Children love those ’spot the differences’ puzzles where two images are presented side-by-side and the viewer has to find as many differences as possible. Here is a variation of such a puzzle that has a use in the English classroom.
The texts shown below are translations of a poem written by Andrei Voznesensky, a Russian poet. They raise many questions for students including the idea of whether a translator can ever hope to capture the essence of something as delicate as a poem.
First, I invite students to spot the differences then we consider the effects of some of the more obvious poetic devices. With such short texts to consider, the students focus on a minute level of detail – almost every word. The final part of the comparison is the question of which is the better poem. By that stage in the learning, students have many arguments for each text and the debate is often fierce. If appropriate to the learning objectives, they might write up their comparison after a reminder of the importance of those comparative connectives. The result could easily form a model for writing to compare.
This ‘parallel versions’ idea can also be used with drafts of poetry or prose from established writers but one other way that I have used it is with two drafts of a student’s work. Then the question was, “Have they improved their work?” That was, of course, after a good game of ’spot the differences.’
Filed under: Poetry, Reading, Resources, Teaching English
