A Bridge: a multiple- intelligence approach to presenting poems

A Bridge: a multiple- intelligence approach to presenting poems

As a teacher, I purposely avoid using certain terms because to my mind they are contradictions in themselves. One of them is “lesson plan”. Not any lesson plan, mostly ready-made lesson plans.

When I started teaching, long time ago, I never walked into a classroom without having planned my lesson. Very soon it turned out that my plan often went awry for a very simple reason: teaching is a constantly readjustable process. Of course I am not suggesting that I don’t prepare for my classes—quite the opposite. I am simply saying that the term lesson plan is redolent of standardization, and I am suspicious of “standardized” activities and I am also convinced that the make-up of your class requires on-the-spot fine tuning which can only be accomplished by being receptive to the needs of the learners.

Therefore, my presentations are simply guidelines for thinking teachers who will judge whether they suit their needs and will adjust them as they go.

This post focuses on a poem called A Bridge by Stanley Cook.

It is a children’s poem though it might well appeal to teenagers or even adults provided that the presentation and practice are adapted accordingly.

I normally use it with children so I will make a few suggestions about how to introduce the topic and read the poem.

There is a powerpoint presentation (see next post on this blog), which can be used as a visual prop to the poem. The last slide shows the activity which the students have to do after being introduced to the topic kinesthetically, visually and, preferably, aurally. It is a blank-filling activity which tests the understanding of the situation and helps focus on coherence, consistency and reference issues.

For convenience reasons I cite the poem highlighting the words which are left blank for the students to fill:

A Bridge

A bridge is a giant on hands and knees

Kneeling down to fill a gap

And let people cross it on his back.

A bridge is a giant of stone or steel

With a back so hard he doesn’t feel

The prodding of sticks or hammering of heels.

A bridge is a giant who carries the road

And the lorries on it with heavy loads,

A giant who stays there night and day

And never gets up and goes away.

By Stanley Cook

I assume children know the word “bridge” already so you may want to capitalize on their kinesthetic intelligence by asking them to make a bridge with their bodies. When they start reading the poem they will be able to complete the first two gaps simply by mentally reconstructing their body posture when making the bridge.

You could do a bit of “prodding” while the children are arching their backs both to show the meaning of the word and to enable them to fill the next gap: “feel” when they move on to the activity.

If they get stuck with “road”, you can ask them what “it” refers to in the next line or where you can find lorries(on roads).

The last gap is a bit tricky so if there is no response, you can elicit it by asking: can a bridge go away?

If you have dyslexic children in your class, it would pay to embed a reading of the poem with a pause for each gap.

On the other hand if I was to present this to teenagers or adults, I would start by discussing the use of bridges practically and figuratively. Connecting is bound to come up and there are endless possibilities for which way the discussion could go.

Your students could read the poem several times in chorus—it encourages poor readers to join in.

Vocabulary extension depends on the level of the students. You could ask them to think of vehicles going over a bridge. If they are adults, they could think of how a bridge is built (ask them to research the question on the internet).

Another idea is to ask the students to think of or search for bridges in films or to name famous bridges around the world. It could be a group project in class.

If I can stretch it a bit, you might even be able to practise Conditional Type 2 by asking what would happen if the giant went away. Get the students to think of a conditional chain:

If the giant went away, the lorries would fall.

If the lorries fell, lots of people would get killed

If lots of people got killed, …

It is not necessary or even desirable to do all the above in one lesson; the whole idea could be spread over a couple of lessons allowing the teacher to continue with the course they use in their class. 

Why poetry in teaching: making a case for its use

If we look around us, there is poetry everywhere: in the vastness of the sea, in the brightness of the sun, in the journey of the falling leaves, in the sound of the soft rain. 

Reading a poem is an experience of a different order from those of “real life” and yet of the kind that can, many a time, make “real life” less insufferable than it might be.

A poem is something we “make”. It comes from the Greek word for the result of “making”. (ποίημα). A poem encapsulates a lifetime’s thoughts and experiences. It can evoke a whole range of feelings and emotions, but above all, it can bring people together by the power of its rhythm and imagery which are universal and culture-free.

Poetry has been kept out of teaching language though there are a number of good reasons why it should form part of it. In the age of texting and tweeting, a poem has the advantage of being brief and self-contained – even the longer ones – compared to novels which can be a few hundred to over a thousand pages long. 

Of course, I am not trying to underestimate the importance of reading extensively – far from it. I am only suggesting that poems can provide ideal language input, ample scope for discussion and a springboard for writing.

One can read a poem out, or play a reading of it on one of the numerous poetry sites. There is nothing wrong with reading a poem several times; on the contrary, one might find plenty of opportunities for doing so: getting the rhythm right, reading it on your own or in a group, counting the syllables in each line and so on.

A poem can be acted out if it lends itself to dramatization or put to music or recited. A poem can be conversational or narrative or philosophical among others. Depending on the subject and the degree of difficulty a teacher can devise all kinds of different activities.

I will provide a simple example. Here is a very popular English poem:

Once the Wind

Once the wind
said to the sea
I am sad
       And the sea said
Why
       And the wind said
Because I
am not blue like the sky
or like you

       So the sea said what’s
so sad about that
                         Lots
of things are blue
or red or other colours too
       but nothing
neither sea nor sky
can blow so strong
or sing so long as you
       And the sea looked sad
          So the wind said
Why

By Shake Keane

One can use this poem for many purposes in class. I am a stickler for testing comprehension and in this case it fits perfectly with testing coherence and cohesion. I jumbled the first few lines of the poem as follows:

I am sad

Why

Once the wind

And the sea said

Because I

Said to the sea

And the wind said

I asked my students to put the lines in the right order, which they found quite engaging.

If your students keep forgetting the preposition “to” after the verb “say”, this is a nice way of bringing it home to them.

The poem, thanks to its conversational nature can be acted out .

The end of it can put into motion another exchange between the wind and the sea and therefore lead to creative writing. Alternatively, the teacher can provide two different identities for children to write their poem with those in the place of the wind and the sea. A handy example is : ice and fire.

Groups of words could be built under the headings:

wind

breeze

gale

hurricane

tornado

or

sea

waves

calm

choppy

rough

bottom

surface

It is therefore obvious that poetry can not only provide pleasure reading but it can also hone skills, encourage creativity and enrich vocabulary to mention but a few of its advantages.