English Teaching the Love Song Thesis

As attitudes of literacy help students succeed in school, this is an important development to encourage. Thus, students should be encouraged to interpret "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" for themselves, learning that no right or wrong answer exists, and that literature is a conduit through which one can have a personal response. The following lesson plan can stand by itself or follow the teaching of the poem as history.

Activity 1: Ask the students to take out an index card and write for five minutes about what toasted marshmallows make them think about. Teachers should tell the students that they can write about whatever pops into their head, giving them hints such as family memories, advertisements, funny conversations, or delicious treats.

Activity 2: Ask students to share some of their memories with the rest of the class. Make sure to point out how each student has a different association with the toasted marshmallows.

Activity 3: Tell the students that literature is a little like toasted marshmallows -- each person can have a different, correct response.Illustrate this by reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" out loud, pausing to discuss different feelings at different lines. For instance, teachers may say, "this line makes me sad," or "this line makes me think about WWII," or "this line makes me wonder if he loves this woman at all."

Activity 4: Ask students to mimic your example, reading the poem to themselves, and marking next to it when they have a reaction to the words.

Activity 5: Ask the students to get into groups and share their meanings, then ask a spokesperson from each group to discuss their different interpretations. Make sure to congratulate each group for its unique thinking.

Works Cited

Cummings, E.E. "Snow." Famous Poets and Poems.com. 2006-2008. 18 November 2008.

Compiling Collections and a Working Definition of Poetry." Read Write Think.Org. 18

November 2008. 18 November 2008. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=354

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Eliot, T.S.: Introduction." Contemporary Literary

Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter.….....