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.
This is an awesome lesson plan. Can I take your class?
ReplyDeleteI just how you associate writing and "identity," reinforcing the idea that we can chose to communicate our identity via what we write. I also really like how you frame this assignment in via a sort of "detective" lens; in other words, you don't frame it as
Step 1 = Remember stuff
Step 2 = Pick something
Step 3 = Tell me about your identity
Instead, you frame it as a process that takes some genuine and serious personal introspection utilizing the tool of the identity sheet.
So I'm wondering, how do you handle this assignment for students who are very reluctant to talk about their identities for reasons of physical / sexual abuse, traumatic childhoods, and so on? What sort of accommodations do you make? Or, do these students often benefit from this sort of writing as it helps them further process traumatic experiences?
This is very interesting to me.
Good work. Keep kicking ass.