Write about your experience of reading the entire poem or song. Draw one conclusion about the meaning of the poem. Give the poem or song a rating between 1-5. Defend your evaluation of the poem or song in comparison to the other poems or songs in the casebook and why.

Zooming in on a Poem

• Choose one casebook (for example, parent-child poems), read the casebook poems/songs. Find at least one poem and one song of the assigned poems or songs in your casebook.
• Copy and paste the poem or lyrics after your entry.
• Number the lines.
• Write four paragraphs.

In the first paragraph, write about your experience of reading the entire poem or song.

In your second paragraph, draw one conclusion about the meaning of the poem. Find two or more images, phrases, or lines (up to four) that contribute to the meaning you’ve given the poem. Why do you think it contributes to the conclusion about meaning you’ve given the poem? That is, interpret, something in the poem–a word, phrases, a line, a short stanza–that supports that conclusion and state how or why it means what you say it means.

In your third paragraph, give the poem or song a rating between 1-5. Defend your evaluation of the poem or song in comparison to the other poems or songs in the casebook and why. Be sure to name the other poems and songs and use specifics.

In your forth paragraph, explain what you learned about the difference between experiencing, interpreting and evaluating