Where I'm From: a lesson plan

In order to invite students' lives into the classroom (through poetry), I like to teach personalized poetry with a structure called "Where I'm From."

We begin by discussing how writers can reveal things about their lives through their writing. We talk about how writers can illustrate parts of their lives such as family, hobbies, neighborhood life, your house/apartment, sayings, foods, memories, etc.

I ask the students to see what they can deduce about the writers of various "Where I'm From" poems that we read aloud in class. Typically I read the first one, and students invariably volunteer to read those that follow (I generally use 4 examples that I already have).

I continually ask the students to see what they might guess about each author's family life, financial background, ethnicity, etc, using the text as evidence.

After we've read the poems I've provided, I give each student an "Identity Sheet". By now, most students have likely guessed that he/she will be writing his own poem. Most are eager. The Identity Sheet asks the student to list various things:

1. List items in your home, room and/or yard. What do they look like? How do they smell? What makes your house your home?

2. What do you see in your neighborhood? How do you feel when you walk out the front door? What do you call your neighborhood? How do you feel living there?

3. Name some important people in your life (family, friends, inspirational people, favorite musicians, etc.). These people help make you who your are.....explain why.

4. List names of food/family dishes. What do you eat when you all get together? What are your favorites?

5. Sayings: What do you say to your friends? Do family members have a special saying they like to say to you? REMINDER: Keep it appropriate.

6. Name places, people and times your remember from your childhood. Which memories stick out? Why?

When the students have been given a few minutes with this, I ask them to volunteer a couple things from each category.

I explain they will take their list home. They can add to it or subtract from it if they wish. I then tell them they will write a poem simply by mimicking those we went over, incorporating any items from their Identity Sheet as they see fit.

Nearly all the students seem genuinely excited by this time, knowing there are basically no boundaries.

Before I send them home with their assignment, I tell them that a rapper actually wrote his own "Where I'm From" poem, focusing on his hometown. I play them "Brooklyn" by Mos Def.

After the song is over, they are eager to get started. The next day, I ask them to volunteer to read their poem in front of the class. In four years of teaching this, I've only had one student choose NOT to read his/her poem.

The end result is that students feel that their lives are important. They feel included in the classroom. They feel that they have talent, and that they have a voice. And maybe best of all, they see similarities in each others' lives, which creates a better classroom chemistry.

It is a great lesson to begin a school year.

"Brooklyn" by Mos Def

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3s4pvhMp1s

"Brooklyn"

[Mos Def]
Hey hey, ha ha say what say what
Ha ha bust it yo
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in, is beautiful Brooklyn
Long as I live here believe I'm on fire hey
Cuz it's the B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
L-Y-N is the place where I stay
The B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
Best in the world and all USA
It's the B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
L-Y-N is the place where I stay
The B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
Place where I rest is on my born day
Bust it, sometimes I sit back and just reflect
Watch the world go by and my thought connect
I think about the time past and the time to come
Reminesce on Bed-Stuy when I was pride and young
I used to try and come, to the neighborhood function
Throw on my Izod, say a little something
When I was just a youngin, before the days of thuggin
How me and Charlie Chims (aiyyo what?) I'm only buggin
Fast forward, Nine-Now I gotta team my seed
I must proceed at God's speed to perform my deed
Livin the now space and time, round the nine to five
For as long as I'm alive, paw I got to strive
I ain't sittin roadside, that ain't harder to plan
I'm out here for my fam doin all that I can
I love my city, sweet and gritty in land to outskirts
Nickname Bucktown cuz we grown to outburst
Philosophy redefine us, touch mines I touch back
Walk the streets like a sweet and get beat like drum tracks
Catch no shakes over jakes (boomp-boomp!) we bust back
Bring the marty to your face wit no place to run back
I'm from the slums that created the bass that thump back
This ain't a game clown, play ya James Brown and jump back
What you want, Jack? Young cats stash they jums at
Draw they guns back, momma screams where she sons at
Tryin to hunt that, recurring dream of high stakes
The fourth largest, first artist, Brooklyn is the place
Settled by the judge many years ago
Three billion strong and here we go

[Mos Def]
GOOD MORNINNNNNNNNNGG VIETNAM!!!
Ha (back up back up back up back up back up) [repeated in background]
Yo sometimes I sit back, reflect on the place that I live at
Unlike any place I ever been at
The home of big gats, deep dish hammer rim caps
Have a mishap, push ya wig back
Where you go to get the fresh trim at
Four on the jake got the Timb rack
Blue collars metro carding it
Thugs mobbin it, form partnership
Increase armorment, street pharmacist
Deep consequence, when you seek sleek ornaments
You get caught, rode the white horse and can't get off
Big dogs that trick off just get sent off
They shoebox stash is all they seeds gotta live off
It's real yo but still yo, it's love here
And it's felt by anybody that come here
Out of towners take the train, plane and bus here
Must be something that they really want here
One year as a resident, deeper sentiment
Shoutout "Go Brooklyn!", they representin it
Sittin on they front stoop sippin Guinesses
Usin native dialect in they sentences
From the treeline blocks to the tenaments
To the Mom & Pop local shop menaces
Travel all around the world in great distances
And ain't a place that I know that bear resemblance
That's why we it The Planet
Not a borough or a prov, it's our style that's uncalm
From ?sun? to the ? to the Lafayette Gardens
White ?coff guawinas? in they army jacket linings
Yo this goes out to my cats in Coney Isle
Friday night out in front The Himalaya goin wild
This goes out to Crown Heights and Smurv Village
The nighties, and all my ?yarda trenny? Brown's Village
Parkside tennants caught, thirties, forties, and the fifties
The cats out in Starite City gettin busy
To the Hook, to the East, to the Stuy
Bushwick and Kanarcy, Farraget, Fullgreen, and Marcy
My Flatbush posse, generals of armies
When it's time to form, just call me
And let this song be, playin loud in Long B
If you love Bucktown STRONGLY!
RAISE IT UP!

[Mos Def]
Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at
Live sway and the sharp balance of the battle axe
Irons is brandished at, thugs draw they hammer back
It's where you find the news tool crew cameras at
It's where my fam is at, summertime jame is at
They play Big and get you open like a sandal back
Hotter than candle wax, hustlin you can't relax
The crack babies tryin to find where they mama's at
It's off the handle black, wit big police scandals that
Turn into actions screenplays sold to Miramax
The type of place where they check your appearance at
And cats who know where all the hot 'lo gear is at
The stompin grounds, where you find a pound, smoke is that
Be blazin charm that have your wave cap floatin back
The doorstep where the disposessed posted at
Dope fiends out at Franklin Ave sellin zovarax
You big ballin better keep your money folded back
Cuz once the young guns notice that it's over, black
Brooklyn keep on takin it, worldwide we known for that
Flossy cats get it snatched like the local tax
The place I sharpen up my baritone vocals at
Where one of the greatest MC's was a local cat

Poem 4

this is a circus

blue donkeys and red elephants

which team are you on?

go team go!

the other guys are the enemy

whatever they say is wrong,

my teammates are always right

ideas are irrelevant

donkey versus elephant

pick a side

pick a side

pick a side

pick a damn side

no time to think

too difficult

what did they say? is it bad?

i'm not sure.......tell me who said it

what color was their jersey?

pick a side

pick a side

pick a side

pick a damn side

doesn't matter what he chooses

who wins?

who really loses?

this is a circus

Assignment 3

purpose: to show how voice can affect the reading of a poem, and how an audience might receive a poem differently based on voice

setup: pass out 2 magazine/newspaper photos to each student. photos should be a variety of images- from cartoon characters to politicians, athletes, random people in various states of emotion, even to animals, etc.......the idea is to get as wide a range of individuals as possible.

each student will also receive a short poem from the teacher (any poem will do).

students will them be asked to imagine how their 2 characters might read the poem.

for example, a student might receive a photo of a circus clown crying, and a photo of Beyonce. they will read the poem in their imagined voice of each.

wrap up: students will write a short feedback page on the exercise, answering questions such as-- how did the meaning of poem change withe the different voices? what messages still came through? which way did you like better? why? which voice is closer to your own? why? which voice do you think the author would choose? why?

allan wolf

i really like the youtube clip of allan wolf that our group picked.......

it reminded me of reading shel silverstein in elemntary school, the first time i remember really liking poetry. it has a great mix of melodrama and ridiculousness.

the way he peformed two poems in particular was intriguing. in both "your mother's other name" and ".......the hippo" (i forgot the name), allan wolf incorporated his young audience. it's a great device to hook them in. whether it's call-and-response or volunteering information, the audience plays a role in the performance.....this is especially useful for an audience of children.

but the lesson can be extended to teaching......when they are involved and can make a connection to something, they will be more engaged and ultimately get more out of it.

he also repeats lines, like a hook in a song. this makes it more rhythmic and easy to follow for young kids.

another thing that works is using words with sort of a musical quality to them.......words that sound interesting when vocalized. alliteration would be an example of this.

Poem 4

From the long lost thrill

of patience run dry

a river of hope

rubs the rock

into sand that falls

for the pouting pull

of gravity in full

until the last

lingering current

cares less of events

and more about tents

loved ones held

in arms that only trigger

warmth up and down

from boot to crown

an undertow

above the head

below the soul

where children

dare to dare

and adults with equal fare

let loose

their minds and dreams

into the stream that runs

uphill downwind

cross country sideways

heaven sent hellbent

with a cold northern wind

and a soft southern grin

wet from the westerly

breeze of eastern ease

blowing rings

of soft smoke

through no smoking pipe dreams

you lie believing

in some truth that

no one felt the need to create

a place to gravitate

a moment evolved

a time

a space

us

and all of you

Creative Writing Assignment 2

This can be done in small or large groups and at any grade level (very simple assignment):

First student write one word, phrase or short paragraph (depending on grade level), second student as a word, phrase or short paragraph, and so on.

The goal is for a group to create a poem or story, with each student relying only on the previous student's writing as a jumping-off point.

Poem 3

Yellow- the color of our carpet that I played on

Green was the color of the grass that wore away

White was the generic cans when money was tight

Black- the color of my grandma's resting place

Orange was the juice I drank getting ready for school

Red- my face that day in the lunchroom

Purple was my ankle when my dreams died

Blue was how I felt when she walked out the door

Poem 2

A great week.....

Monday I learned how to read, everyone telling me how smart I was

Tuesday was the day I kissed Julie on the bus, classmates staring me down

On Wednesday I could finally drive, and I cried when grandma disappeared

Thursday I got a degree and a job (I guess I'll be a teacher)

And Friday was a time to explore the world and my own true self

Saturday is making a new life with Lisa, forgetting Michelle

Today is.......well, the sun is coming up.