Review: Previously in Unit 8:3, we discussed about how to teach the sub topic ‘Identifying main features of different genres’ in Form Three. In this sub topic, students were introduced to the various techniques of identifying and analysing various features of different genres independently and in literary works selected
In this Unit 8:4, we will learn how to
teach the sub topic, ‘Interpreting poems’ in
Form Four. In this sub topic, we
will again guide students to read and analyse various poems by using best ways
possible.
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THE
FOLLOWING IS THE COMPREHENSIVE TEACHING GUIDE ON THE SUB TOPIC:
A: INFORMATION OF THE TOPIC:
1.
Topic: READING LITERARY WORKS.
2. Sub
Topic: Interpreting
poems.
3.
Periods per sub topic: 16
4: Class: Form Four.
4: Class: Form Four.
B: HOW TO TEACH THE TOPIC:
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The student should be able to
interpret poems. A teacher needs to get prepared before going to teach poems to
the students because what he/she is going to be confronted with from the
students is the idea that ‘poems are difficult’. Teacher’s one job then is to
make students feel that poems are easy just like other genres of literature.
This is done by guiding students to understand that what they should bear in
mind is that their focus is based on a single poem on just a single page of the
book. And this is different from 100 pages of a play or a novel. Thus, why when
we devote ourselves to read and analyse 100 pages we don’t say it is difficult
but when we read and analyse a single-page poem we say it is difficult? In the
end, the students are going to realise that poems are as simple as any other
works of art!
For more on Steps of Analysing
Poems, click HERE!
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ACTIVITIES AND GAMES TO FACILITATE A LESSON
ACTIVITY 1: BRAINSTORMING AND INTRODUCTION
The teacher introduces the
meaning of poetry as a revision so as to engage students in the mood of talking
about poetry. Students can discuss about the meaning of poetry and other
related terms like types so that to remind them of poetry.
In this part, a teacher can
introduce how students should read a poem (See below How to Read a Poem Aloud).
After that, students are introduced the methods on how selected poem or poems
are going to be analysed.
Introducing
the Analysis Method. Students can be told on how the selected poems are
going to be analysed after reading. A teacher may either introduce the method
or wait until after reading a poem or poems aloud with the class. The method I
will share with you today is called ‘WHAT
and HOW’ METHOD OF ANALYSING POEMS’. This is the useful way of analysing a
poem because what a reader needs is just to ask himself/herself some simple
questions. And if he/she answers them correctly that becomes the beginning of
the understanding of the poems read.
By definition, these
concepts are defined as follows:
‘WHAT’ means what poet says, and
‘HOW’ means how the poet says what he/she has to say.
After this main terms and
questions of the method, students are now introduced to the specific questions
each term has for the easy analysis of the poem.
By using ‘WHAT and HOW’ METHOD’, students have
to read the poem and analyse it by using this method and by answering the
specific questions as follows:
Part 1: WHAT: The 'WHAT' of the poem.
This part deals with
the content or subject matter of the poem. Here students are asked the
questions about the content of the poem. These guiding questions on poem's
content are:
(1)
What is the poem about? (Paraphrase the poem).
(2)
What issues (themes) poet is expressing?
(3)
What is the main conflict in the poem?
(4)
What is the setting of the poem?
(5)
Is the poem relevant to the contemporary societies?
(6)
What is the message of the poem?
(7)
What lesson can be learnt from the poem?
(8)
What is the background of the poet?
(9)
What is the background of the poet?
(10)
What is the poet's philosophy (viewpoint) on the
subject matter of the poem?
Part 2: HOW: The 'HOW' of the poem.
In this part, we deal
with techniques (Form) used in the poem by the poet in delivering the content
(the issues asked above in the content) to the intended audience. This part is all about how a poet
communicates his/her ideas. All these lead us to the following guiding
questions on poetic techniques used:
(1)
Comment on the title of the poem.
(2)
How many stanzas do a poem has?
(3)
How many verses per stanza?
(4)
Comment on the rhyming scheme of the poem.
(5)
Comment on the rhythm of the poem.
(6)
What is the tone of the poet?
(7)
What is the mood of the poem?
(8)
What is the kind of the poem?
(9)
What is the persona of the poem?
(10)
Who is the addressee of the poem?
(11)
Comment on the language used in the poem.
(12)
What are other poetic techniques used in the poem?
Then students are also
reminded of the patterns/structures to be used when they will be analysing
poems. These patterns are introduced at this stage because later, there will be
only analysis of the selected poems, so the chance of talking about these
patterns is minimal. These patterns are:
- The title of the poem symbolises…..
- The poet says…
- The poem is about…..
- The theme of the poem is ….
- The message of the poem is…..
- The poet uses…….to …….
- The poet’s tone is……..
Also vocabulary items
used when analysing poems are also worth discussing at the stage. Students should
understand them even before analysing the poems.
Some of the vocabularies
are; Line, Stanza, verse, simile,
metaphor, personification, theme, message, tone, mood, and the like.
ACTIVITY 2: READING A SELECTED POEM ALOUD.
The students and
teacher at this stage, they discuss the guidelines on the better reading of the
poem. The following are the stages on How to Read a Poem and understand
it:
(1) Read with a pencil.
When you are reading a poem with a pencil, you can
react to it instantly. You can mark some important points or sections. You can
even draw the lines to show connected ideas.
So that to mark your poem well, you should read
both silently and aloud with careful listening of the sound and rhythm of the
words.
(2) Examine the basic subject of the poem.
In this aspect, the reader of the poem considers
the following aspects:
Title: What does it tell you
about the content of the poem? What tone does it create?
Subject: What is the poem about?
This is the basic question to ask oneself you read a poem.
Persona and Situation: Here the reader asks
himself/herself several questions like:
- Who is talking?
- To whom is he talking to?
- Under what circumstances?
- Where are they?
- What do they talk about?
- Why do they talk about that?
Paraphrasing a poem: The reader should also
be able to paraphrase a poem in words and in written form. That means a
students should be able to summarise a poem in either spoken or written form.
Comparison: As the reader reads the
poem it is also important to find out if the poem is in comparison with other
things like other works of art or situations.
Attitude of the author: What is the author’s
attitude toward his/her subject? Is it serious, ironic, satiric, humorous,
witty, or hostile?
The Mood of the poem towards the reader. Does the poem appeals
to the reader’s mind, emotions or feelings?
(3) Consider the context of the poem.
Here the reader should ask himself/herself
questions like: Is the poem connected to
any allusions or to other literary or historical events? If that is the
case, how do these connections add to the meaning of the poem and how are they
appropriate? For example, If the reader knows that ‘Your Pain’ is a poem connected to the history of Mozambique he/she
can easily connect the content of the poem and the appropriate historical event
(but the poem should be analysed as a literary work).
Another question is: What do you know about the poet? This question is also important
because it helps the reader to know the history and life of the poet, hence is
able to connect the poem with the life and the content of the poem. For example,
the reader of ‘Your Pain’ comes to
understand that the writer of the poem was a freedom activist.
(4) Study the form of the poem.
Here the reader should consider the sound
and rhythm of the poem.
He/she should find out if the poem has been
composed in metrical patterns (meter); if the poem has rhymes; if the poem
has alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia; and how these aspects affect the
meaning of the poem.
Division of the poem: How the poem is
divided. Are there any stanzas, rhymes, and how many verses per stanza?
Organisation of the ideas in the poem: The reader should also
consider this aspect. It helps him to know whether the ideas of the poem are
organised from simple to complex; from outer to inner; from past to present;
from one place to another; or from a certain point to another?
The type of the poem: In this aspect, the
reader discusses the type or genre of the poem and what are expected from such
kind of a poem.
(5) Look at the word choice of the poem.
It is not bad for the reader to take a dictionary
with him. At this part, the reader is advised to list all verbs in the poem and
find out what actions they tell about the poem.
And if there are any difficult or confusing
words, the reader should take a dictionary and look up for the specific words.
Mood of the poem: The choice of words creates the
mood of the poem. So it is good to observe the words/vocabularies used in the
poem in order to tell about the mood of the poem.
Consider the symbolism used. Here the reader
should study carefully the used symbols in the poem in order to know what they
stand for or what they represent in the poem and in the real life situations.
Identify figurative language. This is the language
full of figures of speech. The reader as he/she reads should also consider the
figures of speech used in order to understand their effect in delivering the
message of the poem. The reader should consider the following; similes,
metaphors, hyperbole, oxymoron, paradox, personification and others.
(6) Conclude reading a poem.
The reader should conclude reading the poem by
asking himself/herself questions such as ‘What is the purpose of this poem’? Is
it relevant to the contemporary societies?. These are the crucial questions
because they give the glimpse on the purpose of the poem and its relevance to
the societies in question.
ACTIVITY 3: READING AND ANALYSING
THE POEM
READING THE POEM
A teacher needs to put
students in attention before he reads the selected poem. Then, the teacher reads
the poem aloud once. The poem I am going to use as an example is ‘Your Pain’ by Armando Guebuza.
Your Pain
By Armando Guebuza
Your pain
Yet more my pain
Shall suffocate
oppression
Your eyes
Yet more my eyes
Shall be speaking
of revolt?
Your scars
Yet more my scars
Will be
remembering the whip?
My hands
Yet more your
hands
Will be lifted
fully armed?
My strength
Yet more your
strength
Shall overcome
imperialism?
My blood
Yet more your
blood
Shall irrigate our
victory.
Students to read the poem
silently and with the guide of the teacher to answer comprehension questions
intended to guide them in interpreting the poem.
ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
The teacher and students to
discuss the answers to the comprehension questions and the teacher to write the
answers on the board.
Here WHAT and HOW’ METHOD OF ANALYSING POEMS’ may be applied:
Part 1: WHAT: The 'WHAT' of the poem.
This part deals with
the content or subject matter of the poem. Here students are asked the
questions about the content of the poem. These guiding questions on poem's
content are:
(1)
What is the poem about? (Paraphrase the poem). The poem is about the tribulation and sufferings of
the people who are tortured, oppressed, and humiliated. The poem also implies
that these people are under oppressive foreign domination and the persona urges
his fellows to unite and fight together against the colonial imperialism.
(2)
What issues(themes) poet is expressing?. Themes. The possible themes of the poem are:
·
Colonialism.
The people of this society are protesting against the colonialists who are
mistreating them on their own land.
·
Oppression.
The people of this society are also oppressed by the oppressive colonialists.
·
Torture.
The members of this society are tortured through various means like whipping
and other forms of torture.
·
Sacrifice. Stanza six
of the poem shows that the poet is urging his fellow people to fight for their
freedom by sacrificing what they have.
·
Exploitation. It also shows that the people are exploited. They do not own the major
means of production in their own country. This also leads to their fight
against the exploiters.
·
Awareness. The poet is trying to make the audience aware
of the evils that are prevailing in the society. He wants his fellow countrymen
to wake up and fight for the oppressors.
·
Unity.
The persona shows that there is a need for the unity for them to succeed. He
encourages them to come together and reclaim their lost freedom.
·
Humiliation. The Africans in Mozambique and other dominated countries are being
humiliated by the colonialists or the oppressors.
·
Classes.
The whites and other big people belong to the upper class while the poor Africans
belong to the lower class.
·
Injustice.
People are mistreated by the oppressors. They are not given their rights. Even when
they demand for the rights, the big people own everything in the country, so
they have nowhere to go.
(3) What is the main
conflict in the poem? The main conflict in this poem is between the African
people and the colonialists.
(4) What is the setting of
the poem?
The setting of the poem is Mozambique, an African country struggling for the
independence. The poem is also relevant to the African settings or societies
where people are still oppressed.
(5)
Is the poem relevant to the contemporary societies? Yes, it is relevant
because until today there are some parts of the African continent and the world
where these vices are conducted. The people in such areas such as civil wars
are struggling for the freedom. The
poem is also relevant to the people who were under colonial domination, to
those who are currently under certain domination like cultural domination, and
to any society that experiences any sort of oppression like the oppression in
the child labor.
(6)
What is the message of the poem?. Message of the poem. The message of the poem is
that the oppressors are unacceptable members of any society. They cause harm to
others. They violate human rights that govern the basic foundations of people
in the world.
(7)
What lesson can be learnt from the poem?. Lesson/teachings of the poem. Various lessons can
be deducted from the poem. First, the poem teaches us that colonialism or any
domination is a bad system of life and should be abolished by any means
necessary. Second, unity is an essential thing to have in order to triumph
against and kind of injustice. Also political awareness is vital for the
oppressed people to overcome their miseries.
(8)
What is the background
of the poet? Armando Guebuza was
born in 1942. He was a FRELIMO militant from the early stages of the liberation
struggle. Since independence he has been one of the leaders in Mozambique. In
June a leading Frelimo Party official, Armando Guebuza, political commissar for
the armed forces, visited Great Britain to warn about the prospects for
confrontation with South Africa, and to argue against Western European support
for the apparent U.S. tilt toward closer relations with the South African
government. In June, Machel dismissed three cabinet ministers, including
Politburo members Armando Guebuza, the minister of the interior, and Mariano
Matsinhe, the minister of security, reportedly because of continuing discipline
problems in the country's security forces. Frelimo dominated December 2004
elections, winning almost two-thirds of the seats in the legislature. Frelimo
secretary general Armando Guebuza was elected to succeed Chissano as president.
(9) What is the poet's
philosophy (viewpoint) on the subject matter of the poem?. The poet’s
viewpoint of the colonial domination is that this kind of domination is not
allowed to the people who have their land are free to decide where to live and
what to work for a living. The colonialists should not oppress them or force
them against their will because this is not white men’s land but African land.
Part 2: HOW: The 'HOW' of the poem.
In this part, we deal
with techniques (Form) used in the poem by the poet in delivering the content
(the issues asked above in the content) to the intended audience. This part is all about how a poet
communicates his/her ideas. All these lead us to the following guiding
questions on poetic techniques used:
(1)
Comment on the title of the poem. Title of the poem.The title reflects the content as
the content of the poem itself signify the pains, tortures, and oppressive acts
done to the members of this society. The poet, in a nutshell, talks about
struggle against the oppression.
(2)
How many stanzas does a poem has?. The poem is divided into six stanzas.
(3) How many verses per stanza?. Each stanza having
three verses each.
(4) Comment on the rhyming
scheme of the poem. The poem has regular rhymes. For example, the
first stanza rhyme. Other stanzas have each two first lines rhyme.
(5)
Comment on the rhythm of the poem. The poems have been arranged regularly in stanzas
and verses so as to create a rhythm of the poem.
(6)
What is the tone of the poet?. The tone of the poet is serious, angry, and
optimistic.
(7) What is the mood of the
poem?. The mood of the poem is seriousness, sadness and
anger.
(8)
What is the kind of
the poem?. The poem is lyric
didactic poem as it is short and it proposes/instruct what is to be done. It
gives the instruction to the readers.
(9)
Who is the persona of
the poem? The persona is the
militant and one of the oppressed members of the society. He is also optimistic
fellow who is sure the victory against the oppressors will be won.
(10)
Who is the addressee
of the poem? Addressee. The
addressee of the poem or the audience of the poem are the torture and oppressed
members of the society. The poet wants them to join force together and drive
the oppressor out of their country.
(11)
Comment on the language used in the poem. The language of the poem is simple, ordinary,
clear, and straight forward. The poet, for example, has used several
expressions and words so as to express his intended message. He has used the
phrase like “Blood irrigating victory” to show sacrifice. He has also used the
words like “hands” and “strength” to show unity.
Figures
of speech. The following figures of
speech have also been identified:
§ Personification. For example, Pain to suffocate oppression. Eyes to
speak of revolt. Scars to remember the whip. Blood to irrigate victory.
§ Symbolism. Whip to symbolize torture. Blood to symbolize
sacrifice. Scars to symbolize torture.
§ Repetition. The words like “I” and “Your” have been repeated
in order to emphasize the point.
(12)
What are other poetic techniques used in the poem? Here students can
identify more styles or techniques the poet has applied in the particular poem.
ACTIVITY 4: WRITING ABOUT THE POEMS USING THE STAGES EXPLAINED
A teacher may give students
an assignment of exercise with a poem to read and analyse so that they can use
the skills they have learned. Students in groups to write about the poem using
the points on the board. The poem I have chosen to give the students is ‘Eat
More’ because it is simple and it does not intimidate students:
By using ‘WHAT and HOW’ METHOD’, students have
to read the poem and analyse it by using this method.
Part 1: WHAT: The 'WHAT' of the poem.
This part deals with
the content or subject matter of the poem. Here students are asked the
questions about the content of the poem. These guiding questions on poem's
content are:
(1)
What is the poem about? (Paraphrase the poem).
(2)
What issues (themes) poet is expressing?
(3)
What is the main conflict in the poem?
(4)
What is the setting of the poem?
(5)
Is the poem relevant to the contemporary societies?
(6)
What is the message of the poem?
(7)
What lesson can be learnt from the poem?
(8)
What is the background of the poet?
(9)
What is the poet's philosophy (viewpoint) on the
subject matter of the poem?
Part 2: HOW: The 'HOW' of the poem.
In this part, we deal
with techniques (Form) used in the poem by the poet in delivering the content
(the issues asked above in the content) to the intended audience. This part is all about how a poet
communicates his/her ideas. All these lead us to the following guiding
questions on poetic techniques used:
(1)
Comment on the title of the poem.
(2)
How many stanzas do a poem has?
(3)
How many verses per stanza?
(4)
Comment on the rhyming scheme of the poem.
(5)
Comment on the rhythm of the poem.
(6)
What is the tone of the poet?
(7)
What is the persona of the poem?
(8)
What is the addressee of the poem?
(9)
What is the type of the poem?
(10)
What is the mood of the poem?
(11)
Comment on the language used in the poem.
(12)
What are other poetic techniques used in the poem?
6: CONNECTION: Beyond the Sub Topic. This sub topic leads students
to the reading and analysis of poems. Most students consider poems as difficult
but they are the basic aspects in literature because they introduce them to the
simplest forms of literature and give them other ideas before analysing big
works of art like novels and plays.
7: NOTE: As a teacher of English language and Literature, I like to start
teaching poems to students. I have two reasons for this. First, I start with
poems to break the belief that poems are difficult that is why they always come
last even in the national examinations. Second, in the world of literature, a
poem is the simplest and the shortest form of literature or literary genre.
Thus, starting to teach poems will help students to understand more even when
you teach them novels and plays later.
*******************
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