Go Poem #6 -- Deconstructing a Classic

by Zachary Sibel

As an English teacher, I find myself asking, “How do I get students to appreciate the classics?”

Steven Lynn says in Texts and Contexts, “The human drive to find organization and meaningfulness is so powerful that human beings can find shapes in clouds or the scorch marks of a tortilla. If we can find structure where there really isn’t any, we can also fail to detect structures, as in hidden codes or unknown languages.” In other words, we can make a poem a treasure hunt for hidden meaning.

I ask students what stands out the most to them in the "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. We read the poem aloud as a class and discuss what the poem “does.” Most students will talk about the setting, a cold dark woods filling up with snow, or the speaker/ characters in the poem. I shift the focus of the discussion to the structure of the poem: “What does it look like? Why does it look like this?” Most students will note the four lines and four stanzas, to which I respond, “Why four?”

I demonstrate my knowledge of iambic tetrameter to the text (4 poetic feet/ 8 syllable line).  I let students discuss “WHY FOUR” amongst their table groups and poll answers. Most classes come up with theories about the four seasons, and some students even interpreted it as the four rhythmic beats in a horse’s trot. I end the discussion with the idea that we may never know Frost’s intent for the number 4, but does it really matter? As readers of poetry, it’s okay to create our own meaning and find our own messages in a given text. Frost, of all people, would want that.

Zachary Sibel is a middle school English teacher, poetry and hip-hop enthusiast from Bucks County PA. Follow him @MrSibelEng

Further Reading

Go Poem #5 -- Clear Rhythm, Ambiguous Mood

by Joy Kirr

I was first introduced to the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke when Michael W. Smith (co-author of Literary Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters About Character, Setting, Point of View, and Theme) came to our middle school. We use it in our 7th grade ELA class just the way he presented it to us.

I have students read the poem once to themselves.

Students read the poem a second time silently, annotating something new that they notice the second time around.

Students listen as the teacher reads the poem aloud this time, taking note of the rhythm. The teacher opens discussion with this question: Does the rhythm remind anyone of anything?

Students note what they feel is the overall mood of the poem on this sliding scale, what Michael Smith calls a “semantic differential scale”:

The students circle or highlight three words from the poem to support their choice, and as a class we discuss, “What words contribute to the mood or atmosphere of the poem?”

Students can now take the time to move their mark on the sliding scale or not, depending on the evidence they hear in the discussion.

We use this poem to practice fishbowl discussions, so you could extend the sliding-scale question into a discussion of why it is considered “warm” or “cold.” I find I change my mind often during fishbowl discussions, depending on the background information students bring to the table.

Joy Kirr currently teaches 7th graders in Arlington Heights, IL and blogs at http://geniushour.blogspot.com. Follow her on Twitter +Joy Kirr 

Further Reading

Go Poem #4 -- Flash Images: Creating Movement Without Verbs

by Jeff Anderson

After reading aloud the poem "Flame" by C. D. Wright twice, students look at it’s structure with the poem displayed on the screen or on paper. “What do you see when you look at the words?”

Possible Responses:

• Lots of "the's"
• No verbs
• Feels like it’s moving with the white space
• It’s a list of things, random, but not

If any of these things are not mentioned, ask about them.

“Are there any verbs—actions? I see this poem as flashes. Anyone else? Just flashes of nouns and we make our own poem as readers."

A great reading theorist, Louise Rosenblatt, wrote it takes two things—the reader and the text -- to make the third thing—the poem, the beauty, the meaning, the image, the connection, the picture, the life. The reader, the text, and the poem.

“What poem is this text making with you?”

“Let’s reread.”

After the third reading, students can jot down what’s being created in them. “What’s the poem resulting from you and this text?” Or, if inspired, students my try their own imitation.

If you try an imitation, use the or try another article like a or an. Experiment with the meaninglessness of the article, which also gives rise to something. Here’s my imitation in response to C.D. Wright’s “Flame.” I jotted it in three minutes, all at once, revising as I went, trying to keep it nouny. This was the poem inspired in me.

The Forgetting

The darkness The voices The scent

The hand The hush The tingle

The stillness The movement The light

The door The opening The closing.

The dark The forgetting The

Invite students to share poems aloud. At the end, students lift their creations into the air to C.D. Wright so that wherever she is now, she knows her words live and breathe and inspire. Her words are a flame.

Discuss: “How can we move what we learned from C.D. Wright’s poem to any writing we do?”

Jeff Anderson is a celebrated author of the middle grade fiction with the Zack Delacruz series as well as his numerous books on teaching writing and grammar, including 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know and Mechanically Inclined. Follow him on Twitter: @writeguyjeff

Further Reading

Go Poem #3 -- Listening For Context

by Brett Vogelsinger

The poem "In Two Seconds" is longer than most poems we use in a poem a day activity, but it is also relevant, provocative, and deep.  Mark Doty wrote this poem in response to the killing of Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer.

Try giving the class a copy of the poem turned face down on their desk, requiring them to listen to the poem before they look at it.  You may provide a little context, explaining that this poem is protest poem about an injustice, but let them listen to pick out the other pieces.

After hearing the poem, have them turn over the handout and read it the second time with the goal of answering this question:  What can you tell me about the injustice Mark Doty is writing about?  What happened?  What does the poet condemn about this incident?

Have students share the specific lines that answer these questions.  Be sure to include at the end of your discussion:  Which lines would you most like to discuss with the poet? What new questions does this poem provoke in your mind? This is not a poem for easy answers, so it is important to me to end a discussion of a poem like this in a state of inquiry.

Brett Vogelsinger teaches freshman English students at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA where he starts class with a poem each day. Follow his work on Twitter @theVogelman.

Further Reading

Go Poem #2 -- Reversibles

by Jason Stephenson

What can poetry do? Many of my students initially think that poetry can rhyme and not much more. Once I’ve introduced free verse poetry to them, I like to share a poem with a different kind of format or structure.  "Refugees" by Brian Bilston is a reversible poem, one that can be flipped for an entirely different meaning. Reading the lines from top to bottom refuses refugees; reading the lines from bottom to top welcomes them. (This format of poetry is gaining some ground. Jonathan Reed made waves with his “Lost Generation” poem in 2007, which won 2nd place in an AARP video competition.)

In my classroom, we read the poem aloud from top to bottom, then bottom to top. I give my students time to discuss and react to the poem in their small groups. Then we share our reactions aloud. I might ask some of these questions:

• How did you react to this poem the first time? The second time?
• How do you think the poet wrote this poem?
• What is the purpose of this poem?
• Why might this poem have two perspectives?
• Would this poem be more or less effective if it weren’t reversible?
• Should poems be political?

To conclude this lesson, we might attempt to reach consensus on a name for this new type of poem. Reverse poem? Reversible poem? Flipped poem? Palindrome poem?

Jason Stephenson teaches creative writing at Deer Creek High School in Edmond, Oklahoma. Follow his work on Twitter at @teacherman82 to learn more.

Further Reading

Go Poem #1 -- A Detailed Reading

by Brett Vogelsinger

Our class reads the poem "Coming Home at Twilight in the Late Summer" by Jane Kenyon twice (like every poem of the day) to enhance our understanding and enable a close reading of the text.  After the first read, I ask students to identify their favorite line or phrase in the whole poem. I highlight these student selections on the screen where I have projected the poem.  Next we discuss this question: "What do these lines all have in common?"  Often, they pick out lines with the most precise language and imagery like "the shut-off engine ticked as it cooled" or "our steps made black holes in the grass."  This opens an opportunity to examine the merits of using specific imagery in our own writing.

Just before the second read, I ask students to look for clues about the situation of the people in the poem.  Where are they "coming home" from?  How long have they been away?  How do they feel about it?

Many kids conclude from "the unpacking, the mail" and "the grass needed mowing" that they have  been on vacation for a long while.  Depending on your class, they may observe details like the "grateful" feeling the speaker expresses at thee end of the poem and the almost Edenic fresh start at the pear tree. In classes that pick up on these finer details, I like to share my background knowledge that Jane Kenyon battled cancer, and we start to look for evidence that maybe she is coming home from treatment or a hospital stay.  There are many finer details that support this interpretation too.

Ultimately, students love the rich detail in this poem that feels like walking through a sepia-toned home movie.  As one student put it, "the poem really takes you there."

Brett Vogelsinger teaches freshman English students at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA where he starts class with a poem each day. Follow his work on Twitter @theVogelman.

Further Reading

Join Us

To celebrate National Poetry Month in April 2017, this event blog will present a poem and a "springboard" into a discussion, activity, or lesson plan each day.  These poems can be used at the beginning of class to essentially say "go!" to close reading, creativity, and critical thinking. Hence the title of this blog: Go Poems. 

For the past four years, I have started class each day with a "Poem of the Day."  The routine has become part of the fabric of my teaching, as it has for many other teachers.  When I am asked about my routine, people often want to know where I find all the poems.  My hope is to revive this blog with its daily posts just prior to National Poetry Month each year so that gradually we have a diverse collection of poems and ideas for reading, discussing, and creating poetry right here on this site.

Subscribe now and join us by looking slightly to your right on the screen and entering your email address.  We go live in less than a month!

Brett Vogelsinger -- Ninth Grade English teacher, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

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