10 Quick Steps to Support Poetry Comprehension: A Guide for Middle School ELA Teachers
Active, Hands-On Poetry Analysis in Middle School ELA
- Pass out a poem to your class.
- Take turns “Round Robin” reading.
- Pass out a set of 10 standards-based questions for analysis.
- Take up the papers, grade them, and cry.
I am SO JUST KIDDING on ^that list of 4 steps. . . Please don’t do that!
{But if you were taught to teach poetry that way, and that’s where you’re stuck, it’s ok—let’s move on to my 10-step hands-on process to get students thinking, talking, and engaging with that next poem}
As an example, I’ll use one of the poetry stations from my Ready, Set, Stations™ subscription. ← Definitely check that out if you could use a fresh set of ready-made, thematically-linked station collections each month (print + digital, too)!
HERE ARE THE 10 STEPS
Pass out the poems so each student has a hard copy (it’s worth the paper—I mean, let’s get them off of those devices every second of the day, right?).
The first time or two you do this, walk them through the following parts in order. You can give them the handout, or you can verbally give them one step at a time. Eventually, students will be able to move through the steps on their own (like how I incorporate it into my poetry stations).
- Students take turns “whisper reading” the poem with a partner. They can read line by line, stanza by stanza, or any other way that helps them see the parts of the poem and interact with it for the first time.
- As they read, they are to number each line in the poem. Lines and sentences are NOT the same thing! This simple step helps students see that clearly for themselves. Hello, reading comprehension!
- Now, number each stanza in the poem. If the type of poem you’re using doesn’t contain stanzas, then skip this step. I wouldn’t spend time removing this step if you’re already using a handout that has it on there; rather, use this as an opportunity for students to see for themselves whether or not stanzas appear in the poem. It’s good for them to notice!
- Draw a circle around each period you see in the poem. Now we’re helping students to slow down, and see the poem in terms of sentences rather than lines. Have you noticed students reading poems line-by-line instead of sentence-by-sentence? Comprehension is elevated when they pay attention to the punctuation and use it to recognize pauses, stops, and where one idea ends and another begins.
- What other punctuation pieces appear in the poem? Dashes? Semi-colons? Colons? Commas? Have students notice and mark them because they, too, impact meaning.
- Draw a rectangle around each sentence that you see in the poem. This also greatly increases engagement and comprehension. Some poems may only consist of one or two sentences. Ok, good to know! Others may actually contain many sentences. When students notice this and read sentence-by-sentence instead of line-by-line, they are able to understand the poem more as a piece of content that contains a message than losing focus due to the unique structure of poems.
- Is there another type of punctuation you want to draw students’ attention to? Ex: The use of commas, capital letters, etc?
- Does the poem contain poem-specific elements that you would also like to draw students’ attention to? For instance: Rhythm? Rhyming? Have them place a check mark to the defining element that you simply want them to slow down and take notice of.
- Now, after all ^that, have students whisper read the poem again sentence-by-sentence this time.
- Challenge your students to identify what the punctuation, line breaks, stanzas, or other defining features DO to help them comprehend the poem. What has changed in their understanding this time around as they whisper read vs the first time they did the whisper reading?
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NOTE: That^ lesson is just a small part of an entire set of station materials that exist as my “Strange New Beginnings” themed station collection.
Get the entire collection of monthly middle school stations when you join Ready, Set, Stations —> Each month’s set includes a fiction, nonfiction, poetry collection so that all the activities (reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar) go together thematically!
Let me overthink stations so you don’t have to😉
INTRODUCING:
I’ll send you 12 fresh, themed station activities loaded up ready-made style each month:
✅One fiction passage + one nonfiction passage + one poem
➡️ One reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary station for EACH passage
🙋🏻♀️ That’s 3 thematically-linked passages with 4 stations per passage = 12 stations each month!
