Today’s post is submitted by Gina Korteum. All of the 21 in 21 Texts can be found here (updated daily). One of my favorite texts to teach is the prose poem “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forché. Each year when I teach this, my students have a variety of reactions to this poem, including shock, confusion, fear, and universally, respect. I like to teach it as a whole class poem, usually mid-year in connection with Poetry Unit II. “The Colonel” hits on many different literary elements, including metaphor, personification, and imagery. However, one of the best parts of the poem is the way it helps teach students the function of structure. Over the years, I’ve learned that students often struggle the most between identifying elements versus analyzing them. For example, they can tell me that a poem uses iambic pentameter, but can’t explain why that matters. I use “The Colonel” to help cultivate these analysis skills. ... KEEP READING
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