Jill Marie Warner
When I get stuck on a word in a book,
There are lots of things I can do.
I can do them all, please, by myself;
I don’t need help from you.
I can look at the picture to get a hint.
Or think what the story’s about.
I can “get my mouth ready”to say the first letter.
A kind of “sounding out”.
I can chop up the words into smaller parts,
Like on or ing or ly,
Or find smaller words in compound words
Like raincoat and bumblebee.
I can think of a word that makes sense in that place,
Guess or say “blank”and read on
Until the sentence has reached its end,
Then go back and try these on:
“Does it make sense?”
“Can we say it that way?”
“Does it look right to me?”
Chances are the right word will pop out like the sun
In my own mind, can’t you see?
If I’ve thought of and tried out most of these things
And I still do not know what to do,
Then I may turn around and ask
For some help to get me through.
1.Discuss the concept of Independent Strategies in learning language and literature in groups, and make a presentation on the features of independent learning.
2.Try to translate the two lines—“Chances are the right word will pop out like the sun / In my own mind, can’t you see?”into Chinese.Pay special attention to the poetical context.
Notes
1. Environmentalism:It is a broad philosophy, ideologyandsocial movementregarding concerns for environmentalconservationand improvement of the health of theenvironment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements.It advocates the preservation, restoration and/or improvement of the natural environment, and may be referred to as a movement to control pollution.For this reason, concepts such asLand Ethic,Biodiversity,Ecology,Environmental Ethics and the Biophilia hypothesisfigure predominantly.At its crux, environmentalism is an attempt to balance relations between humanity and their broader organismic and biogeochemical milieu in such a way that all the components are accorded a proper degree of respect.The exact nature of this balance is controversial and there are many different ways for environmental concerns to be expressed in practice.Environmentalism is often represented by the colorgreenbut this association has been appropriated by the marketing industries and is a key tactic in the art ofGreenwashing.