Humanising Language Teaching
Year 3; Issue 4; July 2001

Marginalia

John Morgan
secondary and adult

Level Intermediate to Advanced
Time 20-30 minutes

Aims

to give students the opportunity to comment on and share opinions about the words and phrases they are meeting

Preparation

1. Choose a number of short but complete texts: poems are ideal. You will need a different text for each group (4-6) of students.
   
   
2. Make copies of each text: one for each member of the group plus one additional copy.

Procedure

1. Ask the students to form groups of 4-6 members. Make sure each group has access to at least one dictionary.
   
   
2. Give one copy of the first text to Group A, one copy of the second text to Group B, and so on.
   
   
3. Tell the students to read and discuss their text within the group. Say you are available to answer simple questions about language, but you would prefer them to find out from each other or from the dictionary.
   
   
4. After 10 minutes, ask each group to divide up their text so that each member chooses a different word or phrase from it. Not every word or phrase in the text need be chosen.
   
   
5. Give out the remaining copies of the texts, so that each student has his/her own copy.
   
   
6. Ask the students to underline, on their own copies, the word or phrase they have chosen, and then, in the margin, to make a comment on it. Explain that this can take any form they like: a paraphrase, an example sentence to show how it can be used, a response or criticism, a better alternative, even a picture.
   
   
7. Tell the students to circulate their texts around the group and to read each other's "marginalia".

Example text (by e e cummings)

where climbing was and bright 
is darkness and to fall,
(now wrong's the only right 
since brave are cowards all)

Extension

"Publication" is an excellent way to encourage students to respect and enjoy both their own work and that of others:

1. Put all the marginalia for each text on a sheet of paper together with the original text and make enough copies for the whole class to read.
   
   
2. If you and your students are familiar with, and have access to, computers and browser software, make a simple website for each text: the original text should be on one page (or as the main frame of a page) with each selected word or phrase made into a link and the comments to it placed in a separate page (or frame) to be displayed when the link is clicked.

Variation

The same activity works well with texts generated by the students themselves.