NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

ROBERT FROST

Literature and Language Teaching Lesson Plan By Yasin SEVİNÇ

NOTHING GOLD CAN

STAY Language Level: B2 (Upper Intermediate) Target Students: High School Students (14-16) Classroom Size: 20 students Time: 2*45 Minutes Materials: Pictures, Powerpoint Presentation, Blackboard, Copy of Change

Organizer, Video analysis of the poem Aim: Make students to understand the poem. Gain a basic understanding of

the historical/cultural background. Students will be able to understand metaphors in a poem.

1- Giving a short information about Robert

Frost’s life and other works. And watching a mini biography video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUWIdhgVTAgRobert Frost, Winner Of 4 Pulitzer Prizes

Pre-reading Activities 5Min.

Students will need to understand the Biblical

story of the Garden of Eden.Task 1https://

www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-stories/chapter-3-adam-and-eve?lang=engTeacher asks them to read it before the lesson, particularly the part where Adam and Eve are

expelled. Even the peace and plenty of paradise didn’t last.

2- HELPING STUDENTS WITH CULTURAL, HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Even though the poem was written with a

simple language there are a few words that might need explanation. Students will need know the meaning of hue and subside.

Teacher provides a glossary for the students.

HELPING STUDENTS WITH THE VOCABULARY

Teacher writes the title of the poem on the

board and asks the students: What do they think it means? Teacher draws their attention to the apparent

contradiction: Doesn’t gold stay gold forever? How can it be that gold can not stay the

same?

Stimulating Student Interest In The Text 10 Minutes

After students have suggested some possible

explanations, Teacher divides the class into groups of five students and give each group a copy of the Change organizer.

Have them use it to map out some of their thoughts about certainty of impermanence and change, which is the theme of Frost’s poem.

Change Organizer 10 Minutes

When the groups have completed their

organizers, ask them to give examples of things people do to avoid change. For example, to stay healthy, some people exercise, others take vitamins and supplements. Others choose to have cosmetic surgery in order to remain young looking. Do these practices stop change?

Students discuss about ‘change’ relevant to the theme of the poem. 15 Minutes

Students watch a video analysis of the poem. https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ed_j9ZLxNA

Students can understand the theme of this short poem by examining its metaphors.

While-reading Activities

At this age students might not know what a

methapor is. So firstly teacher teaches them by giving examples.

Teacher distributes the papers about methapor and students fill in the blanks.

Introducing Methapors 5Minutes

Students underline all the words connected

with a particular lexical set and then speculate on their metaphorical or symbolic meaning.

The metaphors in this poem may be challenging for more literal-minded students

So the teacher helps them by looking at the stanza line by line and asking some leading questions like:

. How can green be gold? It helps the students understand that gold is a symbol of something precious and valuable.Those first shoots and leaves symbolize rebirth and new life and are equally precious, and therefore gold.

Nature’s first green is gold

Frost is not speaking literally, of course. He

meansthat the first green is the stage of growth that goes by the most quickly

Her hardest hue to hold.

These two lines reinforce what Frost has stated in the title and the opening lines: the quick passing oftime, the impermanence of the fresh green shoots and leaves of spring.Again only an hour isn’t literal; Frost is using hyperbole to make his point.

Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour

This line shows us what happens after the

early leaf is no longer figuratively a flower—it becomes a true leaf. But the speaker doesn't say "becomes," he says "subsides." This means that the first leaf sank down, or settled, to become another leaf.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

It was students’ homework to read the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden prior the lesson, particularly the part where Adam and Eve are expelled. So they’ve learnt that even the peace and plenty of paradise didn’t last.And every day passing quickly.

So Eden sank to griefSo dawn goes down to day

1. Students write about something they thought

would never change but it changed. Was it a change for the better? Or did it make them feel sad, angry, betrayed?

2. Students make a list of things they wish would never change.

Post-Reading Activities

Students read and discuss another poem on

the same theme.

I STILL HAVE EVERYTHING YOU GAVE ME

by Naomi Shihab Nye

"It is dusty on the edges.Slightly rotten.

I guard it without thinking.Focus on it once a year

when I shake it out in the wind.I do not ache.

I would not trade."

Hue: Ton (renk için) Subside: This means that the first leaf sank

down, or settled, to become another leaf. Grief: Keder, Tasa Dawn: Şafak

Glossary