Neruda would be proud!

The new STAAR test includes an expectation for students to be able to understand and analyze literary texts including poetry.

This is from the 3rd Grade STAAR document from TEA: Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Poetry. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to (A) describe the characteristics of various forms of poetry and how they create imagery (e.g., narrative poetry, lyrical poetry, humorous poetry, free verse). Supporting Standard
I was in a third grade bilingual class just before Thanksgiving and snapped a picture of this poem that was taped to the white board. Isn't this great evidence of understanding and analysis? I wasn't there for the lesson but it is obvious that the teacher was noting her thinking along with the class's input as they carefully read and analyzed the poetry. This is exactly what we would want the student's poem to look like on the test so it is important that the students see us model this and gradually release the pen over to them. This isn't just the type of work we expect for STAAR, this is college-preparation! Bring on Neruda! Bring on Machado! We are ready!