While working on poetry this week with teachers, I compiled a list of STAAR stem questions from the 3rd Grade STAAR test.  (It’s interesting that there are a lot of questions about “the speaker”.)

• The speaker in this poem is someone or something who —
• Which words help the reader imagine the speaker’s experience?
• The poet uses these lines mainly to show — (can be an example of the speakers feelings or actions)
• How does the speaker feel throughout the poem?
• What is the speaker doing in the poem?
• The poet titled this poem “____” most likely because —
• What is the main message (or theme) in the poem?
• Which word best describes the feeling that the poet creates in this poem?
• These lines best support the idea — (an idea or feeling presented in the poem)
• Lines _ through _ are included in the poem because they —
• Lines _ through _ are important to the poem because —
• This poem is an example of (narrative, humorous, lyrical, concrete, free verse) poetry mostly because it —
• Why does the poet use the exclamation points (or some other kind of punctuation) in the first stanza?
• Which of these lines from the poem rhyme?