Incorporating poetry into the English curriculum is a wonderful way to teach students close-reading and analysis skills through shorter texts. While many students are initially wary of poetry, after a little targeted instruction, they often find themselves to be quite capable at reading and understanding poetry. Careful selection of poems, particularly for early lessons, becomes critical. I find it is best to start poetry instruction with high-interest accessible poems that nonetheless contain enough complexity to sustain a discussion for the entire class period.

This lesson incorporates Elizabeth Bishops' poem, "One Art" because it has a very accessible topic (lost love) yet contains a fair amount of complexity that allows for diverse interpretations. However, this learning strategy can easily be employed for any poem (or any short prose passage) and requires very minimal preparation. 

Because this is an "introduction" to poetry, I do not provide students with specific poetry analysis strategies yet. Rather, we simply read the poem several times and work through it line-by-line, using a strategy inspired by "The Pocket Instructor, Literature: 101 Exercises for the College Classroom" edited by Diana Fuss and William A. Gleason.[1] The students are the drivers of the conversation, allowing them to take the lead in their learning. Where appropriate, we pause in our discussion to introduce an analytical strategy that students may have accidentally stumbled upon. By introducing poetry analysis in this manner, students increase their confidence and quickly realize that they already possess many of the skills necessary to read and analyze poetry, even if they do not yet know what to label those skills.