Using poetry to teach grammar

[Алексей Конобеев]

How do you use poetry in your classroom? I normally put it to multiple uses: to teach vocabulary, to teach rhythm and intonation and to teach or revise grammar. Of course, since poetry is always emotionally charged and speaks volumes about the country's and the author's views, culture and aspirations, it helps to turn an otherwise mundane lesson into a journey of discovery, where alongside with grammar we get a chance to talk about history, people and human relations. I understand that you will not always have the time and the desire to introduce much poetry in your classroom, but perhaps sometimes, just occasionally, you will find poetry helpful as a good means of illustrating and memorising some grammar rules. For example, with older teenagers I used Rudyard Kipling's "If" to revise if-clauses and to talk about moral values afterwards. Here is the poem:

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;

If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

 

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipl...ipling_ind.html

You can find a beautiful audio and visual recording of this poem here:

http://vimeo.com/1305608

During the discussion that ensues, many teenagers start by saying that these values are outdated, which leads to a good speaking practice, group work etc.

If you are interested, I can share some other poems with you, which I used to use for my classes. If yoy decide to share the poems that you use here, please be careful not to reproduce copyrighted texts (to be on the safe side, make sure that the author died at least 70 years ago). If you use a copyrighted poem, then just give its title and the author's name, or possibly a weblink to it, but do not reproduce the text without the copyright holder's permission

[natpetrovna]

How do you use poetry in your classroom? I normally put it to multiple uses: to teach vocabulary, to teach rhythm and intonation and to teach or revise grammar. Of course, since poetry is always emotionally charged and speaks volumes about the country's and the author's views, culture and aspirations, it helps to turn an otherwise mundane lesson into a journey of discovery, where alongside with grammar we get a chance to talk about history, people and human relations. I understand that you will not always have the time and the desire to introduce much poetry in your classroom, but perhaps sometimes, just occasionally, you will find poetry helpful as a good means of illustrating and memorising some grammar rules.

All purposes mentioned are correct. Using poetry makes a lesson more emotional on the one hand. On the other hand it provokes new difficulties, takes a lot of time. I use poetry at the lessons for the students studying English at the profile level. I think every teacher before using a poem in class should think profoundly over the idea if it is necessary to take it for THIS lesson...to answer WHY questions (about the poem taken) as many as possible....