Project : "The power of poetry"

Project:      “The power of poetry”

Students:       4to Ano Educación Secundaria

Curriculum Subject:    Literature

Topic:      Poetry

Aims:

Content:  to explore about poetry, based on students’ interest, looking for and processing information.

Language: To find out about new vocabulary, practicing reading, listening, inferring, and explaining.

Thinking skill:

To understand causes and effects, giving opinion, reporting.

Social Skills: cooperation.

Teaching sequence:

Activity 1

Lead in .Pre –Task

The teacher selects a quotation, sticks it on the board and reads it aloud.

"The sun cannot set without a poem being born!" - Connie Marcum Wong.

Students in groups have to discuss about this quotation. Each group tells the others what this quotation means for them.

In order to activate students’ background knowledge, the teacher asks them “What is poetry?”

The teacher elicits from students different words that represent poetry for them writing these words on the board.

The teacher gives students a wordle in which they have to find the word for each definition.

 <a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4476642/Untitled"
          title="Wordle: Untitled"><img
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/4476642/Untitled"
          alt="Wordle: Untitled"
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>

This wordle is in the following page.

……………..  is one who writes poetry.

……………. is a written expression of emotion or ideas in an arrangement of

                     words/verse most often rhythmically.

……… ....... a channel of inspiration for a poet.

………….... . two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions                                                               

                     of a poem.

(This is from intra-net)Teacher checks all and asks one of the students to write the definition of each word on the board.(Blackboard is always important)

Core part:

1-task

Teacher tells students that they are going to watch a video in which Madonna reads a poem in English.

After listening to the poem, the teacher discusses it together with the students.

Students in group have to answer the following questions.

Who wrote this poem?

Who reads this poem?  

What is this poem about?

Is it a romantic poem?

Who is the muse in this poem?

How many stanzas does this poem have?

A volunteer per group will choose one answer to read.

* Students will improve their vocabulary through digital dictionary.

2-Task

The teacher gives students a photocopy with the lyrics of the poem .The stanzas are mixed and the students have to put them in order. Students can listen to the poem as many times as they need.

 

If You Forget Me

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

Pablo Neruda

The teacher provides each group with a colorful card. Students have to cut out and stick the different stanzas in the right order on the card.

Teacher monitors, corrects and provides essential information. Each group reads one stanza to have the complete poem.

One volunteer per group sticks a colorful card with the whole poem in different parts of the school. (Classroom, teachers’ room, playground etc).

3-Task

The teacher elicits from the students to complete the following sentences.

If you cross the street without paying attention, you* will have………

If I don’t study, I *won’t pass…………..

*The teacher will explain to the students that “SHALL=WILL” Shall is more formal and it is used for poetry.

*”WON’T=WILL NOT”

The sentences written on the board will have different colors:

Green for the word “IF”. Red for modal verb “WILL”. Blue for the verbs.

(The students will immediately notice the teacher is teaching a new structure.)

After explaining to the students that we use the first conditional to express situations that are likely to happen, the teacher will ask the students look for examples in the poem.

“If little by little you stop loving me

 I shall stop loving you little by little.”                                                                        

“ If suddenly

 you forget me

 do not look for me,

 for I shall already have forgotten you.”

The teacher asks for volunteers to dramatize the part of the poem found.

CLOSURE:

Creating a digital poetry

Students can use MovieMaker to create their own digital poems or to represent an existing poem through multimedia. Students can use scanned or downloaded images or, even better take their own photos with a digital camera.

They can organize their images and use the voice recording feature to read the poem aloud. They can add sound effect soundtrack of music they have created.

Finally, a poetry slam is open to any student who wishes to participate.

(A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam   
   

 DOCENTES:  Ana María Cordi, Verónica Wolos y Lilia María Perazzolo