John Stanton

Poetry has always proven to be sore spot for me. I can not decide what is worse understanding it or teaching it. Students always expect a right or wrong answer. Unfortunately with poetry, in many cases you do not have a right or wrong answer readily available. Many times it how the reader interprets the poem. Life connections are how many readers interpret a poem. When a student can not connect with the poem, they tend to become frustrated  and ready to butcher the poem like the student in John's Stauton's article with the poem by Robert Frost, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Day." Stauton looked for a way to interpret poetry without it being frustrating to students. He gave his student three options: "The first option took the form of a Dada-destruction and assemblage of poems to determine whether language, once it's been wrested from its host can still yield poetry. The second option posed a more conventional thesis-driven analysis of two or more poems with the general thesis already given.The final option invited the students to write about an original poem of their own in response to the poem they just read." (Stauton) I like the third option because it gives more leeway for the students to write down their thoughts about the poem in their own poem. In this way, students are underhandedly learning about poetry by creating their own. No longer does it matter if their interpretations of the poem is correct. Students will be more prone to accept and enjoy this assignment.