Here I have a lesson plan for you. The aim of this lesson plan is to introduce this text to the students, with the help of audio visual aid I will pay closer attention to the language and the style of literary text and how the written text produces certain effects. Students will be prepared to use similar pattern for exploring these effects in their own writings. This will help the students experience a text not from the outside but from the inside.
I will begin by considering some aspects of the structure of English vocabulary. My prime concern here will not be the meaning of the words; I leave up to the students how much they interpret from the context and how much they look up in a dictionary. I concentrate instead on how words carry meaning.
By introducing the poem to the class I will encourage the students to explore how words in a language relate to each other. They are not isolated units although this is how they seem on the printed page. They are related to each other grammatically, and how they have meaning depends on what grammatical choices a writer makes. Words are also related to each other; they belong to the word families.
Look at the picture of the eagle and answer these questions.
What kind of bird is an eagle?
Is it a powerful bird?
How big are most eagles?
How would you feel if you were close up to this bird?
How would you react to seeing it fly?
Now I will make the students to listen to the poem by Tennyson "The Eagle", to how it is read on the cassette.
THE EAGLE
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in the lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
size (1) speed (2) strength (3)noise(4) guile(5) attractiveness(6)
Which of these qualities of the eagle are stressed most in the poem? Put your decision in rank order, for example, 3 6 1 ….and cite words from the poem to justify your choices.
Look at the first line. Is there a world which is not normally associated with eagles?(word is of course 'hands')
List more words you would connect with 'hand':
Finger, nail, …………………
What effect does Tennyson produce by merging bird-like and human qualities?
Now look at line 5. The poet links two words 'mountain', and 'wall'. Do they belong to the same family?
What words do you associate with 'mountain' and 'wall'? List them.
Mountain: Sky, Large, High………….
Wall: House, brick, small………..
Where words from different families are put together the result is what we call METAPHOR.
Now I would like the students to create their own metaphoric effects. I will supply the word and students will make the comparison. As in the case of the eagle remember that there must be a clear connection between the object and the thing to which it is compared.
The old man's face was wrinkled like…………
The hungry dog was thin like………………….
Her hair was black like………………………...
The clouds in the sky were white and fluffy like ……………………
The poem is written in one tense throughout. What is it?
(Present Indefinite Tense)
Re-write the poem into simple past tense. For example, He clasped the crag…..
Re-write the poem into present continuous tense. For example He is clasping the crag…..
EXPLOITATION:
Imagine you are in a strange town. You are staying with friends and you are on your way back to their home. You are very tired and want to go to sleep. You lose your way. It is very dark and there are no lights. Clouds hide the moon. It has just rained very heavily and there is mud everywhere. List, in note form, main impressions you have. For example:
Can't see where I'm going
People bump into me
Slippery
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
What are you feeling as you walk through this town? Are you irritated, angry, afraid, determined; or…………
I will begin by considering some aspects of the structure of English vocabulary. My prime concern here will not be the meaning of the words; I leave up to the students how much they interpret from the context and how much they look up in a dictionary. I concentrate instead on how words carry meaning.
By introducing the poem to the class I will encourage the students to explore how words in a language relate to each other. They are not isolated units although this is how they seem on the printed page. They are related to each other grammatically, and how they have meaning depends on what grammatical choices a writer makes. Words are also related to each other; they belong to the word families.
Look at the picture of the eagle and answer these questions.
What kind of bird is an eagle?
Is it a powerful bird?
How big are most eagles?
How would you feel if you were close up to this bird?
How would you react to seeing it fly?
Now I will make the students to listen to the poem by Tennyson "The Eagle", to how it is read on the cassette.
THE EAGLE
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in the lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
size (1) speed (2) strength (3)noise(4) guile(5) attractiveness(6)
Which of these qualities of the eagle are stressed most in the poem? Put your decision in rank order, for example, 3 6 1 ….and cite words from the poem to justify your choices.
Look at the first line. Is there a world which is not normally associated with eagles?(word is of course 'hands')
List more words you would connect with 'hand':
Finger, nail, …………………
What effect does Tennyson produce by merging bird-like and human qualities?
Now look at line 5. The poet links two words 'mountain', and 'wall'. Do they belong to the same family?
What words do you associate with 'mountain' and 'wall'? List them.
Mountain: Sky, Large, High………….
Wall: House, brick, small………..
Where words from different families are put together the result is what we call METAPHOR.
Now I would like the students to create their own metaphoric effects. I will supply the word and students will make the comparison. As in the case of the eagle remember that there must be a clear connection between the object and the thing to which it is compared.
The old man's face was wrinkled like…………
The hungry dog was thin like………………….
Her hair was black like………………………...
The clouds in the sky were white and fluffy like ……………………
The poem is written in one tense throughout. What is it?
(Present Indefinite Tense)
Re-write the poem into simple past tense. For example, He clasped the crag…..
Re-write the poem into present continuous tense. For example He is clasping the crag…..
EXPLOITATION:
Imagine you are in a strange town. You are staying with friends and you are on your way back to their home. You are very tired and want to go to sleep. You lose your way. It is very dark and there are no lights. Clouds hide the moon. It has just rained very heavily and there is mud everywhere. List, in note form, main impressions you have. For example:
Can't see where I'm going
People bump into me
Slippery
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
What are you feeling as you walk through this town? Are you irritated, angry, afraid, determined; or…………
