Some of the material I'm obliged to use at work sucks. Like really, really bad. Oh yeah, you have no idea. And I have passed through all of the five stages of grief. This means that I have accepted the fact that I am doomed. But a few hours ago an idea hit me like a train: I can't let a stupid material change my practice. I'm a good teacher, I am! My fair lady.
I decided to use a poem. With beginners. Third two-hour meeting.
I know it's edgy, but I came up with a website — poetry-online.org — that has a lot of poems for kids. The site is way too ugly but it's sort of helpful.
No, I'm not underestmating my students. There are poems there that I just studied last semester! At college! There are poems by great authors like T. S. Elliot, Lewis Carroll and William Blake. So I chose Carroll's "How doth the little crocodile", with a tiny little change. "Does" instead of "doth", come on!
This one is good because it's small and I happen to have it translated! In a book! The poem is from Alice's adventures in Wonderland. I don't plan to use the translation in class but... we never know, right? I prepared the cutest worksheet and I'll ask them to draw a picture to each stanza. Did you like it? I hope they do.
To save you some time, here it goes:
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!
No comments:
Post a Comment