Notes of Lessons: English History, Class Ib

Notes of Lessons: English History, Class Ib

[We have thought that it might be of use to our readers (in their own families) to publish from month to month during the current year, Notes of Lessons prepared by students of the House of Education for the pupils of the Practising School. We should like to say, however, that such a Lesson is never given as a tour de force, but is always an illustration or an expansion of some part of the children’s regular studies (in the Parents’ Review School), some passage in one or other of their school books.—Ed.]

Group: History • Class Ib • Age: 9 • Time: 20 minutes

By E. May Garnier
The Parents’ Review, 1903, pp. 61-62

Westminster Abbey

Objects

I. To make history and literature more real to J_____, by interesting her in the great men who have been buried in the Abbey.

II. To enable J_____ to take an intelligent interest in the Abbey, so that she may better appreciate it, should she ever go there again.

III. To link Chaucer and Tennyson together in their love for flowers (mention especially the daisy), thus connecting history, literature and nature-lore together.

Lesson

Step I.—Show J_____ pictures of Westminster Abbey, and ask a few questions to see if she knows where it is and who built it; also find out from her the two public functions that are held in the Abbey, viz., the Coronation of the Monarchand funerals of great men.

Step II.—Show J_____ the plan of Westminster Abbey, and get from her what tombs she has already learnt about, i.e., Lord Shaftesbury’s and General Gordon’s.

Step III.—Tell her that to-day we are going to talk about the tombs in one special part of the Abbey. Show her the place in the plan, refer her to the same position in Ambleside Church. Ask her if she knows what it is called, and why it is called the Poets’ Corner.

Step IV.—Find out if she knows—having been twice to the Abbey—the names of any of the poets buried there. Tell her that to-day we are going to think about the tombs of the first and last poets that have been buried there, viz., Chaucer and Lord Tennyson.

Step V.—See if she knows anything about Chaucer, and then tell her shortly about him, mentioning his love for flowers. Read to her his description of the daisy, and suggest she should think of it as the “day’s eye” when next she sees one.

Step VI.—Ask her what she knows about Tennyson. Show her his picture, and relatehow when he was a little boy he lived in the country and was very fond of flowers and animals; how he came to write his first poem at the suggestion of his elder brother. Tell her a little about his poems, especially mentioning Idylls of the Kingand The Revenge. Show how when he was grown up he kept his love for flowers, and loved the country better than the town, like all poets. Tell her he was very short-sighted and had to look very closely at flowers. Ask her what flower Chaucer was fond of. Tell her that Tennyson wrote a poem about “The Daisy,” and he said once that when you tread on daisies, they turn up under foot and get rosy.

Step VII.—Recapitulation. Ask J_____ what part of the Abbey we have been talking about; what men, getting her to say shortly what she knows about them.