Hi, all. I have found a lot of success with this close reading activity I started using a few years ago called SPIT. It requires the students to read a poem at least 3 or 4 times before getting to theme. Its sequential nature builds in difficulty as the student builds knowledge and confidence with the poem. It encourages learning how to annotate before trying to get to meaning. Enjoy!
THE FOUR STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING POETRY (SPIT)
Write anything on the poem
(or on a Post-It) that you want to remember to think about. You must read the poem actively if you want to
understand it.
Step 1: SURVEY. After you number the lines of the poem, read
the poem at least two times. Look up any
words you don’t know in the dictionary.
Step 2: PARAPHRASE
every stanza (or line, if it’s short) of the poem. Write what you think it means in your own
words next to the poem. Write what is
literally happening.
Step 3: IDENTIFY at least ten of these terms in the poem. Analyze what they mean. For example, find a metaphor and write a few
notes explaining it. Be prepared to
discuss what you found.
«
speaker
«
alliteration
«
assonance
«
rhyme
«
rhythm
«
repetition
«
point of view
«
style
«
stanza
«
characterization
«
mood
«
irony
«
form (patterns)
«
metaphors
«
symbols
«
tone
«
similes
«
imagery
«
onomatopoeia
«
setting
«
subject/topic
«
hyperbole
«
diction
«
the meaning of
the title
«
use of
punctuation
«
paradox
«
audience
«
meter
«
allusion
Step 4: THEME Write a
one- or two-sentence theme for the poem that sums up its meaning. What is the overall message of the
speaker? Remember that a theme is a
sentence.
If you want, your sentence
can start: “This poem is really about . . .” or “This speaker is saying that .
. .”
