This sequence of lessons was designed by Angela Bird when working on poetry with her pre-tertiary English C students. She first shared it with other teachers via the English College Teachers Forum . The explanation below is adapted from her forum contribution.

This year I started the 12 C course with poetry. Because poetry is an excellent way to introduce aspects of language that students need to analyse both in poetry and prose, it's a good place to start . I think it's really important to make links between texts with regard to the matter they deal with and the style. In this way the students start to get a sense of intertextuality. My class are studying the third group of prescribed poems:

As an example of the way I’ve been working, this is what I did with ‘The Railings’ by Roger McGough.

The Railings

You came to watch me playing cricket once.
Quite a few of the fathers did.
At ease, outside the pavilion
they would while away a Saturday afternoon.
Joke with the masters, urge on
their flannelled offspring. But not you.

Fielding deep near the boundary
I saw you through the railings.
You were embarrassed when I waved
and moved out of sight down the road.
When it was my turn to bowl though
I knew you’d still be watching.

Third ball, a wicket, and three more followed.
When we came in at the end of the innings
the other dads applauded and joined us for tea.
Of course, you had gone by then. Later,
you said you’d found yourself there by accident.
Just passing. Spotted me through the railings.

* * *
Speech-day · Prize-givings · School-plays
The Twentyfirst · The Wedding · The Christening
You would find yourself there by accident.
Just passing. Spotted me through the railings.

Individual reading of the poem. The students wrote a reflection on the poem exploring their personal responses.

Rewriting the poem In pairs students rewrote the poem from the father's perspective. This worked particularly well and really made them aware of the relationship between father and son. In groups they shared their poems and chose one to read to the class. Then they answered some general questions about the poem and particular lines to sharpen understanding.

Using a picture book with similar issues I read them First Light by Gary Crew and we discussed the similarities in the relationship as it was presented in both texts.

Using media texts Next we looked at a range of newspaper articles, collected by Sue Kremer and other colleagues, which dealt with men and fathers. As we looked at the language in the articles, we started to link style analysis to poetry study.

The articles were :

‘Men's Liberation strikes a snag in credibility’, The Mercury, June 13 1998 (Download the Word document - 128k)

‘What's Wrong Son?’, Sunday Tasmanian (Download the Word document - 44k)

‘Hunting down ghosts from painful past’, The Sunday Tasmanian April 30, 2000, ‘Money Can't Buy him Love: That Takes Time’, The Australian,

‘Missing Fathers’, The Mercury, Tuesday, August 1, 2000 (Download the Word document - 1mb)

‘Curse on Men who dare to care’, The Weekend Australian, Feb 5-6, 2000.

I divided the students into groups by numbering them off, jigsaw method. Each group read one article and discussed its content, tone, purpose, techniques used to persuade, and so on. They then numbered off and formed new groups so that one member in each new group had read one of the articles. This required each group member to be responsible, not just the reporter. They were asked to discuss the similarities and differences in the articles and the ways that the authors presented their opinions. The discussion was lively.

Introducing film and other texts Next lesson I gave them the handout below:

Then I divided the class into groups and each looked at one of the suggested films on the handout. They were asked to find a short scene that highlighted the view fatherhood presented in the flim and share that with the class. Most had seen the films before and didn't need to watch the whole film. They then wrote a reflection about all the film scenes and what they revealed about how fathers are depicted in texts. Finally we discussed the task of writing the article and the texts they could use.

Reflections

My purpose in this kind of approach was to allow the students to see links between texts and to sharpen their understanding of the focus text. They read and viewed widely and used oral and written skills. I'm looking forward to reading their articles. I think it is an appropriate form for their responses as they need to know about feature articles and writing one is an excellent way of learning about their structure. Organising their thoughts in this way also helps them write in other forms such as essays.

Acknowledgements

‘The Railings’ is reproduced with the permission of PFD on behalf of Roger McGough. Further information about Roger McGough’s books is available from his publishers, Penguin.

Articles from The Mercury are reproduced with the permission of The Mercury. Our thanks to Rod Boucher and the NIE service.