A letter to the teachers of English: 73Teaching a poem in the Secondary class (3) [Archives:2005/812/Education]

Dr..M.N.K.Bose ([email protected])
Associate Professor of English,
Faculty of Arts, Ibb
Dear Fellow teachers,

Glossing the difficult words may not be enough for some learners and you have to explain certain expressions such as 'full of care', 'no time to turn at Beauty's glance' etc. You should not hesitate to give them as much as help as they need, because understanding a poem is difficult and you are the only source of help for them. At the same time, do not over explain; if your students need no explanation. It is like an experienced mother feeding her child, not insufficiently nor too much. As I have said on several occasions, this comes from experience; so, do not despair, if you haven't got this ability to judge your students' level at present.

Glossing and explaining can also be done through interacting with the learners. A good and simple introduction to the poem can enable them to understand some of the words and expressions. One such introduction can be as follows:

You can show to the class a picture of a farmer working in the field and ask them 'what is he doing?' to elicit the answer 'He is working in the farm.' You can then ask questions such as 'Why is he working?' to elicit the answer 'To earn money'. Question such as 'Why do we need money?' can elicit 'In order to live happily'. Then you can ask 'If this man works all the day without any rest, will he be happy?' to which the answer will be 'no'. From there, you can take the class to the idea of 'leisure', which is the main idea of the poem.

This is just one example and I am sure, with a bit of imagination, you can think of better introductions to this poem. One advantage of this introduction is that it brings out the idea of the poem easily and with this in mind, the learners can tease out the poem without much difficulty. You can also notice that the teacher asks the learners questions and extracts the answers from them, thereby engaging them in a dialogue, which is an additional advantage of this introduction.

There are different views about introducing the poet to the learners; some experts feel that it is not at all necessary. But, it is not a waste of time, if you make a very short introduction of the poet; you can make use of the information given in the PB, that he lived between 1871 – 1940 and some more information, if you can get it from the library or Internet. Make it as short as possible and DO NOT test this information in the examination.

Your reading of the poem aloud is an important step in the teaching of it. You should read it aloud with life in such a way that they get the main idea of the poem; some experts suggest that you recite the poem from memory in order to make an impact on your learners and motivate them to memorize it. You can read it twice or three times so that most of them get to know how to read it, how to pronounce certain words etc. You should get the learners to read it aloud as well. To begin with, a few able ones can read, followed by the others in the class. Most of them should get a chance to read it in front of you; if the class is large, there can be group reading: three or four students in a desk/row can read it aloud together. You should watch them read and correct their pronunciation immediately. As a part of follow-up, they can be asked to memorize it and recite it in the following classes, which can form a part of testing. I will say something more about this poem and also about testing poems in my next letter.

Yours fraternally,

Dr..M.N.K.Bose
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