READING STRATEGIES IN POETRY

When we read, we learn things by making pictures in our minds, which we call images. The use of visualization in poetry is called imagery.

LITERARY DEVICES

Differences between similes and metaphors.

Examples of these literary devices in two poems:”The Swimmer” by Constance Levy and “Skiing” by Bobbi Katz.

SENSORY IMAGES

We looked for some examples of sensory images connected to “Dancing” and the poem “Skiing”.

We made a list of sports or physical activities we felt strongly about, choosing one of them to  write a poem.

 As a pre-writing activity, to organize our ideas, we wrote down some lists of verbs, similes, metaphors and sensory images related to the sport we chose.

Final task: writing poems and sharing them with our classmates.

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION

According to Bloom´s Taxonomy, we can distinguish different levels of comprehension:

Literal Comprehension. Students understand and identify details stated in writing, so it is useful with non-fiction.

Inferential Comprehension which encourages students to use critical thinking, going beyond what is stated to find more meaning (fiction).

Evaluative Comprehension. Students draw conclusions based on evidence.

Final task: Making questions on different texts, such as Beowulf, Macbeth, Oliver Twist.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

We were divided into several groups with primary, secondary and university teachers from Spain, France, Switzerland and Uzbekistán.

FEEDBACK ON CULTURAL EXCHANGE

We discussed and compare the following topics:

Education system, teaching and English language teaching in  school, timetable, salary, discipline, respect, rewards for the best teachers.

We focused on the main differences.

LANGUAGE FOR SUBJECT AREAS: EXPLORATION

We worked on an amazing story called “Tale of Endurance”, based on Shackleton´s expedition to the South Pole in 1914-1916, watching some pictures of cold places to brainstorm vocabulary and making it more interesting, using emphasis and noun phrases.

As a follow-up activity, we designed an advert for men to go on the expedition, comparing it with the real advert later.