Developing critical reading skills takes time and devotion to the written word. I want to share what I learned with you. I want to encourage the community to be open up and share their talents and observations with each other. Rekindle the passion of reading and exploring the hidden treasures at our site. They use a fancy word like portfolio. I call it my note book of love. We will start with these tips first.
1. Determine how your understanding of the poem relates to a particular part of your life or experience.
2. See what other poems it resembles.
3. Analyze how the poem is put together,how does it affect you?
(Then judge how well the writer has accomplished his or her goals.)
4. The question to ask, are you reading to be a mentally filler?
(When we get truly involved, the reader wants to read between the lines)
5. For example, here a short poem to read.
6. Write down you first impressions.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
The leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So Dawn goes down to day.
Northing gold can stay.
By Robert Frost
If your mind is blank,look down below and write some of the questions out. Are you actively reading or passively reading? What type of reader do you want to be? Here are some examples of questions, you may want to ask your self
What is the age and gender? Does the culture back ground or political agenda of the author affect the poem? Read other poems by the same author to get a better feel of his or her work. Ask yourself what is the author really saying could there be a hidden agenda to this work?
1. What was the author's purpose for writing the poem?
2. When the poem was written and what was happening at that moment.
3. What year was the poem wrote, does it reflect the time period?
.
4. Dig into the meaning of these individual words such as hue and subsides.
5. What does the personification of Mother Nature have to do with this poem.
6. Your prior knowledge of things that are green, things that are gold, things that won't stay. What is your impression as a reader?
7. What are the typical associations in myth and literature?
(What does our cultures say about the colors green and gold.)
8. The reference to the Garden of Eden how does this apply to the poem.
9. Is it an Alliteration such as "her hardest hue to hold".
10. Could there be a rhyme, rhythm, and meter going on in a poem?
11. What is the cause and effect?
12. What is the structure of a poem?
13. Are there any associations for words like sank, down and subsides.
14. Is this a contradiction of "Nature's first green is gold"?
15. How do you determine what is a good poem?
16. Does it fit the Literature standards of good writing?
17. What would and earlier draft of the poem might of resemble?
18. Could you write a story from this poem?
19. What pictures do you visualize, as you read the words?
20 Are you rereading as you go through the poem?
21. Do you comprehend what you are reading?
22. Do you have any questions that are unanswered?
23. How you would you explain the poem to someone?
Our roles as a reader and writer sometimes get blurred. Look at the poem pretend you do not know the author. Would your approach be the same or different? Would you dig deeper to find the story in a story? Let the words enfold you. What are your gut reactions to the poem?
Let your words be sweet for someday you may have to eat them. Tearing at one self esteem is not sharing it is self defeating behavior. The goal is to get the reader actively involved in the poem. Let say for example you have there shelves. The first shelf says “let think about what is said.” The second shelf says, “This might work.” The third shelf says, “I like it just the way it is.” Feedback done in a positive manner gives growth to our work.
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