The teaching plan introduces students to an English poem by Andrew Berrie about the sounds of a pendulum clock. Students will listen to natural sounds, discuss the history of pendulum clocks, and read the poem. They will analyze the poem's meaning, rhythm, and theme of appreciating time. As an activity, students will write their own poem mimicking the style and message of capturing feelings about the passage of time.

1. The Teaching Plan for the Poem

2. After learning this poem, students will 1) be able to know how to appreciate an English poem. 2) be able to understand the real meaning of the poem and its message that the poet really wanted to convey. 3) be able to write a simple and similar English poem.

3. Activity 1: Listen to some sounds from the nature and ask students how they feel about the sounds they heard. Sound of a stream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWJ7tIeotWw

4. Students try to write down any natural sounds that they are familiar with in small groups, For instance, sounds like rain, thunder, birds’ singing, door knock and so on. Each group will act the sound out later and ask the other group about their feelings after hearing the sounds they made.

5. Show a picture of a pendulum clock and discuss about its history, structure, shape and sound with students.

6. 1) Introduce the background of the poet: Andrew Berrie and the poem to the students. 2) Ask students to list some rhyming words they have known on a piece of paper. Such as may, hay, bay, lay, lock, clock, block, flock and so on.

7. Read the poem and try to answer the questions: 1) How do you feel or what are your emotions after reading the poem? 2) What is special about the shape of the poem? 3) What message does the poet really want to convey in his poem? i.e. what true theme is the poem? 4) Read the poem aloud to the class individually or in pairs or in groups.

8. ...tick-tock TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK HYPNOPTISING HYPNOPTISING The pendulum goes UP-DOWN HIGH-LOW The cogs go fast and slow The weight sinks lower and lower and lower ...TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK The hands go stealthily round OH What a beautiful sound... TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK tick-tock...

9. Task 1: Vocabulary 1) Check the vocabulary understanding by matching the synonyms or paraphrases of the words in the poem: hypnotise, pendulum, magnificent, cog, stealthily. 2) Students discuss why the poet used this word instead of its synonym whether we can replace them or not in groups.

10. Task 2: Poem Reciting Competition

11. As we often hear that time is life and time is money. It is true that time passes away in a wink. What do you do when waiting for the bus or for classes to start? How do you treasure your time and how do you manage your time better?

12. Try to write a poem that is similar to this one that you have learned today and you can express your certain feelings or emotions through your poems.

13. The End!