Day 6

This day was mostly about how we can use Irish texts to develop students’ literacy and critical thinking skills.

We explored a couple of poets whose pieces of literature could be used in the classroom.

Patrick Kawanagh was a poet of place, who portrays rural Ireland in a very picturesque way. We looked at two of his poems titled “Canal Bank Walk” and “On Raglan Road” and collected various ideas about how we can use it. We also listened to ‘On Raglan Road’ because it was turned into a song and performed by Luke Kelly.

Another poets we examined are Eavan Boland and Paula Meehan, who are a contemporary poets. We worked on the poem “This Moment” and took part in creative writing activities related to it.

During the second session we focused on W.B. Yeats and explored his life and poetry in greater depths. We worked on some of his poems: When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree and Down by the Salley Gardens. We were engaged in creative writing activities, for example we compared and contrasted Yeats’ When You Are Old and Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud.

In the afternoon we visited the Yeats Exhibition, which is located in the National Library of Ireland. This exhibition provided us with an extensive insight into the writer’s life and work. It was full of interactive elements, so besides being informative, it was entertaining, too. The exhibition is available online as well.