A Poem: “Wrong Mailbox”

Wrong Mail Box Fiancées wedding shower. I am the solitary man at this gathering, Unaware that men are not Invited to these things, But anticipating The outing I have devised for later For my future bride: Italian Bistro and “Will Rogers Follies” For now I wander the dimly lit cavernous halls of the church, For

Teaching Common Core Poetry: A Moment of Clarity

I have been teaching a poetry unit now since September and my students are working in groups to find meaning in poetry using several close analysis methods. The methods I have used so far have been: 1.  TPCASTT – T-title:  The meaning of the title without reference to the poem. P-paraphrase:  Put the poem, line by line,

Analytical Thinking and the Modern High School Student

I am one month into springing my common core lesson plans on my 11th grade English students.  They seemed to be doing quite well with it, but today I said something to them that caused them to completely flatline. This all began with an essay I assigned last week.  They were given a poem (a