ARMY PUBLIC SCHOOL, NOIDA

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
LESSON PLAN

Class VIII
Topic: The School boy Type: Poetry

No. of periods: 01 Duration: 40mins

1. AIM:

i) To help students appreciate William Blake’s poetry.

ii) To appreciate the theme of the poem.
2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

The students will be able to:

i) Appreciate the genre of poetry.
ii) Identify the poetic devices used.
iii)Trace the rhyme scheme of the poem.
iv) Write a short poem

3. INTRODUCTION:
Brief introduction of the poet will be given:
William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 at 28 Broad Street in Soho, London. He was the
third of seven children. Blake's father, James, was a hosier. He attended school only long enough
to learn reading and writing, leaving at the age of ten, was otherwise educated at home by his
mother Catherine Blake. The Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and remained
a source of inspiration throughout his life. He deeply opposed slavery which is also reflected in
his themes. His most renowned work in poetry is ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, which
is an illustrated collection of poems. Some of his famous poems are The Lamb, The Tyger, A
Poison Tree, London and The Chimney Sweeper.

4.METHODOLOGY:
4.1. PRE READING ACTIVITY
 Students will be asked to share their blogs or vlogs on life of a student.
 A brief discussion will be generated on how their life is now different from the kind of
school life they had before pandemic.
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n 4.2. WHILE READING ACTIVITY
 Silent reading of the poem by the students
 The teacher will then discuss the salient features of the poem and help the students try to
understand and paraphrase the poem.
 Understanding new words in context
 Discussion of the theme
 Identification of rhyme scheme and poetic devices
 With the help of Power Point Presentation, the teacher will explain each stanza, with the
meanings of all the difficult words.

Word Meanings
Morn – morning
Huntsman – a hunter
dismay- upset
droop – bend
bower – a shelter
dreary - cheerless
Rhyme scheme-

Poetic devices
 Alliteration:
skylark sings
blossoms blown

 Repetition
Nor
 Imagery
Birds sing
Sit in a cage
 Apostrophe
O! Father and Mother
ababb

4.3 POSTREADING ACTIVITY

RECAPITULATION:

The following questions will be asked to assess the students understanding of the poem:
1.   Who is the speaker of the poem?  
2.   What is the cause of child’s fear?
3.   What is the poem written about?
4.  Name the poet of the poem.

5.CREATIVE TASK:

Compose a short poem on ‘Nature’ using a rhyme scheme and at least two poetic devices.

6.LEARNING RESOURCES:

i) PPT / Module on Smart Board

ii) Honeydew Textbook for class VIII

7.BIBLIOGRAPHY:
a) Wikipedia
b) https:// weebly.com/the-school-boy.html

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