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Teaching and learning purpose
To help students to read and understand the play text Children of the Poor in order to rehearse and present a selected scene in a group by:
- understanding the context of the play
- understanding the key themes related to sin and poverty and techniques of conveying these such as the use of irony, satire
- understanding the use of Christian symbolism in the play and in particular the role of the use of hymns and prayers in the play
- recognising the role of key characters and the chorus – as ‘socially committed story-tellers’ and ‘alter-egos’ to Albany
- synthesising information to form an opinion about the way in which themes of the play can be highlighted through presentation.
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What background and cultural knowledge do students need in order to be able to understand this play? What language do your students need to extend their ability to express opinions about plot, themes, or characters and give reasons?
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Teaching and learning Key competency: understanding language, symbols and texts
Activity 1
1. Read through the text of the play as a class. Ensure that students share equally in the reading aloud of the text by giving them advance warning of their roles and sections of the text for which they will take responsibility. Make sure the students stand in front of the class to read the text. Coach readers in their roles to be as expressive as possible and to ‘read ahead’. 2. Elicit key vocabulary for talking about the play for example, “the novelist, John A. Lee”, “playwright” “poverty”, “depression”, “Christianity”, “prostitution”, “illegitimacy”, “class system and class attitudes”, “alcoholism”, “social security”, “the deserving and the undeserving poor”, “reformatory” “child poverty”, “neglect”, “chorus”, “Brechtian techniques” as well as the drama techniques listed above, and explain the meanings. List key vocabulary on the whiteboard and have the students keep their own vocabulary records. 3. Ask students to take a position on a continuum to indicate to what extent Albion deserves to suffer the consequences of his actions. One end represents “does not deserve to suffer” and the other represents “deserves to suffer”. Ask each student explain to a partner the reason for their opinion. 4. Refer to the
Research Tasks (Word 48KB)
sheet. Make connections between the writing tasks and the learning purposes described above, and discuss how aspects of the tasks will support their oral presentation.
Activity 2
5. Discuss the questions as a class and enable them to individually answer questions on the
Research Tasks (Word 48KB)
worksheet. Introduce the class to the Children of the Poor
References (Word 25KB)
. 6. Select students to share their responses with the class. Capture, discuss, and record the important detail, on big sheets of paper for the class to collate. Prompt students to elaborate on the meaning of any vocabulary you (and they) have identified as being essential to understanding the play. 7. As a class, discuss and give oral feedback on the logic and reasoning of the evidence given to do with the outcome of the play – why do things pan out the way they do for Albany Porcello?
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How will you ensure that new learners of English have opportunities to explore new vocabulary and to encounter it many times and in different modes and contexts? Prompt students to notice language used to express points of view and language used to drive the action, using the play text and examples of language from the students themselves.
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