Teaching the “Waste Land” = Waste of time?

Let’s face first the reality by saying that many school teachers are afraid of literature. For that reason, they will find difficult to teach every piece of literature. In this case, with this particular set of poems we can really say: yes, this poems are difficult to teach. However, we as English teachers must promote good literature to make students think and formulate questions. Also, with this kind of poems some pesimistic people may claim that since students have such a low language level they can not express their thoughts in English. But, if we do not create challenging activities, students are going to be always in a beggining level. The “Waste Land” written by T.S Eliot is just the tittle of a set of independent poems. Here, particular attention is focused on “the burial of the death”, the first poem of the Waste Land and its possible application to EFL classroom.


First of all, I’m going to recognize again that the Burial of the dead is a very complex poem. For someone who is reading the poem for the first time this first part of the Waste Land can be read as a simple monologue. A very confusing one. The truth is that there are four speaker and they are telling a story by order. These four speakers in this section are with a special fervour in their need to speak, to find someone who really wants to listen them. But they do not find a correct audience. In addition they are surrounded only by dead people because of the war. The sections where each speaker is expressing what he or she feels are so short and the situations are very confusing, the effect is not one of an overwhelming impression of just one single character; instead, the reader is left with the feeling of being trapped in a crowd, unable to find a familiar speaker. The burial of the dead is like a puzzle for the reader with different fragments that must somehow be pieced together to form a coherente poem. I must say that the
main idea of this poem is the common feeling of different people about two issues that are mentioned in the title; the burial and the dead. And, why these topics are of interest for the writer?. The reason why these topics are of interest for rthe writer is because of the context in wich the writer was inmerse. The first world war awas taking place in England. So, this writer wanted to express his point of view about this historical problem.


A second notion that may play an important role in the “Burial of the dead” is the applicability that this poem can have inside the classroom. Being realistic, I think that is not necessary show them and make them read the whole poem. They are not going to understant it. - It was difficult for us, students from fourth year of English pedagogy- but, if the teacher is capable to introduce the whole story and catch students attention they will be able to read thanks to their interest. A teacher can do very interesting activities with his or her students thanks this poem. For example, in one class the teacher could introduce students the “Burial of the dead” creating a discussion based on one single question: what would you express if you were a writer in the world war I?. In this way, and with the guide of the teacher students will practise their oral skills and learn new vocabulary. In the following class the teacher can perform as if he or she is T.S Eliot and tell to the class important elements of this poem. Maybe, learn by heart little details about the poem because details catch inmediately the attention of the students. During this performance the teacher could ask students to make notes in order to share them with the rest of the class. If this notes are in English can be better!. In the third session and to conlude this activity with students the teacher could bring to the class different quotations and ask students to pick one and express waht does she or he feels about it. As you can see with three sessions your students will know about T.S Eliot, The Waste Land and specifically about one poem named “The burial of the dead”.


The third point that I consider is very important in order to promote meaningful learning is how we can relate this poem to students life?. I think that is not necessary that we relate this poem to students life. Students will relate this poem to their own realities. The burial of the dead points out very human feelings with the help of four different points of view. Making them think deeply about one quotation and asking them what would you do or what do you think about it will inmediately be meaningful learning. Also, if you as a teacher are just a guide of their process they will find the appropiate way to discover the meaning of a word, to create different possibilities of ending the story, will choose with the help of whom they are going to work and so on. I believe that students need to be independent learners. To reach that goal is necessary to offer them all the help that they need but without impose them the way of working or the way to find appropiate solution of their questions. Just offer them different alternatives.


On the whole, I think that “The burial of the dead” is a very difficult poem to teach. But, students need challenging activities. In one hand if the teacher is not interested on teach this kind of literature he or she will lose a very funny way to learn English. On the other hand, those who do not think that teaching the waste land is a waste of time will have a very good time listening what their student think about the literature that you as a university student saw in the past. As I said in other paper time ago, I’m not one of those teachers who are afraid of literature. For that reason I hope to bring new ways of learning English, in a non convensional way, to the classroom.







Bibliography


· Joanne Collie, Stephen Slater. “literature in the language classroom: a resource book of ideas and activities”. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
· http://teacheng.us/?p=73# comment-7603.
· http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/section2.rhtml

Outline

My paper will be focused on the following question:
It is possible to teach "the waste land" written by T.S Elliot to high school students?

Introduccion
º A brief explanation of the poem and why do I think it is necessary to teach it.

Body
ºThe main idea of the poem
ºInteresting topics to teach about the poem
ºHow to relate the poem with students life

Conclusion
º A wrap up of the body

About Auden's poem...

This poem named September,1, brings very contemporary isssues and ideologies. For that reason the implementation of it inside EFL classes is not so difficult.
Inside the group discussion that we had in classes, my classmates and I realized that this poem was very controversial because of the way that was written.The historical context was a very strong influence too. The second world war was taking place and the writer was inmerse in this cruel episode. So, taking this in mind it is not a surprise the born of this poem as a response to all the cruelty that the world was facing. Also, we realize that this poem is not the only one reaction to the war. Many writers, as a way of self expression, begin to write about what was happening with the humanity.

From my point of view this poem was very good constructed. The writer is capable to express all the sadness that he was feeling in that moment and all the disappointment from his inner thoughts.He do not say anything explicit. He leaves the reader to infer about what is written. In this way he shows that he was not interested on impose certain point of view, the only thing that he wanted is to express his feelings.

On the whole, inside the classroom we can do reflective activities with our students leaving them to express what they feel thanks to this poem. Not forcing them to follow a certain patter to do it. The aim will be only share thoughts and feelings in the target language.

the comment (From me to Luis Jerez)

My dear boyfriend:

it was very good to read your point of view about the gender issue present in "A room of one's own", but I must confess that I disagree with your point of view.

From my point of view, the gender issue is something that will never change, in terms of make differences between women and men. I also think if it changes will be a boring society because this feminist movements will disappear and everything will be nice. People need confrontations. It is funny to see how nowadays women want to be as men, but they do not see the lovely differences among us and that men are not evil enemies they are our complement. LiKE IT OR NOT.

On the other hand, Women are very intelligent, we always get what we want. For that reason I do not want to under estimate Virginia Wolf saying that if she wouldn't name herself with the last name "Shakespeare" society will not recognize her as an important writer. Instead of saying that I would say that she wanted to publish and be famous easily. Maybe, with this last name she wanted to be famous inmediately.

To conclude women(not every one) are not white birds, we are ambitious, smart enough to do what we want and do not forget my dear that society is made by men and WOMEN it is not a self-suficient entity, so if women writers are not considered good enough let's think what is wrong on their literature.

19 de noviembre de 2009 14:42

The Waste land... by me...

Something that really moved me was the feeling of insecurity and exposure that the writer transmit through their poems.

I could noticed the feeling of exposure when Eliot states: "APRIL is the cruellest month" why April is the cruellest month? if we think this month is plenty of happiness because of the spring. But he doesn't feel part of this happiness, he feels that in this particular month doesn't have a protection. Maybe, this protection that only something warm as your clothes is capable to give you.

I was wandering to know, how many times we hide ourselves behind this social code named clothes? Personally, I did it once. At the same time, this makes me think that this feeling of insecurity comes from this social issues that he must face in life and to his capacity of observation. The more we see the more we questioned the world we are living in. Also, real and crude world are reflected on his literature thanks to this observational capacity.

To conclude, all the reality creates the point of view of the writer as a help calling, because and from my point of view he was alone facing his own world without any help.

...About "The Rocking-Horse winner" and "Odour of Chrysanthemums"...

For me, was amazing how the writer's life was mixed with each story. Every event of his life was mentioned in some way. I knew that every writer give something of his or her personal life to his/her masterpiece in order to create a real story with real events but here I realise about the importance of doing it.

DH. Lawrence was focused on monetary issues and we could see it in both stories. Also inside his work he presents values. For example, the important things that we could lose if we pay so much attention to money as love relationships. From my point of view we was worried about transmiting this topics because in one time of his life he experienced. On the other hand, the possesive mother present in "The Rocking- Horse winner" was very similar to his own mother. The image of a strong woman controling the child's life and making decitions for him.

On the whole, DH, Lawrence brings very contemporary issues and he also used his own life to develop the plot of his stories in order to make it more real and meaningful to people.

...The need to have a space, both real and metaphorical to write....

From my point of view, it is very necessary to have a special space to write and clarify your ideas. But, I think that in order to have ideas is very necessary interact with others all the time.

Virginia Wolf shows this personal space to write with the idea of a room created only for her and her thoughts. In this way she express the need of being alone. For this reason, to contrast her feelings with the real world it was necessary to find a quiet place with little interaction with the outside. On the other hand, if you want to write about something you must interact with the real world. If you are a good observer and if you are interested on interact with people you will have more to write about because you will have more anecdotes.

To conclude, the writer need a space to write what is happening around, but this does't mean that you must be always alone.

The signal man

The loneliness of a man could be fixed with imagination. From my point of view, this man suffered alone because of his job. He didn't have interaction with other human beings or dreams about a better future. So, he worked hard that's why he imagined a ghost who was his only company on the railway.

Maybe, his way of escaping from his reality was trough imagination. If I make the link between this text and today's reality we can find many similar points. For example, this idea of work alone because in this way you are going to work better, the loneliness of a person, the individual work. Today we could have many people around us but we decided if give them life or not.

about Frankenstein

Everybody has something of Frankenstein inside. When I did the circles of life I realize that we have many things in common. I think that there is an stage in life that make us feel as monsters. For example, when we are adolescents. This funny feeling that we do not belong to anywhere and that nobody undestand our thoughts are clear signs that we are monsters!.

I’m not sure that now I don’t have these feelings inside of me, I guess that I’m still a monster...
Let me think...
Yes!,
I’m a monster because many times I feel that I don’t belong to anywhere,
I’m still a monster because I can not do certain things because of the society,
I’m a nice monster because I learnt to listen to those who don’t have voice,
I’m a monster that learnt how to behave in certain circumstances, like it or not,
I’m a lady Franky, who wants love from someone like her,
And stay with him for ever, and share with him the beauty of nature,
The only thing that makes me real is that my face and body are accepted
but not my soul, not yet...

I wanderered lonely as a cloud

The writer mentioned the importance of the nature inside human beings' feelings.When I read the poem I thought when I feel loneliness and I try to cheer me up thinking of good things. One of these good things are the impact of nature on me.

From my point of view,it is a very romantic piece of literature because are the writer's feelings captured on it. He imagines freedom through the image of a cloud, lonely, without human problems. He wanted to scape in some way of this limitated world,
and the only way of doing it is writing or just thinking that you are part of the nature. However,we as limitated living beings must express ourselves and literature is an important tool.

On the other hand, nature is the synonym of purity. So, I can say that nature always is going to have a big impact in our lifes. For example, if we looking for inspiration, ways of expressing thoughts, nature always have an special analogy.

To conclude, people always want to scape or being relax, for that reason nature helps in order to reach sould's aims.

about the second poem...

The different pictures that we saw in class are very related with the poem, because the pictures shows the main ideas or the main feelings of this piece of literature.

The first picture was related with the wildness that is present in the poem. In some way, this wildness is conected with nature. The picture show us an island with two trees reflected in the water. From my point of view this reflection points out two different perspectives of the writer. One perspective , a bad one, shows the bad side of this wildness, the darkness realted with the unknown. The second perspective related with the good side of this wildness, nature itself and its purity; the aim of the artist, being involve in this pure nature with the darkness around his mind.

The second image was a city. I related this city with the word history. Everything have history behind and the personal life of the writer is not the exception. In the moment of express what we feel we mix our own history with our way of communication.

The third picture had a woman and near her a person flying, transfering something. In some way this image makes me think about the addiction of the writer. If we remember, he was addicted to drugs. He needed drugs in order to have inspiration. In the picture there is a special conection between this two persons. For me one of them is the ispiration or the drug effects and the other is the writer.

To conclude I made the conection between the images and the writer not with the poem. I strongly believe that we need to analize the writer and what happened with his life in order to understand better his writing.

The little black boy...

From my point of view the poem, the little black boy, shows two important perspectives. the first is relate to the divine and the second to the human.
We can see in the poem the divine conexion with the human life when the mother and the son pray together because of all the questions that the kid has about his nature. On the other hand th human side is reflected in the realtionship of a mother with her son and the strong feeling of love that conected them. Therefore I conected the poem with the painting of Pablo Picasso, called "first steps." With this painting and focused only in the second viwe that I mentioned above -the human side- in which the image of a mother teaching to her son how to walk, reinforces the maternal and human realtionship present in the poem.

SO, WHO IS AFRAID OF LITERATURE?

Today many school teachers try to avoid literature inside their classes. Maybe, it is because the word literature itself sounds too difficult. But, the truth is that literature is present in our day to day life. It is present in some written extract, in the newspaper, in text books, in reading comprehension activities, etc. Moreover, when we have to write a paper, when we invent a tale as a homework at school, when we are in love and we write a love letter, we are creating literature. So, why people is afraid of it?. However, from my point of view, every subject at school must intergrate literature inside its activities, in order to create a close relationship between literature and students.

First, we have to know what literature means. The spanish encyclopaedia, Concisa Sopena, report, “Literature is the fulfilment of the beauty through words, every human act that needs to be express.” In this way, we can realise that literature is very close to us. The first step to teach about literature inside our classrooms is that literature is not something complicated or something that it must be learn by hard. It is something that must be understand as a way of expression.

Also, Literature give us a big opportunity to expand our point of view and share a set of believes with the world around us. It is because literature is exclusively related to human beings. It means that we as humans need to express and share thoughts and feelings because we are social animals. That’s why Through a book a person can find solutions or ways of understanding in a better way our world. And, if we think deeply thanks literature we can understand the history and the different changes of the humanity. For that reason, I think it is important to create a close relationship between literature and students. Because, literature share differents identities and at the same time this identities helps to create complete students. Complete students who are going to know who they really are.

On the other hand, during my working experiences in public schools I realise that English teachers avoid to teach literature. They also, avoid to teach students about famous writers. For example, none of my mentor teachers talks about a William Shakespeare or Chaucer inside their classes. Once, I asked why she can no teach through little paragraphs of a Shakespeare’s book past sentences, she said that her students were not in an advanced level and they were not interested about it. This makes me think how students about fourteen, fifteen years old could not be interested about a love story as Romeo and Juliet, as an example, and at the same time learn past sentences and new vocabulary. But, if I don’t create challenges activities to my students, they are going to be always in a begining level. Maybe, nowadays teachers are afraid of literature not his or her students.

If English teachers were not afraid of literature they could create very nice activities. As I said before, a teacher can teach past simple sentences with a “catching” fragment of Romeo and Juliet then, ask students what they feel or what they think about the reading activity in order to share opinions and learn how to comunicate deep ideas in English. With this prototype of activity, some pessimistic people could say me: your students have a beginig level, they can not express their thoughts in English! But, If I remember when I started the university my English proficiency was lower than begining. So, everybody should take the risk of learn English.. Moreover, if they are my students and they do not have more space that my class to learn another language. Another way to use the literature inside the classroom is make students read biographies about famous writers. If we think, when students are adolescents they are creating their identity. So, if we give them biographies to read, they could find something interesting inside the story. For example, a similar story of life, same values or the same way of thinking. In this way they are going to feel a conexion with this writer and they are going to feel the necessity of read one of his or her books in the future. In this way teacher are going to stimulate the intrinsic motivation to learn of their students. Talking about English goals related with the planification, teachers are going to develop reading skills and writing skills if they want to know what students learned with the reading.

To conclude, this semester I realise that literature is an important aspect of our life. I realise that we can learn more reading and then making the conexion with what is happening know. But, to do it is necessary to have a guide teacher inside the classroom, not a dictator. Also, the interaction among students and the interaction with the teacher allow us to expand our mind, our way of thinking. Personally, I always enjoyed reading and writing but I never thought that my students needed to do the same. It is on my hands to transmit the importance of literature inside the classroom and inside my students life. The word literature itself sounds too dificult as I said above but my aim being a teacher is transmit the real relationship between literature and the main events of our history. In this way I’m not going to transmit that literature is an exclusive way of communication only for smart people. Literature is for everyone. I’m glad to discover that I’m not one of those teachers who are afraid of literature.

“THINK FROM YOUR HEART THE RIGHT ONE” (The Merchant of Venice)

Inside the movie the Merchant of Venice we could see the story of a young princess who lived in Belmontt. Her name was Portia. Before the death of her father, -The king-, his last order was the creation of three different caskets. One made of gold, another of silver and the last one made of lead. One of these have inside the portrait of Portia . Those who really wanted her hand must travel to Belmontt and choose one of this caskets. If someone choose the casket, with her the portrait inside, is able to marry with the princess. However a young man, Bassanio, wanted to prove his lucky with these famous caskets. But he wasn’t the only one who attempted. Moreover, before him, the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon tried. But here we will turn our attention to the story of the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon only.
For the sake of completeness, it is necessary to say that all the caskets had an inscription. When a prince was triying to choose the best one, he had to read the message that the casket offered him. The gold casket had written: “ Who chooses me will gain what any man desires.” Then the silver casket said: “ Who chooses me shall gain as much as he deserves.” Finally, the casket made of lead said: “Who chooses me must give and hazard all he has.”
Both, the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon read the statements. The prince of Morocco chose the the gold casket. This prince chose it because he thought that the desire of any man was to get married with the princess. But, the only thing that he found inside was a little skull with a paper inside one eye. The paper said to him that “his pretension was cold.” Then, it was the turn of the prince of Aragon. First he read the lead casket. The prince making fun of the situation saying to everybody that the princess was not so beautiful to give and hazard all that he has. So, he decided to open the silver casket because he assume that he deserves to be the owner of the princess. For his misfortune he fail. Inside he found a blinking pupet. He was very angry. He felt as an idiot in front of his servants. He started to yell and ask if he deserves so little. Finally, he left the castle with some wisdom words: “ With one fools head came to wood, but I go away with two.”
It would be reasonable to suppose that these caskets had a deep meaning. Not a explicit one. Take account to the fact that every casket had a text in order to guide the candidates. Every casket reflected the real intentions of these candidates. What they had in mind. These casket represented three aspects that the men want in life: Power “gold,” respect “silver,” and love “lead”. Why I’m saying this?, because is reflected in the Prince’s choices. For example, the prince of Morocco was plenty of servants and he came to the princess with a haughty discourse and he chose the gold casket. He wanted to win a trophy marriying with this famous and beautiful princess. On the other hand, the prince of Aragon chose the silver one. He was very petulant. He thought that he deserves the best because he was the best. But he was wrong.
The inescapable conclusion which emerges fom what I have said is that once more shakespeare is teaching us values and the predictable behave of human being. It was a very good film with a good plot and it catched my attention.

Outline

The question that I chose to develop was : What do the casket represent? How are the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon, who fail to choose the right casket, depicted?


1.Introduction:

- A brief Sumary of the movie. Focused only in the part of the movie related with the question to develop.


2. Body:

- Adding information related with the summary.
- Anwer the question of what do the casket represent?
- Answer the question of how are the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon?



3. Conclusion

- What I think about the movie in general.

About the Faerie Queene...

This letter was wrote with a special intention behind. That's why it is an allegory, because "between the lines" you can find a "secret meaning".
Spencer with his book was telling his deep thoughts about the society in those times. So, with his letter to Sir Walter he wanted to clarify that he wasn't a revolutionary thinker, because it was good for Spencer to stand aloof of social conflicts or he could die. However Spencer entwined though his different characters the ideal that he wanted to outside his book. For example he talks about values putting it names (his character's names)in orer to disguising his real intetions as I said before.
On the whole Spencer was really smart doing this letter explaining why he wanted to write his book. He also xplain in a clear way the plot of the story in order to dissipate future judgements against him

What women desire?

Chaucer in his poem describes a very peculiar woman. This woman was against the common stereotype that women had at those times. If we think deeply in her way of being she was not so different from us. She wanted to be loved, to be understood.

On the other hand, I don’t think that she really wanted that a specific man makes her feel as someone special or unique. She knew that she was different from the rest. Also, she was strong enough to live without rules; she really knew that she was capable to do whatever she wanted in order to have a good life by herself.

However, every human being wants to be loved, respect and understood, not only women. So, from my point of view this character wanted to share her fight for life with someone stronger than she (in front of the society at list) and show her weak and sweetness side.

about the poem...

The truth is inside us. All what we need is to be sure about what we are doing in life to demonstrate the truth which is inside of everyone. But it is difficult to live in truth .
But my question is, How are we going to know if we are living in truth now? are there parameters to measure this? the answer is quite simple: There are not! You can not measure the truth by yourself, by being yourself...Therefore, If you want to believe that the parameter exists, you can do it, but you will be really lost because if someone wants to follow the ideas from the poem as a bible, then his way of life will be to selfish! Because, as I said before, truth is inside us. However, we need to interact with others in order to realise whether we are living in truth or not.

my definition of an epic poem

For me an Epic poem is about the life or the journey of an important person who lives an amazing life, plenty of adventures. Also is the point of view of someone who is following his or her history. Maybe those poems were a way of share with a comunity and have fun, because in those times they didn't have television or radio. On the other hand, this character mentioned in the poem it turns into an icon like a "Heroe.".

"Literature"

Nothing in this world is brand new. As the quotation says "We are all formed from what other people give us". We are not building new things, everything that we are doing now, for example: studing, thinking about the future, working, loving, etc. are activities that someone did before us.

Personally, this fact scary me, because I don't want to repeat actions throug my whole life, but it is impossible!

However, what is the rol of literature here? from my point of view the answer is quite simple; it help us to find another point of view from another perspective too. Literature could be a tool in order to find answers to our social conflicts or it could be a kind of historical guide.

On the whole, thanks to literature we can know about the complex human beings history and how we can face ours.