Teaching Literature in Secondary Schools: Jago Chapter 5

     I think this chapter about teaching poetry and helping helping students understand it is a much needed chapter.  I think teachers often have difficult time teaching poetry because students often have preconceived notions about poetry that can be difficult to break.  Therefore, I think it's important for teachers to make sure that they're teaching poetry in such a way that students will learn and understand it.  I liked Jago's method of think-alouds.  I think it's important for teachers to model their thinking so students will know how to approach a difficult poem.  Instead of simply saying they don't understand something, student will learn what questions to ask  and how to make sense of a difficult topic on their own.  I also liked the activity that Jago used in her classroom by having students create graphic organizers and work in groups to try to make sense of the poem on their own.  While they may not be able to answer every question in their groups, they will at least be able to identify what questions they have which is another step to learning.
     While I agreed with many of Jago's methods, I disagreed with the fact that she said students should work on form before free verse.  I think students really struggle with poetry and I've learned a lot from my "Teaching Poetry in Schools" class that I'm taking right now. I've actually had experience teaching poetry to students through this class and I've seen the results of students who are given enough guidance that they aren't searching for an idea, but they also have enough freedom that they can really make their own poem.  Teachers that have used this method have observed students actually looking forward to writing poetry and sharing their poems out loud.  Poetry is a form of creative writing and students should be allowed to have the freedom to be creative.