Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 4; July 03

Keyword diagrams

Level : Elementary to Advanced
Time : 15-25 minutes

Preparation

Select and present short poems. The examples below are:

1. (Intermediate): Roger McGough, Penguin Modern Poets 10, 1967
2. (Elementary): Tony, John, Malek, Stepney Words I & II, Centreprise Publications 1973
3. (Upper Intermediate): Alan Bold, In This Corner: Selected Poems, 1963-1983, Macdonald 1983

In class

• After the students have had a chance to read through the poem(s), invite them to express the meaning/structure/imagery in the form of keywords taken from the text and linked by some graphic device (e.g. arrows, interlocking circles).

• Ask the students, in groups of three, to explain to one another how and why they produced their diagrams.

Sample texts

1. There's something sad
   about the glass
   with lipstick on its mouth
   that's pointed at and given back
   to the waitress in disgust

   Like the girl with the hair-lip

   whom
   no one
   wants
   to
   kiss

2. Alone he walks
   He walks alone
   He has no friends
   And has no home
   I noticed something from the back
   He is alone because he's black

3. Cause and Effect

   He thought before the war
   Of conflicts, heroism, enemies
   Who had to be crushed;
   Causes that had to be fought for.
   
   He had no time before the war
   For bright skies, fields, the warm
   Sun, his woman - only
   Causes that had to be fought for.
   
   I see him now after the war
   In my lifetime. I notice his love
   Of the sun, bright skies, fields, his woman:
   Causes that have to be fought for.

Examples

In one group students produced these:

(a)

[diagram with handwritten
GLASS GIRL LIPSTICK MOUTH
HAIRLIP
WAITRESS KISS]

(b)

[diagram with handwritten
ALONE
NO FRIENDS + NO HOME
BLACK]