MY BROTHER JOHN

My brother John is very small My brother John knows nothing at all. He doesn't know Go-Fish or nursery rhymes Nor how many seven by seven is times. He can't tell the hour by the clock on the wall Oh my brother John is so dreadfully small! He can't zip his coat, nor tie his own shoe He thinks all that stuff about Santa is true, But he knows how to wrestle, he knows how to run

And when he's not crying and despair he sometimes is fun.I chase him around, he barks like a puppy And makes a ridiculous face like a guppy. He knows how to scream, and he knows how to laugh Which isn't too bad for just two-and-a-half.

Culture While learning rhythm, structure, form and vocabulary through poetic memorization is crucial, children can also learn much culture through poetry. This poem consists of several cultural terms or words like Go Fish, Santa, and guppy. Go Fish is a card game usually played by children in America. Santa as we all know is the legendary patron saint of children. He is an imaginary being who is thought to bring presents to children at Christmas. Guppy is a small, livebearing freshwater fish native to tropical America and widely kept in aquariums. By learning this poem, students are able to get to know parts of a foreign culture which in this case is focused more on American culture. It allows the students to discover the story behind the culture of certain people and it is beneficial for them to grow outside their thinking capability thus it helps to shape the present and other vital aspects of living in a particular culture. Age The poem, My brother John is suitable to be taught to upper primary school students. This is because, the language used in the poem is quite hard but comprehensible for them. However, preferably the teacher must emphasize on any vocabulary that the students find hard to understand and explain to them the meaning of the words. Even though the poem seems easy, we must also consider our students capability individually and try to help them achieve the objective of the lesson. The topic that the poem brings out which is about a younger brother is relatable to the students who have younger siblings. It is important to use teaching material that the students can translate into their daily life so that they can find similarities and adapt to it.

Content The status of the vocabulary is suitable for upper primary students. Even though the poem is easy to understand, it still has several elements that challenge the students to think outside their safe zone. There are few high vocabularies that the students may have listen for the first time like dreadfully and wrestle. At their stage of learning, they need to be exposed to more intricate materials in order to force them to grow. The teacher can use variety ways for the students to recognize and to make the meaning clear to the students. For example, the teacher can read the poem to the students for several times and explain what each line means. Then the teacher can ask the students to tell about their own story about their younger siblings and compare it to the character in the poem. Not only will the students have better understanding about the poem, it will also build their confidence to speak in class thus improve their other skills as well. Other than that, the teacher may use flashcard in order to make the students to notice forms in the poem. For example, the teacher can stick flashcard on the wall around the classroom that was written with prefixes and affixes from the poem like despair and dreadfully. The teacher can also stick flashcard that was written with phrases and clauses from the poem and ask the students to identify them. Interest This poem can be used for children to extend and develop several of their skills. Firstly, the poem can be used for the students to recreate according to their own experience with their younger siblings. If some of the students do not have younger siblings, they can write about their elder siblings or other relative in their family. Through this activity, the students can develop their thinking and writing skills. Students often enjoy doing activities that they can feel easily connected to. Then, the teacher might want to ask them to read their poem to the whole class and after each student has finished reading their poem, the whole class will give them a huge round of applause. This activity can help them to enhance the students self esteem and to get them get used to speak in the target language. I believe that students will find this poem very interesting because it develops their imagination and stimulates their curiosity. This poem tells about certain things that are out of their norm. For example, in the third line,

it states that, He doesn't know Go-Fish or nursery rhymes . The students will be curious to know about Go Fish game and when the teacher tells them about it, they will try to imagine how to play it and how it looks like. The poem also draws on personal experience where most of the students have the same thoughts or issues with their own younger siblings thus it encourages them to participate in the learning when they already have a grasp on what the poem is all about. All of these reasons will create a desire for the students to continue learning. Proficiency level In order to make the poem comprehensible for the students, the teacher needs to simplify his or her word while teaching this poem to the students. They may start by using simple introduction for the poem by explaining to them that they are going to learn about a poem that describes the poets younger brother named John. Then the teacher can read to them line by line and explain by using simpler words until all of the students can truly understand it. The students can learn to apply these values with their own family and class mates by accepting them the way they are. This can also help to prevent bullying that often occurs in most schools because when the students accept each other unconditionally, they will not call each other names and treat each other poorly.

Purpose with reference to the primary English language curriculum Linguistic ability By learning this poem, the students are able to improve their pronunciation such as sentence stress or intonation. The teacher needs to read the poem to the students for several time so that they will have an idea on how to imitate and read the poem correctly. The students will also acquire the ability to simplify the consonants, such as when words are linked together, for example, nothing at all becomes / ntl /. Therefore, it will help to develop the students awareness of stress, rhythm and intonation patterns in English. The teacher can achieve this by doing some activities that could make the students be aware of them like clapping the rhythm of a rhyme. Language learning potentials This poem is suitable to teach students on verb and tenses. There are many verbs available in this poem like wrestle, run and scream. Teacher can create an activity like act it out to make all the students truly understand the action verbs by asking several of them to act out for example, running, and the whole class will imitate the student. It is also possible to use the poem to teach the students about present tense and about singular and plural forms. Besides that, this poem can be used to create exercises on phrases and clauses. For example, the teacher can write each word in the line , My brother John is so dreadfully small in different flashcards. Then, the teacher can ask the students to classify themselves in phrases group or clauses group. Cultural sensitivity Cross cultural sensitivity is the quality of being aware and accepting of other cultures. This is important because what seems acceptable in other countries can be rude or derogatory in others. A person who is culturally sensitive is aware that there

could be differences between their culture and another persons, and that these differences could affect their relationship and the way they communicate with each other. A culturally sensitive person would understand other countries traditions and ways of life, or attempt to learn and apply new understandings. Importantly, culturally sensitive people attempt to be free from prejudices and preconceptions about other cultures. Through this poem, the students are able to know about Santa which is the legendary patron saint of children. He is an imaginary being who is thought to bring presents to children at Christmas. By knowing this information, it can broaden their knowledge and most importantly, they will be aware others culture and learn to respect them. Even though the poem does not emphasize on the details of Santa, teacher can use this opportunity to ask the students whether they know about it and explain to them explicitly. Moral values The moral value in this poem is about close relationship between siblings. It tells about an elder sibling describing his or her little brother named John. From the details of the younger brother, we can know that the persona is observant towards John. The persona seems fond of the brother and likes to play with him and it brings out a positive message to the students. Other than that, it also tells us to accept our siblings the way they are. For example, even though the persona feels that John does not know about a lot of things that he should, he or she still finds good criteria that John has and is happy about it.