N Shesha Prasad has been working on the linguistic abilities of 12 graders as a PGT English in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan since 1993. She has penned a few poems and articles which have been published in the anthology of Poems by her organization, article on gender sensitization by Central Board of Secondary Education, India and  a lesson plan on SDG goals by HLT magazine of June 2017 Issue. Her professional interest is to write suspense thrillers. Email:  nsheshap@gmail.com   

 

The Lesson:  The Rime of Ancient Mariner by S.T. Coleridge

Learning objectives

1. Cater for the multiple intelligences of the learners.
2. Inject an element of enthusiasm and make learning of the poem an enjoyable experience.
3. Promote the understanding of the poem.
4. Enhance the linguistic abilities of the learners through promoting LSRW skills.
5. Foster an ecofriendly attitude and respect for nature.
6. Develop interesting and reliable testing tools.

 

X Grade in India – 15-16 Years

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834

The teaching of any lesson poems begins with a proper understanding of the title to set the right mood and tone of the class. Once he learners understand the significance of the adjective ancient, their curiosity drives them to find out the reasons for not being a mariner anymore. It is followed by a silent reading during which children list the literary devices used in the poem and the expressions that bring out the mariner’s mental agony. It is then followed by a one to one interaction of the findings. A paraphrasing of the poem is done through a musical chair game. The lines of poem are given to the learners and the corresponding meaning is pasted on the chair. On the cessation of the music the student is supposed sit in the chair with the meaning before the music starts again. The paraphrasing is then summarized on the blackboard in the form of a match the following exercise, rough edges are polished. The class is rounded off with personal opinions of the learners over the content/language of the poem.

 

Activities

1. Capturing the imagery of the poem on charts. visual-spatial intelligence
2. Playing the bassoon sound on available musical instruments and producing the sounds of the poem orally. musical intelligence
3. Spotting the figures of speech and literary devices and explaining them. linguistic intelligence.
4. Talk show involving the albatross, the mariner, wedding guest, a few sailors.  interpersonal intelligence.
5. Dumb charades of the scenes of the poem for better understanding of the poem. bodily kinesthetic intelligence.
6. MCQ test through Silent reading of the poem. intrapersonal intelligence
7. Figuring out the directions and times of the day, position of the ship. logical/mathematical intelligence.
8. Explain the greenish ice, the oils on the sea and the slimy creatures in scientific terms. naturalistic intelligence.

 

Presentation

1. The artists of the class capture the specific points of the poem on paper like the scene of the splitting of the ice or the painted ship upon a painted ocean or the dancing death fires in the rotting sea at night.

Assessment - the degree of the success depends upon the speed of recognition of the extract by the learners.

1. The musically inclined students would produce the sounds that figure in the poem and the rest of the class identifies the extract like the ice split with a thunderous split, the ice growled and furrow followed free etc

Assessment - once again success is directly proportional to the speed of recognition by the learners.

1. The linguistically equipped learners list out the figures and literary expressions.
2. The physically active learners would extract the answers for the literary expressions through dumb charades.
3. - the intrapersonal learner would point out the omissions in the list (in C) and the right guesses of the class would assess the learners in step D.
4. The mathematically inclines learner would attempt a true false exercise based on the directions and positions. Eg- A good south wind blew from behind. So which direction is the ship heading now?
5. - the scores would assess their learning.
6. The linguistic learner would attempt the MCQ quiz through a silent reading and the scores would determine the extent of his learning.
7. Talk Show- the interpersonal leaners would organize a talk show where the albatross questions the mariner of his motives, the mariner would defends his action and repents while the sailors would report their reactions to the woes at sea

 

Recapitulation

1. After the execution of all the activities, the students would be divided in to two teams and they would try to beat each other through answering the questions put by the teacher.

Homework

1. All the learners would take extract based questions as homework and follow it up with peer correction the following day.

Application of knowledge

1. The learners would write a critique of the poem explaining the events of the poem and commenting on the language and imagery of the poem.

 

Role of creativity in the classroom

Like Albert Einstein, I define creativity as intelligence having fun. So the role of creativity is a classroom is to help learners have fun. So I believe creativity has a twofold mission to see through; sharpen the intellect through vigorous use and take the tedium out of the learning process by ensuring the presence of element of fun throughout.

This two fold mission of creativity tags it with a dual responsibility of keeping the monotony out with constant variety and novelty on one hand and embodying challenging learning experiences to exercise the learner’s mind on the other hand. Needless to say, the learning experiences need to walk the learner through a gradient of exercises.

In the successful accomplishment of the dual responsibility, creativity sets off a chain reaction of ideas subsequently leading to an explosion of ideas. In such an event, the learner tends gain autonomy of learning going through a process of self-discovery and self-learning.

From the teacher’s standpoint, creativity is the ability of designing the platter of hors d'oeuvres that cater to the multiple intelligences and various levels of learning for the same lesson at the same time. Creativity is the magician’s hat that that can churn out every possible item that pleases the audience.

Creativity is shaping the teacher into a gardener to keep the pests of doubt at bay, watering the idea to life with experience and nourish the learning with right advice.

The Role of creativity for a teacher is to equip the teacher with the ability to design right assessment tools to suit the type of learning/learner to gauge the learning of the learner and provide useful and constructive feedback.

Role of creativity is to transform the classroom into a playground where each child plays a game of his choice at his own pace and with playmates of his choice but all of them pursue the single goal of learning and growing.

Role of Creativity is to maximize the usability of existing resources to varying lessons and changing needs.

Finally role of creativity is to equip the leaner or the teacher with the courage to get up after every fall, the resilience to bounce back into action after every fall and show a way out of every problem encountered.

Thus, I believe the role of creativity is meet the demands of the teacher, learner and the constraints of the learning materials and environment to keep the wheels of teaching learning process moving with timely lubrication.

Last but not the least, the role of creativity is to be the makeup man disguises teaching learning process into an exciting adventure of exploring discovering and attaining.

 

Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the Teaching English Through Multiple Intelligences course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the CLIL for Secondary course at Pilgrims website.