What is This Thing Called Love

Unit Summary:
These two language arts lessons are on the theme of love. The teacher starts the lesson by asking the students a thought provoking yet abstract question, that is “What is love?” She then shows the students a few famous quotes on love and points out that they are all from a male perspective. The teacher proceeds by introducing the students to a song and a poem both written by females. She then highlights the importance of appreciating lyrics and poems by looking at features such as cultural background, imagery, word choice, musical arrangement and rhythm. After playing the song and reading the poem aloud, the teacher explains the use of two poetic devices, namely metaphors and similes. In groups, the students discuss what the two female writers thought about love and the ways they convey their feelings. After listening to the report from each group, the teacher presents some writing by past students on 'love' and asks the students to write a short poem/prose using their own metaphors to describe 'love'.

Total Number of Lessons (40 mins each):
Two in one session

Background:
This is a S.6 class in a CMI school. According to their English teacher, the English standard of the students was at intermediate level. Most students were not confident enough to discuss and express themselves in English. Those who had higher English competence were appointed as group leaders to facilitating discussion. In general, the students were well behaved but they needed a lot of guidance and language support from the teacher to do the tasks in English.

Lesson Highlights:
Appropriate choice of topic and input materials
The topic of love is appealing to young people who are beginning to explore more about love and relationships. The input materials on this topic include famous quotes, two literary texts in the form of song lyrics and poetry and a few samples of creative writing from past students. Many scholars (Maley, 1989; Carter & Long, 1991; McRae, 1991; Mok, 2001) and the English Language Syllabus for Hong Kong schools (CDC, 1999) advocate the use of literary genres as a resource for language enrichment, cultural enrichment and personal enrichment of second language learners. The input materials in this unit expose the students to poetry rich in figurative language and expressive feelings towards love from different cultural/gender backgrounds and perspectives. Through the teacher's guidance and the students' interactive discussion about the texts, the students were led to appreciate the texts, share their own interpretations of meaning, respond and give expression to the topic.

Discussion Questions:
1. According to the Curriculum Development Council (1999: 103), language arts seek “to develop learners' language sensitivity, cultural awareness, and creative and critical thinking.” How far do you think that this was accomplished in this unit?

2. If you were to teach this class, would you give other language support / input to students? If so, what kind of support / input do you have in mind?

3. If you had more time to teach this session, what other activities would you like to add? Why and how much more time would you need?

4. Is there any part of the lesson that you would like to shorten? Why?

5. Are you aware of any other language arts resources on the theme of love that may be of interest to a class like this?

6. What have the students learnt in the reporting part of the lesson? What is the role of the teacher during the reporting?

7. What do you think of the quality of interaction between the teacher and the class?

References:

Carter, R. & Long, M.N. (1991). Teaching literature. New York: Longman.
Education Department (1994). Teaching writing as a process. Hong Kong: Government Printer.
Maley, A. (1989). The inward ear: poetry in the language classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.
McRae, J. (1991). Literature with a small 'l'. London: MacMillan.
Mok, A. (2001). Task-based learning, language arts and the media: a resource book for secondary English teachers. Hong Kong: INSTEP, HKU.
Tsui, A.B.M. (1995). Introducing classroom interaction. London: Penguin.
The Curriculum Development Council. (1999). Syllabuses for secondary schools. English language, secondary 1-5. Hong Kong: Government Printer.



*Prepared by MA Anne*
Unit Summary: These two language arts lessons are on the theme of love. The teacher starts the lesson by asking the students a thought provoking yet abstract question, that is “What is love?” She then shows the students a few famous quotes on love and points out that they are all from a male perspective. The teacher proceeds by introducing the students to a song and a poem both written by females. She then highlights the importance of appreciating lyrics and poems by looking at features such as cultural background, imagery, word choice, musical arrangement and rhythm. After playing the song and reading the poem aloud, the teacher explains the use of two poetic devices, namely metaphors and similes. In groups, the students discuss what the two female writers thought about love and the ways they convey their feelings. After listening to the report from each group, the teacher presents some writing by past students on 'love' and asks the students to write a short poem/prose using their own metaphors to describe 'love'.
Total Number of Lessons (40 mins each): Two in one session
Background: This is a S.6 class in a CMI school. According to their English teacher, the English standard of the students was at intermediate level. Most students were not confident enough to discuss and express themselves in English. Those who had higher English competence were appointed as group leaders to facilitating discussion. In general, the students were well behaved but they needed a lot of guidance and language support from the teacher to do the tasks in English.
Lesson Highlights: Appropriate choice of topic and input materials The topic of love is appealing to young people who are beginning to explore more about love and relationships. The input materials on this topic include famous quotes, two literary texts in the form of song lyrics and poetry and a few samples of creative writing from past students. Many scholars (Maley, 1989; Carter & Long, 1991; McRae, 1991; Mok, 2001) and the English Language Syllabus for Hong Kong schools (CDC, 1999) advocate the use of literary genres as a resource for language enrichment, cultural enrichment and personal enrichment of second language learners. The input materials in this unit expose the students to poetry rich in figurative language and expressive feelings towards love from different cultural/gender backgrounds and perspectives. Through the teacher's guidance and the students' interactive discussion about the texts, the students were led to appreciate the texts, share their own interpretations of meaning, respond and give expression to the topic. Systematic sequencing of learning activities The activities in this unit are well sequenced. Through a series of manageable steps. Students were led to develop a creative response to the abstract question of “What is love?” First of all, the teacher read to the students a few famous quotes on the abstract concept of love. The quotes are short and easy to understand. They are also effective in illustrating how different feelings and perspectives can be conveyed through language. The students were then led to appreciate two poetic texts. Before they can fully appreciate the texts, explicit teaching on the use of imagery, in particular, metaphors and similes, was provided to bring students' attention to the feelings being expressed. Students were then guided to interpret the messages and sentiments in the texts and proceed from that to their own views and feelings about love. Before the students were asked to write creatively about their own perception of love, the teacher showed samples of past students' writing on love. The writing of peers can be a very effective means to stimulate more ideas as well as demonstrate the creative use of language from learners with a similar background to theirs. Language support The teacher provided language support to students in a few different ways. She provided a glossary of the two texts to facilitate the comprehension of the texts. She focused students' attention on the use of imagery with examples. In her interaction with students during the discussion and reporting stages, she used different strategies to facilitate students' expression of meaning through appropriate language (see further discussion below). She also made use of the samples of past students' work, and illustrated to students what learners of a similar background were capable of doing. Effective interaction with students during group reporting back The students were asked to report on their group's discussion. This provided an opportunity for students to learn from each other and allowed the teacher to carry out formative assessment of students' learning. During the reporting stage, the teacher interacted with the group representatives in different ways and the interaction served the following purposes: (1) Seeking clarification and encouraging elaboration of response Students sometimes tended to provide short and single word responses. The teacher asked questions to probe for more ideas and encouraged students to clarify their views. For instance, a student mentioned that one of the images used in the song lyrics for love is a flower. The teacher encouraged the student to analyse this more precisely by asking, “What kind of flower exactly?” Another example can be seen from the following exchanges between the teacher and another student. T: What (kind of imagery) can you find in this poem? S: Bad tooth T: ….Yeah, it's like a bad tooth. It's a bad tooth. What qualities (has it got that resemble love)? S: When you get a toothache, you feel very painful, just like…. T: Painful, this one (underlines word in text), pain…. It brings you pain, right? And then ….nothing more? S: But you can recover when…. T: You can recover, interesting. How? S: Go to the dentist (class laugh). (2) Reformulation When a student explained why she chose “rose” as the metaphor for love, she could not explain it clearly. She only managed to stammer in a rather unclear way about the rose being beautiful and something being painful. The teacher reformulated her attempt by saying “It's thorny.” (3) Explanation Students did not seem to be able to figure out what “short” refers to in the poem Love. The teacher encouraged guesses and led students through the lines of the poem to work out the two metaphors used by the poet – i.e. love is short and the poem is short. The interaction clearly demonstrates how genuine and meaningful interaction with students can bring about active involvement of the students and raise students' interest in the learning process. As rightly pointed out by Tsui (1995:7), “the language used by the teacher affects the language produced by the learners, the interaction generated and hence the kind of learning that takes place.” Publishing of students' work Students were given a purpose for writing. Their written work was collected by the teacher who played the role of a reader and an assessor, giving students feedback for improvement. The writing was then uploaded onto the class website for the class to read. In other words, apart from the teacher, there is a wider audience with a genuine interest in reading the work and finding out what one another think about love. The existence of a real group of readers makes the editing process of the writing purposeful and students will be more serious in the creation of the work. In process writing, presenting/publishing is often seen as a time for celebration and appreciation of writing achievements by a supportive audience (Education Department, 1994).
Discussion Questions: 1. According to the Curriculum Development Council (1999: 103), language arts seek “to develop learners' language sensitivity, cultural awareness, and creative and critical thinking.” How far do you think that this was accomplished in this unit? 2. If you were to teach this class, would you give other language support / input to students? If so, what kind of support / input do you have in mind? 3. If you had more time to teach this session, what other activities would you like to add? Why and how much more time would you need? 4. Is there any part of the lesson that you would like to shorten? Why? 5. Are you aware of any other language arts resources on the theme of love that may be of interest to a class like this? 6. What have the students learnt in the reporting part of the lesson? What is the role of the teacher during the reporting? 7. What do you think of the quality of interaction between the teacher and the class?
References: Carter, R. & Long, M.N. (1991). Teaching literature. New York: Longman. Education Department (1994). Teaching writing as a process. Hong Kong: Government Printer. Maley, A. (1989). The inward ear: poetry in the language classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. McRae, J. (1991). Literature with a small 'l'. London: MacMillan. Mok, A. (2001). Task-based learning, language arts and the media: a resource book for secondary English teachers. Hong Kong: INSTEP, HKU. Tsui, A.B.M. (1995). Introducing classroom interaction. London: Penguin. The Curriculum Development Council. (1999). Syllabuses for secondary schools. English language, secondary 1-5. Hong Kong: Government Printer.
Top