While I always enjoyed poetry, especially in high school, I never recognized the need for poetry. I have grown to understand that poetry has many interpretations and there are plenty of methods critics use to analyze and critique a poem, but I did not learn this in high school. The thought of having to teach poetry in schools scares me. It would seem frustrating to tell a student that their interpretation of a poem is wrong and that they should have viewed the poem in a particular way. Teaching poetry in schools did not seem to be a concrete lesson because there is no right or wrong answer in my opinion when it supported with facts.
Chapter 5 was constructed so that teachers could learns meaningful ways to teach poetry in schools. I loved the way that Jago pointed out the need for students to learn poetry and that we are surrounded by poetry everyday. I also liked the way that she pointed out ways for teachers to incorporate the students' every day lives into the lesson. For example, she said we can take lyrics from popular songs as an illustration of poetry. Poetry is a form of literature that should not be looked over when teaching literature. By reading this chapter, I was able to identify the importance of teaching poetry and how many lesson can be formulated into a lesson plan. Jago says, "whether songwriters or students realize it or not - to tried-and-true literary devices: rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, figurative language, hyperbole, understatement" (75). This quote from the chapter really stuck out to me and it reminded when I was spending time at Firestone High School. The literary devices listed above were apart of the 10th grade curriculum requirements for the school district. During a specific lesson, the teacher used a poem for students to identify these literary devices. The poem she used was Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." I never thought that this lesson in particular had any significance, but after reading this chapter I know that poetry helps students contruct knowledge and parts of speech in a meaningful way.
I absolutely agree that it's uncomfortable to tell someone that his or her interpretation of a poem is "right" or "wrong". So, I say we don't have to. We can employ the language as expression theory in our poetry classes and allow our students to interpret poetry through their own experiences, as will happen anyway.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I think it's also important to help direct kids if their idea is just waaaay off the obvious direction of the poet. I think we can guide students' understanding of the digurative language and devices you quoted from Jago, and then allow them to be directed by the poetry.
Sincerely,
Allie