For many people, poetry isn’t just the absolute ideal of great language use, it’s possibly even the highest and purest artform. The best poems capture emotions, experiences or images using a lyrical language that transcends the way prose describes things more literally and evokes themes and visceral, emotional experiences that are transmitted directly to the reader.
This is the reason why writers such as Shakespeare, Coleridge, Byron, Angelou and Dickinson (to name just a few English-language examples) remain vital and read long after the poets themselves have passed on. Put simply, poetry is immortal – it’s just as powerful after centuries as it was when it was first written.
But poetry is often hard to read, and less welcoming to the reader than text that uses a more literal, straightforward way of describing the world. This is largely because poetry relies on the reader’s ability to understand figurative language, which is more abstract and indirect.
Our comprehension of figurative language comes from our experience with texts. An ability to comprehend figurative language only comes from a mastery of more direct, concrete lower-order thinking and processing skills. This mastery is built on in the journey to a more abstract, complex approach to reading based on higher-order thinking.
This means that the best readers are also the best able to understand and enjoy poetry, because being able to deal with figurative language only comes to a reader who’s already great at interpreting direct language, meaning it’s one of the clearest hallmarks of advanced reading comprehension.
The strategy of Interpreting Figurative Language in the CARS & STARS Online program sees students tackle abstract language and the idea of thinking about text that might say something different directly to what it really means. Other CARS & STARS Online strategies that inform the ability to deal with abstract, figurative language include Finding Word Meaning in Context; Making Predictions; and Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences.
However, all twelve of the main, recurring reading strategies that underpin the entirety of the CARS & STARS Online program contribute to being able to read poetic texts in this way. Additionally, the variety of texts that students are exposed to throughout the program mean students undertaking CARS & STARS Online will have a healthy grounding in all types of figurative language as they progress on their reading journey.
If you are interested in learning more about the CARS & STARS Online subscriptions and how they can help children to achieve better results, then sign up for a free trial to be an integral part of your child’s reading success.
