HBET4203 Teaching of Drama and Poetry in ESL

HBET4203
TEACHING OF
DRAMA AND
POETRY
IN ESL
Dr Wan Rozelezam Wan Yahya
Dr Teh Chee Seng
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Project Directors: Prof Dato’ Dr Mansor Fadzil
Prof Dr Widad Othman
Open University Malaysia
Module Writers: Assoc Prof Dr Wan Rozelezam Wan Yahya

Assoc Prof Dr Teh Chee Seng
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Moderators: Assoc Prof Dr Wan Rozelezam Wan Yahya

Dr Jayakaran Mukundan
Universiti Putra Malaysia
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Open University Malaysia
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Lot 47-48, Jalan SR 1/9, Seksyen 9,
Jalan Serdang Raya, Taman Serdang Raya,
43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan
First Edition, January 2005

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM), October 2011, HBET4203
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
the written permission of the President, Open University Malaysia (OUM).

Table of Contents
Course Guides ix – xii
Topic 1 The Lesson Structure 1

1.1 Factors to Consider When Structuring the Lesson Plan 2
1.1.1 The Purpose 2
1.1.2 The Texts 3
1.1.3 Framework 8
1.2 The Parts of the Lesson Structure 13
1.2.1 The Introduction 13
1.2.2 Getting Into the Drama and Poetry (Presentation) 14
1.2.3 Creative Writing 17
1.2.4 Extension Activities 19
1.2.5 The Conclusion 19
Summary 20
Key Terms 20
Topic 2 Presenting Elements of Drama 21

2.1 Teaching Setting 21
2.1.1 Sample Activities 23
2.2 Teaching Plot 28
2.3 Teaching Characterisation 30
2.4 Dialogue 33
2.5 Themes in Plays 35
2.6 Warming-Up Activities 38
Summary 39
Key Terms 40
Topic 3 Presenting Elements of Poetry 41

3.1 Teaching the Persona 42
3.2 Teaching Rhyme 43
3.3 Teaching Rhythm 44
3.4 Teaching Theme 46
3.5 Teaching Onomatopoeia 48
3.6 Teaching Symbols 49
3.7 Teaching Tone 50
3.8 Teaching Irony 51
3.9 Structuring the Teaching Elements of Poetry
in a Lesson Plan 53
3.10 Final Hints For Teaching 54
Summary 57
Key Terms 57

iv  TABLE OF CONTENTS
Topic 4 Designing Classroom Activities for the Teaching of

Drama and Poetry –– The Basic Principles 58
4.1 Providing Background Information 59
4.2 Progression of Difficulty of Questions 62
4.3 Clear and Succinct 65
4.4 Group Activities 66
4.5 Appropriateness 66
4.5.1 Age and Maturity 67
4.5.2 Receptivity 67
4.5.3 Cultural Background 69
4.5.4 Gender 69
4.5.5 Language Proficiency 70
4.6 Other Considerations 71
Summary 72
Key Terms 72
Topic 5 Using Materials in the Teaching of Drama and Poetry 73

5.1 Visual Materials 74
5.1.1 Print Materials 74
5.1.2 Pictorial Materials 78
5.1.3 Posters and Pictures 81
5.1.4 Videos 82
5.2 Audio Materials 84
Summary 86
Key Terms 86
Topic 6 More Activities for the Teaching of Drama 87

6.1 Activities for the “Pre” Stage – Warming-Up 88
6.1.1 Moving Hands 88
6.1.2 (S)He Who Laughs First is Out 89
6.1.3 Imagined Objects 89
6.1.4 Real Objects 89
6.1.5 Roundabouts 90
6.1.6 Volleyball 90
6.1.7 Imaginary Duel 91
6.1.8 Orchestra 91
6.1.9 Forming Objects 91
6.1.10 Catwalk 92
6.1.11 Guess the Leader 92
6.2 Activities for the “While” Stage 93
6.2.1 Exchanging Objects 93
6.2.2 New Dialogues 94

TABALE OF CONTENTS t v
6.2.3 Other Possible Things 94

6.2.4 Guessing the Character 94
6.2.5 Guessing the Costume 94
6.2.6 Paired Lines 95
6.2.7 Completing the Set 96
6.2.8 Different Situations (1) 96
6.2.9 Different Situations (2) 97
6.2.10 Interpretation from Inkblots 98
6.2.11 Pass the Message 98
6.2.12 Musical Box 99
6.3 Activities for the “Post” Stage 99
6.3.1 Chain Story 100
6.3.2 Entering Heaven 100
6.3.3 Which Part of the Drama Is It? 101
6.3.4 Storytelling with Objects 101
Summary 102
Key Terms 103
Topic 7 More Activities for the Teaching of Poetry 104

7.1 Preparing Students For Poetry 105
7.1.1 Using Stimuli 105
7.1.2 Life Line 107
7.1.3 Using Other Poems 108
7.1.4 Questionnaire 112
7.2 Working Into The Poem 113
7.2.1 The Best Choice 113
7.2.2 Completing the Piece 115
7.2.3 Using the Video 116
7.2.4 Line by Line 117
7.3 Working Out From The Poem 117
7.3.1 Be the Judge/Critic 117
7.3.2 Interview 118
7.3.3 Drama 118
7.4 Miscellaneous Activities 118
Summary 120
Key Terms 120
Topic 8 Putting Up A Play 121

8.1 Pre-Production 121
8.1.1 Organisation 122
8.1.2 The People in Charge 123
8.1.3 Scenes 124
8.1.4 Props 124
8.1.5 Lighting 125

vi  TABLE OF CONTENTS
8.1.6 Sound 125

8.1.7 Stage Managing 129
8.2 Staging The Play 130
8.2.1 Staging a Dance 131
8.2.2 Staging a Musical 131
8.3 Post Production 131
Summary 132
Key Terms 132
Topic 9 Assessment and Writing a Complete Lesson Plan 133

9.1 Assessment 134
9.1.1 Types of Assessment 135
9.1.2 Frequency of Assessment 135
9.1.3 Assessment Techniques 136
9.2 Writing The Lesson Plan 138
Summary 141
Key Terms 141
References 142

COURSE GUIDE

COURSE GUIDE t ix
COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

You must read this Course Guide carefully from the beginning to the end. It tells
you briefly what the course is about and how you can work your way through
the course material. It also suggests the amount of time you are likely to spend
in order to complete the course successfully. Please keep on referring to Course
Guide as you go through the course material as it will help you to clarify
important study components or points that you might miss or overlook.
INTRODUCTION
HBET4203 Teaching of Drama and Poetry in ESL is one of the courses offered by
the Faculty of Education and Languages, Open University Malaysia (OUM). This
course is worth 3 credit hours and should be covered over 8 to 15 weeks.
COURSE AUDIENCE
This is a core course for all students undertaking the Bachelor of Education (TESL)
programme. For the TESL practitioner, this course will assist you in preparing
you to teach, impart and present drama and poetry effectively in the Malaysian
classroom. Learners who take this course should have completed the course in
Introduction to Drama and Poetry (HBET4103).
As an open and distance learner, you should be acquainted with learning

independently and being able to optimise the learning modes and environment
available to you. Before you begin this course, please confirm the course material,
the course requirements and how the course is conducted.
STUDY SCHEDULE
The OUM standard requires students to accumulate 40 study hours for every credit
hour. This course carries 3 credit hours, therefore it requires an accumulation of
120 study hours. Table 1 below gives you an approximation of how the 120 hours
could be used.

x  COURSE GUIDE
Table 1: Approximate Study Time Allocation
Study Activities Study

Hours
Briefly go through the course content and participate in intial 3
discussion
Study the module 60
Attending 3 to 5 tutorial sessions 10
Online participation 12
Assignment(s), Test(s) and Examination(s) 20
Revision 15
TOTAL STUDY HOURS 120
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Structure lesson plans that will reflect the principles and practices of teaching
drama and poetry that are taught in this module;
2. Discuss and give rationale for each of the teaching steps in the lesson plan;
and
3. Design activities and materials for the teaching of the elements of drama and
poetry.
COURSE SYNOPSIS
The course is designed to develop your ability to teach English drama and poetry
in the ESL context. You will be trained and given guidance to plan the lesson,
create classroom activities and use effective techniques to teach drama and
poetry. This course is divided into 9 topics. The synopsis for each topic is listed as
follows
In Topic 1, you will learn the different parts of the lesson structure in teaching drama
and poetry. You will learn about the factors that should be considered when you
construct the lesson structure.
In Topic 2, you will be presented with suggested activities for teaching the
elements of drama.

COURSE GUIDE t xi
In Topic 3, you will be presented with suggested activities for teaching the
elements of poetry.
In Topic 4, you will learn some basic principles when designing classroom
activities such as structuring cloze passage activities.
In Topic 5, you will learn the types of materials that you can consider (such as visual
materials) when teaching drama and poetry.
In Topic 6, you will be given suggested activities for teaching drama.
In Topic 7, you will be given suggested activities that you can consider using
when teaching poetry in the ESL class.
In Topic 8, you will learn the procedures and steps when putting up a school
play.
In Topic 9, you will learn about the ways of assessing students in the drama and
poetry class. You will also learn the steps in coming up with a complete lesson
plan.
TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE

Before you go through this module, it is important that you note the text
arrangement. Understanding the text arrangement should help you to organise
your study of this course to be more objective and more effective. Generally, the
text arrangement for each topic is as follows:
Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after you
have completely gone through a topic. As you go through each topic, you should
frequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuously
gauge your progress of digesting the topic.
Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locations

throughout the module. It is inserted after you have gone through one subsection
or sometimes a few sub-sections. It usually comes in the form of a question that
may require you to stop your reading and start thinking. When you come across
this component, try to reflect on what you have already gone through. When you
attempt to answer the question prompted, you should be able to gauge whether
you have understood what you have read (clearly, vaguely or worse you might
find out that you had not comprehended or retained the subsection(s) that you
had just gone through). Most of the time, the answers to the questions can be
found directly from the module itself.

xii  COURSE GUIDE
Activity: Like Self-Check, activities are also placed at various locations or junctures
throughout the module. Compared to Self-Check, Activity can appear in various
forms such as questions, short case studies or it may even ask you to conduct an
observation or research. Activity may also ask your opinion and evaluation on a
given scenario. When you come across an Activity, you should try to widen what
you have gathered from the module and introduce it to real situations. You should
engage yourself in higher order thinking where you might be required to analyse,
synthesise and evaluate instead of just having to recall and define.
Summary: You can find this component at the end of each topic. This component
helps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should
be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points inside
the summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for you to
revisit the details from the module.
Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should
go through this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargons
used throughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able to
explain, you should look for the terms from the module.
References: References is where a list of relevant and useful textbooks, journals,

articles, electronic contents or sources can be found. This list can appear in a few
locations such as in the Course Guide (at References section), at the end of every
topic or at the back of the module. You are encouraged to read and refer to the
suggested sources to elicit the additional information needed as well as to enhance
your overall understanding of the course.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Prior knowledge in linguistics, its subfields and grammar is an asset to determine
the quality and quantity of knowledge to be acquired from this course. At times,
this may not be necessarily difficult. Unknown or ambiguous terms are explained
as one progresses through the topics. However, some prior knowledge may help
in facilitating a quicker understanding of certain points presented in the module.
REFERENCES
The references and suggested further reading are presented in the respective topics
of this course.
EVALUATION
Please refer myVLE.

Topic  The Lesson
Structure
1
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Identify the key parts of the lesson structure for the teaching of drama
and poetry in the ESL context;
2. Discuss about various steps/stages of a lesson plan for the teaching of
drama and poetry; and
3. Identify the materials used for the teaching of drama and poetry.
XX INTRODUCTION
Do you think that planning a lesson is obviously much better than entering your
class without any planning at all? Through experience, you may probably realise
that a well-thought of lesson is much better than an unprepared teacher who
enters the class without knowing what he or she wants to do. As Barry Sesnan
says, “good” teachers are those who “probably did a lot of work before” entering the
class.
In addition, many students in our secondary schools do not have much liking
for poetry and drama. This is due to the fact that the language of poetry is
compact, as you have learned in HBET4103 (Introduction to Drama and Poetry).
Consequently, students find difficulties in unravelling the meaning of poems. As
for drama, some students may find difficulties in performing in front of the class
due to their passive and shy nature.
Thus, it is important to think and plan the lesson before entering the class, as
the last thing teachers want to do is to alienate their students further away from
the appreciation of drama and poetry. A good, structured lesson will invariably
draw the students into liking drama and poetry and subsequently moving into
appreciating the aesthetics of language (i.e. the finer points and the beauty of
language use).
2  TOPIC 1 THE LESSON STRUCTURE
1.1 FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN

STRUCTURING THE LESSON PLAN
Before you learn of the key parts of the lesson plan and the suggested activities
for each stage of the lesson plan, there are several important considerations that
you need to think of. One of the first considerations is to decide the purpose of
the drama and poetry class.
1.1.1 The Purpose

One purpose of the drama and poetry class is to teach the linguistic elements,
which means that the primary purpose of the drama and poetry class is to impart
language.
Gwin (1990), for example, believes in valuing “literature [i.e. drama and poetry] as
a tool to use as a focus of language teaching. At a specific level, Gill (1996) claims
that by using drama-techniques in her class (such as role plays and simulations),
her students’ vocabulary “appeared to have increased” and they “appeared to be
more confident when speaking in English”. Similarly, Brown (1994) claims that
“longer, more involved dramatic performances have been shown to have positive effects
on language learning.” Sithamparam (1991) also writes that poetry “is an effective
language teaching resource […] because it establishes patterns through rhyme, rhythm,
line length and sentence structure”.
Another reason for the teaching of drama and poetry in the ESL class is the
impartation of culture and values.
Tibbets (1998), for example, claims that students generally have “some interest
in the culture” that is embodied in the target language and this interest “may be
fostered by the use of poetry in the classroom”. The ultimate goal of the impartation
of culture and values through drama and poetry is that students will be “provided
to indulge in the study of humanities itself” (Rosli Talif and M. Jayakaran, 1994).
Miccoli (2003) also similarly writes that :
“Learning a language cannot be divorced from culture learning. Yet in a

foreign language teaching situation, this can be quite difficult, since culture
includes aspects such as how (native speakers) hold their bodies, how far they
stand apart, where they look when they talk, how men shake their hands with
each other, how children talk to their parents […] how anxiety or excitement
are expressed, or how culturally accepted intonation is used to deliver humor
or anger […]. Drama is a way of bringing the issues above naturally into the
language classroom”.

TOPIC 1 THE LESSON STRUCTURE t 3
Finally, another purpose of teaching drama and poetry is to allow students “to
enter and inhabit the landscape of a text that touches emotions and invites
personal involvement” (Hess, 2003).
In other words, drama and poetry are used in the ESL class to draw students
to achieve and appreciate a sense of aestheticism; to appreciate the beauty of
literature for what it is worth.
Thus, the purpose of using drama and poetry in the ESL class will chart the
direction that your lesson plan will take. For example, if language development is
your aim, then most of your activities and materials that you use in the class will
be linguistic-based, aimed at improving your students’ language proficiency.
You may probably find the above reasons familiar. It is, in fact, taken from Carter
and Long’s (1991), Model for Teaching Literature (refer to the HBET3703 module).
1.1.2 The Texts

The texts that you use in your drama and poetry class in Malaysian schools
are prescribed by the Education Ministry. Poems that are taught in the Form 1
Literature Component are “The Lake Isles of Innisfree”, “The Dead Crow” and “Life’s
Brief Candle”, while the poems for the Upper Secondary School are “Sonnet 18”,
“Si Tenggang’s Homecoming” , “There’s Been a Death in the Opposite House”, “The
Road Not Taken” and “Monsoon History”. Unfortunately, there are no drama texts
in the literature component of the Upper and Lower secondary school English
syllabus.
Students may also choose to sit for the Literature paper in the SPM examination.
The poems in the SPM Literature Paper (2004), are as follows (some of the poems
can be obtained from the given websites).
Poems
• Piano by D. H. Lawrence
http://www.bartleby.com/103/134.html
• Parents by E.E. Cummings
• A Figure Forgotten in Hours Not-of-Need by Kee Thuan Chye
• A Father’s Words for a Lost Child by Suhaimi Haji Muhammad
• Grandmother by Kemala

• We Are Seven by William Wordsworth

http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww124.html
• Tea in a Spaceship by James Kirkup
• Manners by Elizabeth Bishop
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Elizabeth_Bishop/2952
• The Gardner by Louis MacNeice
• Heir Conditioning by M. Shanmughalingam
www.viweb.freehosting.net/vilit_M-Shan.htm
• Dance by Fadzilah Amin
• The Midnight Satay Vendor by Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof
• Miracles by Walt Whitman
http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/Miracles.htm
• My Clever Pupils by Omar Mohd Noor
• Nocturne by Muhammad Haji Salleh
• Once Upon A Time by Gabriel Okara
http://amyscott.com/poetry_+_emotion.htm
• At the Door by Wong Phui Nam
• Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/hope.html
Figure 1.1: Poem in the SPM 2004 Literature Paper
The poems for the STPM Literature Paper are selected poems of Keats and Hardy
and the collected poems of Nissim Ezekiel.
For the drama genre, the plays for the SPM paper are as follows.
Drama
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
• Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw.
Figure 1.2: Plays for the SPM paper

For the STPM paper, the drama texts are Hamlet or As You Like It by William
Shakespeare.
Some of the considerations to take note of when you choose poetry or drama
texts are as follows:
(a) Culture
In a study by Mukundan (1993), he concludes that many students (i.e. the
respondents in his study) had “problems dealing with foreign cultural elements
in the (literary) text.” This means that students who read texts with too many
unfamiliar, foreign elements may encounter difficulties in comprehension
and understanding. Take the following poem (taken from Maley and Duff,
1989) in Figure 1.3 as an example.
Season Song (by Anonymous)
Here’s a song—
stags give tongue
winter snows
summer goes
High cold blow
sun is low
brief his day
seas give spray
Fern clumps redden
shapes are hidden
wildgeese raise
wonted cries
Cold now girds
wings of birds
icy time—
that’s my time.
Figure 1.3: Poem ‘Season Song’
The main difficulty of the poem (especially so for our students who have
never been to a country where there is winter and have never watched any
shows that depict winter time), is understanding or comprehending the
winter season as presented by the poet. What goes on during winter? How
does one feel? What does one see during winter? Why did the persona in the
poem say “That’s my time”?
However, sometimes local poems that depict or present ethnic culture may
not be fully comprehended by Malaysian students. This may be due to the
fact that our students are not fully exposed to the different cultures that exist
in Malaysia.
For example, how much do you understand “Monsoon History” by Shirley

Lim (one of the prescribed poems for the Upper Secondary Literature in
English component)?
An example from the poem is “Sarong-wrapped they counted silver paper for the
dead.” Do you understand this line? What are the cultural elements in the
poem that your students may find difficulty in?
(b) Gender
Another factor to consider when choosing texts is gender. Studies have
shown that students may be influenced (in their perception and behaviour
in life and gender relations) by the texts that they read or study in school.
For example, texts that tend to centralise males (and no mention of females)
may give the implication that only males have their say in this world while
females should remain passive.
Take “If” by Rudyard Kipling (Upper Secondary School Literature in English

component). From a gender point of view, what gender bias is presented
through this poem?
(c) Level of Difficulty

The level of difficulty of the poem or play should also be taken into
consideration as well. What is meant by the “level of difficulty” is that the
lexical items should not be too difficult which may result in putting the
students off (or even worse, to sleep!). Another understanding of “level
of difficulty” is the syntactical structures. Remember that the language of
poetry is quite different from everyday spoken language. The language that
is used in poetry is compact and full of ‘hidden’ or ‘ingrained’ meanings that
the reader is supposed to decipher and find out. As for plays, the “level of
difficulty” may arise due to many sub-plots within a main plot; unless the
students actually take part in the play, they may not fully comprehend it. In
a nutshell, Bright and McGregor (1970) suggest that the teacher has to ensure
that the texts used have to have “few difficulties of vocabulary and grammar”.
Take the following poem, “Cargoes” by John Mansfield in Figure 1.4 as an
example.

Cargoes
Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir

Rowing home to have in sunny Paradise
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,

Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
Figure 1.4: Poem ‘Cargoes’
What do you think are the difficulties with this poem? Read the poem without
looking at your dictionary. How many words do you NOT know? How many
words do you think your students may NOT know?
Now, compare with the following poem, “Dance” by Fadzilah Amin in Figure 1.3.
The poem, if you remember, is one of the poems for the SPM Literature paper.

Dance
We two are like partners in the ronggeng

Approaching nearer, nearer and nearer;
But just when one would think we’d meet at last,
We turn away, reverse our steps, withdraw.
And like the ronggeng too, my life seems now,

With steps mechanical, repeated, meaningless;
Arms swinging back and forth, expressing nothing
Feet pacing up and down the floor, going nowhere.
I am tired of going through these ronggeng motions,
Long to break this impasse of reserve;
If only at one point our hands could clasp,
What rich variety of movement and gesture could be ours.
Figure 1.5: Dance
Now, how many words of this poem do you NOT know? How many words do
you think that your students may NOT know? Which poem do you think will
be suitable for your students? How about the word “ronggeng”? Have you seen
people doing this dance? Do you get the idea that is presented through this
poem? Do the words in the poem hinder you from comprehending the poem
fully?
self-check 1.1
1. What are the factors to consider when planning a poetry or drama

lesson for the ESL class?
2. Name two factors to consider when choosing texts for the poetry
or drama class.
1.1.3 Framework
When structuring your drama or poetry lesson in the ESL context, think of a
framework that you would like to employ. A framework means a plan or an idea.
The following are some frameworks that you may like to consider.

(a) Framework for the Teaching of Poetry

The first framework, adapted by Saratha Sithamparam, (refer to Figure 1.6)
is taken from the Guidelines for Teaching in Singapore Secondary Schools (1989).
Although the framework is modelled for the teaching of poetry, it can be
adapted for the teaching of drama.
Figure 1.6: Framework for the teaching of poetry
If you employ the framework in Figure 1.4, it means that you should
structure questions or activities in your lesson that ask students about the
subject matter of the poem or drama. You should also ask questions to get
your students to think about the theme of the poem or drama. The same
goes with form, style and mood or atmosphere. However, do remember that
you are teaching poetry and drama in an ESL context. Think if you want to
follow the framework strictly or to adapt the framework to your classroom
situation.
Remember that a framework is just a theoretical structure. As a practitioner,

you are free to change/adapt the framework for your particular class.

(b) The I-Model for the Teaching of Literature

Elisabeth B. Ibsen also gives another framework (refer to Table 1.1), which is
a generic model for the teaching of literature. The framework is taken from
her article “The Double Role of Fiction in Foreign-Language Learning: Towards a
Creative Methodology” (Forum, Vol XXVII, No. 3, 1990, pages 2 – 9).

Table 1.1: The I-Model for the Teaching of Literature
The I-model
Primary Stages Secondary Stages
(a) Involvement • Impetus
• Input
(b) Interaction • Identification
• Incubation
(c) Interpretation • Initiative
• Integration
The primary stages represent a learning process within each student while
the secondary stages represent the methodological pre-conditions and
approach.
(i) The impetus stage is when introductory activities are given. An
example of an introductory activity is pre-reading activities. The
impetus stage serves as a period in which the students open themselves
up to accept the text (poem or play), in addition to provoking the
students’ interest (which results in them wanting to know more about
the poem or play).
(ii) In the input stage, students are presented with the poem or drama
piece. Activities that can be done during this stage are extensive
reading, finding facts, exploring themes and problem-solving tasks.
This stage involves conscious learning.
(iii) In the identification stage, students explore a theme, character, plot, etc.
through imaginary situations. This means that students try out different
viewpoints so as to practice and share a variety of literary responses.
For example, in a play, students should be given the opportunity to
play different characters so that they will get to understand and ‘see’
different viewpoints or perspectives of a particular situation. For
a poem, ask students to take up different roles within the poem. For
example, in the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling (one of the poems for
the Form 4 Literature Component), ask the students to play the role as
the father or mother giving the advice, and then ask them to play the
role of the child listening to the advice. Consequently, students give
their responses and viewpoints.
(iv) The incubation period is a time of “pausing”. This is a time where

students take a break or pause from the class activities so as to allow
them time to think and reflect. Students can be given short questions
to reflect on their roles in a play, the activities they did in the class, the
language used in the poem, etc.
(v) The initiative stage is the time where students share what they have
learned with one another. Students can share with one another in their
respective groups, after which the leader of each group summarises
what they have discussed and share with the whole class.
(vi) Finally, the integration stage is the time when language and literature
are put together or integrated. This is the time when language work is
given and students are given opportunities to build up their language
proficiency.
activity 1.1
Assuming that you are teaching in a private college and you have to us
“Macbeth” as part of your text to teach language. Using Elizabeth Ibsen’s
I-Model as your framework, write down what you will do for each stage
of teaching “Macbeth”.
(c) Generic Framework for the Teaching of Literature

Another framework that can be used is described by Rosli Talif (1995), which
is a generic framework for the teaching of literature, as shown in Table 1.2.
Table 1.2: Generic Framework for the Teaching of Literature
Stages Activity
Initial stage • Preparation
Middle stage • Exploration (pre-reading,
while-reading and post-reading)
Final stage • Extension
(i) In the initial stage, students are introduced to the themes and relevant
issues that may emerge in the poem or play. They may also be asked to
write the definition of the genre of the text (e.g. “What is a poem?”).
(ii) In the middle stage, students get into the drama or poetry text. They
are introduced to the relevant content in the drama or poem. Then,
they may be asked to predict events, such as the plots in the drama.
Comprehension questions are also asked to ensure that the students

understand the text. Creative writing or summary writing can also be
done at this stage.
(iii) In the final stage, extension activities can be done. Extension activities
refer to supplementary or follow-up activities. For example, they
may be asked to role-play a poem (or write a poem based on a play).
Students may also be asked to do a project work.
Below are some other suggested extension activities as presented by Malachi

Edwin in “Extension Activities in the Literature Classroom” (1992).
• Students write a letter expressing their responses to the author of the poem
or play.
• They can also be asked to create a new character to a play and integrate that
character into the plot of the play. Related to this, students can also be asked
to add an extra scene into a play or perhaps an extra stanza into a poem.
• Students are asked to write an epitaph for a character who died in the play
or poem. For example, in Hamlet, students can be asked to write an epitaph
for Hamlet’s father (Old Hamlet, King of Denmark) who was murdered.
• Students assume roles as characters in a play or poem and one student plays
the psychiatrist. The students playing the characters go through a therapy,
describing their feelings in relation to the characters they play.
• A mock trial can also be an extension activity. For example, students
assume different characters from Hamlet and they go through a mock trial of
Hamlet’s uncle (i.e. Claudius, who murdered Hamlet’s father, took over the
throne and married Hamlet’s mother. Of course, if you have read Hamlet,
you will know that Claudius dies in the play, but let us assume that he is
alive, is caught and is given a fair trial).
activity 1.2
Compare the three types of framework provided in this topic and choose
the one which you deem most suitable for the teaching of drama or
poetry in your classroom. Justify the reasons why you personally chose
this particular framework.

1.2 THE PARTS OF THE LESSON STRUCTURE

In this next section, you will look at the parts of the lesson structure. As in any
other lessons, there must be an introductory stage (remember, however, that you
are teaching drama and poetry in an ESL context).
1.2.1 The Introduction

The introduction of a lesson is important because it “sets the scene in terms of the
content, raises the students’ interest, and ideally, introduces some of the key vocabulary
and ideas which will come up” in the later part of the lesson (Lewis and Hill, 1993).
The introduction is also the stage in which students are made to familiarise with
the poem or drama. The following are some activities that you may consider
using during this stage.
(a) When presenting a poem, students listen to a recording of the poem, or
teacher reads the poem aloud. By doing so, students will have some idea as
to what the poem is all about.
(b) Songs that are related to the poem or drama may be played during the
beginning of the class. Students get to enjoy the texts they have read. For
example, when teaching “Life’s Brief Candle”, you may consider putting the
song “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John as part of your teaching work so as
to gain confidence in language use.
(c) Consider using the illustrations that may accompany the poem or drama to
start off a discussion. For example, in the textbook for the Lower and Upper
Secondary school, the poems in the textbook are furnished with illustrations.
The teacher can exploit these drawings by asking questions based on the
pictures. Through this activity, students are given the opportunity to tap
into their schemata (background knowledge) and discuss further issues in
another section of the lesson.
(d) When presenting the script of a play, the least satisfactory way is to ask
the students to read the play aloud because this may lead to problems of
pronunciation, misinterpretation and embarrassment (Dougill, 1987: 90).
The best way of introducing the script is by getting students to listen to it
using tapes of scripted scenes which the teacher has recorded. The teacher
may also outline the social, political or historical background of the play
while the students take notes. Another pre-reading activity is for the
teacher to provide hints on the genre of the play, i.e. whether it is a farce,
melodrama, comedy, Absurdist drama, etc. The students will then make
predictions about the genre of the play.

1.2.2 Getting Into the Drama and Poetry

(Presentation)
After the introduction, the next part of your lesson structure will involve students
getting into the drama and poetry. This is the stage where students learn and
explore the themes, plots, characters, elements, etc. It is the stage where they go
and probe deeper into the drama and poetry. It is a stage of experience, not just
“knowing” but “experiencing” the inner workings of the drama and poetry. The
following are some suggested activities that you may wish to consider:
(a) Choral Activity

One activity that involves the whole class is choral speaking or choral
reading.
Choral speaking is defined as an oral presentation in unison without the
script, whereas choral reading is reading in unison with a script.
Choral activity is a good activity to get students to work together. It also
helps the shy students to speak aloud as whatever mistakes they think
they may commit is drowned by the voices of the whole group. It may also
boost confidence in speaking. In addition, choral activity allows students to
practice rhyme, stress, rhythm and intonation.
First of all, the students must first listen to a model. This means that the
teacher has to read the poem or the lines from a play aloud so that students
will know how the lines ought to be spoken. Then, practice line by line,
stanza by stanza. This is to familiarise students to the rhyme, stress, rhythm
and intonation of the poem or play. Finally, get the students to speak or read
the whole text. Remember to vary the activity. For example, break the class
into groups. One group can read or speak one stanza of a poem or the lines
of one character aloud. Another group reads or speaks the next stanza or
the lines of another character aloud. Also remember to appoint one of the
students as a “conductor” to conduct the oral activity. The conductor uses
his hands to prompt his friends to speak or read their lines aloud (like the
conductor of an orchestra).
Choral reading also works well with drama texts. Have several students
read aloud a character from a play, instead of just one person. Improvise
by having the students inject emotions, instead of acting, into their voices,
much like taking part in a radio play (where there are no audiences, only
listeners).
(b) Discussion
Another activity to get students into the drama or poetry texts is discussion.
Allow students to discuss the elements of the drama or poems used in the

class, either in groups or pairs. Give stimulus to the students. Do not just
tell them “Discuss the drama or poetry.” What are they to discuss? Give out
worksheets or guidelines. For example, “Is the rhythm (of the poem) fast or
slow? What effect has this rhythm on you? Why do you think the poet employs a
fast/slow rhythm?”. Also have students discuss the choice of words used in
the poem or drama.
(c) Dictation
This is also one activity that can be considered. One form of dictation that
can be effectively used is “dictogloss.” Students sit in their respective groups
while the teacher reads the lines from a poem or drama aloud. The lines
have to be unfamiliar to the students, i.e. lines from a drama or poem that
are not from their recommended texts.
The students listen only once (or twice) to the lines given orally by the
teacher. As they listen, they jot down as many words as possible. Tell them
that they are not supposed to jot down “line by line” but ANY words that
they can catch. Next, they share their words within their respective groups.
With the pool of words, each group reconstructs the poem or drama lines to
be as close as possible to the one that was given by the teacher. Obviously,
there will be variations in the poem or drama lines given by each group.
These variations can also serve as a springboard for further discussion.
Another variation to this “dictogloss” activity is that students in their
respective groups listen to the poem or drama lines read out by the teacher.
While listening, they do NOT write anything. They merely listen. After
listening once (or twice), they jot down whatever words they can remember.
In their respective groups, they pool those words and come out with a poem
or drama lines that are as close as possible to the one given by the teacher.
(d) Fill in the Lines

Another activity is to have students fill in the poem or drama lines based on
their understanding of the title. This is how the activity goes.
(i) Take the poem “In the Kitchen” by John Cotton as an example. The
teacher introduces the title of the poem and asks students what they
can usually see in a kitchen.
(ii) Briefly discuss the function of the items that they mentioned. Give a
short description of the items. Suggest sounds that these items make
(for example, a knife will “chop, chop, chop”).
(iii) Next, give the students the following worksheet (refer to Figure 1.5). At
this point, they still have no idea of the complete poem. They have to
guess the words of the poem.

Worksheet
In the Kitchen by John Cotton
In the kitchen
After the aimless
Chatter of the plates,
The murmurings of the __________,
The chuckle of _________________
And the sharp exchanges
Of knives, _____________________,
Comes the serious quiet,
When the ___________ slowly clears its throat
And you can hear the occasional rumble
Of the refrigerator’s ________________
As it digests the cold.
Figure 1.7: Sample Worksheet for filling in the lines in a poem
(iv) After students have filled in the worksheet, they discuss the poem as
a class. Ask students why they choose certain words. For example, if
they wrote “the murmurings of the refrigerator,” ask them why they chose
refrigerator.
The following is the complete poem.
In the Kitchen
In the kitchen
After the aimless
Chatter of the plates,
The murmurings of the gas,
The chuckle of the water pipes
And the sharp exchanges
Of knives, forks and spoons,
Comes the serious quiet,
When the sink slowly clears its throat
And you can hear the occasional rumble
Figure 1.8: Poem “In the Kitchen”

(e) Re-write a Dialogue

This activity is for students to re-write a dialogue between two characters.
The following is how the activity goes.
(i) Before the play is actually read, you can sensitise the students to comic
characters created by Oscar Wilde in his play “The Importance of Being
Earnest”.
(ii) Students are divided into two groups. One group is given all the lines
spoken by Algernon only, and has to write the responses of Jack. The
other group is given the lines spoken by Jack only and has to write the
missing lines for Algernon.
(iii) When both sides are ready, pairs can act out the Jack and Algernon
parts. Then the groups compare their version with the original lines
spoken by both characters. Below is the sample dialogue between the
two characters which you can use for this activity.
Algernon: How are you, my dear Earnest? What brings you up to town?
Jack: Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere? Eating
as usual, I see, Algy!
Algernon: (Stiffly) I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight
refreshment at five o’clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?
Jack: (Sitting down on the sofa.) In the country.
Algernon: What on earth do you do there?
Jack: (Putting off his gloves.) When one is in town one amuses oneself. When
one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.
Algernon: And who are the people you amuse?
Jack: (Airily.) Oh, neighbours, neighbours.
Figure 1.9: Sample dialogue
1.2.3 Creative Writing

The drama or poetry class should allow for creative writing. In the first two
stages, students are presented with a model (the poem or the drama). By now,
students may want to explore in writing pieces of their own. Below are suggested
activities for poetry but you may wish to adapt them for drama.

(a) Activity 1
Assuming that you have introduced the poem “The Dead Crow” to your
students (a prescribed poem for Form One students). The poem is generally
about pollution and its effects on the environment and human beings.
Students can substitute the nouns in the poem. For example, instead of
‘crow’, what other birds can your students think of? Since the poem is about
pollution, give them the following structure and ask students to write a
poem of their own:
• A kind of pollution:
• Colour associated with pollution:
• Name a person:
• What happened to that person as a result of this pollution?
• Why?
• What did you do?
The following is an example of a poem based on the structure mentioned.

• Noise
• Red
• Andy
• Had his ears blown off
• Noise was too loud
• I buried his ears.
(b) Activity 2
Do you remember what concrete poetry is? Remember to allow students
to come up with their own concrete poetry. For example, you can ask the
students to re-write the poem “The Dead Crow” in the form of a crow. Also
remember to allow students to use colour freely. What are the reasons for
their choice of colours? For example, based on the poem “The Lake Isles
of Innisfree” (another poem for Form One students), they may re-write
the poem in the shape of an island. Get students to write the poem using
different colours (instead of just using pen or pencil). Have the students
give their rationale for choosing certain colours. For example, a student may
write the poem using a green colour pencil. Ask the student why he or she
chose green.

activity 1.3
In your opinion, why are creative writing skills essential for students in
the drama and poetry classroom?
1.2.4 Extension Activities

Exploit the poem or drama further by having extension activities (remember the
extension activities that are mentioned in the previous sections of this topic?).
For example, based on the poem “The Dead Crow”, have students role-play a
parliamentary session where students take the role of Members of Parliament to
debate on a bill for the protection of the environment. Ask some students to role-
play as Opposition Members so that students can learn to argue out details and
points.
After reading a play, students select a few episodes of the play and write a
summary linking these episodes, which is then delivered by a narrator. Another
follow-up activity is for students in pairs to invent mini-biographies for the
characters in a play by imagining a past for them. These are then read aloud to
the class and compared.
1.2.5 The Conclusion

Finally, conclude your lesson. How you conclude your lesson will depend on
the framework that you use or the purpose of your class. Is the primary purpose
of the class for language development? Then give exercises to consolidate the
language item that they have learned. Is the class for impartation of values and
culture? Perhaps you can give a real life situation and ask students to think of a
solution (for example, after teaching “The Dead Crow,” ask students what they can
do about reducing pollution in school or at home).
You may wonder, whether it is possible to do all these things within one period
of study? Obviously NO. You can structure your lesson over two periods or
so. Remember, DO NOT RUSH through your lesson. Many teachers like to
rationalise that they have to ‘finish the syllabus.’ It is important that what we
teach has quality, and NOT quantity.

SUMMARY
• There are three factors to consider when structuring a lesson plan for
teaching drama or poetry lesson : (a) the purpose, (b) the text, and (c) the
framework.
• When choosing drama or poetry texts, there are three factors to be
considered: (a) culture, (b) gender, and (c) level of difficulty.
• There are three framework discussed to plan for a drama or poetry lesson:
(a) the one adapted from Sithamparam (1989), (b) the I-Model, and (c) the
generic framework.
• The lesson is then structured into the introduction, presentation and
extension (production) stage. Activities for each stage are also discussed and
recommended.
• Some suggested activities for the presentation stage are: (a) choral activity
(speaking or reading), (b) discussion, (c) dictation, (d) fill in the lines, and (e)
re-write a dialogue.
• For the production stage, the suggested activities are creative writing and
any other extension activities from teachers’ own creativity before the lesson
can be concluded.
Choral Activity Generic Framework

Creative Writing Linguistic Elements
Dictation The I-Model
Extension Activities

Topic  Presenting
Elements
2 of Drama
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Describe the principles involved in the structuring of activities for the
presentation of the elements of English drama in the ESL classroom;
2. Construct activities for the presentation of the elements of English
drama following the principles taught in this module; and
3. Explain the rationale for the choice of certain activities for the
presentation of English drama.
XX INTRODUCTION
In this topic, you will examine five elements of English drama: the setting,
characters, dialogue, plot, and theme. Then, you will be given activities on to
how to incorporate these elements of drama in your classroom teaching.
2.1 TEACHING SETTING

What can you recall about “setting”? Think of the examples of setting from plays
that were introduced to you in the module, HBET4103 Introduction to Drama and
Poetry.
Setting is “where” and “when” of the play. This element of the play can be a
mere suggestion of background, or it can be very prominent. Sometimes we
recall a story not for what happened or for who was in it, but for an atmosphere
that was powerfully evoked, that made us feel we were actually there. The setting
can help reveal the theme by showing:
• The effect of a particular environment on a character (and, by extension, on
society);or
22  TOPIC 2 PRESENTING ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
• Particular moods the atmosphere brings to the character (despair, alienation,

terror, inspiration).
A very simple activity to present setting is to ask literal level questions.

Remember, setting does not necessarily mean ONLY the location. It entails the
condition of the location. This means that you should ask questions that not only
ask “Where?” but “What?” as in “What was the weather like?” and “What objects add
to or reinforce the gloomy setting?” and “When?” as in “What time did the event take
place?” It also involves sound. For example, the kind of music that a character is
listening to or background noises. Figure 2.1 shows some of the simple questions
that you can ask your students about setting.
Simple questions to ask about setting: The Place/Space/Scenery
1. Where do you think the drama takes place? Which words suggest this?
2. What is the weather like? How do you know this?
3. Which period of time did the play take place?
4. What time of the day do you think it is?
5. Identify the lines and phrases which show the setting.
Which words are used to describe the place and time of the incident?
6. In what season did the incident take place?
7. Do you think this drama took place indoors or outdoors? Which words
suggest this?
8. What kind of stage is the drama performed?
Figure 2.1: Simple questions about setting
What you have read in Figure 2.1 indirectly presents one basic principle of
teaching the elements of drama—do not ask questions that require students
to think “one dimensionally.” Get your students to think in multi-faceted
perspectives. In application, do not just ask your students “Where?” but also
“What?” and “When?” To get your students to read and understand the play from
different angles, you have to structure your questions likewise.
activity 2.1
The paragraph above mentioned that one of the basic principle of

teaching the elements of drama is “not to ask questions that require students
to think one dimensionally”. As a teacher, suggest some of the activities to
encourage your students to “think outside the box” during their drama
and poetry lessons
TOPIC 2 PRESENTING ELEMENTS OF DRAMA t 23
2.1.1 Sample Activities

In this section, two sample activities are provided for your classroom reference.
(a) Activity 1
This activity incorporates play extracts to guess the setting of the play. In
this activity, three extracts from different plays are given to the students.
Students read and fill in details in a grid given in a worksheet.
By giving more than one play extract, students are given practice in scanning
for specific details in texts.
TEXT A
ATO: [Going to the door that leads to their room]. Eulalie, how long does it
take you to put on a dress? [there is no reply. He passes up and down]. I say
Eulalie am I to wait here forever?
[Eulalie comes in wearing a house coat. She looks very excited.]
EU: If you must know, darling Moses, I am not coming along.
ATO: What do you mean?
EU: You know what I mean, or don’t you understand English neither?
ATO: [Turning his back to her]. I am waiting for you. If we aren’t there by
nine, the place will be full up and I wouldn’t care to stand through a whole
Thanksgiving Service.
EU: Of course, you’d only have to come back here to sleep.
[She giggles.] I would, only I repeat ’I ain’t coming’ eh. Or you are too British
you canna hear me Yankee lingo?
ATO: [Miserably]. Eulalie, you’ve been drinking!
EU: Sure, Moses.
ATO: Again? [In a horrified And on a Sunday morning?
EU: Poor darling Moses. Sure, I have been drinking and on a Sunday
morning: How dreadful? But surely Moses, it ain’t matters on which God’s
day a girl gets soaked, eh?
ATO: [Anguished]. Eulalie!
EU: Yeah …That jus whar yar beautiful wife as come the. Soaking on God’s
holy day…My lord, whar a morning!
(excerpt from ‘Dillemma of a Ghost’ by Ama Ata Aidoo)
Figure 2.2: Text A (Activity 1)

TEXT B
LEELA: You go and drink when we need the money to feed the children!
RATNAM: Ask the old man for more.
LEELA: Your father?
RATNAM: That old man!
LEELA: Squeeze a stone and it gives some water, but from him – nothing!
You leave almost no money for the house.
RATNAM: You can’t drink samsu now. And beer costs more. Didn’t you
hear on the radio that stout and beer prices have gone up?
LEELA: Then stop drinking!
RATNAM: And stay at home and look at you?
LEELA: You liked my face when you first married me.
RATNAM: If I stay at home, there’ll be more children.
LEELA: You’re just the opposite of the old man. He says, ‘Withholding gives
dignity.’
RATNAM: You can’t hold dignity, taste dignity or ride dignity.
LEELA: You can’t feed the children dignity. You can’t clothe them in dignity.
You’re the man of the house. Find me some money! There’ll be nothing to eat
if you don’t!
(Excerpt from ‘The Cord’ by K.S. Maniam)
Figure 2.3: Text B (Activity 1)

TEXT C
THE DAUGHTER: [in the space between the central pillars, close to the one
on her left] I’m getting chilled to the bone. What can Freddy be doing all this
time? He’s been gone twenty minutes.
THE MOTHER: [on her daughter’s right] Not so long. But he ought to have
got us a cab by this.
A BYSTANDER: [on the lady’s right] He won’t get any cab not until half-past
eleven, missus, when they come back after dropping their theatre fares.
THE MOTHER: But we must have a cab. We can’t stand here until half-past
eleven. It’s too bad.
THE BYSTANDER: Well it ain’t my fault, missus.
THE DAUGHTER: If Freddy had a bit of gumption, he would have got one
at the theatre door.
THE MOTHER: What could he have done, poor boy?
THE DAUGHTER: Other people get cabs. Why couldn’t he?
[Freddy rushes in out of the rain from the Southampton Street side, and comes
between them closing a dripping umbrella. He is a young man of twenty, in
evening dress, very wet round the ankles.]
THE DAUGHTER: well, haven’t you got a cab?
FREDDY: There’s not one to be had for love or money.
THE MOTHER: Oh, Freddy, there must be one. You can’t have tried.
THE DAUGHTER: It’s too tiresome. Do you expect us to go and get one
ourselves?
FREDDY: I tell you they’re all engaged. The train was so sudden; nobody was
prepared; and everybody had to take a cab. I’ve been to Charring Cross one way
and nearly to Ludgate Circus the other; and they were all engaged.
(Excerpt from ‘Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw).
Figure 2.3: Text C (Activity 1)

Fill in the following table after an in-depth reading of Text A, B and C.
TEXT A TEXT B TEXT C
TYPE OF (Black (British English)

LANGUAGE American (1)
USED English)
PERIOD Contemporary- Contemporary- 1913

1960s 1960s
PLACE Malaysia
(2) (3)
Answers: (1) Malaysian English

(2) Africa
(3) England
Figure 2.5: Worksheet for Activity 1
(b) Activity 2
Sometimes, you may want to consider giving the set descriptions of
plays. Thus, the descriptions of the setting are given explicitly. Students
merely read and find answers to questions asked. This kind of activity
is appropriate for students who are beginning to be introduced to drama.
Thus, the students are not burdened with unraveling the complexities of the
plays. This is another principle to remember, one that you will have learned
from other modules in this programme: start easy and progress to difficult
questions.

Students are asked to read the set descriptions given for the following
Play A, B and C. They then answer the following questions based on the
descriptions given.
• Where do you think the drama takes place? Which words suggest this?
• What is the weather or season like? How do you know this?
• Which period of time did the play take place?
• What time of the day do you think it is?
• Identify the words, lines and phrases which show the setting.
• Do you think this drama took place indoors or outdoors? Which words
suggest this? What kind of stage is the drama performed?
Play A
The action takes place in the courtyard of the newest wing of the Odumna
Clan house. It is enclosed on the right by a wall of the old building and both
at the center and on the left by the walls of the new wing. At the right-hand
corner a door links the courtyard with a passage that leads into the much
bigger courtyard of the old house. In the middle of the left wall there is a door
leading into the new rooms. A terrace runs round the two sides of the new
sector. In the foreground is the path which links the roads leading to the river,
the farm and the market.
From ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’ by Ama Ata Aidoo.
Figure 2.6: Text A (Activity 2)
Play B
The outside of two houses, one on the left and one on the right. The common
space in front of these houses forms the acting area. A door and a window face
the audience. At the opening of the play, the door facing the audience is slightly
ajar, and the window, which is fully open, reveals a dark interior. As the play
develops this window becomes an important source of suffused light, which
can be relevantly used to signal changes in setting and mood.
A bridge is visible in the distance; some steps lead from it to the space
between the two houses.
It is late evening.
From ‘The Cord’ by K.S. Maniam
Figure 2.6: Text B (Activity 2)

Play C
London at 11.15p.m. Torrents of heavy summer rain. Cab whistles blowing

frantically in all directions. Pedestrians running for shelter into the portico of St
Paul’s church (not Wren’s cathedral but Inigo Jone’s church in Covent Garden
vegetable market), among them a lady and her daughter in evening dress. All
are peering out gloomily at the rain, except one man with his back turned to
the rest, wholly preoccupied with a notebook in which he is writing.
The church clock strikes the first quarter.
From ‘Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw.
Figure 2.6: Text C (Activity 2)
One extension activity that you can have for the teaching of setting is to ask
students to draw out the setting based on the set descriptions. You may even
consider having students to sit in groups. Each group is given a different
extract of a play. Each group comes up with a drawing that depicts the
setting of the extract of the play that they have. This drawing is then passed
to another group who will then guess the play extract that is presented
through the drawing.
Conversely, to encourage creativity, students in each group are to draw a

picture of a landscape or setting. This picture is then passed on to another
group who will then write out a 5-minute short play based on the picture.
2.2 tEacHiNG PLOt

The plot is the “now” and “what” happens of a play. In a drama, there must first
of all be a story to tell.
Plot can be defined as “the sequence of events in a story with an element

of causation.”
Figure 2.8 shows some simple questions that you can ask your students about
plot.

Simple questions to ask about plot:
1. What is the story line in the play?

2. Describe the sequence of the events in the play.
3. What is the conflict in the play?
4. What causes the conflict? What happened before that? How is the problem
solved?
5. What are the events that led to the conflict?
6. What are the ups and downs in the drama?
7. How does the play end?
8. What is the anti-climax in the play?
9. Identify the main events in the play.
Figure 2.8: Simple questions about plot
To teach plot, your students may have to read the whole play so that they can
answer questions related to plot adequately. If a teacher were to consider the
time given to teach literature in the ESL class, this may be a difficult task. Thus,
to overcome this, you, the teacher, can break up the play into parts. For example,
for the first few acts, you can summarise the plot. Then, ask your students to read
the extract of plays from subsequent acts.
In addition, you can also ask your students to predict the plot of a story. This
can be done several ways. You can, for example, get the movie version of the
play (if there is one). Play the first few parts of the movie and ask the students to
predict what happens in the subsequent parts of the movie. If there is no movie,
ask students to predict what happens after another incident, before they proceed
to read the play.
A variation of this activity is to list out the characters of a play. Trace the first few
parts of the plot and subsequently, ask students to predict the later parts of the
plot (such as the climax or the resolution). Then, students read the play to find
out how true their predictions are.

2.3 TEACHING CHARACTERISATION

The character is simply the “who” of the play. The bare record of action (plot)
cannot in itself reveal the meaning of the play. The creation of character adds
reality to the play. It creates understanding through identification; it arouses
feeling and judgement through approval, admiration, condemnation, or disgust.
characterisation.
Simple questions to ask about characterisation:
1. How many people are there in the drama?

2. Pick out words which tell you more about the people in the drama.
3. What is the relationship between the people in the play?
4. Who do you think is the main character?
5. Describe the mood of the actors. Identify the words/phrases which show the
mood.
6. How are phrases used to describe the characters?
7. Draw a description of the character, with the help of words/phrases in the
script.
8. What are the words that suggest the feelings of the characters?
Figure 2.9: Simple questions about characterisation
In the following activity, students are asked to read the description of several
characters. Students read to pick out the key words from the text that suggest
characterisation.
Activity 3: Read the description of characters taken from the four different plays
(Play A, B,C and D).
How do these descriptions suggest characterisation?

Play A
Sarasa is a woman in her early fifties, married to Siva, an unassuming man who
apparently cannot be bothered arguing with his nagging wife and usually lets her
have the final say in all household matters.
Sarasa is a thinnish, dowdy and unimpressive woman with a rodent-like face and
mannerism. She is impatient and seems nervous most of the time. She can’t sit still
for long and is always fidgeting and looking around her with sharp, glittering eyes
for something to do.
She gushes, stammers and speaks in a whining kind of manner. She is basically
a housewife with unfulfilled matriarchal pretensions. She is a gossip and
busybody but, being rather simple, one sees through her cunning and
deviousness straight away. Sarasa is cunning and devious for one reason
only – her daughter, Komala. She is ambitious for her daughter and sees her
self-appointed role in stage-managing her daughter’s dancing and stage career
as part of her own destiny. Sarasa is almost a chronic case of a mother who is
besotted with her daughter. At the same time, Sarasa casts herself as the used and
forsaken heroine typically found in the Hindi or Tamil melodramas which have been
an integral part of her exposure to and understanding of life.
(from Ramli Ibrahim’s ‘In the Name of Love: Sarasa the Dance-Mother’)
Figure 2.10: Play A
Play B
THE FLOWER GIRL. She is not at all a romantic figure. She is perhaps
eighteen, perhaps twenty, hardly older. She wears a little sailor hat of black
straw that has long been exposed to the dust and soot of London and has seldom
if ever been brushed. Her hair needs washing rather badly: its mousy color can
hardly be natural. She wears a shoddy black coat that reaches nearly to her
knees and is shaped to her waist. She has a brown skirt with a coarse apron.
Her boots are much the worse for wear. She is no doubt as clean as she can
afford to be; but compared to the ladies she is very dirty. Her features are no
worse than theirs; but their condition leaves something to be desired; and she
needs the services of a dentist.
(from George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’.)
Figure 2.11: Play B

Play C
AMANDA WINGFIELD (the mother), a little woman of great but confused
vitality clinging frantically to another time and place. Her characterisation must
be carefully created, not copied from type. She is not paranoiac, but her life is
paranoia. There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity
as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and a kind of heroism, and
though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness
in her slight person.
LAURA WINGFIELD (her daughter), Amanda, having failed to establish
contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions, but Laura’s
situation is even graver. A childhood illness has left her crippled, one leg
slightly shorter than the other, and held in a brace. This defect need not be
more than suggested on the stage. Stemming from this, Laura’s separation
increases till she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile
to move from the shelf.
(from Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie”)
Figure 2.12: Play C
Play D
Yuen. Okay. I turned 35 last year, and I thought to myself: Mary Yuen, now
is the time when you’re supposed to start hearing the clock tick. Tick tick tick
tick tick boom. The thing is that instead of wanting to make babies I made
atomic bombs. This is the story.
What drives a woman to make atomic bombs? There are no columns on it in
Marie Claire or Cleo. Let’s go back to my school days in Ipoh. I used to read
a lot of biographies of physicians. When all the other girls would be hanging
around the recreation hall in the cafeteria waiting for the bus full of ACS boys
to pass – these superb, pimply, horny specimens of Chinese manhood – I’d be in
a corner reading about Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Schrodinger, Dirac, Feynman,
Einstein, Max Planck, Max Born. Those gods of 20th century physics. People
who told stories about the way the world worked in a fundamentally new way.
So I’m thinking to myself, what is physics but the telling of stories about the
world at the tiniest level? When I grew up, I thought, I will have succeeded
if I too have a story to tell, and if I could tell it with as much elegance and
precision as these great scientists.
(from Huzir Sulaiman’s ‘Atomic Jaya’.)
Figure 2.13: Play D

You may also consider having students write a portfolio of their favourite
characters. In the portfolio, they not only describe the characters, but they can
also put in drawings or pictures of the characters. They also have to give reasons
why they consider the chosen characters their favourites.
Another follow-up activity when teaching characters is to hold a debate. Students

sit in two opposing groups. Then they argue why a chosen character is or is not
the “BEST” character in the play.
An interesting technique for the teaching of characters is probably “miming.”

Students sit in two groups while the teacher gives out names of characters
in cards. One person from each group mimes the characters while the other
members of the group guess who the characters are. The group with the most
correct guesses wins the game. (Note: You probably have played this before—it
is called “Charades”).
2.4 DIALOGUE

The dialogue refers to “the language” of the play. In this section, we are
interested to find out if the dialogue spoken by the characters in the play
represents real conversation.
dialogue.
Simple questions to ask about dialogue:
1. There are three major functions of dialogue—to advance the plot, to establish
setting (the time and place of action) and to reveal character. Is the language in the
dialogues of this play simple and straight forward or formal and ponderous?
2. Does the language help reveal the characters in dialogue by means of dialect,
unique expressions, humour?
3. Does the language correspond with the reality or the fantasy of the play?
4. Do the words themselves and the rhythm of the sentences contribute to the mood,
atmosphere or total impact of the play?
5. Imagery: Does the language evoke pictures in the mind?
Figure 2.14: Simple questions about dialogue

Activity 4: Read aloud the following extract from Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls”. In
this play, sometimes a character starts speaking before the other has finished or
even continues speaking right through another’s speech, and this is marked with
( / ). How realistic does the language seem? Is the language formal or colloquial
(informal)? Does the language reflect the class of the speaker?
JOYCE: You say Mother had a wasted life.

MARLENE: Yes, I do. Married to that bastard.
JOYCE: What sort of life did he have? / Working in the fields like
MARLENE: Violent life?
JOYCE: an animal. / Why wouldn’t he want a drink?
MARLENE: Come off it.
JOYCE: You want a drink. He couldn’t afford whisky.
MARLENE: I don’t want to talk about him.
JOYCE: You started, I was talking about her. She had a rotten life because she
had nothing. She went hungry.
MARLENE: She was hungry because he drank the money. / He used to hit her.
JOYCE: It’s not all down to him. / Their lives were rubbish. They
MARLENE: She didn’t hit him.
JOYCE: were treated like rubbish. He’s dead and she’ll die soon and what sort
of life / did they have?
MARLENE: I saw him one night. I came down.
JOYCE: Do you think I didn’t? / They didn’t get to America and
MARLENE: I still have dreams.
JOYCE: drive across it in a fast car. / Bad nights, they had bad days.
MARLENE: America, America, you’re jealous. / I had to get out,
JOYCE: Jealous?
MARLENE: I knew when I was thirteen, out of their house, out of them, never
let that happen to me, / never let him, make my own way, out.
JOYCE: Jealous of what you’ve done, you’re ashamed of me if I came to your
office, your smart friends, wouldn’t you, I’m ashamed of you, think of nothing but
yourself, you’ve got on, nothing’s changed for most people / has it?
MARLENE: I hate the working class / which is what you’re going
JOYCE: Yes you do.
MARLENE: to go on about now, it doesn’t exist any more, it means lazy and
stupid. / I don’t like the way they talk. I don’t
JOYCE: Come on, now we’re getting it.
MARLENE: like beer guts and football vomit and saucy tits / and brothers and
sisters -
JOYCE: I spit when I see a Rolls Royce, scratch it with my ring / Mercedes it
was
MARLENE: Oh very mature -
Figure 2.15: An extract from “Top Girls”

One extended activity that you can consider is to give different parts of a play to
different groups. Ask each group to paraphrase the lines in the play. For example,
you can have your students paraphrase the lines from a play by Shakespeare,
using contemporary English. Then, have each group read aloud or dramatise
their paraphrased scripts. This activity may help your students to apply their
creative thinking skills. As mentioned elsewhere in this module, remember to
allow your students to use their thinking skills so as to pave the way for them to
be creative.
2.5 THEMES IN PLAYS

Theme is the totality of meaning that is conveyed through the play, whether that
meaning emerges primarily from the setting, plot, character, language, or point of
view.
For students who are just beginning to be exposed to plays (and literature) as
a whole, finding the theme in a play can be a daunting task. This is due to the
fact that the play itself can be quite lengthy (unless you choose a short play for
beginners). In addition, students may tend to confuse theme with plot.
The meaning of the word “ theme “ has to be explained to the students. Give
examples from extracts of plays, but not long ones as there would not be time
to go through the whole play. Besides, you only want to train your students to
understand what theme is. From the extracts of plays, ask your students to list out
the key words (words which they believe are important to the central meaning
of the play). Group the words together and tell your students to categorise the
words under one central, generic term. This generic term may be considered as
one of the themes of the play.
For example, in the extract from the play “Top Girls” that is previously given, ask
your students to list out what the key words are from the extract.
The following is an example:

• Wasted life;
• Rotten life;
• Went hungry;
• Lives were rubbish;
• Dreams;
• Bad nights, bad days;
• Working class;

• Lazy and stupid;

• He hit her; and
• She had nothing.
Based on these key words, ask your students to think of a sentence that may tie
the words together. It may be as follows:
The unprofitable or bad life of a working class woman.
The other method is to work conversely. Give the above sentence (“The
unprofitable or bad life of a working class woman”) and ask your students to find
evidences from the text to support the sentence.
You can also ask your students some questions to elicit responses with regards to
the possible themes of the play. Figure 2.5 shows some of the questions that you
can ask your students about theme.
Simple questions to ask about theme:

1. What is the main idea conveyed in the drama?
2. What is the moral value found in the drama?
3. Which words in the drama convey the message?
4. What do you think is the purpose of the drama? Is it didactic?
5. What is the common message/idea throughout the play?
6. What is the significance of these phrases in relation to the play?
(Give examples of the phrases from the play.)
Figure 2.16: Simple questions about theme
Activity 5: Read these phrases taken from a play “Pygmalion’” by George

Bernard Shaw and suggest possible theme/s of the play.

MRS HIGGINS: You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your
live doll.
HIGGINS: Playing! The hardest job I ever tackled: make no mistake about
that, mother. But you have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a
human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating
a new speech for her. It’s filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from
class and soul from soul.
Figure 2.17: Extract from “Pygmalion” (1)
Possible theme: The superiority of the upper class is not due to the virtue of
one’s birth or heredity. Through education, proper language accent and social
etiquette, one can transform from one social class to another.
HIGGINS: The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners, but having the
same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven,
where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.
Possible themes: Class distinctions in English society. To have a world with an

equality of souls in a classless paradise.

DOLITTLE: Henry Higgins, thanks to your silly joking, he [Ezra D.

Wannafeller] leaves me a share in his Pre-digested Cheese Trust worth three
thousand a year on condition that I lecture for his Wannafeller Moral Reform
World League as often as they ask me up to six times a year.
HIGGINS: The devil he does! Whew! [Brightening suddenly]. What a
lark!
PICKERING: A safe thing for you, Dolittle. They won’t ask you twice.
DOLITTLE: It ain’t the lecturing that I mind, I’ll lecture them blue in the
face, I will, and not turn a hair. It’s making a gentleman of me that I object to.
Who asked him to make a gentleman of me? I was happy. I was free. I touched
pretty nigh everybody for money when I wanted it, same as I touched you,
Enry Iggins. Now I am worried; tied neck and heels; and everybody touches
me for money. […] Same with the doctors: used to shove me out of the hospital
before I could hardly stand on my legs, and nothing to pay. Now they finds
out that I’m not a healthy man and cant live unless they looks after me twice
a day. […] A year ago I hadn’t a relative in the world except two or three that
wouldn’t speak to me. Now I’ve fifty, and not a decent week’s wages among
the lot of them. I have to live for others and not for myself: that is middle
class morality.
Possible theme: Poverty versus middle class morality.
If you have problems getting your students to describe the theme of plays, you
should then lead them with easy activities such as giving a cloze passage or MCQ
questions. Once your students are familiar with soptting the themes, you may
then proceed to open-ended questions, as suggested in this activity.
2.6 WARMING-UP ACTIVITIES

One final principle that should be shared, a principle that has been discussed
in previous topics and will be discussed in subsequent topics, is to begin your
lessons with warming-up activities. Ensure that the warming-up activities
correlate with the element that you are teaching.
For example, when teaching character, you can consider a warming-up activity
that requires your students to act out or mime different moods (angry, happy,
guilty, dishearten, euphoric, etc). On the other hand, when teaching setting,

get your students into groups and give them pictures of landscapes. In their
respective groups, they dramatise the setting. For example, show them a picture
of the Petronas Twin Towers, in which two students will become the twin towers
while another student stretches his hands to be the connecting bridge. Several
other students can become the trees.
self-check 2.1
State whether the following statements are true or false.

1. To teach pupils the setting of a play, a teacher ONLY has to ask
questions that begin with “Where.”
2. The setting can point to the theme of a play.
3. To teach setting, we can ask questions that begin with “Who.”
4. Reading the set descriptions of a play can tell us more about the
setting.
5. Teachers should ignore the stage settings when teaching setting.
6. Instructing pupils to draw a setting from a play is considered an
important and primary activity.
7. Predicting what happens after an incident is one way of teaching
the plot of a play.
8. Teaching the plot ALONE will help pupils to get the meaning of
a play.
9. Teaching creative thinking skills should be separated from the
teaching of drama.
10. Extended activities should be conducted at the beginning of a
lesson.
SUMMARY
• This topic discusses five elements of teaching drama: (a) the setting, (b) characters
and characterisation, (c) dialogue, (d) plot, and (e) theme.
• For each of the element, sample activities and questions are discussed to illustrate
how the lesson can be conducted in class.

Chracterisation Plot
Cloze Passage Setting
Dialogue Theme
Extended Activities

Topic  Presenting
Elements
3 of Poetry
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Structure activities for the teaching of elements of poetry;
2. Identify the elements of poetry briefly; and
3. Explain a brief lesson structure for the teaching of the elements of
poetry.
XX INTRODUCTION
In this topic, we will look at some suggested activities in teaching the elements
of poetry such as rhythm, rhyme and alliteration. Before you read this topic, we
suggest that you review the elements of poetry that are presented in HBET4103.
Remember, this course is about teaching of drama and poetry in an ESL context.
As practitioners (i.e. teachers), you are the best person to decide on how these
elements can be presented in your class. In fact, you should first decide whether
the elements should be taught or the linguistic items are the ones that should be
given focus. Decide also if it is appropriate to teach or not to teach your students
the elements of poetry.
The main purpose of this topic is to suggest ways of teaching selected elements
of poetry. At the end of this topic, we will also discuss a brief lesson structure for
the teaching of the elements of poetry.

42  TOPIC 3 PRESENTING ELEMENTS OF POETRY
3.1 TEACHING THE PERSONA

We will now look at some suggested activities in teaching some elements of
English poetry. We will start off with teaching the persona.
The persona is “the character of the first-person narrator in verse or prose narratives,
and the speaker in lyric poetry. The use of the term “persona” (as distinct from “author”)
stresses that the speaker is part of the fictional creation, invented for the author’s
particular purposes in a given literary work” (http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/
LTPersona.html).
Some students may need to be given some ideas on the concept of persona. For
this, you may consider giving the following worksheet in Figure 3.1. Ask students
to guess who they think could be saying the following sentences. You may even
ask the students to guess where they think the speakers are.
Worksheet
Example:
(a) “Good morning, madam. How can I help you?”

Answer: A salesperson in a shop
Suggested sentences:
(b) “Yes, I would like to try this please. Do you have a size 5?”
(c) “Your work is terrible. Please see me during recess.”
(d) “My son always comes home late. I wonder what I can do.”
(e) “My mother always grumbles that I go home late.”
Figure 3.1: Worksheet for the teaching of persona
activity 3.1
Suggest variations to the above activity by coming up with a few other

sentences of your own.

TOPIC 3 PRESENTING ELEMENTS OF POETRY t 43
In the next step, introduce the concept of persona as used in poetry. Explain that
the persona is a fictitious character. It may even be a tree as in “The Pruned Tree”
by Howard Moss. Taking “There’s Been a Death in the Opposite House” by Emily
Dickinson as an example (this poem is used in Form 4) before students go into
the text, ask students what they would expect to see or observe if one of their
neighbours died. What would go on in the neighbour’s house? What would they
see? Who would be the people going into the house? How would they feel or
behave?
Next, introduce the poem and ask students to compare the similarities or
differences between what the students wrote and what is mentioned in the poem.
You may even consider asking your students to write a poem from one of the
family member’s point of view. How will the poem be different from the one
written by a neighbour as given by Emily Dickinson?
You can read Howard Moss’s “The Pruned Tree” at the following website: http://
library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/merrill/celebration/audio.
html#prunedtree.
For further reading, the following website provides some hints for the teaching of
persona based on one of Robert Frost’s poems: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_
lesson_plan.asp?id=345#LESSON1
3.2 TEACHING RHYME

Rhyme is one element that is easy to teach. Children are usually taught rhyme
from young. Introduce your students to words that sound the same such as
“bun-gun”, “two-shoe” and “apple-jingle.” Thus, rhyme deals with the repetition
of similar sounds. Similarly, you may use the same principles when teaching
alliteration (the repetition of initial sounds of words) or assonance (the repetition
of vowel sounds).
Give students a worksheet in which they are asked to choose words that rhyme
with the given words in the exercise. They are then given a poem with selected
last words of a line deleted. Students are asked to fill in the blanks with words
that rhyme.
Teaching rhyme can also be in the form of a listening task. For example, give the
following worksheet in Figure 3.2 to your students.

Worksheet
1. Flower A B C D
2. Song A B C D
3. War A B C D
4. Walk A B C D
5. His A B C D
6. Number A B C D
7. Thought A B C D
Figure 3.2: Worksheet for the teaching of rhyme
Students listen to the teacher when he/she reads out some words. As they listen,
they mark on the worksheet the options (A,B,C,D) that present words that rhyme
with the given words in the worksheet.
The teacher reads aloud the following:

• Number 1, A. Tower, B. Egg, C. Paper and D. Choose;

• Number 2, A. Run, B. Walk, C. Right, D. Wrong
• Number 3, A. Computer, B. Type, C. Tore, D. Scotland
• Number 4, A. Chalk, B. Board, C. Bring, D. Sing
• Number 5, A. Fish, B. Kiss, C. Niche, D. School
• Number 6, A. High, B.Lumber, C. Ice, D. Wood
• Number 7, A. Talk, B. Cod, C. Caught, D. Sight
Figure 3.3: The rhymed words for teachings of rhyme
You may even consider doing this activity as a reading task. Instead of asking
students to listen to the options that are spoken, they read the options that are
given on the board. They then choose the best answer.
3.3 TEACHING RHYTHM

Rhythm is also another easy element to teach. For rhythm, students should have
a model to follow (either the teacher or from a tape). This is because students may

have faulty rhythm and if they are not told of their mistakes, their faulty rhythm
may be ingrained in them. The teacher may read aloud a poem with the correct
rhythm for the class to listen to. Then, the teacher trains the students line by line.
Finally, the students present or read aloud the poem by themselves.
Another activity is to prepare the lyrics of a song continuously without any

punctuation or capitalisation (except in the case of first person pronoun or proper
nouns). The following (“Lay a Whisper” by Roxette) is an example.
Lay a whisper on my pillow leave the winter on the ground I wake up lonely there’s
air of silence in the bedroom and all around touch me now I close my eyes and dream
away it must have been love but it’s over now it must have been good but I lost it
somehow it must have been love but it’s over now from the moment we touch till the
time had run out make believing we’re together by your heart in the outside I turn to
water like a teardrop in your palm and it’s a hard winter’s day I dream away it must
have been love but it’s over now it’s all that I wanted now I am living without it must
have been love but it’s over now it’s where the water flows it’s where the wind blows
it must have been love but it’s over now it must have been good but I lost it somehow
it must have been love but it’s over now from the moment we touch
Figure 3.4: Lyrics of “Lay a Whisper” (1)
As students listen to the song, they put a slash “/” at the spots where pauses
occur. Thus, the song will be indicated as follows:
Lay a whisper / on my pillow / leave the winter / on the ground / I wake up lonely /
there’s air of silence / in the bedroom / and all around / touch me now / I close my eyes
/ and dream away / it must have been love / but it’s over now / it must have been good
/ but I lost it somehow / it must have been love / but it’s over now / from the moment
we touch / till the time had run out / make believing / we’re together / by your heart / in
the outside / I turn to water / like a teardrop / in your palm / and it’s a hard / winter’s
day / I dream away / it must have been love / but it’s over now / it’s all that I wanted
/ now I am living without / it must have been love / but it’s over now / it’s where the
water flows / it’s where the wind blows / it must have been love / but it’s over now /
it must have been good / but I lost it somehow / it must have been love / but it’s over
now / from the moment we touch.
Figure 3.5: Lyrics of “Lay a Whisper” (2)
(Note: The song is available in cassette and CD which are available at any music
store).

Next, a poem is given (typed similarly as the previous example, i.e. continuously
and without any punctuation). As the teacher reads aloud the poem with the
proper rhythm (i.e. pausing at the right places), students listen and indicate the
pauses in the poem with a slash.
A variation to this activity is that students listen to the first few stanzas of a
poem to indicate the pauses. Next, students guess the pauses in the next few
stanzas. They then listen to the next few stanzas that are read aloud to check their
answers.
Undoubtedly, the best way for students to learn rhythm is for them to read
a poem aloud. Get your students to read aloud in pairs or in groups. Get them
to read aloud in different rhythms and ask them if they find any differences in
understanding the poem. For example, for Emily Dickinson’s poem, “There’s Been
A Death in the Opposite House,” ask your students to firstly read the poem in a fast
rhythm and next, to read it in a slow rhythm. Ask students which rhythm best
suits the overall meaning or intent of the poem. Remember to ask them to justify
their reasons as well.
3.4 TEACHING THEME

What do you think of this question: “What is the theme of this poem?”
Does a poem have only ONE theme? Do you think the question implies that there
is only one possible theme to a poem and do you think this question is valid?
Probably one of the most difficult aspects of poetry to teach is the theme.
Theme basically answers the question “What is the poem about?” or “What is the
main message of the poem?”
One thing to remember (and this is perhaps a very important thing, yet most
teachers and examiners tend to forget ) is that for most literary texts, there will
always be more than one theme. Thus, there is no such thing as the CORRECT
theme or THE theme. You may ask, “What is ONE OF THE THEMES of this
poem?” rather than “What is THE theme of this poem?” The former question
recognises that there is potentially more than one theme in the poem. The latter
question assumes that the poem has only ONE theme.
The above implication for teachers is that the teacher must allow students to be
bold and courageous to articulate what they think the theme of the poem is. Do
not discourage students by saying that a suggested theme (by the student) is
wrong. As long as there are evidences in the poem to substantiate or exemplify

what is said by the students, then what is suggested by them should be allowed
and taken into consideration.
You may argue, “Aren’t some of the themes obvious?” The theme in A. Samad Said’s
“The Dead Crow” for example, is obviously about pollution. Apart from that, it
is also about the call to preserve our environment. It may also be about men’s
destructive nature or men’s (and women’s) lament of the deterioration of Mother
Nature due to humankind’s selfishness or lack of love for nature.
To teach theme, you may ask students to list out important or key words in a
poem. Then, ask the students to associate those words with common connotative
meanings. For example, what does a crow represent? What is it associated to?
What does one think of when one mentions crow? You may consider playing a
simple game (which you have played when you were a child). Ask students to
list out associated meanings when they listen to a particular word. For example,
when you say “red,” what do they think of? List out the words as quickly as
possible as they are not supposed to think of the associated meanings but to give
the first word that comes to their minds. After a few words, give words that are
taken from the poem. Write the associated words of the words from the poem on
the board, and use those associated words as a guide to come up with a possible
theme.
Let us assume that you are teaching “Sonnet 18.” Give the following words orally
and ask students to quickly give words which come to their mind the moment
they listen to these words:
• Tiger
• Car
• White
• Book
• Light
• Laksa
Then give the following words but do not tell them that the words are taken from
the poem:
• Summer
• Complexion
• Lovely
• Fair
• Rough

• Death
• Winds
• May
Write the associated words on the board and then go through the words and ask
your students if they can make sense of those associated words.
3.5 TEACHING ONOMATOPOEIA

Onomatopoeia refers to words that sound almost exactly as it is sounded in
nature.
An example is “splash” and the sound of this word is quite similar to that made if
a stone is thrown into a pool of water. Another example is “hiss,” like that made
by a snake. Poems may contain onomatopoeia and it is one of the elements that
make poetry more imaginative and creative. Can you find out an onomatopoeic
word from “The Lake Isles of Innisfree” (the poem for Form 2 English)?
However, before asking your students to identify onomatopoeic words from a

poem, you may want to consider giving a short practice so that the concept of
onomatopoeia will be reinforced into the students’ minds. List out the following
words in Table 3.1 in and ask your students to guess or say what might cause the
following sounds:
Table 3.1: Words fo the Teaching of Onomatopoeia
Words
• Crunch • Rustle
• Splatter • Murmur
• Plop • Scratch
• Crash • Smack
• Bump • Ring
• Screech • Boom
• Slam • Crack
• Rumble • Creak
• Rattle • Roar

Conversely, you can record some sounds on a tape. Then, play this tape in class
and ask your students to write out the sounds that they hear and to invent new
words. For example, you may record the sound of a zip closing. The sound may
be written as “zoop” or “zip.”
To teach onomatopoeia, you have to give the meaning first. Then, go on to the
activities mentioned. The next step is to ask students to identify onomatopoeia
from a poem. This can be done during the comprehension activity.
Another activity is to substitute the original onomatopoeic word in the poem

with another word by the students. Ask them how the change of words may have
affected the poem. Another suggested activity is that the students create sounds
to accompany the reading aloud of the poem. For example, when reading aloud
“The Lake Isles of Innisfree,” students make the sound of bees, birds or water when
these words are mentioned.
3.6 TEACHING SyMBOLS
Symbol is an important element of poetry which refers to something concrete

that is used to represent something else—a concept, idea or abstract thought.
For example, a sickle may symbolise communism while a skull may symbolise
death or poison.
Remember one important principle in teaching. Start from the known and
move to the unknown. In other words, use simple symbols or symbols that are
common, known and used in our everyday life. What does ‘red’ symbolise?
When you see a moon and a star, what do these symbols mean? What does a Pink
Triangle symbolise? Brianstorm on common symbols and write the associated
meanings on the board. For example, “A computer screen” or “An apple.” Ask
students to list down the qualities, ideas, concepts or things that they associate
with those words.
Now move on to the unknown. What does “summer” (as in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet
18”) symbolise? What are the ideas associated with this word? Ask students to
find evidences in the poem that may support their answers.
Another poem that is full of symbolism is Yeats’ “The Lake Isles of Innisfree.” Get
students to write out in a journal or list out ideas or concepts that they associate
with certain words picked from the poem such as “cabin” and “cricket.” Ask your
students what words they would change in the poem if the persona were to be
from a quiet place and wished to live in a noisy city.

A word of advice. Accept any plausible interpretation of symbols. This

is because some symbols are “open-ended” and subjected to a variety of
interpretation. One example is Blake’s “The Sick Rose”, as shown in Figure 3.6.
The Sick Rose
O rose, thou art sick:

The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm
Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy
Figure 3.6: The Sick Rose
If you use Blake’s poem in Figure 3.3 to teach symbolism, you can use it for
students who are already familiar with interpreting symbols. This poem can
be explained in a variety of ways and instead of making it easy for students, it
makes them bewildered.
3.7 TEACHING TONE

Tone refers to the attitude taken by the writer of the poem.
Is the writer hostile, sarcastic, honest or happy about something? What are the
words used to convey the particular tone? To know the tone of a poem, we have
to look at the words used in the poem. We have to ask why certain words are
chosen. For example, in William Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud,”
words such as “golden daffodils, breeze and dancing” may suggest a tranquil or
peaceful tone.

To make students aware of tone, you could consider playing a variety of songs.
Students listen and they decide which song portrays a somber or sad tone and
which song presents a joyful tone. Then, move on to the poem. Ask students to
list out certain words in the poem that bring into effect the particular tone. In
“There’s Been a Death in The Opposite House,” words such as “numb,” “died” and
“stiffly” all bring into effect a somber tone. Ask students to change the words to
see if there is any change of effect. This can be done by providing your students
with a worksheet containing the poem with the key words (that bring into effect
the tone of the poem) deleted. Ask students to fill in the blanks with words of
activity 3.2
Describe how you would teach tone using the poem “Mirror “ by Sylvia
Plath.
their choice and then compare the students’ work with the original poem and
with one another.
3.8 TEACHING IRONY

Students should be aware that there are different kinds of irony.
Verbal irony (or rhetorical irony) means that the writer says one thing but means
something else; dramatic irony refers to a situation in which the audience knows
something which the character in the play does not; irony of situation refers
to the difference in or discrepancy between the expected and actual result or
consequence.
To teach the concept of irony, get your students to look at antonyms or binary
representations (bad/good; tall/short etc.) in cartoons, posters, advertisements etc.
For example, The Simpsons, the cartoon show on television (refer to Figure 3.7)
is a good example to exemplify irony. Ask your students to watch the show and
ask them to list out the differences between the lives of the Simpsons and normal,
everyday human beings (for example, the Simpsons have four fingers, we have

Figure 3.7: The Simpsons
five; they always run into some bad luck, while our life have the ups and downs,
etc).
Next, you can consider asking your students to create situations that show irony
based on given statements. For example, in the given statement:
“The parents waved happily to their son, “Goodbye!”

Students can create a situation to present irony. For example, the parents are
happily waving goodbye to their son because they are glad that he is leaving
home. Perhaps he had been a troublesome boy and they are happy to see him off.
Give other sentences and ask your students to come up with ironic situations.
Next, work on longer sentences. Give your students sets of three or four lines and
ask them to detect irony in those sentences. For example:
He is a very clean man. His clothes are clean, without a speck.

He took out a piece of tissue and wiped off some dirt from his pocket.
Then he threw the tissue on the ground and walked away.
Ask students to orally present the irony that is presented in the sets of sentences.
This can be done in pairs or in groups.

Then, look at some ironic situations in poetry and explain them in class so
that students can have a better understanding of how irony works in poetry.
For example, read “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop (refer to: http://www.
poetryconnection.net/poets /Elizabeth_Bishop/63). Can you find the irony
presented in the 5th and 6th line of the poem? The irony is that the fish is presented
as warrior-like (“frightening gills”), yet the fish is said not to have fought at all.
The final line of the poem is also ironic in that the persona, after having gone
through great trouble in catching the fish, decided to let it go.
For more information on irony, you can surf the following website:
http://humanityquest.com/topic/art_activities/index.asp?theme1=irony
For more information on irony, you can surf the following website:
http://www.ajdrake.com/teachers/teaching/guides/theoryzironydef thompson.
htm.
3.9 STRUCTURING THE TEACHING ELEMENTS

OF POETRY IN A LESSON PLAN
Deliberate on the factors that should be taken into consideration when structuring
the lesson plan for teaching the elements of poetry. How should you cater to the
students’ different needs and attitudes toward learning poetry?
Are you going to use your full one period (or maybe two) to teach an element of
poetry (or perhaps a few) or to incorporate the teaching of the elements of poetry
as part of your lesson plan? It all depends on your students. Some students may
find learning the elements of poetry boring and want to release their creative
energies in more “exciting ways” like writing or reading aloud poems. Some may
find it intriguing and exciting as they perceive understanding the elements of
poetry as a kind of game—solving a mystery (the poem) based on given clues
(the elements).
Whichever approach you take, remember the basic principles laid out in Topic 1.
• Allow for reading aloud of the poem (poems are meant to be read aloud).
• Allow students to write.
• Do not make the lesson too mechanical.
After all, remember that you are teaching poetry in an ESL context (unless of
course you are teaching in a literature class).

Table 3.2 is an outline of a lesson plan to teach English using “The Lake Isles of
Innisfree”. We will assume that we want to teach symbolism.
Table 3.2: Lesson Plan for the Teaching of Symbolism
LESSON PLAN
STEPS ACTIVITY
Introduction Ask students to brainstorm on where they want to go for their
holidays or relaxation. Students should also give their rationale or
reasons.
Step One Ask students to give one symbol for the given holiday destinations.
For example, if one of the destination is Genting Highlands, ask
students to choose one object to symbolise it (roller coaster, pine
trees, hotel, etc.) or Penang (a pagoda, beach, Komtar building,
etc.).
Step Two Introduce the concept of “symbolism.” Give other examples of
symbols that we use in our daily lives.
Step Three Choose key words from the poem and ask students to interpret
what the words symbolise (for example, “cabin.” What does it
symbolise?).
Step Four Read aloud the poem
Step Five Ask comprehension questions leading onto questions about the
meaning of symbols used.
Step Six Students write a similar poem based on their holiday destination,
using the symbols that they have brainstormed during the
introduction.
Conclusion Select students to read aloud their written poems.
3.10 FINAL HINTS FOR TEACHING

Before we leave this topic, consider the following pointers when teaching poetry
in class (we will discuss some the following in the next topic):
(a) Treat each student’s poetic work (his or her response, reaction, suggestion)
with respect. There are no right or wrong answers in poetry. Encourage
independence of thought.
(b) Encourage students to be self-critical.
(c) Where possible, link poetry with other topics that students are studying so
as to present poetry as relevant to the curriculum. For example, for Robert

Frosts’ “The Road Not Taken,” discuss the different kinds of jungle or forests
in various climatic conditions. Would a path be more obvious in a tropical
jungle than in a forest in a cooler climate? Why?
(d) Do not explain a poem when students can work it out by themselves. Allow
and encourage the students to speculate, comment, criticise and respond.
(e) Encourage students to move beyond their textbooks or module so that they
will be able to explore various types of poetry, and not just the ones that are
prescribed in the syllabus.
(f) Reinforce the taught elements by having students write creative poems
focusing on the taught element. For example, if you have taught rhyme
(and other associated elements like assonance and alliteration), ask students
to write a poem that rhymes (or assonates or alliterates). When teaching
onomatopoeia, you may want students to write a poem that contains a lot of
onomatopoeic words.
You may like to consider reading the following website for further suggestions on
teaching poetry:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/grade/grades68/aug_grades68_lesson2.htm
The following websites provide some tips on teaching poetry to children:
http://www.inspiringteachers.com/tips/poetry
http://www.youngpoets.ca/workshop/handbook.php
If you wish to read more on elements of poetry, you can surf the following sites:
http://www.kidskonnect.com/FigurativeLanguage Figurative Language

Home. html
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/AXF.HTML
http://www.dmturner.org/English/Poetry/elements.htm
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms
The article “Teaching Poetry: Generating Genuine, Meaningful Responses. ERIC

Digest” by Charlie Frankenbach, 1989, can be obtained from the following
website:

self-check 3.1
1. To teach the concept of irony, have your pupils to look at

antonyms or binary representations (bad/good; tall/short etc.) in
cartoons, posters, advertisements etc.
A. True
B. False
2. The teacher should always remember to have a reading aloud

session in a poetry class.
A. True
B. False
3. In the poetry class, pupils should be taught the correct

interpretation of a poem.
A. True
B. False
4. When teaching rhyme, pupils should be able to differentiate the

sounds of various words.
A. True
B. False
5. Teachers should only concentrate on the poems prescribed in the

syllabus.
A. True
B. False
6. When teaching the theme of a poem, students’ suggested themes

should not be considered.
A. True
B. False
7. When teaching our pupils “persona,” we only have to tell them

that the persona is the poet.
A. True
B. False
8. We should explain the meaning of a poem to our pupils.

A. True
B. False

SUMMARY
• This topic discusses eight elements of poetry: (a) persona, (b) rhyme, (c)
rhythm, (d) theme, (e) onomatopoeia, (f) symbols, (g) tone, and (h) irony.
• Each element is explained with some examples and tips of how to implement
it in the classroom teaching.
• This topic also gives a sample structure on how to teach the elements in an
ESL classroom.
Binary Representations Rhythm

Irony Symbol
Onomatopoeia Tone
Rhyme

Topic  Designing
Classroom
4 Activities for
the Teaching
of Drama
and Poetry
– The Basic
Principles
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain the principles that guide the construction of classroom
activities for the teaching of drama and poetry; and
2. Construct classroom activities for the teaching of drama and poetry,
that adhere to pedagogical principles discussed in this topic.

TOPIC 4 DESIGNING CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF t 59
DRAMA AND POETRY – THE BASIC PRINCIPLES
XX Introduction
In the last topic, we have looked at the lesson structure, the elements and how
to teach them in the drama and poetry class in an ESL context. In this topic, we
will look further into some principles when designing activities to be used in the
drama and poetry class. The principles are laid out for teachers to be guided into
designing task sheets for the ESL class. However, why is it necessary to follow
the principles? Don’t our students still learn something regardless if pedagogical
principles are not adhered to? Undoubtedly, our students may learn something
new even if the teacher fumbles in the classroom or designs tasks that are not
pedagogically “correct”. However, if certain principles are adhered to, then the
students will not only have a better grasp of the concepts taught, but they may
also have a better conceptual framework to work their tasks in. Moreover, there
is a sense of integrity and professionalism if teachers structure and conduct tasks
that are clear, succinct and appropriate.
This topic discusses the principles involved in designing activities. Topic 5 will
focus on the principles involved in designing materials. Thus, the term activities
will have to be defined first. Activities refer to the things that you do, such as
miming, singing, choral reading and drawing. In contrast, materials refer to the
“hardware” that you use such as the photocopy materials. This, however, will be
discussed in the next topic.
4.1 PROVIDING BACKGROUND

INFORMATION
Based on your own classroom experience, do you think students should be
equipped with some background knowledge on what is to be taught during your
drama and poetry lesson? Do you think this will help enhance their learning
process?
It is necessary that our students know or at least have some idea of the content of
our tasks. This is to ensure that their schematic knowledge will be drawn upon
when doing tasks. How is this applied to the construction of activities in the
classroom?
Before explaining further, read the following worksheet in Figure 4.1.

60  TOPIC 4 DESIGNING CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF
Worksheet A
Complete the following excerpt taken from a play with only ONE WORD for each
blank.
Alexander: So I am ______ (1). Alexander is dying. God, oh God!
Not _____(2) bed—in battle—not in bed.
Why _______(3) you never let me see that it _____ (4)
end in this? Could I ever have _______(5) back, I
wonder? Where did it first _____(6) wrong?
Good-bye, my friend. Thank you for _______ (7).
Figure 4.1: Worksheet A
(Note: The extract in Worksheet A is taken from “Adventure Story: A Play in Three
Acts” by Terence Rattigan, produced in 1949 at St. James’s Theatre, London).
What do you think may be “wrong” with Worksheet A? Think for a while before
you read the following section. Remember the statement made earlier with
regards to drawing upon a student’s schematic knowledge.
Cloze passages are common activities in many ESL classrooms. Although

there may be critiques of this technique, it is a good device for the teaching of
vocabulary and syntax. Students are required to think of appropriate words that
can fit into the blanks. However, as mentioned, for the students to think of the
appropriate words, they need to have some idea of the content. To ensure this,
DO NOT HAVE BLANKS in the first or first two lines AND the last line.
Thus, the above cloze can be improved, as shown by Worksheet B in Figure 4.2.
Worksheet B
Alexander: So I am dying. Alexander is dying. God, oh God!
Not _____(1) bed—in battle—not in bed.
Why _______(2) you never let me see that it _____ (3)
end in this? Could I ever have _______(4) back, I
wonder? Where did it first _____(5) wrong?
Good-bye, my friend. Thank you for caring.
Figure 4.2: Worksheet B

Do you think the improved version has made some differences for students to
answer the cloze passage?
activity 4.1
Construct a cloze passage with blanks in the first and last line. Give it
to your colleague to answer. Next, construct another cloze passage that
adheres to the principle outlined in this section. Ask your colleague to
answer it. Ask your colleague if he or she thinks there are differences in
answering both the cloze passages.
Before you carry on reading, you may be a bit of confused at this point. As
mentioned earlier that materials will be discussed in the next topic. But the
main idea is that students must know or have some background knowledge of
what they are doing. Moreover, the activity that is discussed here is doing the
cloze passages. In the next topic on the discussion of materials, I will discuss, for
example, the MATERIAL on which the cloze passage is presented (photocopy,
transparency, mahjong paper, etc).
Let’s illustrate this principle of “having the background knowledge” or “knowing

the content” with another example. Assuming that you want to do a choral
reading of “The Lake Isles of Innisfree.” Will you, at the beginning of the lesson, go
straight into the choral activity without explaining the words, what the poem is
about, etc? Perhaps you can. However, perhaps a better alternative is to tell the
students what the poem is about and explain some words (not all as you may
want to leave some words for vocabulary expansion) so that the students will be
able to read the poem aloud with some understanding instead of just “barking”
at the words.
Do not overdo this, of course. For example, it will not be necessary to tell your
students what Macbeth is all about (although it may help—it all depends on how
good your students are) before you teach “Life’s Brief Candle.” However, instead
of telling the whole story of Macbeth, you can tell the circumstances in which
“Life”s Brief Candle” was spoken (i.e. when he received news of the death of his
wife, he was preparing for battle).
self-check 4.1
Why should students be given the background information with regard

to an activity?

4.2 PROGRESSION OF DIFFICULTY OF

QUESTIONS
Before you read the following notes, read the following drama excerpt in Figure 4.3.
Scene: Morning-room at the Manor House. Gwendolen and Cecily are at

the window, looking out into the garden.
Gwendolen: The fact that they did not follow us at once into the house, as
anyone else would have done, seems to me to show that they have some sense
of shame left.
Cecily: They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance.
Gwendolen (After a pause): They don’t seem to notice us at all. Couldn’t
you cough?
Cecily: But I haven’t got a cough.
Gwendolen: They are looking at us. What effrontery!
Cecily: They are approaching. That’s very forward of them.
Gwendolen: Let us preserve a dignified silence.
Figure 4.3: Drama excerpt
Now, based on the drama excerpt in Figure 4.3, do you know where it is taken
from? Do you know who wrote the play? Write out 5 comprehension questions,
assuming that the text is for an ESL class at Form 5 level. Assume also that the
students are above average students.
(Note: It is taken from Act III of “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde)
Now look at your questions carefully. Pass your questions to your friend
and allow your friend to give you some comments. Next, read the following
principles and see if you had followed the principles given when constructing
the questions.
One very common activity conducted by teachers is asking questions for students
to answer. So, the next principle is that comprehension questions should progress
from simple or lower-order to difficult or higher-order. What is meant by lower
and higher order? You may be familiar with Thomas Barrett’s Taxonomy of
Cognitive Difficulty of Questions. According to Barrett, there are five levels of
complexity of questions:
• Literal comprehension;

• Reorganisation;
• Inferential;
• Evaluation; and
• Appreciation.
Let us discuss the five levels of difficulty. The first two levels require a person to
take details from the text explicitly. The reader is to recognise and recall details,
main ideas, comparisons, cause-effect relationships and character traits. In
reorganisation, the reader is to classify, outline, summarise and synthesise.
The next three levels require the reader to think and be involved deeper into
the reading text. In the case of drama and poetry, this may be important as we
want to get our students to get deeper into the finer details of drama and poetry,
instead of just the superficial, literal level.
Inference requires the reader to form some understanding based on his or her
own experience. At the evaluation level, students form some form of judgment
while at the appreciation level, the students give some emotional response or
reaction to the text.
Now read the questions that you have structured based on the excerpt from “The
Importance of Being Earnest.” What levels are your questions at? Do your questions
progress from the literal level to the appreciation level?
Table 4.1 provides the examples of questions for each level.
Table 4.1: Levels of Complexity of Questions for “The Importance of Being Earnest”
Levels of Complexity Examples of Questions
Literal Comprehension • Where does the scene take place?

• Who are the two characters in this scene?
• What do they agree to do at the end of the passage?
Reorganisation • The passage mentions of “they” List down the things

that “they” have done or are doing.
Evaluation • In your opinion, do you think Gwendolen and Cecily

are good friends? Why do you say so?
Appreciation • If your class were to put up the play, which character

would you like to be, Gwendolen or Cecily? Why?
Now read the following excerpt from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in Figure 4.4.
Write out 5 questions, if possible, one from each level based on the text. Assume
that the questions are for above average Form 6 students.
King: Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission yet returned?
Malcolm: My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die; who did report
That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
Implored your Highness’ pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it. He died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owned
As ‘twere a careless trifle.
King: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust
Enter Macbeth, Banguo, Ross, and Angus.
O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macbeth: The service and the loyalty I owe
In doing it pays itself. Your Highness part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties
Are to your throne and state children and servants,
Which do but what they should by doing everything
Safe toward your love and honor.
Figure 4.4: “Macbeth”
Please note that the levels of difficulty are for your guide. It does not mean
that there MUST be one question from each level. On the other hand, we must
ensure that our questions are NOT all from the same level. Consequently, if
our questions are all from the lower-level, then there is no “inducement (for the

students) to think, to become personally involved in understanding and communicating,

and therefore in actively processing input” (Tollefson, 1989: 7).
Do not start with the higher level question first. Start off with a lower-level
question and progress to a higher-level so that the students will be encouraged to
go along with the activity. If students are given higher-order questions, they may
not be able to answer the questions and this may discourage the students from
probing deeper into the literary text.
self check 4.2
To enhance your understanding, choose any poem and write out

questions that exemplify the different levels of Barrett’s Taxonomy.
Then, discuss it with your coursemates.
4.3 CLEAR AND SUCCINCT

Related to the structuring of questions or tasks in your classroom, ensure that the
instructions are clear and to the point. The rule of thumb is NOT to assume that
our students understand or know what to do.
Read the following example in Worksheet C.
Worksheet C
Fill in the following blanks.
King: My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek _____ (1) hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places _________ (2) the nearest, know
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom _____ (3) name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.
Figure 4.5: Worksheet C

Can you spot what may be lacking in the activity in Worksheet C? There does
not seem to be anything wrong with the cloze technique used. However, the
instruction can be improved. Remember, do NOT assume that our students know
what to do. Even though they may have done hundreds of cloze passages during
their school life, the instruction should still be clear. Thus, it can be improved to
read “Fill in each blank with ONE word only.”
In relation to this, ensure that all your instructions, especially stage instructions
and directions (when asking your students to put up a play) are clear and leaves
NO doubt in your students’ minds.
4.4 GROUP ACTIVITIES

Try to structure your activities to be learner-centred instead of teacher-centred.
This does NOT mean that ALL your activities have to be learner-centred. There
has to be a place and time for everything. Some measure of teacher-centred
activities are sometimes necessary (such as reading aloud by students, followed
by comprehension questions), but do not overrule learner-centred activities
which are at other times necessary, so that students have the opportunities to
“process their own learning experience and to formulate their own feelings about the
literary text” (Shu Wei, 1999).
For example, when you teach “Si Tenggang’s Homecoming” which contains six
stanzas, have each group to do a different stanza (such as paraphrasing the poem
into prose). This way, you can cover the poem at a shorter time. Another method
is to have all the groups to do the whole poem, but each group is to focus on a
different task. One group may be asked to summarise the poem, another group
to present the mental images that are conjured when reading the poem, another
group associates the poem with personal life experiences, while another group
may be asked to evaluate the elements of narration. Each group will then present
their answers orally.
4.5 APPROPRIATENESS

An important question to ask when structuring activities is “Are the activities
appropriate?” The next question we have to ask is “Appropriate for what? Or for
whom?”
Let us first consider the latter. The activities we plan should be appropriate for
our students. There are several factors to consider in terms of appropriateness,
shown as follows:
• Students’ age or maturity;

• Receptivity;
• Cultural background;
• Gender, schematic knowledge; and
• Level of language proficiency.
The text given earlier, “The Importance of Being Earnest” may not be appropriate
for Form One students. Some students may not be open to the possibility of
doing Shakespeare in class (i.e. they have low receptivity). Some students may
have conflicts in terms of culture (and religious beliefs). Inadequate schematic or
background knowledge may prove to be barriers for students to do your planned
activities adequately well. Furthermore, if you use texts such as Shakespeare,
in their original form, you will have problems with students whose language
proficiency is low.
Let us now consider each factor.
4.5.1 Age and Maturity

When you design your activities, you should design them so that they will match
the age and maturity of your students. Even though some students are in Form 1,
they may want to “feel” or “think” that they are in Form 5 or 6. Thus, you have to
be cautious if you are to introduce dramatisation in teaching poems. For example,
you would not ask your students to flap their hands like wings of bees and birds
in the class, while a group of students choral read “The Lake Isles of Innisfree.”
It is important to note that just because one activity in textbooks or teachers’ book
is recommended for the literature class, it does not mean that that activity is to
be carried out indiscriminately. Think of your students. Think of their maturity.
More importantly, consider what your students will think of you if you were to
carry out “childish” activities.
In contrast, if you think that your students are mature enough to take on more
challenging activities, such as having a debate or a forum, then by all means, go
ahead with those. For example, based on “The Lake Isles of Innisfree”, students can
discuss, argue and debate on whether serenity and peacefulness can really be
obtained from nature.
4.5.2 Receptivity
What do you think would be the best way to gauge your students’ reception
towards literature? What sort of activities can you carry out to do this?

The next factor to consider is your students’ receptivity. How open are they to
literature in the first place? You may have a big problem if you realise that your
students are NOT receptive to literature. They prefer mathematics, science and
principles of accounts. What you can do is to find out what they expect from the
English class (English, NOT literature!). If the majority says that they expect to
learn grammar and writing, then focus on these two aspects, using the literary
texts as your base or starting point.
Let us illustrate this with an example. Assuming that you have a class of
students who do not see any benefit in reading the literary texts. They want to
learn English grammar. Firstly, look at your scheme of work. What grammatical
items are to be taught for that week? Teach the grammar items first. Then show
them how those grammar items are used in sentences. Show them clips from
newspapers, bulletins, posters, etc. on how the grammar items are used. Of
course, you should also show them how the grammar items are used in the poem
that you are teaching. For example, if you are teaching the active voice (and you
are to teach “There’s Been a Death in the Opposite House”), then show examples of
sentences from the poem in which the active voice is used.
Receptivity has to do with motivation as well. If our students are motivated to

learn, they will have high receptivity. How then can our students be motivated?
There are basically two forms of motivation. One form is intrinsic, which means
that the motivation comes from within the student. This type of motivation
is better and may have a longer lasting effect as the student wants to learn
simply because he or she wants to. Extrinsic motivation comes from external
forces. For example, students may want to learn literature to gain the full 10 %
for the Literature Component in English. Students may be motivated to answer
questions and do the activities so as to gain some points, get some prizes or gain
the teacher’s approval.
To motivate your students, you may tell your students the benefits of learning
literature. Also tell them the objective of the particular lesson that you are doing.
Inform them of the learning outcomes of the lesson, and what you expect the
students to achieve at the end of the lesson. There is nothing wrong with extrinsic
motivation, so do have games or activities that will push the students to do their
best so that they can earn some prizes, points or even praises from the teachers.
Also consider getting your students to read as many books as possible. When
you observe some improvements in their language proficiency, praise them.
Encourage them that their reading is not futile.
Note: Books for reading are available from the Class Reader Programme or CRP.
Assuming that your school has not thrown them away, make full use of them
by encouraging your students to read. For example, you can offer prizes for the
student who reads the most books.
self-check 4.3
1. What is CRP? How can it help in our teaching of literature?

2. Briefly explain the role of motivation in the teaching of literature.
4.5.3 Cultural Background
Differences in the culture that exists within the students’ domain and the culture
that emerges in the literary texts may pose a problem in fully comprehending
the texts. For example, even some students in Malaysia may be insulated from
the culture and traditions of the “peranakan” people. Many may wonder what
counting “silver paper for the dead” means. Is the “peranakan” culture a patriarchal
culture as is demonstrated by the portraits of grandfathers hanging in the parlour
(and no mention of portraits of grandmothers)? Why did Shirley Lim subvert the
order, from “baba nyonya” as is commonly used to “nyonya and baba”? These are
some points to exemplify the need to bridge the cultural, traditional and even
religious differences that exist between student and text. Bridging these gaps may
help the students in comprehending the texts even better.
self-check 4.4
Read Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare. What may be the “gaps” that

exist between your students and the text? Do you think your students
will understand what “rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”?
Do you think your students will know the concept of “summer”? What
steps will you take to explain the poem to your students? Discuss with
your coursemates.
4.5.4 Gender
Gender is another factor to consider when planning activities in the classroom. In
some situations, girls may be the passive students (but it is also true conversely,
that girls may be more active, in other situations). You have to also consider if
a mixed-gender group is appropriate for your activities (while some schools
abhor the thought of mixing boys with girls in group activities, there are other
situations where this is the least of all concerns).
Some ways to know what your students want is through observation, interviews
or giving them a questionnaire in the beginning of the class. Subsequently,
analyse the data that you have obtained and see if there is any correlation with
gender. If there is a significant relationship, then it is prudent to consider gender
when structuring your activities.
self-check 4.5
What does it mean to consider the gender when we think of the

appropriacy of an activity?
4.5.5 Language Proficiency
How about students with low English proficiency? What can be done to help
these students? Topic 9 will explain more about this (Teaching Poetry and Drama
to Students with Low Proficiency in English), but at this point, do take note that
for these students, you should adapt the text. Some ways to adapt the text are
explained as follows.
(a) Simplify
To simplify is to make the sentences shorter or to use words that are of
common usage. For example, instead of using “My plenteous joy,” say “I
am very happy” or “I am excited.” You may even consider shortening the
sentences, making sure that the main details or contents are not deleted.
Of course, simplification may not work with poems because the essence of
the poetic structure and meaning will change.
(b) Adapt
For drama, you may consider localising the characters. Instead of Macbeth
and the King of Scotland, use Rahim and the Sultan of Jawa. If possible,
localise the setting as well. This approach has two-fold benefits. Firstly, the
students may have a better grasp of the situations that are presented through
drama. Secondly, students may be able to better identify with local needs,
values and culture. For example, students may be able to better identify with
the values that are presented through a localised, adapted version of Macbeth.
(c) Shorten
As mentioned earlier, you can consider shortening the sentences. You
may even consider shortening the text. For example, Macbeth has five
Acts. Instead of going through all five acts with your students, you could
summarise the main events of Acts 1, 2 and 3, then use Act 4 in your ESL
class (it has only three scenes), and ask your students to predict the events
for Act 5. So instead of doing the whole text, you only do part of the text
with your students.
Remember that your students are learning literature in an ESL context. They
are NOT learning literature per se.
Similarly, for very long poems, you can consider using part of a poem for
your ESL class instead of going through the whole poem.
activity 4.2
You can go to http://www.sangfroid.com/rime/ for the complete work

of Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Assume that you want
to use this poem in your ESL class. Based on the principles learnt, how
will you make the text appropriate for your students? Provide examples.
4.6 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Another consideration when planning activities is the time that may be taken by
your students to do the activities. Do not be too ambitious by cramming too many
activities into one lesson. It is better to teach a bit at a time so that the students
will be able to absorb whatever new knowledge that is taught, then to have many
activities, only to realise that the students did not learn anything. Moreover, too
many activities may result in too little time to finish off what you plan to do.
In addition, activities that require your students to speak aloud should be held
in the resource centre or in locations where students in the neighbouring classes
will not be disturbed. You may even consider having your activities in the field,
the canteen or any other suitable places outside of the classroom.
activity 4.3
Based on the play “Macbeth”, plan an activity for your students. What are
the considerations that you will look at when planning the activity?

SUMMARY
• The very basic principle in teaching drama or poetry in an ESL classroom is

that literature is taught through language (the small ‘L’), not as literature per
se (the big ‘L’).
• There are five principles involved in designing activities or materials:
(a) background information, (b) progression of difficulty of questions, (c)
clear and succinct, (d) group activities, and (e) appropriateness.
• Providing background information is necessary to assist students in relating
the content to their surrounding contexts.
• The progression of difficulty of questions should be from simple or lower-
order to difficult or higher-order.
• Thomas Barrett’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Difficulty of Questions is one of
the familiar approaches in designing activities or materials.
• According to Barrett’s taxonomy, there are five levels of complexity of
questions: (a) literal comprehension, (b) reorganization, (c) inferential, (d)
evaluation, and (e) appreciation.
• Clear and succinct is important in designing the activities or materials,
especially in the instructions and directions.
• Group activities are designed for the lesson to be more learner-centred
instead of teacher-centred.
• Factors to consider when applying the principles of appropriateness are: (a)
students’ age or maturity, (b) receptivity, (c) cultural background, (d) gender,
schematic knowledge, and (e) level of language proficiency.
• Other considerations in planning the activities or materials are time and
place.
Appropriateness The Big ‘L’

Receptivity The Small ‘L’
Succinct

Topic  Using
Materials in
5 The Teaching
of Drama
and Poetry
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Describe some materials that are used in the teaching of drama and
poetry;
2. Explain or give reasons for the use of chosen materials in the teaching
of drama and poetry; and
3. Describe techniques or steps in using materials effectively and
appropriately for the teaching of drama and poetry.
XX INTRODUCTION
Materials are important in language teaching as asserted by Hasan (2001) who
writes that “the appropriate and effective utilization of teaching materials” will lead
to an improved effectiveness in teaching the language. Since one of the primary
objectives of teaching literature in the ESL class is to teach the linguistic elements,
it is thus imperative that the materials we use should be presented in the most
effective and appropriate manner.
There are a variety of materials that can be used in the literature class. It is the
aim of this topic to discuss these materials (though it is not comprehensive,
but representative; that is whatever is presented in this topic exemplifies the

74  TOPIC 5 USING MATERIALS IN THE TEACHING OF DRAMA AND POETRY
principles of using materials and these principles can be used for other kinds of
materials) and to suggest ways as to how these materials can be used in the most
effective way, so as to facilitate maximum learning by our students. Some books
categorise materials into referential and representational. However, this topic will
look at the types of materials according to two sensory categories, namely visual
and audio.
5.1 ViSUAL MATERIALS

Visual materials are materials that require our visual sensors (i.e. our eyes) to
perceive. Types of visual materials include:
• Posters;
• Pictures;
• Transparencies;
• Print materials (e.g books and workbooks); and
• Pictorial materials (e.g comics).
activity 5.1
Students’ attention span generally differs; some may be focused while

others have a rather short attention span, particularly when it comes to
the drama and poetry lessons. Based on your teaching experience, how
do visual materials appeal to students and help enhance their learning
experience? Compare and discuss your answers with your coursemates.
5.1.1 Print Materials

The textbook that is used in the ESL literature class can be used extensively to
generate interests among students. The front cover of the book, for example,
can be used to elicit questions from students, which in turn, can serve as a
springboard for further discussion and activities in the classroom.
For example, one edition of Macbeth may have a picture of a woman in the
foreground. She has one outstretched hand while the other hand is holding a cup.
In the background is a woman and a man watching this woman. You may have
got a different edition or from the Internet. Regardless of the edition that you use
in your class, the picture in the front cover can be used to ask students to guess
what is depicted or represented by the pictures. The teacher exploits this picture
by asking questions such as:
TOPIC 5 USING MATERIALS IN THE TEACHING OF DRAMA AND POETRY t 75
• Who is the woman?

• What do you think she is doing?
• Why are the two persons watching her?
• What do you think is her name?
• What do you think is her role in the drama?
Alternatively, you can have the students to generate the questions. Tell them
when they see the picture, they probably will have some questions running
through their minds. Ask the students to articulate those questions. Write the
questions on the board. Later, use these questions for discussion. These questions
can also be used as signpost questions. This means that when the students read
through the drama (or the poem), they will read with a purpose of finding
answers to those questions.
Photocopy materials are also print materials. However, do be aware of copyright

laws. Some plays that are presented in the Internet may be downloaded for use,
free of charge, by the public. These may be photocopied without any reservation
(but for ethical reasons, it is best to confine the use of the drama to your ESL
class). Ensure that each student has a copy of the material (making sure also that
it is readable as some photocopies are quite faint). Students sharing scripts will
be problematic especially when students have their respective roles. If a student
is sharing a photocopy with another student, when it is that particular student’s
turn to read aloud his part of the dialogue, there may be a “break” or a “gap” as
the student may want to have a closer look. Such interruptions may disturb the
flow of the play.
Another form of print material that can be used are the word cards or strips of
cardboard on which are written some words (taken from a poem or a drama).
The word cards or sentence strips must be big enough so that the students at
the back of the class can read them. It should not, however, be too big as it may
appear to be too clumsy. Moreover, it is not economical when a smaller size card
or strip may be sufficient. The cards or strips can be used by students to rearrange
to form a stanza or a part of a dialogue from a drama (the disadvantage of this
activity is that more than one answer is probable).
(a) Original or the Abridged Version?

One of the biggest concerns for teachers of literature in the ESL class is to
decide on the appropriacy of a text. For teachers in the government service,
the texts are prescribed for you by the Ministry of Education. However, there
are no drama texts prescribed for the lower and upper forms. Principles
that can be considered when choosing a text have been discussed in another
topic (Topic 1). Refer to that topic once again. The following are some other
considerations that you may want to consider when choosing a text for your
class.
(i) The availability of texts should be taken into consideration; for example,
some drama texts may not be available easily for students. Nonetheless,
the Internet has been of great help and one may even access the full
drama texts (such as Shakespeare’s works) from the Internet. Go to a
search engine, such as www.google.com, and type in your key word
(e.g. “full text of Macbeth”). A list of web pages that contains the full
text will appear. Books can even be bought via the Internet. You may
try www.amazon.com or www.acmabooks.com.my to search for your
texts. Works by local authors are still not available over the Internet and
you will have to buy their works from bookshops in this country.
The price of the text should also be considered. We live in a
materialistic world and if the text is too expensive, but at the same time
your students are forced to buy them, there may be some resentment
directed towards the subject which will ultimately cause the students to
lose interest in literature.
(ii) Choose texts that provide a representative selection. For example,
choose poems that are from America, Britain, local works, Asian works,
works from various centuries, various authors (both men and women)
etc. Do not choose poems from one particular country. Literature, after
all, aims to widen our students’ perspective of the world, culture and
values.
(iii) Be courageous in choosing texts that are outside of the established
canon. There are many new, emerging writers which should be
considered for your literature class. This is not to say that their works
are “par excellence”, but it does provide your students with the
awareness that literature is not confined to boring or out} dated dead
poets and playwrights from past centuries.
(iv) “Breadth” or “depth” are also important. Some teachers prefer to
teach a wide selection of texts so that students will have an overview
of the various literary texts from a particular time or place. This is
“breadth.” On the other hand, some teachers argue that it is better to
know a particular text in “depth” then to have a superficial knowledge
of various texts. There is NO CORRECT resolution to this. You have to
make the decision, unless the texts are already prescribed for you.
Even if the texts are prescribed, you may still choose to teach your
students other texts. Of course, this will depend a lot on whether you
have the time, interest or zeal.
Remember, ultimately it is your students that are reading and studying
the texts. So choose texts that are accessible or “reader-friendly” to your
students. Now back to the main question: choose the original or the
simplified version?

activity 5.2
Presently, no drama texts are prescribed for the Upper Secondary

Literature in English Component. Decide on one and give your rationale
for choosing that drama.
However, there are arguments for and against selecting the original
version of a drama in the ESL class, as elaborated in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Original Version of a Drama
Advantages of the Use of Disadvantages of the Use of

Original Version Original Version
• The syntax, grammar and choice of lexical items • The original version
by the playwright contribute to the literary quality contains words and
of the work. A watered-down or simplified version linguistic structures that
may not capture the quality or literary nature are outdated such as the
intended by the writer. plays by Shakespeare.
• Certain literary elements that are in the original • Students will be put off by
may be lost in the simplified or abdriged version. the difficulty of the text.
Subsequently, it may be difficult to do a deeper • The text may contain
reading of the play. As Carter and Long assert, “the cultural elements that are
lower the level of the simplified reader [...] the more foreign or inappropriate.
‘non-literary’ the language is likely to be” ‘ Subsequently, the text
• Students may need to know original quotations need to be edited so as to
that are popularly used such as “To be or not to be, make them presentable to
that is the question.” Such quotations may not be our students.
in the simplified version. Knowing the popularly
used quotations gives students a sense of
gratification or satisfaction that they have learned
something of cognitive and literary value.
At the end of the day, it is you, the teacher who has to select an appropriate
text. On the other hand, if the text is already prescribed, you have to think of
ways to make the text reader-friendly for your students.
(b) The Class Readers Programme (CRP)

One print material which we should not forget is the CRP which was
implemented in secondary schools in 1990. Now, we have the literature
component and most teachers may have (conveniently) forgotten the CRP.
Nonetheless, the books are still available in some nook or corner of your
school or English Panel Cupboard. It is encouraged that you look them up
and make them accessible to your students.
The CRP contains books that are graded. For example, in the Elementary
series, you will have books like “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped” by Robert
Louis Stevenson. The stories are of course simplified for the elementary
level. The Advanced level contains stories in which the vocabulary sentence
structure, concept, plot and content of the story are more complex than at
the Elementary level. Together with the CRP are teaching files that contain
suggested activities that can be used in the classroom.
The CRP aims to expose students to materials written in English. In addition,
it is hoped that students will be motivated to read so as to increase their
language proficiency. It is also aimed at generating interest in the study of
literature.
Many of these books may have been put in “cold storage” ever since the
Literature component in the secondary school English syllabus came
into being. Ask the senior teachers of your school who may know where
the books are kept (if they have not been sold). Salvage and use them
because like many other literary texts, they can also be used for reading
comprehension in the ESL class.
A final note with regard to the CRP is that most of the books are prose.
However, there are some books that are plays, such as:
• “English Plays 1” by Hyacinth Gaudart (Form 2 Elementary);
• “Plays for School 1” by Patrick Yeoh (Form 2 Advanced); and
• “Three Mystery Plays” by Donn Byrne (Form 4 Elementary).
For poems, there seems to be a few books, such as:

• “An Anthology of Poetry for Young People” by Beatrice Thiyaga Rajah (Form 2
Intermediate);
• “Only the Moon and Other Poems” by Othman Zaiful (Form 4
Intermediate); and
• “An Anthology of Poetry” by Zainudin (Form 4 Advanced).
5.1.2 Pictorial Materials

Pictorial materials can be in the forms of comics and drawings. Let us also look
into the use of transparency to enhance the drama and poetry lesson.
(a) Comics and Drawings

For the purpose of this module, discussion about pictorial materials
such as comics and drawings will also included. Posters and pictures will
be focussed in another section. Videos are another example of pictorial
materials and this also will be discussed in another section.

It will be difficult to obtain copies of Macbeth (or any other plays) in pictorial
form. You may, however, order animated versions of selected plays of
Shakespeare from www.amazon.com.
An alternative is to have students draw the pictures. Taking Macbeth as
an example, you can start a project in which students with a penchant for
drawing draw scenes from the play. These drawings, in turn, can be used in
future lessons to introduce the play to students.
However, how about the students who do not know how to draw? What
can they do? The “drawing” project can be a whole class affair. While some
students draw, others can be the story board constructors. These story board
constructors will describe the frames based on their reading of Macbeth. The
artists will then draw out the pictures based on the storyboard. An example
of a storyboard of a part of Macbeth’s Act 1 Scene 1 is given in Figure 5.1.
Figure 5.1: Example of storyboard
Another variation to this activity is to have students draw the important

scenes that will fit into the pyramid structure of the drama. Do you
remember Freytag’s pyramid? Can you identify the parts of this pyramid
with regard to Macbeth? What are the scenes from the drama that fit into this
structure? Which part of the drama, for example, would you consider to be
the rising action, the climax or the falling action? While some students are
given tasks on deciding this, other students who are interested in drawing
will draw out the pictures to illustrate the parts of the pyramid.
You can also consider having students draw characters from a drama. These
characters can then be used in subsequent lessons. Just cut them out and
stick them on a flannel board. Or use “blue tac” and stick them on the chalk
board.
For poetry, you can ask the students to draw the setting that is presented in
the poem or any other elements that can be illustrated. For example, in the
Lake Isles of Innisfree, you can ask your students to draw the image that is
presented in the poem. A variation of this activity is to assign a line from
the poem to different students. Each student will then illustrate the line with
a simple sketch.
Pictures can be used for introducing the poem that you are going to
teach. For example, using the illustration in the Form 5 literature book,
photocopy the illustration given for Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” on
a transparency. Be sure, of course, to cover the words of the poem, as what
you want on the transparency is just the drawing. Show the picture on the
OHP and ask questions based on the picture. Now, lets discuss a little more
in depth about using the transparency.
(b) Using the Transparency

Using the transparency is an excellent way of directing your students’
focus on a particular subject. For example, based on the illustration from
“The Road Not Taken,” have it photocopied onto a transparency. When you
show this on the OHP, cover the left side of the transparency so that your
students’ attention will be on the right side that is shown. Ask students
some questions based on the part that is shown. Then, cover the right part
to show the left part of the picture. Ask some questions again based on this
new part that is shown. Finally, show the full picture and ask your students
some other questions.
Be creative. Use multiple transparencies which can then be put overlapping
one another on the OHP. For example, if you are teaching “The Drover’s Wife”
(Form 4 short story), firstly, draw a picture of a woman on a transparency.
Show this on the OHP. Ask questions such as:
• “Who do you think this woman is?”
• “What is her name?”
• “Where does she live?”
• “Who does she live with?
Then, on a separate transparency with a drawing of a boy, put this on top of
the transparency with the woman. Now ask questions such as:
• “Who do you think this boy is?”
• “How do you think they are related?”
Next, put on top of these two transparencies, a separate transparency with a
drawing of a dog. Then ask some questions such as “What do you think is the
name of the dog?”

Finally, ask students to predict what transparency will be put on next. What
character or animal will they see next? Put this transparency overlapping the
others (drawing of a snake) and then ask questions for students to predict
possible happenings in the story.
5.1.3 Posters and Pictures

Posters (such as those that you see in cinemas which announce new or current
movies) are usually attractive as they are colourful. Consequently, they may draw
the interest of students. Thus, they are good teaching materials and should be
considered as aids for introducing a particular poem or drama in the ESL class.
In addition, posters are usually big and because of their size, they can be easily
seen by students who sit at the back of the classroom. Pictures from magazines
are also good sources of pictorial materials. You can also consider pictures from
the Internet (that is if your school provides computer sets for the students).
Pictures, however, are suitable for group activities as their small size may hinder
them from being seen easily by students who sit at the back of a class.
Posters can be made or drawn on a manila cardboard. Students are given a task in
which they are told that they are graphic designers and they are to draw a poster
for Macbeth. In groups, they draw the poster. Teachers can keep these posters to
be used in another class as a visual material aid.
Some activities that you can do with posters and pictures include the following:
(a) Jigsaw
As an introduction to a lesson, get a picture that relates to the poem or drama
that you are teaching. For example, you can get a picture of three witches for
Macbeth or a picture of a man on a boat for “Si Tenggang’s Homecoming”. Cut
the picture into pieces. Students, seated in groups, then assemble the pieces
together. This can also be done for posters. Use the completed picture for
further activities leading to the presentation of the drama.
(b) Description
Students sit in groups. One member from each group is shown a picture that
relates to your drama or poem. The other members do not see the picture.
The member who has seen the picture either describes orally or draws the
picture (or even describes the picture using hands, like charades). The other
members guess the picture from the description given. Once a correct guess
is given, teacher leads students to further presentation of the drama or
poem.

(c) Bit by Bit

Get two posters of three witches (assuming that you are teaching Macbeth).
Cover the posters fully with about ten pieces of paper. Divide the class into
two groups. Give an oral quiz, based on Macbeth to the students. If the group
answers correctly, take out a piece of paper to reveal a part of the poster. The
group that has all the pieces of paper taken off wins the quiz competition.
(d) Which One?

An activity that can be done at the end of the syllabus is to show some
pictures that relate to the poems that have been taught. For example, for the
Form 4 class, you can have some pictures of eyes (“or eyes can see” in Sonnet
18), a village (“Si Tenggang’s Homecoming”) and a mattress (“There’s Been A
Death in the Opposite House”).
5.1.4 Videos
Videos are also good sources of teaching aid that can be used in the literature
class. It can be used to introduce a lesson. For example, if you are introducing
Romeo and Juliet (you can get an adapted version of this Shakespeare play in the
video shop, which stars Leonardo de Caprio and Claire Danes) (see Figure 5.2) or
Hamlet (there is also a modern adaptation of this play, starring Ethan Hawke) (see
Figure 5.3); instead of showing the full video, show only the first few parts of the
video. Then ask students to predict what will happen next. Use this introductory
part to present some characters or the tone of the drama. You can also use this
prediction exercise to introduce the plot of the drama.
Figure 5.2: Romeo and Juliet

Figure 5.3: Hamlet
Another activity that can be done after the class has read through the drama is to
show clips from the video and ask students to guess from which Act and Scene of
the drama are the clips taken from.
activity 5.3
Discuss with your friend and construct other activities that can be done
using the video in the literature class. What are the other video titles that
are available in the market that can be used in your literature class?
Undoubtedly, the biggest disadvantage of planning to use a video in the

literature class is to get the video itself. Unless your school has a good stock of
video tapes, you may be difficult to find a video tape (or a VCD as is commonly
used nowadays) which is an adaptation from a poem or a drama. You can buy
whatever that you come across in the video shop that may be of help in the ESL
class. Even though you may not be using the VCD during the period when you
buy it, the VCD may come in useful in the future. For example, one may have
a copy of Romeo and Juliet, which he or she bought years back. It may come in
handy if he or she was to teach some Form 6 students who may be sitting for the
STPM literature paper. Nonetheless, (depending on your finances and how much
you trust internet transactions), you may also order the VHS or DVD from www.
amazon.com.

5.2 AUDIO MATERIALS

Audio materials like cassette and CD are widely used in the ESL classes. Like
the videos and VCDs, the main problem in wanting to use the audio materials is
getting the audio materials themselves. However, unlike the videos, you can also
produce your own audio materials. For example, for poems, you can group your
students and ask each group to read aloud a poem from the Form 5 Literature
in English Component. Tape record each group’s presentation. You can then use
this taped presentation in another class.
The audio material is primarily for listening activities. Thus, one advantage of
using audio materials is that students will focus on what they hear and they
will not be distracted by any visuals (on this note, some teachers will argue that
visuals will actually enhance understanding, not distract). One activity that you
can consider is to have the class listen to the taped presentation and fill in the
blanks in a given worksheet (assuming that you are using a poem that is not
prescribed in a textbook).
The fundamental principle that should be adhered to when using an audio

material is to ensure that it is loud enough for every student in the class to listen
to.
If there is a P.A. system in the resource centre, you may consider using it. Put
the microphone near the tape player so that the sound will be loud enough for
all in the room to hear. You must also remember that if you are to use the audio
material in the classroom, turning your tape player to the maximum may be a
distraction to students in the next class.
When using audio material, you should also consider songs that are widely
available on cassettes, CDs and videos. Generally, students love to listen to songs
and playing songs in the ESL class may break the monotony that is set by the
everyday practice of ELT teaching. For example, after presenting “If” by Rudyard
Kipling, you may consider using the song “Que Sera Sera” as one of your activities
for discussion. Students can compare and contrast the message that is presented
through the poem and through the song. Students listen to the song (the lyrics
may be given on a piece of paper). Teacher then asks questions based on the song.
The teacher then leads the class to discuss on the similarities and differences
between the lyrics of the song and the words of the poem.
While the poem allows for some decision to be made by a person by using the
conditional “if”, the song leaves one’s fate entirely to “chance” (“que sera sera,
whatever will be, will be”).
Songs can also be used effectively for teaching the mood or tone of a drama or
poem. Choose several songs to be played to the class after the reading of a poem
or a drama. Then, ask students to choose a song that best matches with the tone
or mood of the learned poem or drama.
For example, after presenting and studying Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare,

play the following songs (you do not have to play the full song, just parts of
them):
• “The Power of Love” by Celine Dion;
• “Staying Alive” by Bee Gees;
• “ Money, Money, Money” by Abba; and
• “Picture of You” by Boyzone.
Ask students to choose the best song that matches with the poem. More
importantly, ask students to give their reasons or rationale for their choice.
Another situation you can give is to tell the students that they are working on a
movie that is based on the poem. Ask the students to choose a song that can be
best used as a theme song for the movie. (Most likely, your students will either
choose “The Power of Love” or “Picture of You”).
To read more about using songs in the literature classroom, read the following
websites:
• http://www.njcu.edu/cill/vol2/kasper.html
• http://www.etni.org.il/music/judigranit.html
• http://www.artistsforliteracy.org/winners.html
For suggested activities and principles of using the audio material in the language
classroom, you can surf the following website:
http://www.idiotsguides.com/static/html/us/academic/teachersguides/
using_audio_to_teach.htm
activity 5.4
1. When choosing poems or dramas, the selection should be

representative. Briefly explain what this means.
2. Based on your answer to No. 3, how will you appropriate this
principle to the teaching of drama in the ESL class?
3. Suggest some extension activities that you can do in the teaching of
poetry and drama in the ESL class after the students have listened to
audio materials.

SUMMARY
• This topic discusses audio and visual materials in the teaching of drama and
poetry in an ESL classroom.
• The visual materials discussed are: (a) print materials, (b) photocopy
materials, (c) word cards or sentence strips, (d) pictorial materials, (e) posters
and pictures, and (f) videos.
• This topic also discusses factors to consider when choosing a text for a
lesson, including whether to use the original or abridged version and the
advantages and disadvantages if choosing either one.
• Audio materials include authentic recordings from students’ presentation of
poems and of course, songs.
Abridged Version Representattional Materials

Audio Materials Storyboard
Print Materials Visual Materials
Referential Materials

Topic  More
Activities
6 for the
Teaching of
Drama
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain the steps in using activities for the teaching of drama;
2. Construct ‘original’ activities for the teaching of drama; and
3. Give rationale for using particular activities for the teaching of drama.
XX INTRODUCTION
In the last few topics, we have looked into the principles of teaching poetry and
drama. In those few topics, some activities that you can consider using when
teaching poetry and drama in the ESL class have been suggested. This topic
attempts to look at the teaching of drama and its activities.
The teaching of drama in the ESL class is, unfortunately, not widely documented
in the Malaysian context. One possibility is that it is not commonly practiced
as teachers may feel that it is “a waste of time” since students do not learn
anything concrete from the activities. Subsequently, the teaching of drama in
the ESL context is degraded to the mere teaching of grammar and vocabulary,
and perhaps reading comprehension. However, another primary reason for the
lack of a widespread practice of drama activities in the ESL class is that teachers
themselves are ill-equipped, that is, they may not know what activities to do.
88  TOPIC 6 MORE ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF DRAMA
In light of the above, this topic aims to suggest some activities that can be
considered when teaching drama in class. These activities can also be considered
for incorporation into your lesson plan for the teaching of other teaching points.
The activities are divided into three categories:

• Warming up;
• While; and
• Post.
The “warming up” activities can be considered as activities for the introductory
or beginning of the lesson. The “while” activities are conducted during the lesson
proper, that is when the drama has already been presented to the students. The
“post” activities are activities that can be considered after you have taught the
lesson proper. This may be considered as ‘extension’ activities, as presented in
the previous topics. However, some activities for the “while” stage can also be
considered for the “post” stage.
6.1 ACTIVITIES FOR THE “PRE” STAGE –

WARMING-UP
Activities for warming-up are activities that help to “loosen up” the
students,especially for those who are “shy” and not willing to “open up” to
drama. However, it is not guaranteed that these suggested activities will work,
as our students come from varied backgrounds, expectations and attitudes. One
suggestion you could consider is that leading the students slowly into drama
instead of plunging them into activities that may further alienate them from
fulfilling the objectives of your lesson. Go slow, guide them gently, be kind and
compassionate. Most of all, be understanding. Do not set your expectations too
high. If you find that your students are slowly responding to your lesson, be
grateful and expect things to improve in the next lesson.
The next paragraphs will discuss several activities that perhaps could be
implemented in your classroom.
6.1.1 Moving Hands

In this first activity which can be called as “moving hands,” ask your students to
sit in groups (each group about 4 or 5). Each group is to elect a leader. Students
sit in a circle and they hold the hands of the person sitting beside them. Thus, the
students are linked to one another. Tell the leader of each group that he or she is
the ‘initiator’. The teacher plays a song and the leader is to move his or her hands

TOPIC 6 MORE ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF DRAMA t 89
(anyhow they like), which other members of the group will have to follow (since
they are holding the hands of one another). The teacher should play various types
of songs (fast, slow, rock, ballad, etc). The movement of the hands will depend on
the type of song played.
The purpose of this activity is to make the students aware of mood and setting.
After playing the songs, the teacher can perhaps read aloud the excerpt from a
drama. Choose an excerpt that allows for various types of tone and mood. As
you read aloud (with all the dramatic effects of stress, volume and tone), students
move their hands in accordance to your reading. After the activity, have your
students to briefly explain why they move at certain speeds (fast when the tone is
‘angry’ or slow when the tone is ‘sad’) at certain parts of your reading aloud.
6.1.2 (S)He Who Laughs First is Out

A game normally played by children, but it is a good game that can be used in
the teaching of drama. Ask students to sit in groups (or in pairs). The objective of
the game is to make the other person smile or laugh. No verbal jokes, only actions
are allowed (for example one member may make a monkey face). The first person
who smiles is out and the game continues until the last person remains.
This may be considered as an ice-breaking activity to break down the walls of

embarrassment or shyness. Consequently, once you have got your students to
“loosen up,” it is possible to conduct other activities smoothly or without much
coercion.
6.1.3 Imagined Objects

Students sit in a circle. Starting with the first person, the teacher calls out “cat.”
The person passes this imaginary cat to the next person. As the imagined object
is passed along round the group, the teacher changes the imagined object, for
example “snake,” “bomb” or “money.”
However, be aware of religiously sensitive objects. This is a good activity to lead

the students to show their facial expressions. After all, drama is an imagined
situation that is brought to life or “reality” by the actors and actresses who
perform with expressions.
6.1.4 Real Objects

Similar to the activity in 6.1.3, but in this case, real objects are used. If the real
objects are not available, get pictures of those objects. You may use objects that
are mentioned or implied in the drama that you are going to teach. For example,

if you are teaching Macbeth, you may want to consider objects that are related to
the royalty (such as crown), the army (sword) or the supernatural (a witch’s hat),
as shown in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: Using real objects to teach drama
Students sit in a circle. It can be the whole class but smaller groups would be
best, for example groups of 8. As the picture or object is passed around, students
show their expression. For example, a picture of a hat. When X receives the
object or picture, he or she will show an expression. X passes the hat to Y who
will then show an expression. Y then passes to the person beside and the activity
continues.
6.1.5 Roundabouts
This activity is taken from Maley and Duff Drama Techniques in Language Learning
(page 48). In small groups, of about 8 or 9, one person is chosen to stand in the
middle of the group. The group stands about 1 feet away from the person in the
middle. The person in the middle, with arms folded, falls in any direction. The
group then pushes him or her gently into any direction.
This activity is aimed at building “a strong sense of mutual confidence and

cooperation” (Maley and Duff, 1982) which subsequently leads to the building
of psychological trust, an important element in activities that involve creative
interactions.
6.1.6 Volleyball
Students in groups of 6 to 8 play an imaginary volleyball. As they imagine a
ball, they also do all the volleyball drills with the ball such as spiking, blocking,
digging and setting.

Instead of volleyball, you can also think of other games. Allow the students to
be imaginative. This kind of activity will allow the students to be creative, in
addition to building relationships with one another and paving the way for them
to be free from their inhibitions. Besides, vocabulary items (such as the volleyball
activity terms mentioned) can be taught.
activity 6.1
Suggest a variation for the activity “Volleyball” (6.1.6).
6.1.7 Imaginary Duel

Similar to the imaginary volleyball, students pretend they are duelling with one
another. Students can duel using imaginary swords, keris, machetes, Shaolin-
typed spears, etc.
Like the previous activities, this kind of activity allows for creative thinking, in
addition to tearing down walls of shyness and embarrassment.
6.1.8 Orchestra
Students again need to be creative in this activity. You can inform each group to
bring a cassette of any music that they like (preferably in English, since it is an
ESL class). Do not inform them what the music is for. When the students turn up
for class the following lesson with the music cassette, play the music and ask the
members of the group to imagine themselves as the musicians. They are to play
their imaginary musical instruments following the music that they listen to.
Vocabulary items can also be presented after this activity is done. For example,
one of the students may imitate playing the flute although he or she may not
know that the instrument is called a flute. Present to the class that the instrument
is called a flute.
6.1.9 Forming Objects

In groups of 8 or so, the group leader says a number. The members of the group,
individually form the number. After a few rounds, the leader can say out two-
digit numbers (such as 23 or 41) or three-digit numbers. A variation of this
activity is to form the letters of the English alphabet, followed by forming words.

As a follow-up activity, the group can also form animals such as a dinosaur or an
elephant. They could also mime the parts of a machine (for example a machine to
make pasta). The group leader then gives a verbal explanation of the functions of
each part of the machine. A variation of this activity is to form other objects such
as a musical instrument or gadgets (can opener, handphone, lights, radio, etc.).
6.1.10 Catwalk
In groups of 6–8, each group pretends that they are models. They are to do a
catwalk to show their ‘imaginary’ clothes. They then do their catwalk in pairs,
synchronising their walks.
Like previous activities, this activity allows for creativity and cooperation.
This can then be followed by an oral activity. A group member will act as the
‘announcer’ who announces the models for the catwalk and describes the
imaginary clothes.
6.1.11 Guess the Leader

A student is chosen to guess the leader. The student is asked to wait outside the
class. The rest of the class sits in a circle so that they can see one another. One
student is chosen to be the leader. Cue cards are given to this leader who then
mimes the character or action written on the cards. The rest of the students follow
the actions of this prompter. The student outside the class is then asked to come
in and sees the mime that is going on. The leader has to change his actions every
15-20 seconds for the others to follow. This will allow the student “guesser” a
chance to find out who the leader is.
When preparing the cue cards, it is best to write characters or actions that the
students will read about in the drama that is taught. For example, for Macbeth,
it may be “a witch,” “a king,” “sleep walking,” “killing with a dagger” and “a
horse.”
activity 6.2
1. Suggest some words that you can use from the play “Trifles.” How
big do you think the cue cards should be? What is your reason for
suggesting the size?
2. 1. What is the role of drama activities in the introductory part of the
drama lesson in the ESL context?

6.2 ACTIVITIES FOR THE “WHILE” STAGE

What types of activities do you think should be conducted during the “while”
stage? What is the purpose of conducting such activities at this stage of the
lesson?
In the ‘while’ stage, the drama would have been presented to the students. This
means that at this stage, students would have more or less known the plot, theme
or setting of the drama. Thus, at this stage, drama activities are conducted not for
the sake of drama per se but for the presentation or practice of certain teaching
points, such as an activity to practice or present vocabulary or to practice
a language skill. This means that drama activities at this stage function as
complementary activities to the primary activities of listening, speaking, writing
and reading. These activities, with some variations, can also be considered for the
‘post’ stage.
6.2.1 Exchanging Objects

This activity requires students to describe an object without using any verbal
cues. Prepare cue cards which contain names of objects or animals (such as a
chair, pencil, fan, eagle or lion). Choose objects or animals that occur in the drama
that you are teaching. For example, if you are teaching Macbeth, you may want
to write “eagles,” “lion” (Act I, Scene II) or “flower” (Act I, Scene V). A student is
given this cue card and he or she is to describe the object using his or her hands
and facial expressions. Words are not to be used. After a time limit (for example,
after one minute), the person “gives” the object to any person in class who will
then guess what the object is. The person who receives the object will now have
to verbally describe the object as well as give the Act and Scene in which the
object is mentioned.
activity 6.3
Discuss with your friends about the possible benefits of the activity
“Exchanging Objects”.

6.2.2 New Dialogues

In this activity, students act on an impromptu basis. Students pick out certain
parts from the learned drama text. They read those parts aloud. Other students
(who do not know beforehand which part of the text the parts are taken from),
listen and mime the dialogue. A variation to this activity is for the students who
pick out the parts of the dialogue from the drama and make variations to the
dialogue. They read aloud the newly structured dialogue and concurrently, the
other students listen and mime the dialogue.
6.2.3 Other Possible Things

In this activity, students practice on vocabulary and speaking skills. Similar to the
activity in 6.2.1, students are given cue cards with names of objects (objects only,
no animals). For example “sword” or “gun.” Students think of other possibilities
(can be ‘silly’ possibilities) that one can use the object for. They mime and orally
describe the other possibilities. For example for the object “sword”, one possibility
is that it can be used to cut a piece of “roti canai”. Students mime making the “roti
canai” and using the sword to cut it into pieces.
6.2.4 Guessing the Character

Students are given cue cards with names of characters from the drama that
they have learned. They mime out the characters and other students guess
the characters. For example, if a student gets the card with “witch” and “Lady
Macbeth” written on it, he or she mimes a witch and Lady Macbeth. Other
students then guess the characters that are mimed.
This activity allows students to read the drama carefully as they need to know
who the characters really are in order for them to correctly mime out the
characters. It also makes the students read the drama thoroughly so that they will
know more about the characters.
6.2.5 Guessing the Costume

Characters in the drama piece that you are teaching may be presented as wearing
a particular type of costume. Students who receive the cue card with the name
of a character have to describe the costume in a non-verbal manner, using his
or her hands only. The other students in the group or class have to guess the
character. A variation to this is instead of naming the character, they read out a
line from the drama which belongs to the character. For example, a king wears a
crown, robes and has a sword while a witch has ragged clothes and a pointed hat
(stereotypical characteristics).
6.2.6 Paired Lines

The teacher takes lines from the taught drama and writes them on a piece of
paper. The paper is then cut into two, dividing the line into two distinct parts. One
part is given to one student; another part is given to another student. Similarly,
other students are given other lines. One student is asked to mime out the lines
given (NOT read the part aloud, but to mime it), other students look and guess the
mimed line. They do not guess by speaking out their lines, but miming them.
Here is an example taken from Macbeth, Act II, Scene II.
Student A receives a paper that reads as follows: “Whence is that knocking? How
is’t with me when every noise appals me?”
Student B receives a paper that reads “What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine
eyes.”
Student C has a paper with the line “Hark! more knocking.”
Student D has a paper that reads “Get on your nightgown, lest occasion calls us”
Student A mimes out the lines “Whence is that knocking? How is’t with me when
every noise appals me?” Other students watch and if they think they have the
line that continues after the line that was mimed, they come up and mime the
continuation.
For example, if student B believes that he/she has the line that follows after the
line which A has, Student B mimes out his/her part (“What hands are here? Ha!
they pluck out mine eyes”). If he/she is wrong, his/her line is given to another
student and the game continues.
This activity coerces the students to memorise the lines of the drama. It also
allows for the creativity powers within the students to be channelled to miming
the lines. Obviously, this activity will not work if the teacher picks the lines from
various parts of the drama. It will be unfair for the students to know exactly
which part of the drama the lines are taken from. It is best done when students
have done 3 to 4 pages of the drama so that their memories can contain or
remember the part of the drama in which the lines are taken from.
So that students can familiarise themselves with the way this activity is to
be carried out, you can try using sentences which are not from the drama, for
example “There’s a cow in the fridge” and “A cow? How stupid!” One student
receives a card that says “There’s a cow in the fridge.” Another student has the
latter sentence. The student with the first sentence then mimes out the given part
of the drama.
6.2.7 Completing the Set

This activity may require some preparation before the class. Assuming that
you are teaching Macbeth. List out some characters that you want to use in the
activity, for example, Duncan, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and a Witch. Then, list
out items that are related to each of these characters. So for Duncan, it may be
a sword, a crown and a horse; for Lady Macbeth, it may be a dress, a letter (see
Act I, Scene V) and daggers. Write each item on a card. Distribute these cards
to all the students in the class. Each student is to go round the class to look for
the complete set for each character (for example, sword, crown and horse for
Duncan). The students are NOT to show their cards or say out their items. They
are to mime or use their hands to describe the object.
A variation to this activity is that instead of just objects, you can list out
personalities and actions as well (for example, guilt for Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth; sleep walking for Lady Macbeth). Like previous activities, this activity
encourages the students to probe deeper into the characterisation of each
character in a drama. The activity can be made difficult by having objects that
overlap characters, for example, daggers for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, but
what differentiates these two characters is “sleepwalking.”
A more difficult variation can be done if students have done more than one play
(the more plays, the better). Instead of objects or personalities, each student has
a card that describes a part of a plot or setting from a drama. They are to act out
these plots or settings to find matching sets. For example, assuming your students
have done Macbeth and Trifles, the following cards can be prepared:
Card A: Lady Macbeth sleepwalking.

Card B: Macbeth in deep remorse after killing Duncan.
Card C: Woman discovering a dead bird in a box.
Card D: Man walking down a stairs, sees someone and laughs (as in “Trifles”
when the men walk down the stairs and into the kitchen).
A student gets one of the cards mentioned and keeps miming the descriptions
given in the card while going round the class looking for the complete set. Once
a complete set has been found, each of them mimes in order of the structure of
the plot (for example, student with Card B mimes first, followed by student with
Card A).
6.2.8 Different Situations (1)

Students write out imaginary situations that did NOT happen from a drama. The
following are examples based on Macbeth:

(a) The murdered king, Duncan, haunts Lady Macbeth.

(b) Macbeth pleads to Macbeth not to kill Duncan.
(c) Macbeth gets angry at the witches and kills them.
The situations are written on cards which are then distributed to the students.
The students who receive a card act out the situation. Other students watch and
orally describe the situation that is mimed. This activity can be followed up by
comprehension questions such as “What actually happened?” For example, with
reference to situation (c), the teacher can ask questions such as “How did Macbeth
react when the witches predicted his future?” and “What do you think will happen if
Macbeth had killed the witches?”
6.2.9 Different Situations (2)

This is another activity in which students are required to mime in different
situations. Write the following sentences on the blackboard:
I am afraid to think what I have done.
(Note: The sentence is taken from Macbeth, Act II, Scene II). Write the following
situations on cards:
• Say the sentence in a humorous manner.
• Say the sentence in a sad manner.
• Say the sentence with a heavy heart.
• Say the sentence in a mocking manner.
The cards are then rolled and put in a box. The box is passed round the class.
Each student takes out a rolled card and reads the situation. They then mime the
situation, saying the sentence in the manner that is written on the card.
The activity allows the students to get used to different ways of saying things
in varied situations. The students will also get to know that sentences spoken in
different tone, volume, and stress convey different moods. If the student is not
able to say the sentence in the manner that is required by the card, pass the card
to another student who will then attempt to speak in the correct manner. The
teacher will be the role model if none of the students get to speak correctly.

6.2.10 Interpretation from Inkblots

A series of inkblots are prepared. Instead of ink, you can also use paint. What
you need to do is to put ink or paint on one side of a piece of paper. Fold that
paper into half so that the ink or paint stains the other half of the paper. Fold it
open and what you will see is a symmetrical image made from ink or paint. Make
several pieces of these inkblots.
Students sit in groups and each group is given several pieces of the inkblot.
Students are to interpret the inkblots and come up with a story. The group then
dramatises the story.
A variation of this activity is after teaching a part of the drama, students interpret
the inkblot in light of the characters from the drama. For example, students may
interpret an inkblot as follows: “This inkblot looks like two witches holding hands
together. They look evil because of these horns that grow out from their heads.” Students
then mime the two witches.
This activity allows students to utilise their creativity when they interpret the
inkblot. Speaking skill is also practiced when a student gives the interpretation
orally. However, instead of an oral interpretation, students can also do a written
interpretation to practice their writing skills.
6.2.11 Pass the Message

In this activity, students practice their writing and speaking skills. Students sit
in groups. Two persons, the “performers” are chosen to dramatise or mime a
particular situation taken from the learned drama. They stand outside the class.
Another person from the group is chosen to function as the “messenger.” The
“messenger” goes out of the class to meet the “performers” who dramatise or
mime the situation given to them. No dialogue is spoken. The messenger does
not know beforehand the situation that will be presented to him or her. Thus, the
messenger has to only rely on the dramatisation of the performers.
The messenger goes back to his group and relates what he thinks he saw. The
other members of the group, the “writers,” may ask questions if necessary. The
“writers” write what they gathered from the “messenger” on a transparency.
After the activity, the transparency is shown and the teacher corrects any
grammatical mistakes.
To follow up on the activity, the teacher could give the corrected version to
another group, who will then choose two persons to dramatise or mime the
situation that is given. The teacher could also consider having both pairs of
performers (the performers from the first group and the performers from this

latter group) present their dramatisation and the rest of the class chooses the pair
that performs the better.
6.2.12 Musical Box

This idea is taken from the musical chair party game. A box is circulated round
the class. The box contains layers of newspaper covering. On each layer is a piece
of paper that contains a few lines taken from the drama learned. The teacher
plays some music while the box is passed around. The teacher stops the music
and the person holding the box has to read aloud the dialogue that is pasted on
the layer of newspaper. The person has to read the lines with full expressions.
The activity continues and the next person who gets the box tears off the previous
layer and reads aloud the new dialogue.
This activity practices reading aloud as well as reading with the proper
intonation, stress and volume. They have to show matching facial expressions
when they read the dialogues.
The activity can be done after the teacher has taught a particular Act (for example
Act 1 of Macbeth). If so, the dialogues on the newspaper coverings should only
be taken from Act 1. Subsequently, the students will be able to better understand
and remember the dialogues that are spoken in the drama. The music that is used
in this activity should be appropriate, that is it matches the mood of the learned
drama.
activity 6.4
Consider a variationCONTENT
INSERT ACTIVITY for any of the activity mentioned which you can use
to teach your students. Then, share your idea with your cousemates.
6.3 ACTIVITIES FOR THE “POST” STAGE

By the ‘“post” stage, students should have already finished reading the whole
drama. What do you think would be the appropriate activities here? What sort of
information do you want to elicit from your students’ learning experience?
The following activities are conducted with the assumption that students have
already finished reading the whole drama. These activities can also be considered
after the teacher has done the main teaching points of the lesson. The important
point to remember is that these activities utilise language skills and language

points. Drama is a means of using the language points and skills to communicate
ideas and messages. Figure 6.2 shows some of the suggested activities for the
“post” stage.
Figure 6.2: Activities for the “post” stage
6.3.1 Chain Story

After having finished reading the drama, students are expected to know the
plot of the drama. One activity of consolidating the understanding of the plot
is through this activity. Write out the plot of the drama that you have taught.
Each sentence is written on a separate slip of paper. The slips of paper are then
given to students. They are to mime the sentence that they received (without any
dialogues, although you can have a variation of this activity in which students
construct their own dialogue). After watching every student mime their parts,
they decide on the order of the mimes. They then mime again, this time in order
of the plot. A follow-up activity to this is to have the students write out the plot.
6.3.2 Entering Heaven

Students sit in their respective groups. Each group is to think of one character.
The character is at heaven’s gates. They can only enter heaven if they show the
doorkeeper the “good things” that they have done. They are to mime those good
deeds. The “good deeds” can be their own creativity but they have to be based
on the drama that they have learned. For example, for Lady Macbeth, a possible
“good deed” (although she is characterised as an evil, manipulative woman) is
that she supported her husband. Thus, the group members are to perform the
support that is shown to Macbeth (such as Macbeth doubting if he should carry
on with his plan and Lady Macbeth encouraging him).

The main disadvantage of this activity is that some students may not share the
belief in “entering heaven” through good deeds. Another disadvantage is that
students are asked to “subvert” clearly evil, immoral deeds that are presented in
the drama as “good deeds.” To overcome these, instead of entering heaven, you
can set a situation in which students are to mime something so that they can enter
a prestigious club. The mime may not necessary be based on a “good deed”, but
on other possible situations such as a feeling or emotion.
6.3.3 Which Part of the Drama Is It?

Students sit in their respective groups. Each group writes out part of a dialogue
(of about 15 lines or so) taken from any Act in the drama that is taught to them.
The dialogues are then given to other groups. This means that each group will
get dialogues that are written by other groups.
The groups now have to determine which part of the drama the dialogue is taken
from. They have a time limit to do so, for example, about 30 seconds. Within
this short period of time, they also have to decide who is going to act out the
dialogue. Through this activity, the students practice reading parts of the drama
with the appropriate expressions. This activity also encourages the student to
remember the parts of the drama better.
Variations to this game can be done. In one variation, the group that writes out
the dialogue is asked to paraphrase the dialogue. This means the group does not
copy the dialogue directly from the drama, but it paraphrases the dialogue, using
conventional language. Subsequently, the group practices reading and writing
skills. The group that gets the dialogue may experience some difficulties as they
have to read the paraphrased dialogue and make interpretations as to which
part of the drama the dialogue is taken from. However, it may be perceived as a
challenging activity especially for students of a higher language level.
Another variation is to have the first group (that writes the dialogue) to write the
dialogue continuously on a piece of paper, without any breaks or punctuations.
The second group that receives the dialogue will then have to decipher the
dialogue, putting the lines in proper groupings (i.e. which character speaks which
line). They then dramatise the dialogues.
6.3.4 Storytelling with Objects

Students sit in their respective groups. Students of each group are to put into
an envelope one object each such as a coin, an eraser, pencil and a pen. This
envelope (which contains the objects) is given to another group. Thus, each group
receives an envelope from another group.

The group now opens the envelope and looks through the objects that they
receive. The teacher now gives each group a part from the drama that they have
learned. The teacher need not have to give the dialogue but only which part of
the drama (such as “Act 1, Scene 1 of Macbeth” or “towards the end of Trifles when
the men walk down the stairs”). Using the objects, the students of each group act
out the part of the drama given to them. They are allowed to change the drama
if they wish. For example, if the group has an eraser, pencils and coins and they
are to act out Act 1 Scene III of Macbeth, the students acting as witches can use
the pencils as their magic wands, the eraser is their crystal ball in which they see
Macbeth’s future.
Interpretation and creativity is important in drama. In this activity, students

come up with their own dialogues which are the results of the groups’ discussion
and creative powers. Many dramas today are actually adaptations from classic
dramas. In this activity, students use their creativity to adapt the part of the
drama that they are asked to dramatise. They write their own dialogues and
come up with their own parts.
activity 6.5
1. Briefly explain one factor to consider when planning drama

activities in the class.
2. Briefly describe an activity that can be done after the full drama
piece has been taught.
SUMMARY
• This topic discusses some drama activities that can be implemented in the
‘pre’, the ‘while’ and the ‘post’ stage of a drama lesson.
• There are eleven activities mentioned for the pre-stage of the lesson, twelve
activities for the while-stage and four activities for the post-stage.
• Even though the activities are designed for the particular stage, teachers
can use own creativity and innovation to use one activity from one stage in
another stage.

Cue Cards Storytelling

Impromptu

Topic  More
Activities
7 For The
Teaching of
Poetry
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Describe some activities for the teaching of poetry in the ESL class;
2. Explain the rationale for the activities for the teaching of poetry; and
3. Describe variations for the activities discussed.
XX INTRODUCTION
In the previous topic (Topic 6), we have looked at some suggested activities that
can be considered when teaching drama in the ESL class. Those activities can
be adapted for the teaching of poetry. In this topic, we will look at some other
activities that you can consider for the teaching of poetry in the ESL context. We
will focus especially on the poems that are taught in the Literature in English
component for the lower and upper secondary schools. We will also look at
selected poems that are used in the SPM and STPM English Literature paper.
This topic is organised into several sections. The first section looks at ways of
preparing our students for poetry. Next, suggested activities for working into the
poem, followed by activities for working out from the poem will be discussed.
This topic will have its miscellaneous sections in which there are suggested
activities for the practice of language skills and language points.
TOPIC 7 MORE ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF POETRY t 105
(Note: Also refer to the HBET3703 module, Teaching of Literature in an ESL Context,
pages 59 61, for the task specifications set out by the Ministry of Education,
Malaysia, when teaching students literary texts. Many of the activities suggested
here are adapted from The Inward Ear: Poetry in the Language Classroom by Alan
Maley and Alan Duff, published by Cambridge University Press in 1989. If you
wish, you may get the book for your own reference).
7.1 Preparing Students For Poetry

You may wish to prepare your students so that they will have high receptivity
for the learning of poetry. One may sigh or complain as he or she has to rush
through to complete the syllabus and may not have the time to prepare the
students for poetry. However, it does not take one full month to prepare them as
it may only take one lesson or so. In addition, language skills (reading, writing,
listening and speaking) and language points (grammar, vocabulary, etc) are also
presented to the students. So students are learning something in this preparatory
stage.
7.1.1 Using Stimuli
There are various stimuli that you can use in class to get students to think
creatively. This is an important element in understanding poetry because the
language of poetry usually demands the reader to think not just at the superficial
level, but to probe deeper and think creatively, looking at the poem from various
angles. For our students to have these creative thinking skills, teachers need to
train them, and make them aware of the various possible interpretations that one
can make in response to a stimulus.
Visual stimulus such as pictures, videos, posters and drawings will be first
discussed. Use a picture that suggests a theme instead of one that explicitly
presents the poem. For example, when teaching A. Samad Said’s “The Dead
Crow,” instead of showing a picture of a crow, you may use pictures of other
dead animals, a picture of a dirty or clogged up drain or a picture of a jungle that
has been cleared (You can also show clips of video that present the clearing of a
jungle. You can use National Geographic documentaries or show a scene from “The
Lord of The Rings The Two Towers” in which Sauron’s armies were cutting down
trees and clearing part of the forest. Also show the later part when the “walking
tree” goes towards Sauron’s tower and discovers many of his “friends,” the trees,
have been cut down).
After presenting the visual stimuli, ask students to brainstorm or write out all the
ideas related to the stimuli. This can be done in groups. They gather their ideas
and the group leader presents a summary of the group’s ideas. The students then
have to think of a title for the ideas they have presented.
106  TOPIC 7 MORE ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF POETRY
Instead of ideas, you may consider asking your students to think of adjectives
to describe the picture or adjectives that describe the feeling that one has when
looking at the picture.
Another variation to this activity is to ask students to think of childhood

memories that may be triggered by the stimuli. They tell those memories to their
group members or to the class.
Asking students to give their personal reaction to sound (such as music) can also
be considered. Play several pieces of different genres of music (rock, pop, classical,
country, etc.) and ask students to describe their feeling, memories or ideas that are
triggered by these songs.
Alternatively, instead of music, play sounds of objects or actions. For example,

you can tape record a person typing on a computer keyboard, a person turning
the pages of a newspaper, opening a drawer, cutting potatoes or some fruits and
opening a can. Ask students to guess what the sounds are and what feelings or
memories emerge in their minds when they listen to the sounds.
Another variation is to play the first few parts of an advertisement or programme.

Ask students to guess from which advertisement the music is taken from and
what their ideas or feelings are when they listen to the music.
The ideas or responses generated from the students can be divided into two
categories. On the blackboard, draw a line to indicate two columns. One column
is for positive responses and the other for negative responses. Ask students to
categorise their responses into these two categories (another possible category is
‘favourite’ and ‘least favourite’).
Other possible stimuli for the suggested activity are touch and smell. For touch,
have several objects (make sure they are NOT sharp objects) put into a plastic
bag. The students touch the objects without looking at them. They guess the
objects and give their responses about the objects.
self-check 7.1
1. Give two examples of visual stimuli.

2. Suggest one difficulty when planning to use the video in the
poetry class.
3. Suggest one way to overcome the difficulty that you gave for
Question 2.

7.1.2 Life Line
One of the major complaints about the prescribed poems for the lower and upper
secondary school English syllabus is that the poems chosen are too difficult
and that students are not able to match their experience with that of the poem.
For example, students may not have the adequate experience to respond to
Shakespeare’s “Life’s Brief Candle” and “Sonnet 18”. In light of this, the teacher has
to carry the burden of bringing the students to some awareness of life and the
experiences of life.
Let us take “Life’s Brief Candle” as an example. To prepare students for the
poem, you can consider showing pictures of accidents (which you can get from
newspapers). Ask students questions that are related to the accidents, such
as “How do you think the accident happened?” “Who were involved in the accident?”
and “How old do you think the victims were?” Use the news article related to these
accidents (it may be better to choose articles about young accident victims) and
ask questions based on the news articles. Ask your students to think about life
and death, how death can happen to anyone, young and old. Ask your students
to define “life.” This need not lead to a philosophical discussion. Tell your
students that simple one-word answers are acceptable, such as “football” (“Life
is playing football”) or “food” (“Life is eating the best food”). Write out all their
responses on the board.
(Note: Instead of a picture, you can also consider using the news article).
You can also try asking your students to draw a “life line” of themselves, such as
the one shown in Figure 7.1.
Figure 7.1: Life line

On the life line, they write the important events that they have been through and
the important events that they predict will happen. For more advanced students,
ask them to elaborate on the life line (i.e. not as simple as illustrated in Figure 7.1).
For further practice, you can ask students to use a red pen to draw a vertical line
at any part of the life line. Tell the students that this red line represents death. Ask
students to give their responses with regard to this. Ask questions such as “How
would you feel if you know that you are going to die at a certain point in your life?” Tell
students that they are going to argue with “Death” to allow them to live longer.
Ask students to list out their arguments for wanting to do so.
Obviously, the main disadvantage of the mentioned activity is that many Asian
students may tend to be superstitious when dealing with the subject of death. For
some students, discussing death may mean that it will turn to reality, and that
they will die sooner than expected. Tread carefully when doing the activity. If
you find some students getting agitated or uncomfortable, do not proceed and go
on to the next part of your lesson.
7.1.3 Using Other Poems

Do not confine yourselves to the poems prescribed by the Ministry. You can also
consider other poems, perhaps easier ones that can lead to discussions about the
main theme that emerges in the prescribed poem. For example, for “Sonnet 18”,
you can consider using the following poems to introduce the theme of love.
Alas, I thought I knew so much

Of love, and yet I know so little!
For I cannot stop myself loving her
From whom I shall never have joy.
My whole heart, and all of me from myself
She has taken, and her own self,
and all the world,
For when she took herself from me,
she left me nothing
But desire and a yearning heart.
Figure 7.2: Poem by Bernard de Ventadour

Another poem is by Robert Burns and Figure 7.3 shows the first stanza of the
poem.
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
Figure 7.3: Poem by Robert Burns
Another possible poem to introduce the theme of love is “To Friends at Home” by
Robert Louis Stevenson, as shown in Figure 7.4.
To Friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost,

The gracious old, the lovely young, to May,
The fair December the beloved
These from my blue horizon and gree isles,
These from this pinnacle of distances I
The Unforgetful, dedicate.
Figure 7.4: “To Friends at Home”
Here is another poem that you can use, entitled “I Love You Not” by Bruce Lansky.

I love you I love you,

I love you so well,
if I had a skunk
I would give you a smell.
If I were a dog
I would give you a bite.
If I were a witch
I would give you a fright.
If I were a bathtub
I’d give you a splash.
If I were a fungus
I’d give you a rash.
I love you so much
that I won’t tell a lie,
I promise we’ll marry
the day that I die.
Figure 7.5: “I Love You Not”
Many of the poems are long (longer than the poem that you intend to teach).
What you can do is to take an extract from the poem to show the theme of love
(for example, the poem by Robert Burns that I gave in Figure 7.3 has four stanzas.
I only quoted the first stanza).
If you are teaching “Life’s Brief Candle”, you may want to start off with some
poetry about death. Figure 7.6 is one such poetry but it is humourous in tone and
mood. Before you proceed with the activity, you need to explain to your students
what an epitaph is. After explaining the word, give your students the poem for
them to fill in the blanks.

Here lies Sam Shay.

Smoked six packs a day.
He started smoking when he was one.
Now he’s one dead son-of-a- .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was two.
Now there’s nothing he can .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was three.
Now he’s buried beneath a .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was four.
Now he’s knocking on heaven’s .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was five.
Now the poor guy ain’t .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was six.
Now he’s got a problem we can’t .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was seven.
Now we hope he’s gone to .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was eight.
Now he he doesn’t look too .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was nine.
Now he isn’t feeling .
Here lies Sam Shay.
He started smoking when he was ten.
Now, he’ll never smoke .
Figure 7.6: Poem on death

(Note: The poem in Figure 7.6 is taken from http://www.poetryteachers.com/

poetryfun/fillinblank/ smokers.html).
After students have filled in the blanks, select a few students to read out their
work. Next, discuss “death” and slowly bring in “Life’s Brief Candle.”
7.1.4 Questionnaire
Construct a questionnaire related to a particular theme of a poem. For example, if
you are teaching “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, you can give the following
questions related to making choices in life:
1. What do you plan to do after your studies?

A. Work
B. Continue studying
C. Don’t know
2. When do you plan to get married?

A. Before 30 years old
B. Before 40 years old
C. After 40 years old
D. Not planning to get married
E. Don’t know
3. When to you plan to get your first car?

A. Not getting a car
B. Before 30 years old
C. After 30 years old
D. Don’t know
Construct about 10 questions or so. Each question has the option “Don’t know.” If
Students continuously put “don’t know,” use this as a springboard for further
discussion. Discuss if it is important to have some objectives in live. The
discussion can be done in groups. After the group discussion, have the leader of
each group to present a summary of their discussion.

Leaving students to discuss by themselves may be problematic for some. This is

because students may tend to discuss other things other than what the teacher
wants them to discuss. Come up with a worksheet with points for discussion,
such as the following:
1. How many of you plan to work after you have finished studying in school?
2. How many of you plan to continue studying?
3. How many of you don’t know what to do?
4. Give three reasons for each of the above.
5. How many of you do not plan to get married? Give two reasons.
[…]
After the discussion, teacher summarises the main points. Next, introduce
the poem by Robert Frost and proceed to the next stage, which is bringing the
students into the poem. Now, let’s discuss some of the activities that teachers can
consider when working into a poem.
7.2 WORKING INTO THE POEM

Working into a poem does not necessarily mean only reading a poem. It
implies that the teacher brings the students to work with the poem by using
it. Consequently, the activities draw the attention of the students on to the
language used in the poem in addition to the ideas or contents of the poem. The
fundamental aim is to have the students comprehend and interpret the poem.
Thus, many of the activities involve comprehension.
Some of the activities that have been suggested in the previous topic can also be
used to lead students to work into the poem. Some of the activities mentioned
here may have already been mentioned in the previous topics but the difference
is that in this topic, further explanation and suggested work for the students are
given. Moreover, the poems that are taught in the lower and secondary schools
will be used.
7.2.1 The Best Choice

Assuming that you are going to teach “Monsoon History” to Form 5 students.
Before reading the poem (in all probability, the students may not have read the
poem yet, and even with some did, they may not have memorised it), give the
following worksheet. Students are to choose the best answer from the options
given in the brackets.

Worksheet
The air is wet, soaks

Into (mattresses, pillows, blankets), and curls
In apparitions of smoke.
Like fat white slugs furled
Among the (timber, planks, wood),
Of silver fish tunnelling
The (wet, damp, soaked) linen covers
Of schoolbooks, or walking
Quietly like (snakes, centipedes, cats),
The air walking everywhere
On its hundred feet
Is filled with the glare
Of tropical (rain, lightning, water).
Again we are taken over

By (clouds, rains, wind) and rolling darkness.
Small snails appear
Clashing their (strong, timid, courageous) horns
Among the morning glory
(flowers, leaves, vines).
Drinking milo,
Nyonya and baba sit at home.
This was forty years ago.
Sarong-wrapped they counted
Silver paper for the (family, dead, friends).
Portraits of grandfathers
Hung always in the parlour.
Reading Tennyson, at six

p.m. in pajamas,
Listening to down-pouring
rain: the air ticks
With gnats, black spiders fly,
Moths sweep out of our rooms
Where (termites, ants, cockroaches) built
Their hills of eggs and queens zoom
In heat. We wash our (hands, feet, face)
For bed, watch mother uncoil
Her snake hair, unbuckle
The silver mesh around her waist,
Waiting for father pacing
The sand as fishers pull
From the Straits after (the rain, monsoon, the downpour).
The air is still, silent

Like sleepers rocked in the pantun,
Sheltered by Malacca.
This was forty years ago,
When nyonya married baba.
Figure 7.7: Worksheet for “The Best Choice” activity

Next, ask selected students to read their poems. Ask students to think about the
choices made. Why, for example, did they choose “mattresses” and not “pillows”
or “blankets”?
7.2.2 Completing the Piece

A variation to the activity in Figure 7.7 is to give the poem in incomplete phrases.
For example, if you are going to teach “There’s Been a Death in the Opposite House”
by Emily Dickinson, you can give the following worksheet as shown in Figure 7.8.
Worksheet
There’s Been A Death in the Opposite House
There’s been a death in the opposite house

As lately as today.
I know it by the numb look
Such houses have always.
The neighbors ___________________,

The doctor ________________
A window opens like ______________,
Abrupt, __________________;
Somebody flings a _________________,—

The children_________________;
They wonder if It ___________________,—
I used to when _______________.
The minister goes ________________

As if _____________________,
And he owned all ________________,
And little _________________;
And then the millner, and __________

Of the ___________________,
To take the measure of the ________.
There’ll be that ____________
Of tassels and of coaches soon;

It’s easy as a sign, —
The intuition of the news
In just a country town.
Figure 7.8: Worksheet for “Incomplete Phrases” activity

Similar to the activity in 7.2.1, ask students to read out their poems. Ask students
to give reasons for their choices. This activity in which students do sentence
building is valuable for students in trying out words for acceptability. It also
leads students to “useful interaction centring on the meaning” of the poem (Maley
and Duff, 1989: 43).
7.2.3 Using the Video

Using the video is also another way of getting the students to work into the poem.
The following activity is adapted from Maley and Duff (1989), pages 45-46.
Play the video right through without a break. After viewing the tape, students (in
pairs or in groups) try to recall as accurately as possible and list out the order of
the images. If there are images that they are not able to recall, they can list them
as “gaps.” Next, the video is played again for a second viewing. Students make
any corrections to their lists.
The poem is then given to the students. Students match the parts of the poem to
the images that they have listed. Finally, they share their answers with the class.
The activity mentioned allows for discussion when the students are in their
groups. Discussions need not necessarily mean analysing the poem, as
exemplified by the activity mentioned. In addition, presenting the video may
make it possible for students to discuss ideas or contents which may not emerge
if they were to only read the poem.
The problem is to decide the kind of video to match the poem that we are going
to teach. You may tape certain programmes such as The National Geographic (if
the programme is about nature or pollution) if you are teaching “The Dead Crow”
or “The Lake Isles of Innisfree”. If you are teaching “Life’s Brief Candle”, you can
consider clips of videos from movies which show people getting shot or killed
(war movies, police stories, etc).
activity 7.1
Suggest a video to be used for this activity if you were to teach “Sonnet
18” by William Shakespeare.

7.2.4 Line by Line
Write the first line of the poem that you are going to teach on the board. Ask Wh-
questions based on this first line. For example, if you are teaching “The Lake Isles
of Innisfree”, ask questions such as “Where do you think the persona wants to go to?”
or “Why do you think he wants to go to that place?”
Then, write the second line and follow the same procedure of asking Wh-
questions. Repeat with subsequent lines.
This activity helps students to focus on specific meanings, to predict answers or

to anticipate. A variation of this activity is to work starting from the last line of
the poem and working backwards towards the beginning.
Another variation is instead of giving the subsequent lines and asking Wh-
questions, write the title of the poem and the first line and ask students to guess
what the second line is. After listening to various suggestions, write the second
line and ask students to guess the third line. Follow the procedure until the whole
poem has been written out.
7.3 WORKING OUT FROM THE POEM

Some extension activities that you can consider doing are suggested in Topic 1.
These activities allow students to work from the poem, which is to relate their
personal experiences and tie these experiences to the learned poem. This section
discusses some other similar activities that can be considered so as to lead our
students to relate what they know to what they have read.
7.3.1 Be the Judge/Critic

Your students may have probably watched Malaysian Idol or Akademi Fantasia.
Tell your students that they are to take on the role of judges or critics as shown
in the two talent shows. Instead of judging singers, they are to judge the best
poem. Thus, this activity can be done after you have gone through all the
poems prescribed by the Ministry. Ask students to come up with criteria for
their critique. Students are also to give rationale for their answers or choosing a
particular poem as the best.

7.3.2 Interview
Students sit in groups. Ask students to role-play an interview based on the theme
or content of the learned poem. For example, if the poem is “There’s Been A Death
in the Opposite House”, ask students to take the role of the next-door neighbours,
the children, etc. and have one student as the interviewer. Present the interview
to the rest of the class. If the poem is “Si Tenggang’s Homecoming”, have students
take the role of Si Tenggang, Si Tenggang’s wife, family members, friends etc.
7.3.3 Drama
You can also consider dramatising a poem. However, instead of dramatising a
poem, you can also consider using the theme of the poem and coming up with
a short sketch or play. For example, if the poem is by Emily Dickinson, have
students come up with a short play about neighbours looking outside a window
and wondering aloud what had happened and describing what they saw. If the
poem is about preserving nature as in “The Dead Crow”, have students to come up
with a short sketch about taking care of nature.
7.4 MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

Miscellaneous activities can also be used to teach poetry. Some of them are
discussed below.
(i) (a) Students are divided into two broad groups. One group is asked to list
down as many nouns as possible. Students list out individually. In the
other group, students, also individually, list down as many adjectives
as possible. Give a time frame, for example, 30 seconds. When the time
is up, pair one student from one group with another student from the
other group. This means that for each pair, there will be one student
with a list of adjectives, and the other student with a list of nouns.
(b) Using the list of adjectives and nouns, ask students to write out a short
article or a poem based on the theme of the learned poem. If it is a
poem, ask them to write out one stanza and following this, put one pair
with another pair to form a group of 4 students. Follow the procedure
and ask the new group (of 4 students) to come up with the second
stanza (using the list of adjectives and nouns that they have come up
with).
(ii) Students sit in their groups. Each group is given one adjective that describes
a mood, for example, angry, cynical, anxious, suspicious, happy, depressed,
etc. Explain the meaning of the words if necessary and provide examples.

The groups then discuss and decide on how best to interpret the chosen
poem (the poem that you are teaching or have taught) so as to convey the
feeling as described by the adjective given to them. Groups then present
their poems after the discussion.
(iii) The following writing activity, “Consequences” is taken from Maley and Duff
(1989), page 149.
Brainstorm the class to collect about 15 to 20 abstract nouns (such as hope,
faith, love and courage) and another 15 to 20 concrete nouns (such as bread,
money, table and knife). Next, brainstorm for another 15 to 20 adjectives that
describe a value-judgement such as boring, exciting, popular, repulsive and
pleasant. Write all these on the board.
Students then sit in pairs and they write out 4 questions beginning with
“What is…?” They complete the question using nouns listed on the board.
Each question is answered by the structure “It’s …” using the adjectives.

The following is an example taken from Maley and Duff (1989: 149):
What is bread?
It’s boring.
What is water?
It’s stupid.
What is sand?
It’s deceitful.
It’s sincere.
Students learn the language skills when they discuss to choose the four items.
Advanced students should be asked to give their rationale for their choices. For
example, why is water considered stupid?
This activity can be adapted for teaching Rudyard Kipling’s “If” (Form 4 poem).
Instead of nouns, ask students to think of occupations or adjectives. Complete the
following structure:
What will I be in ______ years?

I’ll be ___________________
What if I am a ____________?
I’ll be ___________________

For example:
What will I be in 10 years?

I’ll be a pilot.
What if I am a chef?
I’ll be disgusted.
Here are some websites that you can consider reading:

(i) http://www.uleth.ca/edu/currlab/handouts/poetry_ideas.html
(ii) http://www.msrogers.com/English2/poetry/30daysofpoetry.htm
(iii) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lessonview.asp?id=51
(iv) http://www.onlinepoetryclassroom.org/how Lesson Plans. cfm? prm
PageID=8
activity 7.2
Suggest ONE activity that will encourage students to think of the lexical
items that they choose for a poem.
SUMMARY
• This topic has looked at some activities that can be conducted in the class
when teaching poetry. However, these activities can be adapted for the
teaching of any other genres.
• It is important, however, that the activities should be adapted according to
the students’ level of proficiency. Do not frustrate them with an activity that
may be more difficult than the poem.
Brainstrom
Preparatory Stage

Topic  Putting
Up A Play
8
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain the aspects of play production;
2. Discuss the factors to consider when doing a play production; and
3. Explain the steps in putting up a play.
XX INTRODUCTION
As English teachers, you may be asked by your school authorities to take charge
of putting up a play. For some teachers, this may be a daunting task. This topic
aims to minimise that potential fear by listing out the steps in putting up a play.
A play at the end of the school term can be regarded as a major project which
many students may look forward. However, putting up the play may become
tedious for the students if the teacher detaches himself or herself from the
responsibilities of guiding or advising them. However, what are the steps of
putting up a play and what are the aspects of putting up a play that one should
look at? What are the preparations that need to be done? This topic aims to
answer these and other related questions. A word of caution before you proceed
- this topic discusses the putting up of a play in the school context and NOT in
the professional context. This means there will be certain aspects that will not
be discussed or presented as these aspects are not necessary where school plays
are concerned. For example, you may not need a person to be in charge of the
wardrobe as there may not be a wardrobe in a school play.
8.1 PRE-PRODUCTION

The pre-production stage is when all preparations for the play is conducted. This
stage involves a host of decisions such as deciding on the play, costumes and
performers.
122  TOPIC 8 PUTTING UP A PLAY
8.1.1 Organisation
Firstly, you have to decide on the play. What kind of play do you want to put up?
Do you want to put up an original play or do you want to adapt a play? Writing
an original play is easier said than done. However, with a group of teachers
(willing teachers!) and students, the product may come out to be a surprise. To
write an original play, you must first think of a theme. What is the play about?
You may want to consider of themes that are familiar to the students (since they
are the ones who will be performing the play), such as coping with abusive
parents or living up against the challenges of being a teenager (peer pressure, sex,
obsession with looks, relationships, etc.).
Next, think of ways to present the theme. This refers to the plot of your play.
How many characters do you want to put into the play? Do the characters
have a role or are they put into the play just to fill the numbers? Remember,
characterisation is not done without a purpose. Each character contributes to the
central theme of the play. Try to think “local” because we are more familiar with
our localised surroundings. If you were to think of a plot that is set in a foreign
setting, the product (i.e. the play) may turn out to be unconvincing, stereotypical
or idiotic. For example, if you want to portray the life of school gangs, you may
want to think of school gangs in Malaysia rather than the gangs in New York
which you may be totally unfamiliar with.
Once you have come up with a storyline, decide on each sequence of events how
the characters are to move, the dialogue they are going to speak, the lighting, the
sound effects (if any) and any other stage directions. You may want to consider a
storyboard such as the one shown in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1: Storyboard For a Play

Scene One Setting/Lighting Directions Dialogue
On a beach. Sound Lin and Kavitha Lin: So…what do
of ocean waves. sitting side by side you plan to do?
Dim light to show on the ground,
Kavitha: I
evening. looking towards
don’t know
the audience.
(exasperated). I’m
stuck. Really stuck.
[…]
When deciding on the type of play, you should also think about the setting and
costumes. If the setting and costumes are set in the olden times, will it be easy for
you to get hold of the costumes? Will it be easy for you to do the setting? Or do
you want to adapt the play to a modern setting?

TOPIC 8 PUTTING UP A PLAY t 123
What kind of stage does your school have? Does the stage allow for your play to
be conducted? Some plays have a lot of scene changes. This may disrupt the flow
of the drama (think of those school plays where you have to wait endlessly in
the dark while waiting for the next scene to come on). Choose plays with as few
scene changes as possible. If this is not possible, then do not confine your play on
the stage. The students can have some scenes acted out off the stage that is near
where the audience is sitting. This will be discussed further in another section.
What is the time period for you to put up the play—three months, five months,
a year? Decide on a time schedule which will include the number of times for
practice and a full dress rehearsal. You may even want to consider having a
dress parade. These are some considerations that need to be well thought of.
Remember, a wrong decision at this point of time may affect the overall running
of the play later, by which time, it may be difficult to change decisions.
activity 8.1
Suggest ONE thing that you will think of when deciding on a script.
Give a short rationale for your choice.
8.1.2 The People in Charge

Once you have decided on the play and the time schedule, you need to decide
on the people who will be involved in the running of the play. You will need a
director (which will usually be the teacher), a designer (choose a student who is
good in art and ask him or her to have a team to paint the backdrop or prepare
items for the stage), a lighting person (who will be in charge of the lights—
switching on and off the lights) and any other positions that you may think
necessary.
To choose the performers, you can hold an audition. Also remember that even if
you cannot get very good actors or actresses during the audition, you can always
train them up.
You will also need seemingly unimportant people to run the drama, but their
tasks are just as important as the performers’. For example, the ushers (to
show the seats to the spectators), the ‘cue giver’ or ‘prompter’ (gives cue to the
performers to enter the stage or quietly prompts performers who forget their
lines) and the make-up person (make up is necessary to define the features of the
performers’ faces).

activity 8.2
Let’s say you are organising a play with your students. What are the
factors that you should consider when delegating the duties among your
students?
8.1.3 Scenes
Scenery changes are common in many plays. Although there are plays that
have only one scene, most plays have more. However, if not done well, change
of scenes will spoil the flow of the play. This may make the audience restless
and the play will be perceived as “flawed.” There are a few techniques of doing
the change of scenes. One way is to use the stage curtains and another is by a
blackout. The disadvantage of having too many scenes is that the curtains keep
opening and closing or the lights keep switching between on and off, the play
will become more of an irritant than something to be enjoyed. You can also
consider another technique, which is to incorporate the change of scenery into
the action of the play.
You may also consider projection as a way of changing the scenes in a play. If
your school has a slide projector or even a LCD projector, use it to project scenes
onto the wall of the stage. You do not need to project the scenery onto the whole
wall as the performers will be using the stage as well. You only need to project
the scene onto a part of the wall, sufficient enough to inform the audience where
the play is taking place.
8.1.4 Props
Props mean properties and this covers furnishings (such as sofa, chair and table),
dressings (paintings, rubber plants, real plants etc) and hand props (such as
swords, glasses, scrolls). When writing or adapting the script of the play, list out
also the props that are needed. Put this on a checklist so that you will not forget
any important item.
If you wish to have elaborate props for your play, you may wish to consider
renting some of the items (subject to your budget, of course). I suggest that you
go into the Google search, type “drama props” and “Malaysia” and you will come
across a company that rents out props.

8.1.5 Lighting
If your school stage has lighting, use it to the maximum (but use it effectively) as
lighting is considered to be the fundamental of all staging techniques. Lighting
is important to ensure that the audience is able to see the performers acting. In
addition, it is also an important technique to focus the audience’s attention onto
a particular character or action. For example, using a different coloured light may
draw the attention of the audience to a particular character or item on the stage.
It is important then to decide where to have the lights (some school stages have
spotlights that are movable), which lights to put on (if there are more than one
light), where to point the lights and which colour in which lights. When planning
or structuring your script, you should write out the lights needed so that the
person in charge of the lights will know what to do.
Some schools may be well-equipped with lighting. There may be the ‘follow spot’
which is the spotlight used to follow actors around the stage. It has a “sophisticated
pan and tilt mountings for smooth movement” (Reid 1995: 61). If you are asked to be
in charge of the school stage and you have the money to buy lighting, you may
want to consider other types of lighting:
(a) Floods - Useful for lighting large scenic areas but it is unsuitable for lighting
actors because the beam size and shape cannot be controlled. Light is
pointed to the stage and it is manipulated by pivoting devices that can either
move up/down or left/right.
(b) Focus spots – This is the simplest form of spotlight. It can control the beam
size.
(c) Profile spots – This gives “accurate control of beam size, shape and quality”
(Reid, 1995: 60). The lamp and reflector are stationary but the lens can be
moved to adjust the quality of the beam of light.
8.1.6 Sound
Sound is another aspect of the play production that you need to look at. Sounds
produced by electronics have three primary function:
• to reinforce the level of vocal and instrumental sound produced by the
performers;
• to add to sound effects; and
• to communicate.

The microphones need to be positioned on the stage as unobtrusively as possible,

so as not to distract the audience and the performers. Some schools may have
radio microphones which can be hidden in the performers’ clothing. However,
the disadvantage of using the microphone is that it tends “to bring the sound of a
straight play to a level which strains the credibility of any attempt at naturalism in the
acting” (Reid, 1995: 70).
You need to train your performers to project their voices. Consequently, they will
be able to speak their lines loudly. You may also need to position the sitting of
your audience (such as putting the chairs closer to the stage) so that each and
every member of the audience is able to listen to the performers’ dialogue.
(a) Suggested Steps for Training Voices

The following are some steps that you can ask your students to do to train
their voices:
(i) Read aloud a passage or a page from a book every day. Do not just
recite the words, but assume the role of the character that you are
reading from.
(ii) Do breathing exercises to improve the quality of your voice. Here are
three simple exercises which are extremely helpful in order to learn to
breathe correctly.
Exercises A - C are taken from http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/
article481.
Exercise A
Lie on your back on the floor. Place one hand on your abdomen.
Breathe in quickly and deeply and feel it rise as you do so. Your chest
should not move. Hold your breath for a few seconds, then breathe out
slowly, making a hissing noise through your teeth, till your lungs are
absolutely empty. Feel your abdomen sink as you do this. Concentrate
on what you are doing all the time. You should also do this exercise in
bed every night, concentrating on the breathing process. You will drop
off to sleep very quickly and at the same time form the habit of correct
respiration.
Exercise B
Same exercise as before, but with hands relaxed on the floor. As you
inhale, pull your legs up, knees bent over chest. Clasp hands over knees
and hug the latter to your chest as you exhale.
Exercise C
Same again, but raising your head from the floor as you bring your
knees up. Try to touch your knees with your head as you breathe out.

Exercises D – F are taken from http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/

resources/toolkit/voice/. You may also want to look at the site
yourself.
Exercise D
This exercise is aimed at strengthening the diaphragm. Lie on your
back on the floor, supporting your head with something hard, such as
a telephone directory. Ensure that your spine is in a straight line. Your
arms should be by your sides with the palms facing upwards. The feet
should be shoulder width apart and relaxed so they angle away from
each other.
If there are parts of your body that feel tense, clench that area on an
in-breath, then relax as you breathe out. Repeat this until the tension
drains away.
Next, concentrate on your breathing. Your aim is to control the
diaphragm, a sheet of muscle that lies below the lungs at the bottom of
your rib cage. When it is relaxed, the diaphragm is arched upwards. To
increase your lung capacity, the diaphragm needs to stretch down into
the abdomen. If you are breathing correctly, your stomach area will
push outwards on each in-breath as the diaphragm moves downwards.
On a count of four breathe in, hold the breath for another count of
four and breathe out to a count of four. This may be difficult at first,
but it will get easier. When you are completely comfortable with this
breathing pattern, try to increase the count. With practice you should
be able to manage a count of 12.
Exercise E
This is aimed at improving the posture. Stand with your feet shoulder
width apart. Have a good gentle stretch. Reach up above your head
first with one arm, now the other. Feel your ribcage opening up. Shake
your hands and feet.
Now allow your body to flop forward like a rag doll. Make sure your
jaw is relaxed and shake your head and shoulders. Raise your upper
body as if you are uncurling one vertebra at a time. The very last thing
to uncurl should be your head and neck. Your head should feel as if it
is balanced at the top of your spine. Your throat should feel long, and
your ears should be in line with your shoulders.
Exercise F
There are also exercises to warm up the voice. You can do this by
keeping the lips together and making a gentle humming sound which
should barely touch the sides of the throat. The hum should not be
forced. Push the breath up using the diaphragm.

Exercises G – H are taken from http://www.powerpublicspeaking.

com/breathingexercises.htm
Exercise G (Intake)
Put your fist just below your chest so you feel the top of the rib cage.
Now picture yourself breathing “into” your fist.
Inhale slowly.
When you think you have taken in all the air you can, hold for 3
seconds.
Now take in as much more air as you can by picturing the air filling up
the space in- between the ribs.
You are using the diaphragm. It is lowering and making way for the
lungs to truly fill to capacity.
Exhale.
Repeat slowly, at least 10 times. Stop if you feel dizzy - it means you
have gone too fast or taken in too much air.
Exercise H (Outflow)
Form your mouth to the shape of a “shh” consonant.
SLOWLY push the air out through your mouth. Do this as slowly as
you can.
The flow of air must be perfectly even.
The idea is to control the air as it is used.
The exercises are aimed at controlling the air so that it can be projected
into a large space. In addition, the person will have control of his or her
voice. This control will be attained, however, if one does the exercise
regularly.
Finally, you may want to look at http://www.singers-uk.org/how_to_
practice voice.htm for more on voice training.
(iii) You may also be interested in finding out about the Alexander
Technique which is a “method for getting rid of unwanted habit patterns
that interfere with smooth performance” (Jones, 1975).
To know more about the Alexander Technique, read http://www.
alexander technique.com/musicians2/.
(b) The Microphone

Microphones are easily available in schools nowadays. However, if used
wrongly, the effect on the overall impact of the play will be dismal. It is
therefore important that teachers who are in charge of a play also know the
electronic equipment used. I will spend this short section on the microphone
because, as mentioned earlier, it is the most available electronic item in
school.

There are basically two types of microphones, namely dynamic and

condenser. The latter gives better quality (but it is more expensive and needs
more careful handling). In theatres, condenser microphones are usually used
at the main positions while the dynamic microphones are used in subsidiary
positions.
Different types of microphones have different functions. The ‘figure-of-
eight’ microphone is sensitive to the front and rear but insensitive to the
sides. ‘Cardiod’ and ‘hyper-cardiod’ microphones are very useful in theatres
as they pick up sounds from the front but are dead to the sides and rear.
Consequently, they pick up sounds from the desired part of the stage
production.
(c) Sound Effects

Sound effects may be considered to make the drama “real” and “believable.”
There are three ways that sound effects can be produced:
• Live effects;
• Reinforced live effects; and
• Taped effects.
Live effects, as far as school play production is concerned is best done for
simple sounds like door slams. You should, however, experiment with
different types of sounds so as to produce sounds that are as real as possible.
For example, you can use coconut shells for the sound of horses’ hooves.
Reinforced live effects simply mean the usage of microphones and an
appropriately positioned loudspeaker to make the sound effects louder.
Taped effects are more commonly used. I suggest that you tape all the
required sound effects into one tape, according to the sequence of the script.
Write out the sound effects on a list or on the drama script so that the person
in charge of the tape will not be confused as to which sound effect to play.
If the tape player has a digital marker, it is advisable to write the digital
number when the required sound effect is played.
8.1.7 Stage Managing

One of the main functions of the stage manager is to be in charge of giving the
cues. In professional play production, the stage manager is also in charge of the
production when the director or an appointed deputy director is not around. He
or she ensures that the performance “does not make any substantial departure from
the original” (Reid, 1995).

However, for school plays, the stage manager’s main job will probably be giving
the cues. He gives cues for the lighting, sound and curtain. For him to do this,
each person of the respective crew should have a walkie-talkie so that it will be
easy for the stage manager to communicate.
Nonetheless, the functions of the stage manager in a school production may not
be necessary. Students, with sufficient practice, should be able to know when
their cues are to perform a particular task. Each of them should have a prompt
book, which not only “forms a complete record of the production” but provides “a
running reference point for giving the cues in performance” (Reid, 1995). In some
school productions, it is the teacher who takes on multi-roles; the teacher becomes
the director, stage manager, wardrobe manager, etc.
activity 8.3
Write out a checklist that you will do for the pre-production stage of a
play.
8.2 STAGING THE PLAY

Finally, you have come to the staging of the play after you and your students
go through much toil and trouble. What are the final pointers that you need to
convey to your students at this stage?
Before practicing the play, remind your production crew and performers of the
schedule. Remind your students, especially the performers to always be on time
(being amateurs, they may need more practice than professional performers).
Remind all the members of your production crew of the date lines. MORE
IMPORTANTLY, make sure that your students turn up early on the day of
performance. Get their handphone numbers and contact details and store them in
your file so that you can contact them quickly.
The performers need to familiarise themselves with all the sets on stage. So, after
the performers have done sufficient practice off the stage, make sure they also
do practice on stage, with all the props in their right places. Ensure that your
schedule also allows rehearsals with all the production crew involved (such as
the person in charge of the lights, the sound and the curtain).
You may wish to consider having the play performed to an audience before
its official presentation. For example, if the play is to be performed during the
English Drama Night (where parents are invited to watch), you can have a preview
performance for students from the lower secondary in the afternoon. Reid (1995)
advises that this preview performance is NOT “for experiment but to allow the
production to mature with the help of audience response”.
8.2.1 Staging a Dance

Some of your students may have some training in ballet or dance. You may
consider staging a dance and present the talents of these youngsters on stage after
you have gained confidence in staging plays in your school.
Instead of a full dance act, you can also consider incorporating dance into your
play. However, do not insert a dance act just because you want to. Incorporate
the dance act only if it complements your play.
Lighting is usually important for dance acts so that the dancers’ movements
are emphasised adequately. Ensure that the position of the lights do not cast
too many shadows when the dancers move. Shadows may become irritating to
the audience. Some choreography may not necessarily utilise the whole stage.
Instead, stationary dancers with subtle movements are sufficient. You need to
select a good area that is well lighted for this kind of stationary movements.
8.2.2 Staging a Musical

You may even consider staging a musical, which will involve extra people
as the singers and perhaps dancers, apart from the usual performers. To stage
a musical, more time is needed for rehearsals because apart from the play, you
need to rehearse the singers and dancers.
Generally, a musical “has more scenery than a play: more volume, more complexity
and more changes” (Reid, 1995: 107). Consequently, it is much appreciated that
every member of the production crew, in addition to the performers, dancers and
singers, have as many rehearsals as possible, so as to familiarise themselves with
the scenes and the scene changes.
8.3 POST PRODUCTION

It is always good to have a post mortem and a session for all the people involved
in the play to get together and share their feelings after the play. Remember,
although the project (of staging a play) may do wonders for your position as a
teacher in school, it is the students who make the play happen. Take a humanistic
approach towards the whole play production. Show appreciation to the students.
Do not hold grudges but take the circumstances that happened during and before
the play as lessons for future productions. List out the problems that you and

your students faced. The list may come in handy the following year should you
be interested in staging another play.
Finally, remember that experience is the best teacher. Do not be daunted by the
fact that you have never staged a play before. There is always a first time, a time
in which much experience can be learned.
SUMMARY
• In this topic, we have looked at some of the considerations when staging

a play. The steps that have been presented are divided into the pre-stage,
while-stage and post-stage.
• The important thing to remember is to keep to a schedule, to continue
encouraging and praising the students and to reward them for a task well-
done.
Dress Parade
Prompt Book

Topic  Assessment
and Writing
9 A Complete
Lesson Plan
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Identify important guidelines to consider when structuring an
instrument to assess your students; and
2. Identify principles that the teacher should consider when structuring
the lesson plan.
XX INTRODUCTION
In this last topic, ways of assessing students in the poetry class will be discussed,
followed by a detailed discussion on writing a complete lesson plan.
Assessment is an important component of the teaching and learning processes.

This is because it is through assessment that the teacher knows how much the
students have made progress in learning. It is also through the assessment that
the teacher will know not just what the students understand, but what they do
not understand. If assessment is an important component of the teaching and
learning processes, then what is imperative is what the teacher will do after the
assessment has been done. This is one consideration that you should take note
and factor the post-assessment strategies in your lesson plan.
The lesson plan is a structure which, by now, you would have been very
familiar with since it is the most fundamental aspect of the teacher’s life. What is
presented in this topic will certainly would have been presented in many other
modules as well. In addition, the lesson plan would have been taught during

134  TOPIC 9 ASSESSMENT AND WRITING A COMPLETE LESSON PLAN
your teacher training days. Nonetheless, reinforcing aspects of the lesson plan
is also important. These aspects would have been taken for granted by teachers
because they encounter the lesson plans on a daily basis.
Read again the contents which deal with the parts of the lesson structure, in Topic
1. The suggestions and ideas presented in that topic are important and should be
considered when writing out the lesson plan.
9.1 ASSESSMENT

What is the purpose of assessments? According to J.B. Heaton, assessment
functions as a means “to reinforce learning and to motivate the student” in addition
to “assessing the student’s performance” in the class. Consequently, assessment is an
important practice which should not be ignored in the literature class.
On the other hand, the teacher must strike a balance so that students will not be
intimidated by the assessments to the point that they lose out in appreciating the
aesthetics and learning the lessons of life that literature has to offer. The teacher
should constantly encourage the students to be brave and courageous to discover
truths by themselves instead of relying on the teacher or on set answer schemes.
This is because many of our Malaysian students seem to be conditioned to accept
answers that are “approved” or “come from” those in authority (such as the
teacher, text book writer or the Ministry of Education).
In light of the above, the teacher should always be reminded that as far as the
interpretation of the novel or the short story is concerned, there is no “right” or
“wrong” answers, as long as there are logical substantiation from the texts which
are drawn by the students.
If multi varied interpretations are possible, then as far as literature is concerned,

there are no precise guidelines as to what are acceptable and what are not. How
then can an assessment be made?
The assessment will depend on the objective of your lesson or the purpose of
teaching drama and poetry in your ESL class.
(a) If your objective is using drama texts and poetry to teach linguistic items
such as vocabulary, tenses and syntax, your assessment should focus on the
linguistic items. It will be unfair to the students (and to your conscience!!)
if the focus of the lesson is on the conditional “If” in Rudyard Kipling’s
“If” and your assessment is on the theme of the poetry. Conversely, if the
objective of your lesson is on the literary devices used in the poem, then
your assessment should be on the literary devices and not on the linguistic
items.

TOPIC 9 ASSESSMENT AND WRITING A COMPLETE LESSON PLAN t 135
(b) If both linguistic items and literary elements are taught in the lesson, then
you must first decide on the proportion of items taught. The assessment
should follow the proportion. For example, if the lesson is heavily focused
on linguistic items and only an approximate 10% of the class time is spent
on the literary elements, then this should be reflected in your assessment.
More questions should be based on the linguistic elements, and only about
10% of your questions will be on the literary elements.
9.1.1 Types of Assessment

There are basically two types of assessment:
• Summative; and
• Formative.
Summative assessments are done at the end of the programme to evaluate the
knowledge and skills that your students have learnt. This is usually your term
test or your final examination.
The formative assessment is aimed at finding out how much progress has been
made by your students. The purpose of the formative assessment is to decide on
the next course of action—steps to take or items to teach which the students failed
to learnt, as reflected in the results of the formative assessment. The formative
assessment can be done formally (such as a quiz, class test, end-of-week test
and monthly test) or informally (comprehension questions during class, class
assignments, take-in homework, poetry recital, etc).
Another way of categorising the assessment, according to Heaton (1975) is the

attainment test (such as the class progress test and achievement test), proficiency
test, aptitude test and diagnostic test. However, it is not within the scope of this
module to explain the different types of tests (that will be another subject).
9.1.2 Frequency of Assessment

How often you should conduct assessments depends on the policy of your
school.
However, informal assessments should be conducted at every lesson as you need

to know if the objectives of your lessons are achieved or met.
As mentioned earlier in the introduction of this topic, it is imperative that

the results of your assessment determine the next course of your teaching
strategies. What have they NOT learned? What have they failed to grasp? What
‘deficiencies’ are reflected in the test results?
Consequently, feedback should be given to them so as to enhance learning.

Ensure that the feedback you give is positive, constructive and detailed.
The assessment should not be a tool to tell you something about your students
ONLY, it should be a tool for the students to KNOW THEMSELVES.
Steps should be taken to ‘fill in the gaps’ or impart the necessary skills or
knowledge that the students failed to grasp initially. Conduct a second
assessment to ensure that the students have learned what they are supposed to
have learned.
You need to consider that one possible reason that students fail to show the
required results in an assessment is that the questions are too difficult, confusing
or vague. Ensure that the questions that you give your students are aimed at
finding out what they have learned and NOT aimed at failing your students.
9.1.3 Assessment Techniques

Figure 9.1 shows some ways that you can consider using to assess your students.
Figure 9.1: Assessment techniques

• Cloze passage or a modified cloze. The modified cloze is just like the cloze
passage but options are given for each blank. Students have to choose the
correct option to fill in the blank.
• Comprehension questions (written or oral). Remember Barret’s Taxonomy
when structuring your comprehension questions. Start off with the simple,
literal level kind of questions and progress to more difficult questions that
require the students to evaluate and appreciate (of course, this is very much
determined by the objectives or purpose of your lesson).
• Dictation.
• Vocabulary tests based on the poem or drama.
• Poetry recital (assess on rhythm, tone, pronunciation, etc) or retelling a
drama after listening to it being played on the radio or after reading it.
• Readers theatre (assess on pronunciation, appropriateness of tone, etc).
• Listening assessment - listens to a poem and answer comprehension
questions or do a text completion exercise.
• Writing essays (for example, write an essay and discuss one reason why you
like or dislike the poem).
• Drama presentation.
activity 9.1
What are some other considerations when assessing the drama

presentation of your students?
If your assessment is a poetry recital, there are several principles or guidelines

that you have to consider, as shown by the following.
• Make the criteria for assessment of presentation clear, that is the students
know what is expected of them.
• Get students to negotiate the criteria themselves or to give them
opportunities to question the criteria you impose.
• Ensure the students know the weighting of your criteria.
• Allow the students to have a rehearsal so that they will become confident (it
is also good to give some constructive feedback after the rehearsals so that
they can learn from the experience).
• Consider having your students assess each other’s presentation.

• Be realistic as to what can be achieved. Remember, the assessment is not

meant to fail students but to evaluate what they can achieve within the
reasonable period of time. There is also another rule of thumb: if you cannot
pass the assessment, neither can your students!
(adapted from Brown, Race and Smith, 1996: 54).
There are also some pointers to consider if you are going to assess on your
students’ drama presentation:
• Minimise competition as far as possible so as to lower the stress that the
students may experience. Inform the students that they are to do their best
and have fun performing.
• Be aware of stresses during the performance such as stage fright, glitches
in the sets or forgotten lines. Don’t forget that they are doing the drama
presentation in an ESL context in schools, NOT as a project for a performing
arts course. Comfort your students by informing them that such glitches do
not indicate failure.
(adapted from Brown, Race and Smith, 1996: 61).
activity 9.2
Ponder on some other ways that you can assess your students and share
this with your students.
9.2 WRITING THE LESSON PLAN

By now, you would have gone through many topics on writing out a lesson plan.
You have learned how to write a lesson plan in HBET3703 (Teaching of Literature
in an ESL context), for example. To refresh your memory, ensure that your lesson
plan has an introduction (the pre-presentational stage or the set induction),
the presentation and the closure (see pages 189 to 190 and pages 241 to 243 of
HBET 3703, where sample lesson plans are given. Also refer to pages 39 to 41 of
HBET4403, Teaching of Novels and Short Stories in an ESL Context).
The lesson plan (as taught in the previous modules) should consist of the
following elements as shown in Figure 9.2.

Aims:
Objectives:
Students’ Previous Knowledge:
Materials:
Steps Teaching-Learning Rationale Time

Activities
Introduction
Presentation or
Development
Closure/
Reinforcement
Figure 9.2: Lesson plan
The most important parts of your lesson plan are the aims and objectives. The
aims and objectives determine the course of your lesson. You should think of
your aims and objectives well before you start off with planning the lesson
proper. Think of questions such as:
• “What do you want to teach?”
• “What is the purpose of the lesson?”
• “What do you hope your students will achieve at the end of the lesson?”
• “What will you do to find out if your students have achieved the objectives that you
have set?”
Remember, the objectives of the lesson should be measurable. Try not to write
some obscure objectives such as “By the end of the lesson, students should be able to
write an essay.” What sort of essay are the students required to do (descriptive,
argumentative, etc)? How long should the essay be? Thus, the objective can
be better written as “By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to write an
essay of about 50 to 70 words, that describe and interpret the literary elements that are
employed in the learned poem.” Thus, the objective has to be written specifically
and not obscurely.
You have to ensure also that the objectives are attainable. Do not be over-
ambitious and set objectives which students cannot achieve as this will frustrate
them. Related to this, ensure that the questions given to the students (to ensure
if they have learned anything in the lesson) are not ‘trick’ questions, something
which many teachers are fond of doing.

Do not set too many objectives. Be practical. You have only about 35 to 40
minutes per lesson. Moreover, you will not be teaching literature in every lesson
in the week.
For the introduction, it may be helpful to have activities that deal “with what
exactly you want the (student) to have learned from the (previous) lesson” (Gwilliams,
1991). This may help in helping the students to bring back to memory what they
have learned. Besides, most lessons are built on one another, for example, Lesson
3 continues from Lesson 2 which continues from Lesson 1.
For the development of the lesson, ensure that items taught in previous lessons
are ‘recycled.’ For example, if a literary term is taught in the previous lesson,
ensure that this literary term is brought up again in the current lesson.
For the closure, consider having activities that reinforce the items taught. Do not
forget to provide feedback to the students if assessment is conducted during the
lesson. The feedback can be also a time to encapsulate what has been taught in
the lesson.
Some of these items have already been given in both the modules mentioned
(HBET 3703 and 4403). However, let’s reiterate the following principles when
writing a complete lesson plan:
• Whatever you plan to structure in your lesson plan needs to be rationalised.
What is the purpose of doing a certain technique? Why use a certain
technique? Will the technique help the students to achieve the objectives of
the lesson?
• Remember to allocate some time in your lesson plan to re-teach the items
that your students failed to grasp — the items that your students failed to
show understanding and knowledge of in the previous assessment.
• Students differ from one class to another, thus “a lesson that is very successful
with one group may flop with another” (Gwilliams, 1991). So it is important
to plan the lesson that is tailor-made for your class. If you plan to use “set
lessons” (taken from guidebooks or teacher’s resource books), remember to
adapt them.

self-check 9.1
Answer TRUE or FALSE to the following statements:

1. Difficult or trick questions are considered as good forms of
assessment.
2. Modified cloze is a cloze passage where options for each blank
are given.
3. The aims and objectives of the lesson plan are optional.
4. The criteria for class assessment should be kept secret from the
students.
5. The assessment should be based on the objectives of the lesson.
SUMMARY
• In this topic, we have discussed guidelines for doing assessment and

writing out the lesson plan. Most of these items have already been taught
in previous modules and it is encouraged or recommend that you refer to
those modules again.
• It is imperative that before the teacher enters the class, some preparation or
planning should have been done.
• With regard to assessment, it is NOT aimed at failing students, but it should
be conducted with the intention of making the students aware of what they
do not know and making them want to learn more.
Achievement Test Diagnostic Test

Aptitude Test Proficiency Test
Class Progress Test

References
Aidoo, A. A. (1987). The Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa. New York: Longman.
Birch, (1991). The Language of Drama: Critical Theory and Practice. London:
Macmillan.
Bright, J.A. and G. P. McGregor (1970). Teaching English as a Second Language:

Theory and Techniques for the Secondary Stage. Essex: Longman.
Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy. New York: Prentice Hall.
Brown, Sally, Phil Race and Brenda Smith (1996). 500 Tips on Assessment. London:
Kogan Page.
Carter, Ronald and Long, Michael N., (1991). Teaching Literature. England:
Longman.
Chamkaur Singh Gill (1996). “Using Drama Techniques to Encourage Oral

Interaction.” The English Teacher. Vol XXV 72 – 86.
Collie, J. and Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. (refer to Chapter 8 for ideas and activities
working with a complete play text).
“Elements for the Malaysian Class Reader Programme.” The English Teacher. Vol XXII,
16-26.
Gwilliams, (1991). Teachers’ Tricks of the Trade—Everything You Ever Wanted to

Know About Teaching But Were Afraid to Ask. England: Essex.
Gwin, (1990). “Language Skills Through Literature.” Forum. Vol XXVII, No. 3, 10 –
17.
Heaton, J. B. (1975). Writing English Language Tests. Longman: London.
Hess, (2003). “Real language Through Poetry: A Formula for Meaning Making.” ELT
Journal. Vo. 57, 19 – 25.
Jayakaran Mukundan (1993). “Teacher Support Materials in the Treatment of Cultural

REFERENCES  143
Jones. The Alexander Technique. http://www.alexandertechnique. com/articles/

jones1/.
K.S. Maniam. (1983). ‘The Cord’ in Sensuous Horizons: The Stories and the Plays.
London: Scoob Books.
Lazar, (1993). Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, Michael and Jimmie Hill (1993). Source Book for Teaching English as a Foreign
Language. Oxford: Macmillan.
Malachi Edwin (1992). “Extension Activities in the Literature Classroom.” The English
Teacher. Vol XXI, 24 – 32.
Maley, Alan and Duff, Alan, (1989). The Inward Ear—Poetry in the Language
Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maley, Alan and Duff, Alan. (1982). Drama Techniques in Language Learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McRae, John and Vethamani, Malachi E. (1999). Now Read On: A Course in
Multicultural Reading. London and New York: Routledge.
Miccoli, (2003). “English Through Drama for Oral Skills Development.” ELT Journal.
Vol 57/2, April. 122 – 129.
Muhamad Hasan Abdul Rahman, (2001). “Development of Teaching Materials for

English of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia” in Trends in
English Language
Ramli Ibrahim. (1993). ‘Sarasa the Dance-Mother’ in In the Name of Love:An Insight
in Three Flushes. London: Scoob Books.
Reid, (1995). The Staging Handbook. London: A & C Black.
Rosli Talif (1995). Teaching Literature in ESL—The Malaysian Context. Serdang:

Penerbit Universiti Pertanian Malaysia.
Rosli Talif and Jayakaran M. (1994). “Using Literature in an Advantaged Situation:

Issues and Prospects.” The English Teacher. Vol XXIII, 90 – 98.
Sanger, (2001). The Language of Drama. London and New York: Routledge. (for
ideas on what to focus when teaching a play).

144  REFERENCES
Saratha Sithamparam (1991). “Strategies for the Use of Poetry in the Language
Classroom.” The English Teacher. Vol XX, 61 – 68.
Sesnan, (1997). How To Teach English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shaw, G. B. (1957). Pygmalion. London: Penguin Books.
Short, M. (1996). Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose. London:
Longman. (refer to Chapters 6 and 7 for a discussion on drama as a discourse
genre).
Shu Wei, (1999). “Literature Teaching” in Forum, Vol 37: 3, 25 – 27.
Teaching—Selected Papers from the Malaysia International Conference on English

Teaching (MICELT) 1996 and 1998. Ed. Jayakaran Mukundan and Teh Chee
Seng, Serdang: Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Tibbets, (1999). “Poets in the Classroom: Creative, Communicative Drills and

Meaningful Repetition.” The English Teacher. Vol XXVII, 127 – 143.
Tollefson, W., (1989). “A System for Improving Teachers’ Questions” in Forum,

Vol 26: 1, 6 – 9.
Wilson, E. (1994). The Theater Experience. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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HBET4203

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Module Writers: Assoc Prof Dr Wan Rozelezam Wan Yahya

Moderators: Assoc Prof Dr Wan Rozelezam Wan Yahya

Developed by: Centre for Instructional Design and Technology

Printed by: Meteor Doc. Sdn. Bhd.

First Edition, January 2005

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Topic 1 The Lesson Structure 1

Topic 2 Presenting Elements of Drama 21

Topic 3 Presenting Elements of Poetry 41

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Topic 4 Designing Classroom Activities for the Teaching of

Topic 5 Using Materials in the Teaching of Drama and Poetry 73

Topic 6 More Activities for the Teaching of Drama 87

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6.2.3 Other Possible Things 94

Topic 7 More Activities for the Teaching of Poetry 104

Topic 8 Putting Up A Play 121

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8.1.6 Sound 125

Topic 9 Assessment and Writing a Complete Lesson Plan 133

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COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

As an open and distance learner, you should be acquainted with learning

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Table 1: Approximate Study Time Allocation

Study Activities Study

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In Topic 6, you will be given suggested activities for teaching drama.

TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE

Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locations

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References: References is where a list of relevant and useful textbooks, journals,

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1.1 FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN

1.1.1 The Purpose

“Learning a language cannot be divorced from culture learning. Yet in a

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1.1.2 The Texts

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• We Are Seven by William Wordsworth

Figure 1.1: Poem in the SPM 2004 Literature Paper

• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

Figure 1.2: Plays for the SPM paper

Season Song (by Anonymous)

Figure 1.3: Poem ‘Season Song’

For example, how much do you understand “Monsoon History” by Shirley

Take “If” by Rudyard Kipling (Upper Secondary School Literature in English

(c) Level of Difficulty

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Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

Figure 1.4: Poem ‘Cargoes’

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We two are like partners in the ronggeng

And like the ronggeng too, my life seems now,

Figure 1.5: Dance

1. What are the factors to consider when planning a poetry or drama

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(a) Framework for the Teaching of Poetry

Figure 1.6: Framework for the teaching of poetry