Lesson: Nationalism in the works of War Literature (Using Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier and Wilfred Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’)
Lesson duration: 60 minutes
Students: Secondary 3 Express, Mixed ability
Class size: 35
Class profile: Visual and kinesthetic learners
Pre-requisites:
1. Students are familiar with the process of practical criticism
2. Students are comfortable with the use of literary devices
3. Students are familiar with both the History and Literature curricula
Lesson Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Identify content and literary devices that contribute to the message of nationalism, or lack thereof
2. Have a concrete definition of Nationalism
Lesson Goal:
1. Students will be able to draw connections between works of Literature and History
2. Students will have a better appreciation of the relevance of literary works to their lives
Materials:
1. Hardcopies of the poems for distribution
2. 14 ‘blank’ posters (2 for each group)
3. Scotch-tape to put the posters up on the walls
4. Post-it notes
Lesson Plan:
5 minutes
- Teacher introduces the students to the aims of the lesson. Highlighting how an interdisciplinary approach can help create a greater appreciation for the 2 subjects.
- Teacher elicits an agreed upon definition of nationalism from the students, by which they will work with for the lesson task.
15 minutes
- Students are split into groups of 5 and given the 2 poems for overall analysis (content, literary devices, historical inferences)
10 minutes
- Teacher facilitates discussion to elicit student ideas regarding the poems. Leading questions may be used if necessary:
o What is different about the 2 poems? Content, tone, mood, imagery etc.
o What can be inferred about the timeline for these poems?
o What issues are being addressed by the poets?
o Does the structure of the poem help convey its message?
10 minutes
- Teacher gives each group of students 2 generic pictures (i.e. a landscape of a sunrise on a beach).
- In their respective groups, students are tasked to come up with 2 taglines for the two identical pictures. One distinctly nationalistic (and hence, advocates the nation’s involvement in war to preserve her own interests), and another anti-war using at least 1 literary technique.
- Meanwhile, the teacher walks around to help facilitate discussion and keep the ideas on track.
5 minutes
- Students put their posters (complete with tagline, of course) up on the walls.
10 minutes
- Students do a walk around the class to view the work done by their classmates, putting up any comments with the use of post-it notes and signing off (so that they do not write drivel).
5 minutes
- Teacher wraps up, highlighting the more original and impactful taglines.
The lesson has been designed to accomplish the objective of helping students draw a link between their two seemingly dichotomous subjects – Literature and History. Through the study of literature, the history curriculum is lent a lot of life and emotion, and it is hoped that through this exercise the students will be able to understand and appreciate that more. The inclusion of the teacher’s role as merely a facilitator in the group work falls in line with the Freirean School of Thought as it intends to move students away from a ‘banking’ style of education. In the discussions, the teacher should adopt a somewhat detached approach such that the classroom discussions take on a democratic atmosphere so that students are allowed to think for themselves and formulate ideas and conclusions on their own. In this lesson, students are afforded with a large sense of autonomy to voice out their opinions, and even create work to reflect their ideas.
In teaching the students through the use of war literature, it is also hoped that they will be able to see poetry through the lens of the past and cultivate a propensity for empathy in their everyday lives. Education cannot be static and unemotional; it should serve a bigger societal purpose as posited by Dewey. The lesson was designed to not just teach content, but teach the students about the human experience as well. Direct references to history are used to help students connect their prior knowledge to objects of study that may initially seem abstract and foreign (such as war experiences) to reality. As such, through the reading of the two poems, they will be put in the shoes of the war weary or war ready (depending on the poem, naturally) and hopefully, think critically about the poems and their relation to war and nationalistic sentiment.
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Handouts:
The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Rupert Brooke, 1914
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Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Wilfred Owen, 1917
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(PS: THE FORMATTING IS EVIL! OH HOW I LOATHE THEE!)
Hi Samantha,
ReplyDeleteI would have never thought of linking History and Literature together the way you have, it is really something different.
I really like how Literature is used to infuse life into History and vice versa.
Adopting Freirean school of thought is appropriate for the lesson you have designed because I can see that thinking and doing is all by the students, and the teacher like you mentioned is detached. I like the poster idea where students come up with taglines. It is not something one would do for a Literature focused lesson because when we think of Lit we always think of lengthy poems and prose. But letting students work on something short and sweet like taglines stimulates their creativity without giving them pressure to churn up some sort of literary masterpiece.
I also like the two poems you have chosen for the very simple fact that they are short. As a student, I have been given long poems that I had trouble understanding and therefore never bothered appreciating. The poems you have chosen capture the subject matter while being of a reasonable length.
:)
Helloo
ReplyDeleteI like this lesson plan especially given how it links well with the history syllabus- it helps it to come alive, etc. Only one consideration though- that maybe 25 min is a bit too short for two poems? Perhaps different groups can discuss different poems, and that will be more manageable?
First of all, I like the interdisciplinary approach. To some extent, analyzing war poetry is necessarily interdisciplinary. I tried teaching Wilfred Owen once without reference to a certain World War and it didn't make as much sense. Or does it? Some people think that literature themes are all about universal verities. Dreamers they are.
ReplyDeleteBut back to your lesson objectives: By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
"1. Identify content and literary devices that contribute to the message of nationalism, or lack thereof
2. Have a concrete definition of Nationalism"
What order of critical thinking do these outcomes suggest/specify? In other words, what cognitive skills are involving in "identifying" this-and-that and "hav[ing] a concerete definition" of such-and-such?
To what extent is coming up with a definition too easy (simplistic?) for a lesson that seems to be hitting at higher ambitions?
More trenchantly, what do you think Literature (in this case, the war poetry of Brooke and Owen) does to concepts like "nationalism"? And what kinds of AFFECTS and EFFECTS are wrought on students as they go about understanding these concepts through the lens of literature/art?
You say that you want to "teach the students about the human experience as well." What exactly about human experience do you want to teach?
So i'd rethink your learning outcomes first of all. Then i'd rethink the definition of "Freirean." In the midst of my stupid raving and ranting in class, I insisted that not every attempt at creating opportunities for democratic discussions is "Freirean."
That said, you're more accurate about the Deweyan influences on your approach. But what is the "bigger societal purpose" you mention that literature is supposed to serve? Last lesson, i talked about cultural reproduction and cultural resistance as two diamatrically opposed views on the societal function of education. Michael Apple had something to say about that too, but what exactly?