Teacher Education through School-based Support in Indiawww.TESS-India.edu.in

Teaching literature

Unit 12:

Secondary English

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The TESS-India project (Teacher Education through School-based Support) aims to improve the classroom practices of elementary and secondary teachers in India through student-centred and activity-based approaches. This has been realised through 105 teacher development units (TDUs) available online and downloaded in printed form. Teachers are encouraged to read the whole TDU and try out the activities in their classroom in order to maximise their learning and enhance their practice. The TDUs are written in a supportive manner, with a narrative that helps to establish the context and principles that underpin the activities. The activities are written for the teacher rather than the student, acting as a companion to textbooks. TESS-India TDUs were co-written by Indian authors and UK subject leads to address Indian curriculum and pedagogic targets and contexts. Originally written in English, the TDUs have then been localised to ensure that they have relevance and resonance in each participating Indian state’s context. TESS-India is led by The Open University and funded by UKAID from the Department for International Development. Version 1.0 Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

ContentsIntroduction 1

Learning outcomes 2

1 English literature 3

2 Reading literature for enjoyment and languagedevelopment 5

3 Responding to a literary text 10

4 Teaching poems 16

5 Summary 23

6 Resources 24

Resource 1: An extract from The Box by Rich Smolen 24Resource 2: ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth 26Resource 3: Links to literary resources 26Resource 4: Further reading 27

7 Related units 28

References 29

Acknowledgements 30

Transcript 31

IntroductionOne of the reasons we teach students English is to enable them to read,understand and enjoy literature written in English. At the same time, readingliterature helps students to improve their English.

As you know, most of the lessons in English textbooks contain – sometimesin simplified form – literary texts such as novels, short stories and otherfiction (prose), poems and plays. Students are expected to be able to interpret(that is, explain what they have understood about) the poem, play or prosepiece that they have read. Sadly, students read them mainly to passexaminations and get very little opportunity in the class to read literature forenjoyment.

In this unit, you will learn how to help students enjoy reading anddiscussing English prose, poetry and drama.

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Introduction

Learning outcomesAfter studying this unit, you should be able to:

. make yourself and your students familiar with the special uses oflanguage in literary texts

. recognise how reading literature improves your students’ Englishvocabulary and how grammar skills help develop their creativity andpower of imagination.

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1 English literature

Pause for thought

Before reading this unit, pause for a moment and think about your own

feelings and beliefs about English literature.

. How are literary texts different from other texts? For example, how is

a short story different from a newspaper article?

. Do you enjoy reading literature in your home language? Who is your

favourite writer/poet? Why do you enjoy reading their work? What

are the special things you like about literary texts in your own

language?

. Do you read literature in English, apart from the samples given in the

textbook? Who is your favourite English language author/poet?

. What do you think are the main reasons why people do not like to

read in English? Here are some suggestions:

◦ The language is too difficult to understand; they need a dictionary

to understand many of the words.

◦ The society and culture discussed in literary texts is very different

from theirs, so they find it difficult to follow the plot.

◦ They think it is a waste of time.

As you can see, people may have various reasons for not enjoying readingliterature, especially in another language. You will perhaps agree that it isdifficult to enjoy reading a story or play in English if you need a long timeto read a page or you do not understand many of the words. But the reverseis also true, if a person reads very little, they will hardly improve their wordstock (vocabulary) or reading speed.

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1 English literature

In this unit you will learn more about the importance of reading literature inEnglish. The benefits of making students read English literature at schoolinclude:

. helping them learn about interesting events that happen to people likethemselves

. making them familiar with the different ways in which English is used(for example, in personal conversations or in social and officialsituations) in a natural way

. greatly improving their word stock (vocabulary) and grammar

. preparing them to read any text in English with speed and understanding

In this unit you will read more about how to make reading literary textsmore interesting for students. In addition, you will be able to help them torecognise the special characteristics of different genres (types) of literature –prose, poetry and drama. You will also be able to show them how certainwords and ideas help to create meaning in literature. By completing theactivities in this section, you will be able to learn some ways of helpingyour students read English literature on their own.

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2 Reading literature for enjoymentand language developmentYou have read about the reasons why some people read English literatureand others do not; you have also reflected on your own attitude to it.

One important thing to remember is why teaching English at school is notthe same as teaching other subjects. Subjects such as social studies orgeography or science are taught for the information in them: the aim is thatstudents acquire the associated subject knowledge and teachers are expectedto explain the meaning of the concepts given in the lesson.

The reason for teaching English, however, is very different. Unlike thegeography textbook, the English textbook is not meant to transferinformation to students. The English textbook is a tool to develop students’language skills.

By reading the English lessons, students are expected to become familiarwith how English is used by people to communicate with others in naturalways. Discussing the lessons, answering questions, clarifying doubts andworking with other students on the lesson are all meant to help studentslearn how to use English outside the classroom. After all, when they growup they will need to use English in their jobs, when they travel, when theymeet other people, and so on.

Pause for thought

Ask yourself what you do to help your students understand their texts.

Do you:

. read the English lesson and translate it into the students’ home

language?

. read the lesson, explain its meaning in the students’ home language

and discuss the questions given at the end?

Many teachers use these techniques, which are sometimes useful in

making students understand the theme (main idea) of the story, poem or

play.

Translating and explaining, however, do not teach students how to work

out the meaning(s) of a literary text by themselves. Sometimes students

simply memorise the explanations given in the guidebooks available in

the market and reproduce these in the exam. This does not prepare

them to respond to literature appropriately.

More seriously, it prevents them from improving their own language

skills. Translating also teaches students only a limited number of

sentence structures. Since no two languages make all sentences with

the same structure, too much translation will prevent students from

learning other structures in the new language they are learning.

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2 Reading literature for enjoyment and language development

There is a story of a teacher who was teaching her students an Englishlesson about a king and his three daughters. The teacher began by translatingthe lesson into Assamese, their students’ home language. The first sentenceof the story began with ‘Once upon a time there was a king’, and theytranslated the verb ‘was’ into the Assamese word ‘asil’.

Some days later, the teacher asked their students to tell a story in English.To encourage them, the students started with the first sentence from anotherAssamese story, beginning with the sentence ‘A merchant had a horse’, andwere asked to translate it into English and add more sentences. Theirresponse began ‘A merchant was a horse’!

Can you guess why this happened? The problem arose because in Assamese,the word ‘asil’ means both ‘had’ and ‘was’. The student had translated theverb that they had heard the teacher use in the previous story (‘asil’ =‘was’)!

What lesson does this story tell us? It is that two languages may have twodifferent ways to express the meaning of the same word, or that there maybe two words to express one meaning. If we translate sentences withoutknowing all the different uses of a word, we may, like the student in thestory, end up calling a merchant a horse!

In this part of the unit, you will learn about other ways of teaching literaturebesides translating in the home language. By using these techniques, youwill be able to help your students:

. read literature on their own

. interpret or describe the theme in their own words

. enjoy reading literature.

Now read a case study of a Secondary English teacher and the strategies sheused to encourage her students to read a literary text on their own. Do youthink these strategies can be applied to make your own students moreinterested in reading literature?

Case Study 1: Anju Talwar encourages herstudents to keep a literature logbook

Teacher Anju Talwar teaches English in Class IX at a local government

girls’ school.

My students come from a village that has no cinema hall or Internet

booth. Nor do all the girls have a TV set at home.

All this, however, does not lessen the girls’ eagerness to learn English.

They read their English lessons regularly because the only English they

get to see is in the lessons in their English textbook. They write and

memorise answers, complete gap-filling exercises, match columns and

do other comprehension tasks to get good marks in the English exam.

I realise that I cannot stop my students from reading their English

lessons to prepare for their exams. But I also hope, as their English

teacher, to make them enjoy reading the stories, adventure tales,

poems, plays, travel accounts and other interesting units given in their

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textbook. I believe this will encourage them to enjoy reading literature

outside the class text and develop their language skills.

Last year, I decided to try a new strategy to make my students read

their English literature lessons. I made every student record their

feelings about the story (or play, or poem, etc.) they had just read in a

notebook. I explained this was called a logbook and that they could use

it to note down answers to some questions about the text. [Figure 1].

Figure 1 Example of a student’s logbook

I gave my students a week to finish reading and noting down their

responses. I allowed them to note down their feelings in their home

language the first time, because I did not want them to feel they were

writing a test.

At first, the students found it difficult to read the lesson without help, and

they kept asking me for the meanings of new words. I encouraged them

to guess the meanings by reading the surrounding sentences carefully.

Slowly, the girls began to enjoy the challenge of reading on their own.

Every Friday, the students talked about the book that they had read or

were reading. Because they could speak in their home language, they

participated eagerly in the discussion.

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2 Reading literature for enjoyment and language development

Activity 1: Reading for enjoyment

As you saw in the case study, maintaining a literature reading log

encourages students to read literary texts on their own. The benefits are

that it:

. teaches students to develop strategies to understand a text on their

own (e.g. guessing the meaning of a new word from the surrounding

sentences)

. improves their own language

. makes them more confident to express their own feelings and

opinions in English.

Later in this unit you will find an activity that will help your students read

a prose piece on their own. Before that, read the two passages about

fog below and say which passage is from a Class IX Science textbook,

and which one is from an English novel.

1 A fog is a cloud of particles, usually water droplets (water fog), but

sometimes of the crystals (ice fog). There is no essential

difference between fogs and free-flowing clouds in the

atmosphere. Fogs produce little precipitation and at very small

rates; in this respect they are similar to many of the free clouds

seen in the sky that are not giving precipitation.

2 Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green airs

and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the

tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty)

city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights.

As you must have guessed, Passage 2 is from a novel – the first

chapter of Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House. Here are some of the

reasons why Passage 2 is from a literary text, and Passage 1 is not:

. The sentence structure does not follow grammatical rules very

strictly. The first and last sentences, for example, have no verb!

. There is a pattern of repetition of words and phrases that we do not

find in ‘normal’ passages describing a natural phenomenon such as

a fog. The word ‘fog’ is repeated several times, and there is also the

repetition of the parallel phrases: ‘Fog up the river …; fog down the

river’ and ‘Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights’.

. Rather than describing the fog as a phenomenon of nature, this

passage makes us feel as though the fog has the ability to travel on

its own – it ‘rolls’ and ‘flows’, for instance.

. Rather than describing what a fog is, this passage seems to

describe what a fog does.

As the discussion will have shown you, in Passage 2 the author is not

interested in giving us a physical description of a fog. He is using the

fog to describe a scene, and the feelings that are found in a place that

is covered with fog.

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This is how literature differs from ‘everyday’ texts. In literature, authors

force us to see everyday occurrences and events in unusual ways. We

read literature not for information; but for pleasure.

Try in the classroom

Try a similar activity with your students.

. Find two similar passages from their textbooks of English and

another subject, or select a passage from the English textbook and

rewrite it to make a paragraph that looks like a science text.

. Divide the students into small groups and ask them to decide which

passage is from a literature text and which is not. Tell them to give

reasons for their choice.

. During the discussion, point out what literary features there are in

the text.

Remember that students may not be able to recognise many literary

features at first. Help them by giving one or two examples such as the

use of unusual words; repetition of words, phrases or sentences;

ungrammatical structures, and so on. The trick is to let them think for

themselves rather than ‘explaining’ everything to them.

Pause for thought

Did your students enjoy the activity? You can use the same technique to

teach students to look for poetic features in poems. Or you can make

them compare a prose passage and a poem, and say how they are

different. This will help them notice with more attention the special

features of literary texts.

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2 Reading literature for enjoyment and language development

3 Responding to a literary textAs you have seen in the previous section, if we can make students notice thespecial features of literary texts, it will encourage them to respond toliterature without waiting for the teacher to explain every word.

In this section, we will discuss ways of getting students to read Englishplays. But before that, ask yourself these questions:

. Do you read plays? Which plays in your home language do you like themost?

. Some of us like a play because we can enact it on stage. Others like itbecause every play has an interesting climax. What do you like about aplay? Have you read any English plays?

Activity 2: Characteristics of three genres ofliterature

As you know, a play is different from fiction (i.e. prose texts with

imaginary characters) or a poem. In Table 1, we have mentioned one

characteristic feature of each of these genres (types) of literature. Can

you add to the list?

Table 1 Characteristics of three genres of literature.

Prose text (fiction) Play (drama) Poem (poetry)

Includes characters,plot (main idea),descriptions, dialogue

Includes characters,plot, dialogue andstage directions

May not includecharacters, plot,dialogue, description

When you have completed your list, compare it against Table 2 (which is

in the discussion section of this activity).

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Discussion

Table 2 Characteristics of three genres of literature – complete.

Prose text (fiction) Play (drama) Poem (poetry)

Includes characters,plot (main idea),descriptions, dialogue

Includes characters,plot, dialogue andstage directions

May not includecharacters, plot,dialogue, description

Written in prose(sentences)

Written in both prose(sentences) and verse

Written in verse

Uses grammaticalstructures of normal,everyday language

Uses normal everydaylanguage, but withmore features ofspoken language suchas pauses, half-sentences, repetition,whispers andsupporting expressions(‘umm’, ‘hmm’, ‘yeah’,etc.)

Uses rhyme, metreand unusual words andlines

Uses normalpunctuation, includingspeech marks (invertedcommas to begin andend dialogue)

Uses normalpunctuation, but notspeech marks

Uses normalpunctuation in unusualways (e.g. speechmarks for lines spokenby non-humancharacters)

Uses grammaticalwords and structures

Uses grammaticallanguage, except toshow deliberatemistakes

Uses ‘poetic licence’ –ungrammatical words,phrases, sentences

Focuses on thenarrative (a series ofevents that tell thestory)

Focuses on thedialogue to show howthe characters feel andthink

Focuses on the theme(the poet’s unique wayof describing a feeling,event or thing)

This activity must have made you aware that fiction, plays and poems allhave their special characteristics.

This is a good reason why we should not teach literature only by translatingor explaining the ‘meaning’. To enable our students to enjoy readingdifferent types of literary texts, we need to teach them to respond to thespecial features of each genre. We can do this by making them work onactivities that help them respond to literature with their own understandingand experience.

Let us pause for a minute here and think about what makes us like or dislikea work of literature. Take, for example, a movie. Which movie have youwatched recently? Did you like it? Why (or why not)? As you know, ourresponse to a movie is determined by the way the story is told and the waythat the actors portray their characters. More importantly, however, ourresponse is determined by what we have learnt in our society, culture andfamily.

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3 Responding to a literary text

A few years ago, a Hindi movie called Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna dealt with avery sensitive subject: marital problems. The movie was criticised by manyIndians for showing a relationship between two married people. However,many people living in metropolitan cities commented that the movie wasonly showing what happens in real life. Very few people talked about theacting skills of the famous stars (including Abhishek Bachchan, RaniMukherjee, Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta); in fact, they were criticisedfor agreeing to do the film!

Our response even to fictional and imaginary pieces of writing, therefore, isinfluenced by the what we learn in our society, culture and family traditions,i.e. our world view. Every individual brings their own opinions and feelingsto a literary work that is based on their world view and their experience ofreading other literary works.

In short, when we talk about teaching students literature, we actually meanhelping them respond to literature. We can do this by engaging them inactivities that allow them to respond to the text actively on their own, basedon their personal experience and world view.

Now read a case study about a teacher who had to ‘think out of the box’ – i.e., think differently to be able to make her students respond to an Englishplay. Then you will have an activity for your practice.

Case Study 2: Sonia Sinha helps her students tounderstand plays

Teacher Sonia Sinha is an English teacher for Class IX in a local CBSE

school.

I love to read English plays, so when I was appointed as an English

teacher I was very excited.

On my first day, I asked the students whether they had read any of the

plays in their Literature Reader. The students said they were waiting for

me to give them notes that they would memorise for the exams, and

one student asked if he could write answers from a guidebook.

I was shocked to hear such comments. I realised that they were all

serious about their English course, but somehow they had not learnt

how to read and respond to a play. They looked at the chapters in their

Literature Reader simply as lessons to ‘prepare’ for the examination.

I realised I would have to do something to change the way students

read literature. I wanted my students to focus on a play’s dialogue and

stage directions [additional information given beside the dialogue that

tell us where the characters are placed and what expressions they have

to enact], and see how these contributed to the theme of the play. I

wanted them to notice that the dialogue makes the reader understand

what the characters feel and how they express their feelings and

opinions.

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I thought of a strategy. A day before my drama class, I selected a

student, Satish, and made him practise reading with me a few short

pieces of dialogue, as if we were acting a play on the stage.

The next day, I announced to my class that they would listen to a play. I

told the students to pay attention to their reading, because they would

have to answer questions on it. Then Satish and I read the dialogue as

naturally as we could.

Figure 2 An example of a short piece of dialogue.

After we had finished, I asked the students, ‘Was Rohan watching TV?’

Some students said ‘Yes’ and others said ‘No’. Then they had an

interesting discussion about why Rohan was (or was not) lying to his

mother.

I made the discussion focus on how the characters of Mum and Rohan

spoke to each other. I made the students notice how Rohan began his

words with ‘Umm … Mum …’, and how such pauses and ‘empty’ words

help the audience understand the speaker’s mood at that moment. We

discussed the way that Rohan mentioned watching TV, even when his

mother had not asked him about it. The class concluded that Rohan

was indeed lying to his mother, and so on.

I explained how the way that characters speak and behave in a play

helps the reader or audience to understand it better. I added that the

words that people use and the way they use their voice and body

expressions give a lot of information about their feelings, opinions, mood

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3 Responding to a literary text

and the subject that they are discussing. I added that the dialogue and

stage directions in plays give a reader the same kind of information.

Having set the scene, I divided the students into groups of five and

gave them an excerpt from a play in their textbook. I asked them to read

the passage and tell me about:

. the characters

. the topic of discussion

. their response to it – were they happy, sad, angry, worried, etc.

The students read and discussed the play in their groups and came up

with very original and interesting opinions on the play. Over the next few

weeks, they also began rehearsals for performing a play.

I was very happy to see their progress and was surprised at how quickly

they had learnt to interpret a play (that is, say what it means).

You have read about how students can be involved in tasks that help themunderstand the literary features of drama. You can make your students do thenext activity in your English literature class.

Activity 3: Try in the classroom: understanding thetheme of a play through dialogue

This activity is based on a passage from a play called The Box by Rich

Smolen. The text of the passage is in Resource 1.

Here are the steps that you can follow:

1 Announce to the class that they are going to read a play called

The Box. Ask them to guess what the play will be about. If

possible, note a few responses on the board, but do not give out

the answer. Tell them you will discuss the title after they have

finished reading the play themselves. (This is a warm-up question

– using this strategy motivates students to know what is in the

reading passage.)

2 Show them Figure 3 and ask them what they think the men are

doing. Read the names of the characters (Man, Young Man, Old

Man) and ask them which characters are on the stage. (This is

another warm-up activity.)

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Figure 3 Photo of a performance of The Box.

3 Refer to the picture to discuss what is happening. (You can show

students which direction is ‘upstage’ (the area of the stage

towards the back) and which is ‘downstage’ (the area of the stage

closer to the audience).)

4 Read out the extract, or ask one or two students with good oral

skills to read it, so that it sounds like an actual conversation.

5 Divide the students into groups and ask them to read the extract

and think of answers to questions like these:

◦ What is the relationship between the characters?

◦ What are they talking about?

◦ Is there any suspense? Who is creating the suspense?

◦ What is the mood of the characters – are they happy, sad, angry or

worried – or something else? What makes you say that?

◦ Do you like the play? Why, or why not?

◦ Which character do you like? Why?

There are many benefits of such ‘leading questions’. They help students

read with more attention, because they give students a reason to read

(see TDU 4, Reading for understanding, and TDU 5, Reading different

texts), and they also give students a chance to express their own views.

Leading questions shift the responsibility of understanding to the

students, which helps them to become more independent readers.

Pause for thought

Did your students enjoy the activity? You can use such questions to

make students respond to any play in their English textbook. You can

also use these strategies to teach other literature lessons such as

stories.

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3 Responding to a literary text

4 Teaching poemsSo far you have read about the ways in which we can make our studentsnotice the special features that make literary language different from‘ordinary’ language. You have also learnt about a few strategies that can beused to make reading English literature more interesting for secondarystudents.

You must have realised how important it is to encourage students to read andunderstand literature themselves, rather than wait for the teacher to translateevery sentence. As we discussed in the previous sections, every readerresponds to a literary text through their personal experiences and the valuesthat they have learned as a member of society. This is why different peoplereact differently to the same story, book, play or poem: not all of us like thesame texts; nor do we like the same book for the same reasons.

As teachers, we have to encourage students to form their own responses toliterature, and we have already discussed many reasons why this should bedone.

Activity 4: The benefits of reading literature

Let us pause for a moment now and think of this question: what are the

benefits of reading literature? In other words, in what ways does reading

literature help us? To answer this question you might want to think

about how literature portrays the world and relationships, where it ‘takes

us’ when we read it, what language we are reading in, the many ways

language can be used, and so on.

When you’ve made a list of responses, you can compare it to ours.

Discussion

You may have found that most of your points are similar.

1 In literature, we read about people and events from other regions

and cultures. We learn about how other people live their lives. So

literature helps us see the world.

2 When we read about people from other nations and cultures and

their lives, it makes us realise that our own views and opinions

may not be the only ‘correct’ way of looking at life.

3 Literary texts about our own people and their lives help us to

realise that other people go through the same joys and pains in

life as us. This gives us more courage to face our own problems

in life.

4 For adults, literature is a way of finding relief from tensions and

worries. Literature makes us laugh and cry – and when we

express these feelings, it makes us feel lighter. Literature makes

us relax.

5 Literature from other cultures is like a window to the world.

Without having to physically move, we learn many features about

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other places that a map will not tell us. For example, we learn

what a place is famous for, its street names and the names of its

famous monuments, bazaars, and so on.

6 Reading literature improves our language skills. We learn new

words and phrases, and new ways of expressing meaning. We

learn idiomatic language (i.e. words and sentences that are more

natural ways of expressing one’s feelings), especially from prose

texts and plays. For example, when we teach our students how to

introduce ourselves in English, we usually teach them very formal

language, such as ‘Good morning. My name is Miss Lily Verma.’

In real life, however, people use more natural and idiomatic

language, such as ‘Hello, I’m Lily – Lily Verma.’ The language

found in contemporary (i.e. happening or existing now) literary

texts show us how people communicate more naturally.

7 Literature, especially poetry, also shows us how people use

language unusually. Poets stretch the rules of grammar to an

extreme to express their feelings in unusual and special ways;

sometimes they are even ungrammatical. But we allow that kind of

poetic licence because we are more interested in the special ways

in which poets tell us about ordinary feelings and events.

What lesson do we learn from this?

By now we would agree that reading literature broadens our world view andimproves our own language skills. Therefore, it becomes more important tomake our students pay attention to how the writer, playwright or poet tries toexpress their world view. As we know, writers use various means to make usreact to what they write, whether it is fiction, drama or poetry.

Out of all the genres of literature, we know that poetry is the most personal.Poems are written about many different topics, such as love, nature,historical events, happiness, grief, humour and so on. Some poems are shortand some run into several pages. Some poets use rhyme and metre (a fixednumber of syllables in every line) while others do not.

To enjoy reading poetry, one has to explore the overall meaning of what thepoet is trying to say. The theme of a poem is usually not limited to one wordor line or stanza – instead, each word, line and stanza add new layers ofmeaning to the theme. While teaching poetry, therefore, it is important tomake the students work out for themselves how the poet is expressing his orher theme.

You will now read more about how to help students look for and enjoy thetheme of a poem. You will read a case study of a teacher’s experience ofteaching poetry to students of Class VIII. After that, you will get anopportunity to learn some strategies of teaching English poetry in your ownclasses.

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4 Teaching poems

Case Study 3: Ravindran Swami explores themeaning of a poem with his class

Teacher Ravindran Swami is the class teacher of Class VIII in a local

government school.

I was very worried because most of my students came from homes

where no one could read or write. I had just seen the new English

textbook, and wondered how I would teach all the nice poems there

without translating. I love reading English literature, and I often recall

how the Fathers in my own Christian Mission school had developed a

love of literature in all of my classmates. I had seen the value of reading

literature and had always wanted to be an English teacher so that I

could develop the same love of literature in my students.

I decided to take the advice of my old English teacher, and went to visit

Father Thomas in Kochy, his hometown. The Father was very happy to

see me, and over a cup of coffee, we discussed how best to arouse in

students an interest in English poetry. Father Thomas gave me many

new tips, and I felt these would surely help my Class VIII students.

I decided to start by discussing the first two stanzas of the poem

‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth [see Resource 2], which I had studied

at school. This is what I did in his class:

I showed the class a few pictures of daffodils that I had got from the

internet and discussed with the students how people think about

flowers. I then read the poem aloud, and made my students read it

together after me. [See TDU 2, English in the classroom, for notes

about choral repetition.] After that, I asked the students what they

thought the poem was about. A few students made simple comments

like ‘It is about flowers’, but several students also made thoughtful

observations such as ‘It is about the poet’s feelings when he sees the

daffodils’, ‘It is about how the daffodils are dancing’ and so on.

I was happy that students were taking active interest in the poem. After

the initial discussion, I divided the class into groups and gave them an

activity. I asked each group to read the poem on their own and find out

the words, phrases and lines that told them more about what the poem

meant. After fifteen minutes, they would have to share their ideas with

the class.

Before the groups started to work, I gave them an example of what I

wanted the groups to find out. I referred to one student’s comment (‘It is

about the poet’s feelings when he sees the daffodils’) and asked the

class to mention one word from the poem that described the flowers.

One student answered ‘dancing’.

Happy with the response, I instructed them to look for more words,

phrases or lines that described the flowers and the poet’s feelings. I

knew that the language of the poem was not very easy to understand,

but I wanted the students to have the experience of reading a poem on

their own.

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After the groups gave their responses, I drew their attention to how

certain words and phrases were grouped together to express an idea. I

showed them how the poet used collective nouns such as ‘host’ and

‘crowd’ to give an effect of ‘fullness’, or words like ‘fluttering’ and

‘dancing’ to show the gentle movement of the flowers in the breeze.

I ended the class by making the students answer a set of questions on

the poem in their groups. At the end of the class, my students had

managed to read the poem several times and noted many interesting

ways in which the poet described such a simple scene.

Activity 5: Video: Watch a teacher teaching a poem

Now watch the video below about a teacher teaching a poem to an

English class. If you are unable to watch the video, it shows activities

related to teaching the poem ‘Lord Ullin’s Daughter’ based on Case

Study 3 and Activity 4. You may also find it useful to read the video’s

transcript. Please note that the video will be available in early 2014.

‘Lord Ullin’s Daughter’ by Thomas Campbell

A chieftain, to the Highlands bound,

Cries, ‘Boatman, do not tarry!

And I'll give thee a silver pound

To row us o’er the ferry!’–

‘Now, who be ye, would cross Lochgyle,

This dark and stormy weather?’

‘O, I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle,

And this, Lord Ullin’s daughter.–

‘And fast before her father’s men

Three days we’ve fled together,

For should he find us in the glen,

My blood would stain the heather.

‘His horsemen hard behind us ride;

Should they our steps discover,

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4 Teaching poems

Then who will cheer my bonny bride

When they have slain her lover?’–

Out spoke the hardy Highland wight,–

‘I’ll go, my chief – I’m ready: –

It is not for your silver bright;

But for your winsome lady:

‘And by my word! the bonny bird

In danger shall not tarry;

So, though the waves are raging white,

I’ll row you o’er the ferry.’–

As you watch the video, think about the following questions:

. How does the teacher get the students interested in the poem?

. Why does she only read the first six stanzas?

. How does the teacher check that students have understood the

basic meaning of the poem?

. How does the teacher organise the groups?

Now watch the video clip. If it is unavailable or has not been

provided separately, you can find it at the TESS-India YouTube

channel. You will find the transcript at the end of this unit.

Discussion

The teacher asks her students to talk about the pictures illustrating the

poem in the textbook. Getting students to talk about the pictures before

they read the poem encourages them to start thinking about the themes,

and helps to engage them when they read or listen to it. Once students

are interested, the teacher reads the poem aloud. This is a long poem,

so she reads only the first six stanzas. This ensures that students

remain interested, and also that they understand the first part of the

poem before they move on to the rest of it. After reading and listening to

the poem, students work in groups to write a summary. Giving a

summary is a good way of checking understanding. Note how the

teacher gave each group a different stanza, and how she organised the

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groups by giving each student a letter from A to F. By just saying the

letter, it was then very quick to move students into groups.

As you have seen in Case Study 3, making students notice how words andstructures are used in poems can make a literature class very interesting,This is because:

. it gives students an opportunity to read poetry by themselves rather thanwait for the teacher to explain

. they can discuss the poem with their friends in their home language andorganise their responses before talking about them in English

. they get a taste of the unusual ways in which poets talk about commonevents and things.

Such strategies not only teach students to enjoy reading poems; they alsohelp students to practise their reading skills, improve their vocabulary andprepare to be independent readers.

Activity 6: Try in the classroom: teaching a poem

When teaching a poem, it is important to read it aloud so that students

can become familiar with its rhythm. School textbook poems usually

have rhyming words at line ends (e.g. ‘glance’/‘dance’, ‘trees’/‘breeze’,

etc.), and written in a way that make them sound musical when recited

aloud. Recitation not only makes a poem more enjoyable to listen to and

remember; it also helps students learn the pronunciation of words and

sentences (i.e. where to stress, or put the force, in a word or sentence).

Like Mr Swami, you can make the reading of a poem a joyful

experience for your students. Here is how you can do it:

1 Select a poem from the English textbook and try to find some

pictures that match its theme. You could look for pictures in old

magazines at home. If you don’t find one suitable picture, you can

cut out different pictures and paste them on chart paper. You can

even use the picture in the textbook if you can’t find a suitable

one. Using pictures is a good way to motivate learners because it

helps them to visualise (or see) the theme of the poem.

2 Use the picture(s) to start a class discussion and then give the

class the title of the poem and ask them to guess its theme.

Encourage the students to share their ideas but do not tell them

whether they are right or wrong. (Remember, it always feels nice

to discover things for ourselves than to be told about them.)

3 Read the poem aloud and try to bring out the feelings expressed

in it. Sometimes it helps to practise reading the poem at home

before you read it out to students – the teacher is sometimes the

only source of English for students. If the poem is a long one, it is

a good idea to divide the teaching into two or three classes.

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4 Teaching poems

4 Divide the class into groups. Make different groups work with

different stanzas, or give them the same stanzas but with a

different set of exercises.

5 Set a time limit for discussion and when it’s been reached, take

feedback from each group. Make sure students in other groups

have stopped working and are paying attention.

6 After someone from every group has spoken, use their answers to

discuss the poem. Add your own points to the discussion, and

give a summary of the poem. If necessary, explain the parts that

students did not understand well. Giving explanations after

students have read the poem rather than at the beginning of the

class is always a better idea – it helps students to remember the

poem better.

Pause for thought

If it is possible, ask a colleague to watch your class. Alternatively, you

could use your mobile phone to record an audio or video recording. Play

this at home and see how the class went.

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5 SummaryIn this unit you have learned how teaching English literature can be mademore learner-friendly. By making students read and understand stories, playsand poems on their own – either individually or with others – you canprepare them to read other texts in English outside the classroom.

There are many advantages in teaching students to read on their own ratherthan explaining the ‘meaning’ of every literary text. It allows the students to:

. see the different styles in which people use language

. the use of new words and structures in a context (that is, a real-lifesituation)

. discover strategies to learn to read on their own

. express their own feelings about a literary text.

What key things about teaching literature have you learned in this unit?Write three key things that you have learned.

You have had the opportunity to try some techniques out in the classroom.Which techniques have worked well with your students? Which activitiesdid not work so well, and can you make any changes to make them workbetter? Which activities will you continue to use?

What next?

You can find links to online resources (stories and poems) in Resource 3. Ifyou would like to learn more about using literature in the classroom, youwill find links in Resource 4.

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5 Summary

6 ResourcesResource 1: An extract from The Box byRich Smolen

Characters: Man, Young Man, Old Man

(Stage is bare, except for a bus stop sign downstage right. Upstage wall hasa few black and white framed photos; a tripod is lying on the ground next tothe wall. YOUNG MAN and MAN enter from upstage left and cross to thebus stop. There is a camera around YOUNG MAN'S neck.)

YOUNGMAN

Well, here we are.

MAN Here we are.

YOUNGMAN

I'll see you later …

MAN Same time and place …(His voice trails off as he looks for the bus)

YOUNGMAN

As usual.MAN (MAN nods in absentminded agreement, still lookingfor bus. He stops suddenly and looks into audience.)

MAN Uh-oh.

YOUNGMAN

What is it?

MAN Uh-oh.

YOUNGMAN

Did you forget something?

MAN Uh-huh.

YOUNGMAN

Forget your fare?

MAN No.

YOUNGMAN

What, then?

MAN My box! I forgot my box. Wait here?(MAN runs off stage)

YOUNGMAN

Your what?(MAN returns with a large cardboard box)

MAN I didn't miss the bus did I?

YOUNGMAN

You were hardly gone ten seconds. What’s –

MAN Good. I'll see you later.

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YOUNGMAN

OK. Later.(YOUNG MAN is obviously curious as to contents of box.He bends to look inside as MAN pulls box away. Thisaction becomes more exaggerated through the next couple oflines)

MAN Good morning.

YOUNGMAN

Yes, good morning …

MAN Have a good day.

YOUNGMAN

Yes, thank you, you too …

MAN (pause) Is there something else?

YOUNGMAN

Oh, no, not really, I was just …

MAN Don't you have to go soon?

YOUNGMAN

Well, yes … soon –

MAN Didn't the studio call you in early today?

YOUNGMAN

Yes, but –

MAN Yes?

YOUNGMAN

I was just wondering … (pause, clears throat) … justwondering what's in the box?

MAN You want to know what's in my box?

YOUNGMAN

Umm, yes … if you don't mind telling me …?

MAN (pause) You want to know what's in here?(MAN gestures to box. YOUNG MAN starts to nod.)

MAN Or what's in here? Eh?(MAN gestures to his head. MAN nods, laughs at his ownjoke)

YOUNGMAN

I mean what's in here.(YOUNG MAN points to cardboard box)

MAN You don't find my joke very funny.

YOUNGMAN

Oh. No, I just wanted to know …

MAN You want to know why? Because it wasn't a joke!(MAN is serious for a moment, his eyes widen; then breaksout into laugh.)

MAN It's the same thing!

YOUNGMAN

What?

MAN (very slowly) The same thing. Here(MAN gestures to box)

MAN and here.(MAN gestures to head)

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6 Resources

YOUNGMAN

(pause, look of confusion) I don't understand. (pause)What's in the box?

MAN Nothing.

Resource 2: ‘Daffodils’ by WilliamWordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed – and gazed – but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.

Resource 3: Links to literary resources

Here are some links to online literary resources:

. Project Gutenberg

. PoemHunter.com

. The Poetry Archive

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Resource 4: Further reading

Here are some links to articles and tips for teachers of English aboutteaching literature:

. ‘Using literature in the EFL/ESL classroom’ (Clandfield, undated)

. ‘BritLit’ (TeachingEnglish, undated)

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6 Resources

7 Related units. TDU 4, Reading for understanding: You can learn more about reading

for understanding in this unit. These strategies could also be applied toliterary texts.

. TDU 5, Reading different texts: You can learn about different readingstrategies and activities in this unit. These strategies could also beapplied to literary texts.

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ReferencesClandfield, L. (undated) ‘Teaching materials: using literature in the EFL/ESLclassroom’ (online), Onestopenglish. Available from: http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-materials/teaching-materials-using-literature-in-the-efl/-esl-classroom/146508.article(accessed 9 December 2013).

PoemHunter.com, http://www.poemhunter.com/ (accessed 9December 2013).

The Poetry Archive, http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do(accessed 9 Deecmber 2013).

Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ (accessed 9 December 2013).

TeachingEnglish (undated) ‘BritLit’ (online). Available from: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit (accessed 9 December 2013).

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References

AcknowledgementsThe content of this teacher development unit was developed collaborativelyand incrementally by the following educators and academics from India andThe Open University (UK) who discussed various drafts, including thefeedback from Indian and UK critical readers: Kim Ashmore and PadminiBoruah.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, this content is madeavailable under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (notsubject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is madeto the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:

Figure 2: clip art used with permission from Microsoft.

Figure 3: from http://www.beirut.com/.

Video clips and stills: Thanks are extended to the Heads and pupils in ourpartner schools across India who worked with The Open University in thisproduction.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have beeninadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make thenecessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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Transcript

31

Transcript Narrator: This video shows the teacher helping her students understand a

poem. She uses pictures of the poem to get the students thinking and then she reads the poem aloud. The students work in groups to discuss its meaning

Teacher: Please open the book page number 74 and 75, right, and look at

the pictures. Fine and raise your hands and tell me what you actually understand from the pictures.

Students: Ma’am in the first picture ma’am birds are enjoying the weather

ma’am while flying over the sea. Ma’am in the second picture ma’am, ma’am they both are asking for some help ma’am to the boatman.

Teacher: All right Sathyam. Student Sathyam: Ma’am the first picture shows that it is high tide, I think its foul

weather and birds are moving away from the place and second picture shows of a couple.

Teacher: Two couple? Student: A couple, boy and girl. They are dressed like they belong from a

rich family. The boy seems to call a boatman for some help and the girl seems to be frightened of something.

Teacher: Okay. I am going to read out the first few stanzas right, and then

we will do an activity and I will tell you about the activity later. You all please pay attention right, pay attention to the stanzas. I begin with the first one.

A chieftain, to the Highlands bound, Cries, ‘Boatman, do not tarry! And I’ll give thee a silver pound To row us o’er the ferry!’ ‘Now, who be ye, would cross Lochgyle, This dark and stormy weather?’ ‘O, I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle, And this, Lord Ullin’s daughter. ‘And fast before her father’s men Three days we’ve fled together, For should he find us in the glen, My blood would stain the heather. ‘His horsemen hard behind us ride; Should they our steps discover, Then who will cheer my bonny bride When they have slain her lover?’

Teacher: Now we have about six stanzas out here, right. Now, what we

are going to do is we are going to divide you into six groups, six stanzas and I will allocate one stanza to each group and I want you all to work and discuss the summary of that stanza and one out of that group is going to write. All of you will discuss in the group and one will write.

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Teacher: Now I am going to divide the group in a manner that you turn into six groups right. We begin from Tushar. Tushar you are ‘A’. Student ‘B’. Student ‘C’. Student ‘D’. Student ‘E’. Student ‘F’.

Teacher: I want a very swift movement. All ‘A’s’ please stand up first. All

the ‘A’s’ will stand, come out please. Come out and sit here. We will begin from here. Quickly, quickly without making any noise. ‘B’, stand up all the ‘B’s’ and you sit behind ‘B’. All the groups will sit together, so that they can discuss. Sit in a manner where you can discuss, all right. You will turn around and discuss. So group A would be doing stanza 1. Have the books with you, stanza 1, decide amongst yourself who is going to write the summary. Group ‘B’ will do stanza 2. Stanza 1 is from ‘A chieftain to the Highlands bound’ okay. Stanza 2 is ‘Now who be ye’, all right. ‘C’ will do stanza 3. ‘D’ will do stanza 4. ‘E’ will stanza 5 and ‘F’ will do stanza 6. I give you three minutes for this and then we will discuss.

Students: Do not delay any further. Student: It’s trying to say that the weather is not well. Student: I will give three silver pounds, means that he will give money like

silver pounds. Student: He will give money. Student: He will give him silver pounds. Student: Silver coins … Student: Because he wants to get away from the place, because the

weather is not right. Yeah. Student: I think that he is willing to take on the other shore, not for the

money, but for the needy. Student: No, but I don’t think so. I think he is not ready to take them … Student: Yes. Student: But it’s … Student: He is saying that he is Student: But I think is willing … Student: Asking for money … Student: Yes, he is asking for money. Student: Yes he is asking for money, according to the picture. Student: No Student: Let’s see the text and revise it. [Murmur] Student: Not for the silver, right … Student: Okay.

Transcript

33

Student: Okay. Students: [Murmur.] Teacher: Time up everyone, stop writing, okay. I read out the first stanza.

Group ‘A’, you have the first stanza, okay, it says: A chieftain to the Highlands bound Cries ‘Boatman, do not tarry! And I’ll give thee a silver pound To row us o’er the ferry!’

Teacher: What do you understand by that? Student: Ma’am we understand that a person is living in Scotland and he

asked the boatman not to delay any further and also says that he will give him a hefty price to take them across the river.

Teacher: Excellent. Do you all agree with that? Students: Yes ma’am. Teacher: All right, Group E, I read out your stanza:

Out spoke the hardy Highland wight, ‘I’ll go, my chief – I’m ready: It is not for your silver bright, But for your winsome lady:

Teacher: How would you explain it? Student: In this stanza, I think the boatman is willing to take the lord and

his daughter and Chieftain in the dangerous waves and weather without any silver pounds, without showing any greediness for the wisdom lady and the beautiful lady and help them to cross the shore.

Teacher: Right, group ‘F’. Narrator: Reading poems aloud helps your students to understand, enjoy

and remember them. Leave time at the end of the lesson to explain words or concepts that your students don’t understand.