On Teaching Poetry in General and "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke in Particular

Once students are capable of taking literature seriously, which in my experience occurs sometime during their seventh grade year, the poem you select to teach first is important, as it serves as a doorway into the two worlds of poetry and literary analysis, which many students feel uncomfortable entering.

I have found that introducing poetry first by having students write their own original poems based on appropriate models like William Carlos Williams’ “This Is Just to Say,” which is presented to us in the form of a note from the speaker of the poem to his wife concerning the matter of some missing plums, works best.

Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” has always been my favorite starting point when it comes to analyzing poetry because it has just about everything a teacher could possibly want in a first poem:  a great deal of highly evocative imagery, a bare minimum of figurative language, an easily discernible rhythm and rhyme scheme, and an intriguing situation.

I rarely assign the reading of a single poem for homework, at least not in sixth or seventh grade. I would much prefer to have a member of the class read a new poem out loud to his or her classmates at least twice, once to feel his or her way through the lines and once to give the reader’s increased sense of the poem a chance to shine. 

Then, based on what students have heard and on the text of the poem, which they all have in front of them, I begin a conversation about what the poem might “mean."  Obviously, during this discussion I ask some leading questions, and I also try to get students to reread lines to make what they believe even more apparent.

Eventually I will distribute a handout defining such terms as the poem’s subject, speaker, audience, and tone, and eventually we will talk about theme, but not too quickly. “My Papa’s Waltz,” written in iambic trimeter, is a wonderful poem to scan, and as soon as I define rhyme scheme, my students nail it.

I hope you will take the trouble to find the poem, read it, and, employing the materials I have provided, use it in your classroom.  Good luck! Harper

On Teaching Andre Dubus' "The Doctor"

Andre Dubus, the father, has long been one of my favorite short story writers, and I still own my original hardcover copy of his collection Separate Flights, which contains the short story, “The Doctor,” first published in 1969 in The New Yorker.  Like so many of his stories, the writing is clean and spare as is the plot. 

I have taught the story in the seventh grade, but it is appropriate for almost any grade above that.  Indeed, if ever a story illustrated the value of the three Greek unities of time, place and action, “The Doctor” does.  The story takes place within the timespan of a week, but its focus concerns the events of a single twenty-four hour period.  The place consists of the several miles of country road the main character runs each morning, over a nearby brook, past neighbors’ houses and back. The action involves more what the doctor, Art Castagnetto, cannot do as opposed to what he can to save the life of a neighborhood boy who drowns in the brook.  The story is told in the third person from Art’s point of view from start to finish as he struggles to come to terms, first as events unfold and then in their aftermath, with the fact that he, an obstetrician, can and could do nothing to save a young boy’s life.

Beyond its cover and this “Note to the Teacher,” the packet contains both a blank and a completed story chart and a set of blank and answered discussion question sheets.  I use the blank question sheets immediately after students have read the story, breaking the class into small groups and asking the students in each group to answer the questions on the sheets together.  Towards the end of class, I review their answers with them as we discuss each question as it appears on the Smart Board.  I use the answered discussion questions as a vehicle for students to review for a larger assessment on a group of short stories, and I use the blank story charts as a way for students to step back and take a look at how this story in particular and any short story, or novel for that matter, works. Good luck with “The Doctor” and the packet!  Andre Dubus, the father, and Andres Dubus lll, the son, are both exceptional writers, worthy of your attention! Enjoy!