USING LITERATURE IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

A POEM INTEGRATED LESSON PLAN

Teacher’s Name

School

Class 12-A

Age of Students 17

Proficiency Level of Upper Intermediate

Students

Size of Class 25

Date of Presentation

Estimated Duration of the 40 minutes

Lesson

Performance Objectives Given a poem by John Clare, by the end of the lesson
students will be able to recognize the target words and they
will be able to recognise the target structure

Criterion Level At the end of the lesson %85 of the students will be reached
the performance objectives.

Language Skills and Learning Outcomes

Pronunciatio Students will be able to pronounce the target words correctly.

n
Speaking Students will be able to talk about the poem by using contextual clues
from the poem.
Reading Students will be able to guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary
using contextual clues from the poem.
Writing By the end of the lesson students will be able to write a personal response
to the poem and diary with proper justifications in at least 5 sentences and
write a poem on their own.

Structure Buraya structure ekliyorsunuz.

Materials Course books, pictures, video,handouts,slide.

1) Warm Up

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Part 1- Teacher summarizes the lesson plan to the students.
Part 2 - Teacher introduces the poet to the classroom via PowerPoint slides.
Part 3 - Teacher gives a few sentences from the poem,students try to explain their
feelings according to each of them.

1- My friends ingore me.

2- My lover’s father rejects me and people say that I am crazy !

Pre-Reading Questions
1.Have you ever faced a situation which makes you extremely sad? What was it?
2.Have you ever been felt excluded yourself? How did you handle with this situation?
3.How do you motivate yourself when you come across with a person who feels excluded ?

Teaching Vocabulary
woe(noun) /woʊ/
Convey the meaning: big problems or troubles
Sample sentence: Unusually poor harvests have added to
the country's woes.

Frenzied(adjective) /ˈfren.ziːd/

Convey the meaning: uncontrolled and excited,

sometimes violent
Sample sentence: The office was a scene of frenzied
activity this morning.

Stifle(verb) /ˈstaɪ.fəl/

Convey the meaning: to (cause to) be unable to

breathe because you have no air

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Sample sentence: He is said to have stifled his victim with a pillow.

Throes(noun) /θroʊz/

Convey the meaning:difficulties or pain

Sample sentence:He was in the throes of despair after
losing his job.

Toss(verb) /tɑːs/

Convey the meaning: to throw something carelessly

Sample sentence:He glanced at the letter and then tossed
it into the bin.

Scorn(noun) /skɔːn/
Convey the meaning:a strong feeling that someone or
something is of little or no worth and deserves no respect
Sample sentence:These countries deserve our respect,
not the scorn of a politician.

Vaulted(adjective) /ˈvɑːl.t̬ɪd/
Convey the meaning:related to or having a vault

Sample sentence:The vaulted roof is supported by

twenty Doric columns.

Vocabulary Exercises

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 Exercise 1: Fill in the chart with your own sentences.

Your definition Your sentence Antonym

woe

frenzied

stifled

scorn

vaulted

throes

toss

Exercise 2:Fill the gaps with the appropriate words.

frenzied vaulted toss throes scorn stifled woe

1.We almost…………..in the heat of the city.

2.In the centre of the tomb are two………..chambers, reached by a spiral passage or gallery 62 ft.
3.As the evening wore on the dancing got more and more……………..

4.Corey was looked upon with………….by the people in the theater because he was talking
loudly on his cell phone during the movie.

5.The bull………….him up into the air.

2) While Reading
Teacher wants students to first read the poem “I am” by John Clare and after that they watch
the video. Then, she asks them to answer some comprehension questions.

I am
Stanza 1

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes—

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They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed
Stanza 2
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
Even the dearest that I loved the best
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.
Stanza 3
I long for scenes where man hath never trod
A place where woman never smiled or wept
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.
John Clare

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDgEqbHxit8

Comprehension Questions
1. How do you feel when you read the poem and watch this video and what do you
understand ?
2. What are the themes of the poem? Explain them by justifying from the lines of the
poem.
3. What is the mood of the persona in this poem ?
4. You have seen the poet’s life at the beginning of the lesson and do you think that his
hard life affected his poem and how ?

Exercise 1:Look at each line from the poem.What did the poet mean by these lines?
Write your ideas in the blanks.
1)’’I am the self consumer of my woes’’.
______________________________.
2)’’I am-yet what I am none cares or knows.’’
_______________________________.
3)’’My friends forsake me like a memory lost.’’
_________________________________.
4)’’They rise and vanish in oblivious host.”
______________________________.

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5)”Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes.”
________________________________.
6)”And yet I am, and live vapours tossed.”
________________________________.

Exercise 2:Teacher asks the students to get into their respective group and gives a stanza of
the poem to every group. Students talk about given questions. Then, students presents their
work by justifying the answers they have with the lines from the poem and other groups
evaluate their justification and gives feedback.

 Question 1 - What is the tone and mood of the persona in this stanza?
 Question 2- What is the persona trying to tell in this stanza?

3) POST READING ACTIVITIES

Exercise 1: Write an “I am” poem by following the instructions given below of each
lines.

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WRITING:
Exercise 1:Imagine that you are the poet of the poem “I am”.Write a diary according to the
feelings that John Clare has.(Feelings:loneliness,unhappiness,heartbreak)
Dear diary,
_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 2:Write a letter to John Clare ,that encourages him about life and makes him
not feel lonely.
Dear John,
_________________________________________________________________________

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_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Your best friend

Self Assessment: Give a point (1-4) for each of the words by considering the
following criterias.
 1 – I have not seen this word yet.
 2 – I know it,but I don’t remember the meaning
 3 – I know,I can write it’s meaning
 4 – I know,I can write it’s meaning and write an example sentence
POINT MEANING EXAMPLE SENTENCE
(1-4) (TR-EN)

Forsake

Woe

Frenzied

Throe

Wept