Topic: Using an authentic material as a teaching material.
The authentic material I chose to use is “Mending Wall” of Robert Frost and I would have used this to teach vocabulary.
Mending wall
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulder in the sun,
And make gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there,
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make the balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down. “I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
In the poem there are some words in bold and underlined that I believe to be new vocabulary for my students. After reading the poem, that I consider to be the first step, all together we make a list of the new vocabulary and write them all at the blackboard. After making the list we all could try to guess the meaning according to the context. While discussing the meaning of the words in the poem I could invite them to check the dictionary for the meanings of the words. This, would make them see the real meaning of the words because, as we know the poetic style sometimes chances their meaning like in metaphors, etc, and in the task of vocabulary learning it might not be the meaning that is widely used and this would lead to mistakes.
After checking the meaning they could give a definition of their own to see if they really understood the meaning of those words. We could say what it is and what it’s not.
Example: abreast- It is: Two people walking side by side
It’s not: Two people walking one after the other.
After doing this I could make them think of the synthesis of the words. How do they fit in other sentences? This could make them use the words in other contexts and get familiar with those words.
While checking the dictionary I could let them see the different uses of those words. This leads to a better understanding of the words’ meaning and makes them remember better and more easily. Knowing when, where and under what conditions might they find those words would make it much easier for them.
One of the most important steps is the evaluation of the words. Before they go further on their studying, the students need to have a really good reason to do that. They need to know why these words should be important to them. They need to know what they can do with those words, and those examples will be given both by me (the teacher) and by them giving examples while discussing.
After passing this important step I think they could be ready to deal with the analysis of the words, their syntax and what more may be needed. This step needs more studying because here they connect these words with their roots and get to a deeper understanding of the words.
Example: abreast: a + breast the two breast parts being seen
walling in/out wall + ing divided by wall; something in and something out.
After knowing their application (what it is and what it is not), after knowing how do these words fit with the other concepts my students know, after knowing when, where and under what conditions my students might find those words, knowing their importance for their vocabulary and also having a deeper knowledge of the origin of those words I believe they could be ready to write a full definition of their own of the words they learned. This definition could not be exactly the same as the dictionary but it would be a very complete meaning where all the material they know about these words is included.
In the Albanian public school is a bit difficult to find any technologic aids to help you teach but if I had the possibility I would have liked to have in my class an interactive blackboard. I have seen it once in a video and it worked amazingly. It is really easy to use for the students and it attracts them. Especially with teenagers it is really important that you get their attention first.
For example, the part of the analysis of the words could have been really good if I would have had the possibility to use one of them. The students would have enjoyed the getting on the blackboard part which they normally hate.
THE END.
