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Where I'm From Poetry

Jim Harmon, Apple Distinguished Educator, Euclid City Schools & Kristien Zenkov, George Mason University

About the format... 

We learned about this autobiographical poem format in "Reading, Writing, and Rising Up," a book by Linda Christensen that encourages ELA teachers to make students the center of the reading and writing process. The format provides teachers with an opportunity to build cohesiveness, get to know their students, and consider the writing process as a community of learners. After integrating the concept into our classrooms of high school students and future English teachers, we recognized the unique opportunity that technology might provide to enhance the presentation of this poetic stlye.
 

Use in the ELA Classroom 

Based on our experience, using this as a beginning of the year activity can be beneficial for students and teacher. It helps the teacher get to know their students and it helps students realize how much more they have in common with their peers than their perceived differences. The risk taking involved may be too much for some students at the beginning of the year, however, it could still be used as a writing process activity while postponing the oral presentation of the poem to the class at a later, more comfortable date.

This is an excellent opportunity to address the 6+1 Writing Traits, particularly voice and presentation.

 

Teacher Model 

 Duration: 1:35
Jim created this model for his sophomore English class to "set the bar" for student work. Feel free to use this model, however, we believe that creating your own model for this assignment will allow you to become more familiar with the technology involved, will allow you to become familiar with potential areas of trouble and will give your students a chance to get to know you. See the Examples of Student Work section (upper-right corner of this page) for actual student models.
 
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First published on Nov 07, 2008.