CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW

LITERATURE
“MATERIALS DESIGN AND LESSON PLANNING: POETRY”

Lecturer: Maya Oktora, S.Pd., M.Hum.

ARRANGED BY:

DEBY BONITA HUTAPEA

2183321006

S1 ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM 2018A

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2020
CHAPTER I
 INTRODUCTION

Identity of the book:

Title : Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Date of published : First published 1993
19th printing 2009
Writer : Lazar Gillian
Series editor : Marion Williams and Tony Wright
Place : Cambridge
 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

6. Materials design and lesson planning: Poetry

6.1 Putting a poem back together again

Making decisions about the correct order of the lines in the poem above involves far
more than comprehension of meaning. It involves drawing on your knowledge and experience of
the way poetry is structured. Thinking about how we put the poem back together again is a way
of focusing on how the overall discourse of the poem is structured and webbed together. Many
of the discoursal features you may have mentioned in identifying your reasons for the order you
chose will also be common to other forms of discourse.

6.2 What is distinctive about poetry?

There are two significant points. Firstly, it is clear that many of the techniques we
commonly use in the classroom can equally be used when teaching poetry. Secondly, poetry
does have some fairly distinctive features which differentiate it from other forms of discourse. It
is useful to identify these features because by doing so we might be able to help our students
grapple with certain problems they may encounter when reading poetry. It will also enable us to
decide how poetry can be of value to the language learner.

We saw that poetry reorganizes syntax, invents its own vocabulary, freely mixes registers
and creates its own punctuation. Poetry draws creatively on a full range of archaisms and
dialects, and generates vivid new metaphors. It patterns sounds and orders rhythms.
Advertisements, nursery rhymes, jokes, riddles, political slogans, hymns and songs may also use
such linguistic devices. But it is probably true to say that poetry employs a higher concentration
of such devices or effects than other forms of discourse. For this reason, poetry has been
described as deviating from the norms of language (Leech, 1988, p. 5).
6.3 Why use poetry with the language learner?
Poetry has been characterized as deviating from the norms of language (Widdowson,
1984, p. 146). It has been argued that poetry frequently breaks the 'rules' of language, but by so
doing it communicates with us in a fresh, original way. For the language teacher, this poses two
questions. Firstly, in order to make sense of what is a new, original use of language the student
needs some familiarity with the norms or rules from which this use deviates. Teachers may feel
that the knowledge of norms or 'correct' language is not yet sufficiently well-established by
students for them to appreciate when the norms are being stretched. Secondly, teachers might
worry that exposing students to more creative uses of language could, in fact, legitimize the use
of deviant or 'incorrect' language in the classroom.
An important point to bear in mind is that language may not be quite as rigidly governed
by rules as we think. On the other hand, most teachers would agree that it is pedagogically useful
and necessary to provide students with idealized language rules. When using poetry in the
classroom, we could therefore exploit the more 'deviant' or unusual use of language we find in it
as a basis for expanding the student's language awareness and interpretative abilities.
Making the language of a poem the basis of classroom study is also a way of integrating
poetry into the syllabus. Using poetry is not then seen simply as an activity done for its own
sake, but as a way of improving language knowledge. The occasional use of a poem linked
linguistically to a lexical or grammatical area being taught in a particular lesson is often an
enjoyable way of reinforcing or revising that area. Similarly, if we can identify certain linguistic
features in a poem which mesh with areas specified in the syllabus, then the poem could be used
as the basis for a lesson which increases student awareness of those features.
Making the language of the poem the basis for classroom study is a helpful first step
towards enabling students to make confident interpretations of a poem. Finally, placing the
language of the poem at the center of classroom activities should never degenerate into a sterile
linguistic exercise. This can only be avoided if the students' own interests and experience are
drawn on fully at all stages of the lesson, and if we accept that the interpretation of a poem varies
from reader to reader.

6.4 Exploiting unusual language feature

Here are two paragraphs summarizing and discussing this procedure.
 a. When designing materials to use with a poem, teachers should firstly analyze
what is unusual or distinctive about the language in the poem. The materials or tasks for
students should be devised around these unusual features, since this will increase both
their understanding of the poem and their knowledge of the language in general.
b. Focusing on the unusual linguistic features of a poem can only be part of our
procedure for using a poem with our students. We might begin by analyzing what is
linguistically unusual about a poem and then devise activities which exploit these features.
But this procedure can never be complete in itself. Students may also need help in
understanding the historical or cultural background to the poem, in inferring the attitude
of the poet to his or her theme, in responding to the figurative meanings in the poem. The
theme of the poem should somehow be made relevant to the students' personal experience
as they can draw on this when grappling with its underlying meaning.

6.5 Helping students with figurative meanings

Students might find it difficult to understand and interpret a metaphor in a poem for a
number of reasons. To begin with, it may not be very clear to students that a metaphor is being
used, or rather that a metaphorical reading of a poem is required.
Secondly, students may find it difficult to unravel the connections between apparently
dissimilar objects or concepts. Understanding metaphors involves engaging in a series of
linguistic inferences. Students might find this problematic, particularly if two very disparate
objects or concepts are somehow conjoined in the metaphor, or if it is not very clear what is
being compared to what.
Another problem that can arise is that readers interpret metaphors by drawing on their
own individual associations. To some extent these associations will be determined by the
customs and conventions of their society. We need to strike a balance between allowing the
integrity of the students' own interpretations, while simultaneously pointing to the likely
symbolic meaning for members of that community to which a writer might belong.

6.6 Using poetry with lower levels

 In this chapter we turn our attention to some of the practical tasks and activities we can
use to exploit poems in the classroom. In this section we look at some ways in which poetry can
be used with students at elementary and low-intermediate level.

6.7 Using poetry to develop oral skills

In Sections 6.4 and 6.5 we looked at some of the difficulties that students commonly
have with poems - coping with unusual language and decoding figurative language. We have
assumed that students should be alerted to the use of striking metaphors, unusual syntax or
inventive games with punctuation. In this section, we consider a few ways of using a poem so
that these sound patterns can be fully enjoyed and appreciated by students.

Example of Activities for developing understanding of "As It was'

1. In groups discuss what you might do in the following situations:
 You are walking along when you see a very large, drunken man beating a dog with a
stick.
 You are in a large department store and you see a woman with a small baby secretly
putting some baby clothes in her bag without paying for them.
 You know your neighbors are away for the weekend and late on Saturday evening
you hear strange noises coming from their house.

Choral reading of 'As It was'

After ensuring that students have a reasonable understanding of the poem, and are aware of how
its stylistic features contribute to its meaning, we are now able to turn our attention to how it can
be used for choral reading. A choral reading is a kind of performance in which the poem is read
aloud by a group of students. The reading can also make limited use of movements, gesture,
facial expressions and the changing qualities of the voice (variations in speed of delivery,
loudness or softness, stress, etc.).

6.8 Using a poem with students at higher levels

In this section, we look at a famous poem by William Blake and consider what kinds of
difficulties students at advanced levels may have with a poem written nearly two centuries ago.
We also move beyond treating the poem largely as a linguistic artefact, and think about what
kinds of background information students could find useful when reading the poem.

Difficulties for advanced students reading "London"

 Understanding individual words in the poem (e.g. charter'd, ban, blight, etc.)
 Particularly difficult since the historical meaning of the words may have changed over
the last two centuries.
 Understanding the metaphorical/symbolic meaning behind phrases or lines in the poem
(e.g. 'And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse').
 Understanding the historical context which forms the background to the text.
 Understanding the poet's attitude to what he sees around him.
 Responding personally to the themes of the poem.
 Feeling threatened or intimidated by the apparent level of difficulty of the poem.

6.9 Anticipating student problems

When planning a lesson using a poem it is always useful to try to anticipate some of the
difficulties students may face when reading or studying a poem, since by doing so you can
design materials which help the students through some of the difficulties.
Example of checklist:
1. The background to the poem
To make sense of the poem do the students need to know about:
 Any cultural or historical information?
 The collection from which the poem is taken?
2. The language of the poem
Do you need to help the students with:
 Any unusual language in the poem which stretches the norms or rules of language use?
 Any unfamiliar words, phrases, grammatical constructions or syntactic features?
3. Motivating and involving students
 How can the theme or topic of the poem be made relevant to the student's own
experience?
  How does the use of a poem in class mesh with the requirements of the syllabus and
the students' perceptions of their own needs? Can the poem be exploited in such a
way that both of these demands are met?

6.10 Further tasks and activities

In this chapter, we have looked at a variety of ways of exploiting poems in the classroom.
Here is a list of these and some others which might be useful for designing materials.

Pre-reading activities STIMULATING STUDENT INTEREST IN THE TEXT

1. Students predict the theme of the poem from its title or a few key words or phrases in the
poem
PROVIDING THE NECESSARY HISTORICAL OR CULTURAL BACKGROUND
1. Students read or listen to a text which describes the historical or cultural background to the
poem.
HELPING STUDENTS WITH THE LANGUAGE OF THE POEM
1. If there is unusual or deviant language in the poem, students could be asked to work on
activities exploring more normative uses of language. For example, if certain verbs in a
poem collate with unusual nouns students could be asked to predict what the usual collocates
for the verbs are before comparing this with the language of the poem.

Post-reading activities
HELPING STUDENTS TOWARDS AN INTERPRETATION OF THE POEM
1. Students are given a series of statements about the possible underlying meanings of the
poem, and they decide which ones are true or false.
2. Students are given two or three brief interpretations of a poem (possibly from critics) and
they decide which one they think is the most plausible or appropriate.
Strength:
The book’s chapters are written concisely, mostly in a bullet point format and with critical points
emphasized in bolded font. The format is clear and easy to follow, with good quality tables and
explanation. Each chapter has their own tasks. The formatting of each chapter is consistent and
concise. This book is most appropriate for teachers and trainers.

Weakness:
The font in this book is too small and the space is too tight, so it makes difficult to read the book.
The explanation in this book is too short, too many tasks to do. There is an unclear text (for
example page 11), scratch in some text attachment in this book (for example page 33).
 CHAPTER III
CLOSING

This chapter discusses the place of poetry in the language classroom. It begins by
focusing on those aspects of poetry which are linguistically distinctive and then asks teachers to
examine their own beliefs about the relevance of poetry in the language classroom. Activities for
use with students at both lower and upper levels of language competence are presented for
discussion. Finally teachers have an opportunity to plan learning material for use with their own
students.
Chapter discussion:
 Putting a poem back together again
 What is distinctive about poetry?
 Why use poetry with the language learner?
 Exploiting unusual language features
 Helping students with figurative meanings
 Using poetry with lower levels
 Using poetry to develop oral skills
 Using a poem with students at higher levels
 Anticipating student problems
 Further tasks and activities
 REFERENCE

Lazar, G. 2009. Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press