We spent the first part of today's class reviewing the final stanza of the poem, "As in the Beginning." A major focal point of this discussion was the strategies you can use to help yourself make sense of a poem. Remember to consider line length, stanza breaks, punctuation, poetic devices and word choice (among other things!) as you read.
After we read through the poem together, we worked to develop a theme statement. We discussed the importance of creating a theme statement which addresses the entirety of the poem: one that is neither too specific nor too broad. For this poem, we agreed that the following sentence accurately captures the theme: Many companies believe that financial compensation is sufficient pay back for a workplace injury; however, there is truly no paying back the loss experienced by an individual and his/her family. We acknowledged that many lines and phrases from this poem would support this theme statement.
To conclude the class, students wrote a paragraph on the theme of the poem, demonstrating their current ability to write a formal, academic paragraph. The information I get about strengths and areas for further improvement will guide the direction of future lessons.
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