I will be the first to admit that poetry is outside of my comfort zone. That's why I took a special interest in this particular chapter. I do have experience with analyzing poems as I'm sure we all have since it was a requirement in high school, but I never really was comfortable doing it. I always felt like my answer was wrong and that I was reading to much into certain aspects of the poem. Then I found out that maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all. What Jago does in this chapter is break down "how poems work." She does this mainly by enforcing the thinking aloud strategy. She wants her students to be proactive and work out there own list of unknown vocabulary and work through integrating these new words into there lives.
She gives us five helpful ways for the students to become involved with the poem. Pose questions, identify unfamiliar vocabulary and allusions, make connections to their own experiences, rephrase inverted lines, and comment on the poem. All very important tasks that must be remembered when working with poetry. Once again she has provided us with invaluable information.
Poetry is important. As a person I may not think very highly of it, but I have to ignore that and present it in a way that hides how I feel. Jago uses modern lyrics as a way to show kids that they experience poetry everyday without even realizing it. I try to approach the situation in a similar way. I do have a few poems that I am fond of and hopefully will discover more that I like or find a place for the ones I already like in the curriculum.
I think the main reason I am not a fan is because I am terrible at writing it. I do actually enjoy analyzing it, it's just as I said before I'm not really comfortable with it. Hopefully using Jago help I will become more comfortable or at least reach a level where I can convey the ideas to the students without revealing my true feelings. After reading the chapter I can already sense a sort of change in my view of poetry, but like all parts of becoming a teacher I'm sure it will take time to perfect.
I really do like poetry, but it was also a concern of mine to actually teach it. I also found the five helpful ways that Jago mentioned to be a really enlightening. I believe that it would be beneficial to use Jago's advice about incorporating song lyrics into the lesson. This creates a means for students to be interested and to apply something personal in their life to their school work.
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