assignment 6

Teaching English poem to high school students can be challenge for teachers and students. Some people are not favor of teaching English poem because there are a lot of things to manage: message and language itself. Nevertheless, three of students in our class liked the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” and wrote about why it is good content for teaching. According to their blogs, the poem is suitable for high school students in terms of the message implied and language use.

All three writers agree that the poem represents valuable message for high school students to teach. Haeun Kim says that “high school students can realize parents’ love toward them.” Through this poem, students can understand how concerned their parents are about raising them and it will give them opportunities to become better person(2014.10.07). Jihyun Lee also agrees that students can understand how their parents feel. She writes, “they could see how the parents did to them when they grew up and they could feel their emotion, so the students realized the parent’s love through the poem”(2014.10.09). Unlike the two writers before, Hyeonkyeom Cho suggests another reason why she chooses this poem. She says that the poem leads the students not only to think about parent’s love but also realize what independence truly means. Cho also mentions that “high school students can feel empathy with this poem because they are about to leave their parents.” After reading the poem, they can understand how parents will feel about their leaving and take their future more seriously(2014.10.11). As we know, it is important for students to know their parent’s love because it will be first step to be fully grown-up.

In addition, they agree that students can learn literary devices and some vocabulary with this poem. According to Lee, English poem isn’t covered in high school class often and many students are not used to read English poem. Students can learn rhetoric expressions and some challenging words(2014.10.09). Kim also agrees that students can understand how to use rhetoric device such as metaphor. In the poem, writer describes the daughter leaving home using metaphor so, it helps students understand the characteristics of poem. Also, some vocabularies might be difficult, but it doesn’t overwhelm them.(2014.10.07). Cho writes that “the level of vocabulary is not that difficult and there are many literary devices students have to learn such as symbolism and metaphor.” She says the author describes the daughter’s life using metaphor. Thus, students can get what the symbolism and metaphor are subconsciously by reading the poem(2014.10.11).

References :

In summary, these three writers insist that this poem is appropriate for students to teach.

This poem includes not only valuable lesson for students’ life but also literary concepts and words at proper level of difficulty.

Haeun Kim(2014.10.07) Retrieved from http://hannyessayworld.blogspot.kr/

Hyeonkyeom Cho(2014.10.11) “Poem recommendation - To a daughter leaving home” Retrieved from http://lovelycho.blogspot.kr/2014/10/poem-recommendation-to-daughter-leaving.html

Jihyun Kim(2014.10.09) Retrieved from http://jihyun9190.blogspot.kr/2014_10_01_archive.html

  

"To a Daughter Leaving Home"

If I were a high school teacher,  I would teach  my students the poem ‘To a daughter leaving home’. It would appropriate for high school students to learn this in terms of message implied in the poem and language usage in it.

When it comes to message of the poem, it is totally suitable to high school students. Students will be living home like the daughter in the poem after graduation. Most of students are thrilled about going college and being grown-up. During high school, they might “wobble away” and their parents have always been there to catch and help them. However, students are “pumping” for their life, preparing to leave their parents. Finally, they are not children anymore who are in need of parents and become independent of parents like the daughter in the poem. This poem not only relate to students’ life itself but also put themselves in their parents’ shoes. They are so happy that they couldn’t realize how parents feel about their leaving. By reading this poem, students can empathize with the daughter and also understand their parents.

Secondly, as for language use, this poem is appropriate for students to learn.Most of korean high school students are not used to read English poetry and some poem have poetic expressions that students can’t understand easily. Students can be overwhelmed by these words rather than appreciate the poem itself. However, In the poem, there might be some words that are not familiar to them, but it is not difficult to understand the message. Also, it has some metaphors, so students can learn rhetoric devices.

In the conclusion, the poem relate to students’ life and has proper language for them to learn. Students can learn easily understand the poem, empathizing the daughter in it, so it is suitable for high school students.