Poems to stimulate the mind An approach to Wind on the Hill by A. A. Milne

Although little has been written about the “losses” of exclusively online education – at least, to my knowledge – I couldn’t fail to notice how some of my students seemed to forget words or structures which I considered assimilated especially because they had been taught and consolidated before the outbreak of the pandemic.

When such lapses occur, it only makes sense to do some remedial work so that the gaps can be filled and the students can continue learning effectively. One can cite a number of reasons for these setbacks:

the distractions of the medium (messages, pop-up windows etc)

internet connection problems

doing all the exercises online

the inability of the teacher to keep an eye on everyone on the screen or even impose discipline

the failure to prevent cheating in online tests

Poems can come in useful when you try to escape the boredom of yet another grammar drill online.

 

I find children’s poems about nature fascinating and easy for the children to digest even when there is some philosophical depth to them.

This time I took a well-known poem (Wind on the Hill by A.A. Milne) and created a task-based approach which requires the children to look at the icons corresponding to the gaps in the poem and fill in the words they think are missing. Since I give them the title of the poem, I do not provide the word “wind” in the poem. The poem is quite simple and you might want to introduce the theme by playing the sound of the wind before you present the students with the task. Many different answers will be provided, but what is important is how to get the students to think creatively.

On completion of the task, depending on the age of the children, you could ask them what ideas they associate with the wind. Probably, the obvious one would be freedom, but students know how to always surprise teachers. Ask them to write a few lines or even a poem on the topic wind and freedom. Some questions might help them get started:

• Can you catch the wind?
• Can you limit freedom?
• Should you limit freedom?
• How do we harness the power of the wind?
• Where would you go if the wind could carry you safely?

 Here is the poem:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lspdBdz3F0t5_jEzUTtdyk561k3CNj6E/view?usp=sharing

and my illustrated version of it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EeabhvOpcEqPpJedV1Mab5P9_9MiDic3/view?usp=sharing