General English student
Level: Upper Intermediate
Great lesson for young adults and adults alike!
Student Profile: Has been practicing English for a substantial amount of time, is perhaps a young adult looking for more creative ways to continue developing their English or perhaps an adult who is now enjoying reading English Literature with reasonable ease. Perhaps they fancy joining a book club, library or wants to go to England to study English Literature? This session is great for group work, solo tuition or online sessions.
No specific target language other than playing with vocabulary.
Poem: Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Lead In: Reading poem out aloud
If online one-to-one session: Make sure the student is given the reading material to study for a short while on his or her own before practicing speaking/reading it with you.
If in classroom: Encourage students to read out the poetry to each other first. One sentence per person as you go round the class.
Duration: 10 minutes
Presentation: Hand out or write on the boarda quickgap filling activity for the poem “Daffodils”, putting the correct missing words in the text.
E.G/
I______lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and ______,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden ______;
Beside the ______, beneath the ______,
Fluttering and ______in the ______.
Duration: 5 minutes
Practice (Controlled):Hand out a print out of questions for small groups to ask each other and discuss, or in one-to-one sessions ask your student these questions and encourage them to ask you some questions about the poem too.
- Did you like the poem?
- What was your favourite part of the poem and why?
- Do you have any idea what “o’er” means and can you find other words that are similar? (Then explain its ‘old English’)
- Why is it “wandered lonely as a cloud.” And not “Wandering.” or “wander” what tense do you think it is?
- What do you think the poem is about?
- How does it make you feel? Sad? Happy?
- Can you tell me what season of the year is present in the poem?
- Describe in your own words the poet’s feelings when he sees the daffodils?
N/B: Remembering to keep the conversation flowing and not ask questions in a regimented way.
If in a class once they’ve discussed these questions in their groups, perhaps choose some of the questions listed and ask a few students to answer them to the whole class? E.g./ “Mia, did you like the poem? Was there anyone in your group who didn’t like the poem and why?”
Mia’s response might be “I liked it because Daffodils are my mum’s favourite flowers but Markus didn’t like it because he felt that the poem was quite sad, like the poet was sad when he wrote this but the daffodils were cheering him up.”
Duration: 20 minutes
Production (Freer): Create their own small poems using used books from a charity shop, or newspaper/magazine pages. This is called “Black out poetry” this gives the individual a chance to create poetry by choosing words they like and using a marker to black out the rest of the sentences on the page. It’s a really great way of introducing poetry to learners of English as it encourages a sense of play and something they’ll proudly want to share with others. It’s an arty way of learning English!
If in classroom/small groups: Students can share what they’ve created and read aloud their poems to each other and to the class.
Solo sessions: Student can show you what they’ve created and vice versa- Teacher can join in too!
Duration: 20 minutes
Possible Homework:
If student is in a one-to-one or online sessions with you: Encourage the student to, one a week, take photos of the black out poetry they’ve created and perhaps keep a blog to write (in English) about their poetry, as well as other people’s poetry they might discover in the future.
Classroom: Ask students to find an old book/newspaper (Realia) of their own and bring in one piece of blackout poetry they’ve created themselves.