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Importance of Literature in Education: Self Reflection
Armina Rashid

For my literature in education presentation, I chose to use the book George’s Marvelous
Medicine by Roald Dahl to teach grade 3 poetry in ELA and mixed media in art. I chose this book
because it’s one of my favourite Roald Dahl books and is the shortest children’s book I have on
my bookshelf. While this book is an easy read, it has some outdated themes that would now be
considered mature for a children’s audience. When I looked it up, many parents and teachers
suggested it can be used for students in the grades 2 to 5 range. I found that there is a
dichotomy in my presentation between the lesson plan and preparation I made and presenting
my lesson plan.

When preparing and creating my lesson plan, I found a pdf with a bunch of ideas to use on the
Roald Dahl website. Honestly, wow this is so great! When I teach a book in class for elementary,
I plan on looking through that resource again! I couldn’t find the exact worksheet I had
envisioned, so I decided to use my GoodNotes app and create the worksheets the way I wanted
to with some inspiration from the resources I found. I also included the page of “absolutely
awful adverbs” from the pdf package on the Roald Dahl website.

I’m not emotionally ready to talk about feelings and interpersonal relationships in the
classroom, so I decided to work on the theme of the power of words and turn it into a poetry
lesson. I believe this was a smart decision as poetry is taught every year from k to 12 so after
structuring the lesson the way I did for grade 3, it would be easy to work it down to the grade 2
level or build it up to the grade 5 level. When looking up poetry styles, I came across a style
called Magic 9 which uses the rhyming scheme of ABACADABA. I did initially have this planned
for my students to try this, until I realized it would be harder for some students in grade 3 who
may be writing below their grade level. This may be something I include if I were to teach this
exact lesson in a grade 4 or 5 classroom.

I show only one poetry example in the PowerPoint, after my presentation I went back and
added another example with the Doubl, Double Toil and Trouble from Macbeth by William
Shakespeare to compare how even a more complex poem still has a rhyming scheme. Looking
over my presentation after presenting, I think this would be a good lesson plan in the middle or
at the end of the poetry unit just because I don’t have all the introduction and background
information on poetry. It could be possible to use this at the start of a poetry unit, however, I
would need to (a) add more information or activities to introduce the topic; (b) focus more on
alliteration or (c) use this lesson plan as a review from grade 2 poetry and see how much my
students remember. As it is planned to be an open-ended poem, there is more space to get an
idea of how comfortable my students are with writing poems.

Presenting my lesson plan did not go as well as I planned. I can say that it was because of how
much anxiety I had by the time it came to my presentation. This time, I was the second last
presenter and there was a lot of anticipation anxiety built up on top of the other anxiety I had.
Being the last group to present has both pros and cons attached. The pro is that I have more
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time to work on and perfect my presentation the way I want to. The con is that I must watch
everyone else’s before mine and those presenters always set up a standard the next presenter
must meet.

I really enjoyed watching the other presentations, everyone picked such great books to work
into the curriculum. Several classmates chose books to specifically talk about current issues
going on in the world (e.g. LGBTQ rights and acceptance; reconciliation with Indigenous
Peoples; global warming and pollution; etc.) which are really great to talk about in the
classroom especially in today’s world. I found that it is a bit harder to compare with these
future teachers when I picked a book from the 1980’s with some outdated themes. When we
were reading our books in breakout rooms, I was reading to a classmate who never read
George’s Marvelous Medicine until I was reading the book to him.

There was a lot of anxiety that I felt when discussing my book because it is much older than the
ones brought in and there could be something in the book that we should not teach our
children anymore. This made me realize how much of the world has changed since I was in
grade school – which says a lot for someone who is only 23 and George’s Marvelous Medicine is
a book I remember reading in my primary school years. I think this recognition is important
when creating future lesson plans to use in the classroom with my students because it is
important to teach them how our world functions today and the type of current events and
current issues that go on today. This is a lesson that will forever be in my heart as we continue
to advance as a society.

After having a discussion with my professor after class, I know that my presentation is a pass.
I’m glad it is a pass; my inner child got excited about creating a collage to make my own
Marvelous Medicine so I know that other students would get excited about this too! Something
I would redo in this presentation is making sure I am in the right headspace to teach this lesson
and feel confident in the material I use so I can enjoy these activities alongside my students.

While I recognize that as the world changes, there is new material to use and new topics to
teach students, some topics will continue to be taught that help lay the foundation to our
knowledge as a society. And, as long as we recognize that older materials are timepieces to the
perception society has held in that period, it is okay to use these materials to teach relatable
portions of the curriculum. It is just as important to remember to adjust the content and
wording to be age-appropriate and/or fully removing offensive subject matter.