This protocol provides students with an approach to reading and engaging with poetry.  The collaborative approach gives students the opportunity to learn from their peers while sharing their own observations and ideas about the poem in a structured protocol.

Teaching Resources

Preparation

• Choose a poem to analyze.  Provide a clean copy to students.
• Plan, form, and assign mixed ability groups that consist of 4 students per group.  Assign a scribe (or decide that the scribe will rotate with each step).

Process

STEP 1:  Observation

• Give students 2 minutes to read the poem and note observations.
• Ask students to share an observation about the poem.  One new observation per person. Complete two rounds of sharing so that everyone shares two (new) observations.
• The scribe records and characterizes the observations as “obvious” or “nuanced” on the document provided as each student shares their observation.

STEP 2:  Investigation

• Give students 2 minutes to write questions about the poem.
• Ask students to share 1 question per person in their small group.
• Record the questions on the notes sheet.

Questions to guide the investigation:                

• What questions do you have about the passage?
• What do you find difficult to understand?
• What inconsistencies do you see?
• What ambiguities do you see?
• What pieces are you not sure what to do with?

STEP 3: Interpretive Statement

• Give students 2 minutes to develop an interpretive statement in response to the poem.
• Ask students to share their interpretive statement with their small group.
• Give students 4-minutes to have an open discussion evaluating the interpretive statements.
• Ask students to choose or formulate an interpretive statement based on the group’s contributions.
• Record the interpretive statement on the notes sheet.

Questions to guide the formulation of your interpretation statement:

• What did this poem make you feel?
• What did this poem make you think about?
• What do you think the poet is suggesting/exploring about life or the human experience through this poem?

STEP 4:  Analysis

• Give students 2 minutes to individually find and list evidence for the group interpretive statement.
• Instruct each person to share their list of evidence.
• The scribe records and characterizes the evidence as “direct” or “indirect” evidence on the document provided as each student shares.

Questions to guide your analysis:

• Explain if/how the observations fit into the interpretation.
• Address all unanswered questions.
• Have all the questions been answered from the investigation section?
• Are there any other observations that can support the interpretation(s)?

Post Activity

• Ask students to submit their recording sheet to the teacher for evaluative feedback.
• Ask students to reflect in their portfolios:  What did you learn about close reading through this activity?  How does this approach to reading poetry compare to your own?  What do you like about it?  What do you dislike about it?
• Provide evaluative feedback to groups on their recording sheets or through a follow up meeting.  Teachers may choose to anonymously make each group’s sheet publicly available for a “gallery read”.

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Photo by Trust “Tru” Katsande on Unsplash