This week even though I was stressed out with all kinds of papers due and responsibilities with student senate I learned plenty. This weeks in AP LIT we learned how to analyze a poem using TP-CASTT. I've never learned how to analyze a poem, and when I have analyzed a poem before I've guessed on everything. Even made up out of the box underlying meanings for poems to make myself sound smarter.
TP-CAST helps organize an individual thoughts into six different sections: title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude, shifts, title, and theme.
Out of these sections, the most helpful to me was attitude. The attitude section made me think about what the author was trying to convey in the text. It reminded to look at the diction of poems because they can be taken literally or figuratively. Word choices matter so much for determining the attitude of a poem because they change the complexity and meaning of the poem.
I also found helpful that TP-CASTT included two different sections named ‘title’. In the first ‘title’ section the reader was suppose to guess what the poem would be about before even reading. Right of the bat I was able to begin critically thinking about the poem and predicting what it would be about. This personally helped me fully engage in the poem before I had read it.
The second section labeled ‘title’ was a reanalysis of the title again after reading the poem. I was able to compare and contrast my past thinking with my knew knowledge of the poem and deciphered the poem's message/story.
Here's a link to a website that presents analyzing a poem in a way like similar to TP-CASTing!