Free Verse Novel Love That Dog by Sharon Creech and Mary M. Dupuis
One of the most important quotes in
Creech and Dupuis’ novel about reading comprehension and poetry is based on her
main character, Jack, and his confusion when reading abstract poetry. When
trying to read William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow”, he assumes that
there is a complex and incomprehensible meaning that alludes him in the text:
“I don’t understand/the poem about/the red wheelbarrow/and the white chickens/
and why so much’ depends upon/ them” (Creech 3). This is directly related to
the way that Creech and Dupuis uses “free verse” style in order to show the
student that it is actually a more simplified style of writing (Elliot 148).
Soon after, Jack begins to more easily comprehend poetry and the mystique of
complexity and difficulty in comprehension disappear. In the classroom,
Creech’s text is invaluable in building a bridge between the oftentimes
humorous and over complicated interpretation of poetry written by adults and
simple reading exercises. For instance, the student can focus on free verse
verbs and noun usage instead of conjunction interjections that might confuse
the reading comprehension process. For the disabled student, the compound
language of poetry could be a key style of writing that can increase reading
comprehension, rather than be a deterrent. I feel that many students might
initially react in a similar way jack in Love
that Dog, but the “hostilities” would soon be abated after analyzing the
simple poetry of William Carlos Williams in “The Red Wheelbarrow” that Creech
and Dupuis exemplify in Love that Dog.
What did you think of Miss Stretchberry? why did you feel that way? Please start telling me about your personal reaction to some of the characters in the story. What did Jack learn? Would you use this free verse book in your class? Why? I need more of your personal input into these reflections. I am having some difficulty understanding some of your ideas. Just write about your reaction to the novel.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I really enjoyed Miss Stretchberry’s ability to help young people decipher the complexity of poetry as it is defined in literary tradition. Often, poetry appears to be a puzzle with many possible meanings, which can intimidate the student. Miss Stretchberry is a woman that made me feel hopeful about teaching poetry to students that might have trouble deciphering word meaning, sentence structure, and metaphor. The most important thing that Jack learned was that poetry is not as intimidating as it may appear. For instance, Creech uses William Blake’s poem “The Tyger”, which brings a child-like quality to poetry reading in its imaginative simplicity (Creech 93). By using simple child-like poetry, young people can learn basic deciphering skills even though the lines can seem random and disjointed. I would definitely use Creech’s free verse style because it does not involve more formalized styles of poetry (the sonnet, iambic pentameter, etc.) that might confuse or “turn off” the student from reading poetry. In my own experience, students are already intimidated by the abstract nature of poetry and Creech use the open-ended and creative free verse style to slowly indoctrinate the reader into poetic forms. Basically, Miss Stretchberry is a very clever teacher in the way she simplifies and breaks down the negative myth of the complexity of poetry. These are important reasons why I would use Creech’s book to not only help students understand poetry, but to help them understand the student/teacher relationship of Miss Stretchberry and Jack in the reading comprehension process.
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