PhyreBards

I loved the information that the reading gave about teaching poetry. Although I love poetry and the idea of it, I have been reluctant to consider teaching it because I don't "understand" the poem in its entirety. What I like about the reading is the points that it made about how you don't have to know everything about the poem in order to teach it. Plus, it even makes the process of understanding poems more meaningful if the students and the teacher work through it together, without anyone knowing the "right" answer. This kind of exercise gives everyone the opportunity to contribute without risk of being wrong. I also like the idea of using poems in conjunction with longer stories and other exercises, instead of having an entirely separate poetry unit. This allows the students to see the connections that poems can make to other works and the world without having to be viewed in isolation.

Another idea that I really liked was teaching different types of literature (prose, poetry, drama, etc.)together and talking about the characteristics of each in order to show the similarities. By illustrating the similarities between the different types, students will be able to see how different forms of literature can be used to accomplish the same goals.