SCHOOL: Liceul Tehnologic “Dimitrie Bolintineanu”

TEACHER: Cirstea Silvia Mihaela

LESSON PLAN
DATE: May 21st, 2021
CLASS: 9th E (Foreign Languages - 3 hours/week)
No. of students: 30
TIMING: 45’
TEXTBOOK: Upstream B2
UNIT: Earth is Dearer than Gold

LESSON: Literature corner – “The Little Land” by Robert Louis Stevenson (1st verse)
TYPE OF LESSON: Reading and understanding a poem
SKILLS: Speaking, Reading, Writing, Listening
INTERACTION: Teacher-student, student-teacher, student-student
AIDS: Laptop, worksheets, class CD, online resource
TEACHING TECHNIQUES: conversation, playing an audio recording, game,

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS:
-some students might need further help and extra indications in solving the tasks and they may also
need some of these indications to be given in Romanian;

-some students might feel nervous and reluctant to participate in the activity, so they may need
assistance;

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES
1.1, 1.2., 1.3, 1.4.
2.2., 2.3
3.1., 3.2

LESSON AIMS: 1. – to introduce students to poetry

2. – to develop students’ poetry reading and listening skills
3. – to discern techniques used in a simple poem (rhyme, imagery)
4. – to enrich their vocabulary
5. - to practice writing a simple poem of their own
OBJECTIVES: 1. Students will have developed their poetry reading skills.
2. Students will get a better awareness on the structure and message of a poem
3. Students will be able to write a mini poem

EVALUATION: - continuous –through observation and analysis of answers

ARGUMENTATION: The class specializes in the study of Foreign Languages so the teacher
considers that they should be exposed not only to authentic every day
English but also to literature, in this case poetry, because reading poetry
enables the students to experience the power of language outside the
limitations of standard written sentence structure and lexis. Using poetry
in the classroom can lead naturally to freer, creative written expression.
STAGES:
ACTIVITY 1: Warm up
Aims: - to encourage students’ involvement
Procedure:
Teacher’s activity: Teacher greets students and asks them questions about their mood to encourage
speaking. The students answer the teacher’s questions. The teacher checks the attendance and then she
checks homework and the students correct the mistakes, if necessary.
Interaction: T-Ss, Ss-T, whole class
Timing: 3’

ACTIVITY 2: Lead-in
Aims: - to arouse curiosity
-to involve the students in the poem’s themes
Procedure:
Teacher’s activity: Teacher presents the topic of the lesson by making a connection with the previous
lesson and accompanies it with a short motivation indicating how students might benefit from it:
The teacher distributes a sheet with information on the author.
The teacher then proceeds to announce the name of the author, facts about his life and work, one or two
curiosities and some pictures of the books.
Next the teacher presents the title of the poem and writes it on the board. The teacher asks students to
give opinions on what they think the poem is about. She asks them to write one or two words
summarizing what they think. e.g. “a small country” or “description” or “something small”.
Students’ activity: Students are expected to answer the question about the title and write down one or
two words in their notebooks.
Interaction: T-Ss, Ss-T
Timing: 10’

ACTIVITY 3: Listening
Aims: - to understand the topic of the poem
- to appreciate the melodic quality of the text
Procedure: The teacher announces the students that they are going to listen to the poem being recited
and tells them to pay attention to the topic. After listening, the teacher asks the students again what the
poem is about, once again using only one or two words. Then the teacher tells the students to check if
they guessed the first time and praises those who have.
The teacher announces the students that they are going to listen to the poem once again. This time the
teacher asks the students to pay attention to how the poem sounds and to the rhymes. At the end of the
recording the teacher asks the students what rhymes they have identified.
Students’ activity: The students listen to the recording and identify the rhyming words.
Interaction: T- Ss, Ss-T.
Timing: 10’

ACTIVITY 4: Reading
Aims: - develop students’ reading skills
- improve pronunciation and intonation and adapt it to the particularities of a poetic text
Teacher’s activity: The teacher distributes the worksheets which will contain the 1st verse of the poem
and some exercises.
The teacher announces the students that it is their turn to read the poem. The teacher divides the verse
of the poem into 5 parts corresponding to the no. of rows in the class and assigns a part to each row.
The teacher explains that each row will read their part together in a chorus, and that the row that comes
next should pay attention for their turn while the others will pay attention to how the part sounds read
by their classmates. When all the rows have read, the teacher asks each row of students to vote the best
reciting.
Students’ activity: Students from the same row read the assigned part of the poem verse. They vote for
the row that best recited / read the poem (they cannot vote for themselves).
Interaction: T-Ss, S-S
Timing: 5”

ACTIVITY 4: Understanding the poem

Aims: - develop students’ awareness of the poem structure
- enrichening vocabulary
- identifying literary wording and techniques and their function in the poem
Teacher’s activity: The teacher asks the students to look at the 1st exercise on the worksheet which
consists of a table. The teacher explains to the students that they need to look at the text of the poem
and find words that fit the columns and then write them in the respective column:
Natural elements Visual Movement Sound
Using the information in the table the teacher asks students to give examples of imagery from the poem
by quoting the lines.
The teacher asks the students to pass on to the next exercise. The exercise contains three lines from the
poem with gaps. The teacher asks the students to fill out the gaps.
In the next exercise the teacher asks the students to identify the words that are spelled funny (afar,
o’erhead). The teacher asks the students what they mean and why they think they are spelled that way.
In the last exercise the teacher asks the students to answer the questions then elicits the answers.
Students’ activity: Students solve the exercises on the worksheet and answer the teacher’s questions.
Interaction: T-Ss, Ss-T
Timing: 15”

ACTIVITY 7: Assigning homework

Teacher’s activity: The teacher asks the students to continue the first lines of the poem with their own
words, thus creating their own poem. The teacher gives instructions on length. The teacher asks the
students to continue reading the poem at home.
Then the teacher makes some appreciations concerning students’ involvement in the lesson. The
students listen to the teacher’s observations.
Interaction: T-Ss
Timing: 2’
 FACT SHEET
Robert Louis Stevenson

The Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November
13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is best known for his evergreen works Treasure Island,
Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
To follow his father’s footsteps, Stevenson was sent to study science at Edinburgh University to
become a civil engineer. Stevenson on the other hand was not much interested in studying science;
instead he spent ample time studying French Literature, Scottish history,
His love for literature forced him to tell his father about his growing interests in literature and that he
wanted to pursue a career and studies in the field of writing. The news severely upset his father who
finally advised Robert to prepare for the Bar exam so that he would have a respectable profession to
fall back on if his literary ambitions failed.
Stevenson’s writings and life were both heavily influenced by his city, Edinburgh. He experienced two
faces of the city. One was the religious, respectable and conventional town while the other face of
Edinburgh was that of more bohemian town with brothels, shady characters and underhanded dealings.
Through these observations Stevenson learned a great deal about the duality of human nature which
later became the base for his novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Stevenson achieved great literary success beginning in the late 1870s.
In 1889, Stevenson bought a 300-acre estate, Vailima, in the hills of Apia, Samoa where he lived for
the rest of his life
 . 
       
WORKSHEET

Read the poem

I Fill out the table with words from the poem

Natural elements Visual Movement Sound

With the help of the words from the table identify examples of imagery in the poem.

II. Fill out the missing words in the following lines from the poem:

To go ……………. through the skies

Where the …………… are trees
And the …………… are the seas
Sail about on tiny …………….

III. What words in the poem are spelled in an unusual way? What do they mean? Why are they
spelled like that?

IV. Answer the following questions:

1. Who is “I”? How old do you think he is?
2. Where does he dream of going?
3. Who lives there?
4. What adjectives are used in the poem? Are they positive or negative?

HOMEWORK:
Write your own poem by continuing these lines with at least four more lines:
When at home alone I sit
And I am very tired of it
I have just to shut my eyes
To ……………………….