Unlocking the Poem

by Martin Beller, Donna Tanzer

Overview

The limited number of poetry resources for high school students all present their subjects by way of techniques: poems are included in chapters focused on "metaphor," "tone," or "sound." But no great poem was ever written to illustrate a lesson on metaphor.

The way to understand a poem is to get to know it as itself, rather than as an example of poetic technique. Unlocking the Poem treats each poem as an independent literary event, just as it was written. Discussion of literary elements begins only after the student has fully explored the poem with his or her eyes, ears, feelings, and mind.

The primary interpretive strategy of repeated reading and patient questioning—rather than the enumeration and analysis of literary elements—removes much of the mystification that a reliance on terminology imposes on the study of poems. Unlocking the Poem uses a friendly approach that recognizes our reasons for reading poems: to see things in a new way, to feel things keenly and freshly.

Unlocking the Poem provides a path toward understanding that any motivated student can follow. Using this book, students will develop the ability to connect with any poem they may encounter by following a simple progression of steps. Featured poems by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Claude McKay, Philip Larkin, and Elizabeth Bishop.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940163007110
Publisher:	Sherpa Learning
Publication date:	04/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Martin Beller is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the English Department at Texas Southern University. He has also taught at The Ohio State University, New York Institute of Technology, New York University and Long Island University, and at YES Preparatory Public School. He received his B.A. in English and Philosophy from C.W. Post College in New York and his M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, concentrating on Medieval and Renaissance Literature. His dissertation was a history of the editing of Shakespeare from 1709 to 1863.

Dr. Beller has published articles and reviews and delivered conference papers on Chaucer and the Gawain-Poet, Shakespeare and Marlowe, the nineteenth-century novel, and contemporary film. He served as a Consultant on the Shakespeare Skillbook series written by Barbara Bloy and Donna Tanzer, and has also served as a Reader and Table Leader for the AP English Literature and Composition exam.

Donna C. Tanzer is an Adjunct Professor of Writing and Humanities at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), where she teaches a wide range of courses including metafiction, children’s literature, and fairy tales. She has also taught graduate education courses at Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She formerly taught AP English Literature and many more high school classes in West Allis, Wisconsin, where she also directed over 25 plays, including Shakespearean comedies and an original adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Ms. Tanzer earned a B.S. in English and Speech (theatre emphasis) from the University of Minnesota—Duluth and an M.A. in Education from Marian University. She has been an AP Reader in English Literature and Composition for the College Board since 2004. She wrote Teacher’s Guide for the Advanced Placement Program to accompany Kirzner and Mandell’s Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing (2013), published by Cengage, and was formerly the lead writer for several editions of Perrine’s Literature: Teacher’s Guide for the Advanced Placement Program (2007, revised and expanded 2009-2014, Cengage), coauthored with Claudia Klein Felske.

Ms. Tanzer and Dr. Beller have co-presented several workshops on teaching poetry at the Advanced Placement Annual Conference in 2009 and 2010, and at the NCTE annual convention in 2009. Ms. Tanzer also presented at APAC Conferences in 2008 and 2011.