Star gazing: interpretive approaches to Whitman’s When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

ABSTRACT This study investigates the interpretive approaches of three English teachers working in different grade levels with the same poem, Walt Whitman’s When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer. The researcher sought to learn what the teachers identified as most valuable about studying poetry in school, what interpretive approaches they employed to enact those values, and what the interpretive approaches afforded students in their classes. Classroom observations of the three English teachers, along with interviews, a review of student work, and a review of scholarship in the field of English education resulted in the articulation of three interpretive approaches to the teaching of a poem, insights into the teachers’ rationales for using particular approaches, and descriptions of what each approach afforded students.