ELT W6 Assignment

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In the previous lesson, each of us was asked to pick up one best literature; thus, each one made decision according to his/her individual preference. While reading through others’ essays on the defence of “To a Daughter Leaving Home”, interestingly, I learned that there are common reasons for decision among our work. In other words, even though each essay didn’t exhibit the same reasons, all the reasons suggested in my essay appear in the totality of the essays.

         At first, both John and Hayoung agreed that the poem benefits students in affective ways: John expects the students to imagine “how the parents are feeling and thinking toward their children” while Hayoung says, “the students will face a turning point to go back to the arms of their parents reading this poem.” These anticipations assume a common premise that reading this poem would help students to put themselves in their parents’ place so that they get to empathize with their parents.

         Secondly, Mijung and John concurred with each other in that the familiarity of the topic of the poem to the students enables quick access to their background knowledge. Mijung writes, “students can easily connect their experiences to the poem.” Likewise, John asserts that “it is easy to activate their (students’) schema.” This kind of transfer seems to makes them feel comfortable thus inducing active engagement to the lesson.

         In the last place, both Hayoung and Mijung mention educational effects found in the expressions of the poem; however they highlight different aspects. What Hayoung points out is that the students would take advantage of the expressions to be creative because the narrator of the poem depicts his emotion and the situation in such an ingenious way as in the word ‘distance’ in “more breakable/with distance.” On the other hand, argue that its rhetoric is especially helpful because students can “refer these kind of expressions” to “make up their own writings.”

         In conclusion, the bloggers adopted “To a Daughter Leaving Home” to teach their students for three reasons: its affective benefit, accessibility to schema, and educational effects of its expressions.