,

cling to your knife.

Assessment

• Understanding character traits – see additonal material using Roald Dahl’s Dirty Beasts and Revolting Rhymes as an example

• Putting together comics/videos/performances – this will be explored in more depth in the modules on narrative an drama

• Production of limericks, acrostic poems

• Debates about topics raised in the poems

Have fun making some similes for a character in one of the Revolting Rhymes:

Character in the middle, then text boxes around with _____like, _____like, ________like, as______as, as___________as, as________as