How Poems Work
I never understood why students hate poetry the most out of all the units that are taught in a language arts class. I love poetry. After reading this chapter, I learned how to make poetry more understandable and enjoyable for my students. Whenever I think of a poet (no matter how hard I try to stop thinking this way) I always envision someone that can just sit down, and write their feelings and come up with art on the first try. However, I know this isn't true, and I think it's important that students know that poets work at what they do. I loved how Jago explained how Poe came up with "The Raven" on page 93. After having students read "The Raven", I think it'd be funny to have them re-read it, but replacing "raven" with "parrot" and asking them what kind of changes that made to the mood of the poem. This can simply show them how much thought went into the poem.
On page 81, Jago tells us how to structure freewriting. I love her examples of getting the students started by saying, "Maybe Wordsworth was thinking..." When I first started reading about the freewriting idea, I didn't like it because I did not know what my students would come up with. I know that when I'm giving the option to do something like this, I have to discuss with my neighbor real quick about what they're going to write just so I have a slight idea on where to get started. I love that Jago gives structure to freewriting.
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