GUIDELINES TO TEACH PROSE AND POETRY

Transcription

1 GUIDELINES TO TEACH PROSE AND POETRY While Analysing Prose What to look for When the Reader is taught at the primary level, these points can be kept in mind in order to train students to read, understand and enjoy a story or a poem. The Story (What is it about?) The Characters (Who are they?) The Story s Appeal (Why do I like it?) What to train students to do In classes 1 and 2, you could train students to understand a story s parts the beginning, middle and end, as well as the story s characters. From class 3, you could include questions that test how they appreciate the story. These strategies will train them to become independent readers and writers of English. How to plan the reading It is important that students know the details of the story and its parts. However, it is more important to train them to enjoy the reading experience. In the first term, you can read the story aloud with expression and make them read after you. Then, as the year progresses, reading can be made a more independent activity. Students can take turns to read aloud and can even be marked for Assessment. As a pre-reading exercise, it is good to introduce a short activity that matches each story s theme. As a post-reading exercise, students can be encouraged to draw pictures / dress up like the characters / enact the story / talk about parts they enjoyed the most / imagine what they would say if they were in the character s place. From class 4 onwards, they can be trained to relate the story to their life or to the world we live in. How to plan the analysis You can put up charts on The Story, and The Characters (see table) and ask questions to identify the parts of the story or the characters. While explaining the story, questions can be posed to analyse the story as well as the characters.

2 1. The Story This can be prepared as a ready-to-use chart for every story. Analysing the story s structure will help students understand sequencing and recognise the pattern of the story. Use of a flow diagram will also help to present the structure of the story graphically. The Beginning The Middle The End What happened first? Where does it happen? Who are the people in the story? What happened next? Does it happen in the same place? Are there any new people in the story? What happens in the end? Where does it happen? Are all the people in the story happy or sad in the end? 2. The Characters At the primary level, you can train students to analyse the characters in the story in a variety of ways. Some of them are suggested here. Class 4 onwards, students can be encouraged to talk about what they like/dislike about the characters and their behaviour. Sometimes, stories do not respond to all these details, so it is all right to skip some of them or add a new box for something else that comes up during analysis. Name of the Character:. When does he/she/it appear in the story? Tick ( ) the right column. In the beginning of the story In the middle of the story In the end of the story How does he/she/it look? (OR) Find words or groups of words from the story that describe him/her/it. (OR) Draw and colour the person you like the most in the story. Boy/Man Girl/Woman Animal/Bird/Thing How does he/she/it behave? List the things he/she/it does in the right columns. (For Class 1 2, the words/phrases can be provided in a jumbled list that students select and write down in the respective boxes.) Write what you like or don t like about him/her/it. Do the characters change their behaviour by the end of the story? Write down what you can remember about how they behave at first and how they change. (This activity can be for Class 4 onwards.)

3 3. The Story s Appeal (From Class 4 onwards) These items can be done as group/class discussions to share thoughts and to give students the freedom to explore the story. THEME OF THE STORY What is the story about? (love/ friendship/environment/war) Is there a warning message for us in the story? What is the important idea/ lesson? LINKING THE STORY TO MY LIFE How would you feel if you were placed in a similar situation? Does the story remind you of something in your own life? Do you know of something similar happening to somebody in your life? LINKING THE STORY TO THE WORLD Do you think the same thing happens even today? Is there a warning or a message for the future? What is it? What will be the consequences of the problem? While Analysing Poetry Analysing poetry in the classroom can be a challenging task for all teachers as poems are open to multiple interpretations. Why/how does a poem impress or move readers? All poems do not have to be complex to be good. Simple language and objects are all fodder for poetry. Poetic moments fill everyday life. Some of them can even be funny and light-hearted, simple and small. The focus during poetry analysis can cover the following areas for primary school level: The poem s literal meaning A brief look at the figurative meaning The literary devices in the poem How to prepare your students Students can be introduced to the type of poetry they are going to be reading through a short definition and the specific characteristics related to the type (elegy, ballad, sonnet, ode, limerick, haiku, etc). Some simple literary terms that the poet uses can be explained in advance so that students are better equipped to spot them. A game on words that relate to smell, sight, hearing, touch and taste will introduce them to sensory words and how they build images through words. Students must also be trained to understand the difference between concrete and abstract words and the symbolism that goes with abstract words. How to read a poem It would be a good idea to get the class to read the poem silently twice and then chorally before you begin analysis. How to analyse a poem The analysis can be done stanza-wise or line-wise, depending on the poem s complexity. You could encourage students to interpret it first and then ask them to justify thoughts, giving their

4 reasons using lines and key words from the poem. You could then gently steer them to a balanced perspective on the poem s meaning. How to plan the appreciation Poetry speaks and means much more than everyday speech. It is important for students to know the general idea or theme of the poem. It is as important for them to feel the poem s meaning and impact. The study should not be to pick apart the poem as much as to appreciate its overall meaning and impact. Training primary students to express what a poem means will help them in the higher classes where a critical perspective on a poem is expected. 1. The Poem s Literal Meaning Students must learn to recognise that poems often have a literal and figurative story. Let them guess the story first and then dissect it for its deeper meaning. WHAT TO LOOK FOR The poem s type and its characteristic The story in the poem The poet s point of view/ Tone, Mood, Voice What sort of a poem is this? Is it an elegy, ballad, sonnet, ode, limerick or a haiku? How can you tell? 1. Is there a story in this poem? 2. What is the setting? 3. Who are the characters? 4. What is the problem or conflict? 5. Is the problem resolved or does it remain unresolved/ unexplained? Is the poet happy or at peace in the end? 6. Is the poem a study of beauty/nature? What is the poet trying to convey here? Is the speaker sharing something serious or lighthearted? How can you tell? What tone of voice does the poet use? (serious, playful, challenging, angry, grieving, confused, meditative, autobiographical) 2. The Figurative Meaning of the Poem Some poems can be connected to our personal lives or world view. Others are best enjoyed for the way in which they offer a different perspective. Poems use images like snapshots, some of which are explicit and some implicit. The meaning of a work may change as students understand more about its imagery or the experience that the poet has written about. Therefore, meaning can be interpreted as how the poem acts on the students what it is that they feel about the poem. WHAT TO LOOK FOR Imagery/Symbolism language, impressions, connotations Look at the words used in the poem. Is the language simple and direct or very heavy and difficult? Why is the overall effect a pleasing one? Has the poet created his own words?

5 WHAT TO LOOK FOR Impact on self What images do you see? Are they like photographs before your eyes or do you see them within? What mood do these images convey? Does the poem reflect a general situation, and/or some private experience of the speaker? Is this poem s theme relevant even today? Is there any implied message that you can gather from the poem? What did the poem make you think about? How did the poet make you think of the subject matter in this poem? Did anything that you knew/found out later about the work or its author change your feelings about it? 3. Literary Devices in the poem A few of these items can be introduced from class 4 onwards, to train students on critical appreciation and the use of literary devices in poetry. Literary devices Alliteration Diction Hyperbole Imagery Irony Metaphor Onomatopoeia Paradox Personification Rhyme Rhythm Simile Definitions the deliberate repetition of the consonant sound of the first word in a set of words. poet's distinctive choices in vocabulary exaggeration for dramatic effect words and phrases used to create mental images for the reader. Imagery evokes one or more of the five senses seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. The use of irony refers to using words in such a way that the meaning implied by a sentence or word is actually the opposite of its literal meaning. a comparison not using as or like, when one thing is said to be another sound echoing sense; use of words resembling the sounds they mean a seeming contradiction that surprises reader by its pithiness attribution of human motives or behaviour to non-human agencies repetition of the same sounds internal feel of beat and meter perceived when poetry is read aloud a comparison using as or like Tone, mood, atmosphere feelings or meanings conveyed in the poem; dominant feeling