TEACHING COMMENTARY

Elizabeth and Robert Druce - November, 2002

Teaching commentary can be difficult. One reason for this is that students need to have experience of reading a wide variety of styles before they can begin to analyse literature effectively. Below is a programme of 15 lessons (one a week) for students who have had no, or very little experience in writing commentaries. The lessons begin with material that students are already familiar with so that they do not feel intimidated. I have always found it important (a) to persuade students that poetry does not need to be approached as if it were a insoluble enigma, and (b) to convince them that the ability to analyze language provides them with a powerful defence against all those (politicians and salesmen) who may wish to manipulate their thoughts.

What is a commentary?

This is not an easy question to answer, although anyone who has done commentaries or taught them, probably think they know what they are. Matters are not helped by looking for a definition in a reference book, such as the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms, by J.A. Cuddon, as there is no entry under “commentary”. The most useful answer is to be found under the term used by the French: explication, which can be defined as: “a formal and close analysis of a text: its structure, style, content, imagery - indeed every aspect of it.”

        What is the difference between a commentary and an essay? The writing of essays is a skill that goes back to classical times, and just as an essay can focus upon any one of a virtually unlimited range of topics, it can also be written in a wide variety of styles and attitudes and degrees of formality. It is one of the most flexible of literary forms, but it generally consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion with some form of argument linking the parts together. A commentary is one specific type of essay which is written in a formal style appropriate to literary criticism, and is normally only concerned with analyzing a single, relatively short text. In IB exams this will be a poem, or a prose extract no more than about 60 lines in length.  

        A good poetry anthology is an essential tool for teaching students how to write an effective commentary. The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes (published by Faber and Faber); Touched with Fire, compiled by Jack Hydes (Cambridge University Press); and A Flock of Words, compiled by David Mackay (The Bodley Head) are all excellent.

        The secret of teaching any skill is to provide practice and repetition over a period of time. Expecting to teach students all they need to know about commentary in two or three consecutive lessons does not work. There are one or two exceptional students who seem to have been born with the ability to analyze literature, but they are as rare as musicians who have perfect pitch. An effective way to teach commentary, is to spend one lesson a week on it, and the lessons which follow are based on this approach.

Lesson 1.

1. When students arrive in class at the beginning of the IB English A1 class they will often say they hate poetry. To counter this prejudice, hand out to every student a copy of a good poetry anthology and ask them to look through it and try to find a poem that they like (or do not find completely hateful). They will then have to read the poem to the class and say what they liked about it. They can give any reason except that of length; they cannot say they chose it because it was short. Allow about 15 minutes for this activity. Then ask them to read the poems aloud.

        What is interesting about this exercise is that everyone in the class will find a poem, and that most students will give a perfectly good reason for choosing it. Even students who appear to be most suspicious of literature will come up with a poem, and a reaction to it that reveals a perhaps unexpected degree of sensitivity to content and language. After each student has read his or her poem ask for reactions to the lesson. You can point out that since everyone has found a poem they thought worth sharing with the group, they may find others; so they can never, ever again say that they hate poetry. Not only will you have dented a prejudice but you will also have had a very enjoyable lesson, in which every student has participated.

Lesson 2.

Advertisements are all around us in our daily lives, and we are continually exposed to the persuasive language of the copywriter. Because of this, most students can analyse the techniques that advertisers use to persuade people to buy their products (or that politicians use to persuade people to embrace their ideas). To test this, ask your students to talk about their favourite TV advertisements. Ask about the choice of background music or images and you will be surprised at how aware they are of the techniques employed.

        Select a number of advertisements to take into class. Try to find examples which, along with illustrations, contain enough text to analyse. Advertisements that are presented in the form of cartoons are also useful for analysis. Divide the class into groups and ask them to answer questions such as: What, exactly, is being advertised?  What is the tone of the advertisement: humorous, dramatic, mocking, serious? And so on. It has been said that all advertisements appeal to at least one of the seven deadly sins. List them on the board: pride, anger, lust, covetousness, sloth, gluttony and envy. Ask the group to discover which one, or more, of these motivations is being appealed to in their advertisement. Ask them to look at the length of sentences and the type of language used.  Ask them to note down anything else they notice about the techniques being used to sell the product.

        The groups can report their findings back to the class and then they might discuss what audience they think given advertisements are aimed at, and how persuasive they might be. Ask how many of them agree that they are influenced by advertisements. For homework, students can be asked to find an advertisement for themselves and write down what they think about its aims, its intended audience, and its language. Without realizing it they will be writing their first critically-focussed commentaries.

        This exercise is highly suitable for candidates who have never had to do anything like this before but, if time can be made for it, it can provide valuable practice in literary analysis and appreciation.

Lesson 3.

What is poetry? This is another difficult question which needs to be addressed in class. Many students think that the only distinctive feature of a poem is rhyme. Look at half a dozen pieces of writing ranging from the most prosaic: instructions on how to use a machine (a video machine?) to something everyone would agree was “poetical”, such as a Shakespeare sonnet, or part of a poem by Keats. Include a nursery rhyme, a newspaper report, a deceptively prosaic poem such as Peter Porter’s “Attention Please”, a mediocre poem by a student that does rhyme, and extracts from two novels; poetic extracts can readily be found in writers such as Lawrence, Scott Fitzgerald, Emily Bronte, and Dickens; more prosaic extracts can readily be found in almost any novel. You might also include an extract from a non-fiction prose writer. Either in groups or singly ask the students to put these extracts into poetic order, starting with the most poetic and ending with the most prosaic. The results can then be discussed in class. Find out if the class can come to a consensus about the order. From their comments try to establish what they think “poetic” means. This activity sorts out those candidates who have some feeling for style from those who don’t. You will learn a lot about a class from this lesson.  

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(We are grateful to Don LeBeau of Amsterdam International School for this lesson.)

Lesson 4.

Comparing newspaper articles. Choose at least three versions of the same story from three different newspapers. Reports of a murder or a major accident usually provide a range of approaches to the story. Students can do this work in pairs, in groups or by themselves. Each person or group is given three articles to compare and contrast. Ask them to make a list of all the differences and similarities. When they have finished, ask them to explain the effects of the ...

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