“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist
Welcome! Καλώς ήρθατε! This year the 30Goals Challenge for Educators is on a world tour and I
am happy to be your next Inspire Leader for this part of the journey. So where
in the world have we stopped now? We are visiting Thessaloniki, Greece. I
invite you to accomplish the following goal “Engage with Poetry”
What happens when teachers wish to use their national literature in
their English classroom? Can they combine enjoyment, learners’ motivation and
English teaching?
Finding and using
literature to teach in the EFL classroom is a controversial issue and many
teachers may not feel comfortable with integrating it in their methods.
Intrigued by our
passion in literature, we challenged ourselves to use translated national
literature in EFL classes. The main aim is to show that literature can be
adopted as an alternative and a supplement in the syllabus and using national
work aids students general education.
Accomplish the Goal
Have your students create a mltimedia presentation, digital story, comic or a video in which they express their interpretation, emotions or thoughts of a poem.
Here, I am going to show you the steps I followed in the classroom to help my students. I created a video of my students expressing their interpretations, emotions and thoughts of a poem.
Have your students create a mltimedia presentation, digital story, comic or a video in which they express their interpretation, emotions or thoughts of a poem.
Here, I am going to show you the steps I followed in the classroom to help my students. I created a video of my students expressing their interpretations, emotions and thoughts of a poem.
Level: A1+
Age of learners: 10-year-old elementary pupils
Poem: The seagull by Odysseas Elytis (free interpretation by
George Raptopoulos, a colleague with whom I accepted the challenge and who ran
the project with the C2 English learners)
Lesson Plan
Step 1 Hand out the poem to the learners and let them read it for themselves.
Step 2 Explain unknown words, phrases, expressions
Step 3 Let them draw what they understood from the poem. They either use just
a piece of paper and crayons or you can find many drawing apps and web tools in
http://teacherrebootcamp.com/2014/02/07/draw/
Step 4 Intrigue their thoughts by putting questions:
“Do you like the
poem?”
“Describe the
seagull’s life and people’s life”
“ What is the seagull
a symbol for?”
“What is the man
afraid of?”
“How would you like
to live? Why?
Step 6 Time for recording. They can use their smartphones , tablets, cameras.
It would be wise to remind them to bring them along in the lesson before. Even
if they don’t own those gadgets, you can use your own and record them.
Step 7 Let them check their recording and upload them in one of the video
channels, YouTube or vimeo
Reflections
Students were
motivated and engaged right away. They felt confident and I was surprised by
their ability and readiness to transfer their ideas to English. Team and pair work were promoted.
It was the first time
for me that I perceived, organized and ran a lesson based on national
literature. I felt I got closer to my students by arguing, talking about
general matters, sharing ideas , thoughts and emotions.
About my country
I am proud to
introduce you to my country, Greece
I was born, raised in
Thessaloniki, the second biggest city in Greece, Central Macedonia, Northern
Greece.
You are all invited to have a treat of our local delicious,
yummy dishes like bougatsa, moussaka, dolmadakia, gemista, gyros!!!
One of the most
famous songs dedicated to my hometown is
Thessaloniki
Thank you for
dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay!
Find out more about The
30 Goals Challenge for Educators at http://30goals.com/ and join our 30 Goals Facebook Community
