Aesthetic approach

1. AESTHETIC APPROACH
The River by Valerie Bloom

2. This activity is mainly focus on the ‘Aesthetic-
based Approach’ in teaching poem. By using this
approach, it helps the lesson become more
entertaining and challenging as it demands the
students to be more creative and critical in
analyzing the poem.

3. Examples Of Literary Elements
• Story/Sequence of
events/Point-of-view
• Setting
• Characterizations
• Literary devices

4. INTRODUCTION
• Teacher divides the students into 5 groups.
• Teacher shows a poster that consists two
different images – Image A and Image B.
(Appendix 1)
• From the poster, students are asked to answer
several questions.
• For question (4), the teacher will pick the
students randomly.

5. PRE READING ACTIVITY

6. Pre-reading
Activity:
1) Color Poster
2) Compare and
Contrast Handout

7. 1. List 4 feelings/emotions that your feel after you see the
poster.
Anticipated answer:
 Pleasant feelings – happy, glad, pleased, peaceful etc.
 Unpleasant feelings – sad, angry, irritated, heartbroken etc.
2. Referring to the poster, construct sentences based on the
feelings/emotions that you have listed.
Anticipated answer:
 I feel happy when I see the river is clean and flow calmly.
 I feel sad seeing many dead fish floating in the river.
3. Read the sentences aloud in front of the class.
4. Compare and contrast the situations in Image A and Image B by
giving short answers. (Appendix 2)

8. DEVELOPMENT
Activity 1
Activity 2

9. Activity 1
• Teacher tells the class that they are going to learn
about ‘The River’ poem by Valerie Bloom.
• Teacher recites the poem clearly (once or twice)
in front of the students for them to note the
correct pronunciation of each words.
• Teacher gives different tasks to each groups.
Within a time limit (teacher can decide), the
students need to complete the task and present
their answer in front of the classroom. (This
activity is called Jigsaw Reading)

10. WHILE-READING
ACTIVITY

11. Group Tasks
Group 1:
a) The students are required to recite the poem with feeling,
expression and with the correct stress and rhythm in front
of the classroom.
b) Discuss on the tone, mood and structure of the poem.
Group 2:
a) What is the theme of this poem?
b) What makes you think that theme you choose is suitable
for this poem? Elaborate your answer in a simple
paragraph.

12. Group Tasks
Group 3:
a) Relate the characters and actions in the poem to one’s life.
b) Explain your answer clearly.
Group 4:
a) Describe the messages that the writer is putting across in
the poem (moral values).
b) Write a simple paragraph on it and elaborate.

13. Group Tasks
Group 5:
a) Share with your classmates the literary devices in this
poem based on the given elements:
 Personification
 Metaphor
 Relating sounds to meanings (onomatopoeia)
 Patterns of sounds (alliteration/assonance)

14. Activity 2
• Teacher gives handout to the students.
(Appendix 3)
• All students need to answer the questions given. They are
allowed to discuss in groups.
*To make it interesting, the teacher can conduct this activity in
game form where first three groups finished fastest in
answering these questions with the correct answers will receive
prizes.

15. WHILE-READING
ACTIVITY

16. 1. Identify one pair of rhyming words in Stanza 1 and
Stanza 2.
2. What is the river compared to in the third stanza?
How is it described?
3. Find three actions performed by the river in Stanza
4.
4. In Stanza 4, the river is happily ‘sucking his thumbs’
can appeal to our sense of _________________
5. Which line in Stanza 5 tell us that the sound of the
river can be heard near and far?
6. What are the two human emotions that the river
being personified with in Stanza 6?

17. CONCLUSION

18. • Teacher provides the students with a blank A4 paper.
• This final activity can be carried out individually or in
groups.

19. POST-READING
ACTIVITY

20. 1. Poem ‘The River’ by Valerie Bloom is from the
second point of view. Write a parody to that
poem from the first point of view (the river’s
perspective).
2. Use the questions below as a guideline in
constructing the parody poem.
• Who am I?
• What actions do I perform?
• Why/How do I perform the actions?
• Insert any emotions, feelings or moral values that
relevance as a sequence of the poem.

21. APPENDICES
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3

22. Image A Image BPOSTER(APPENDIX1)

23. APPENDIX2

24. APPENDIX3