“No one else sees the world as you do; no one else has your material to draw on.” George Ella Lyon began “Where I’m From” as a writing exercise creating ‘where-I’m-from’ lists. She found the process “too rich and too much fun to give up after only one poem,” and decided to try it as an exercise with other writers. It proved to be a rich source for English and literacy classes. You can find a copy of Lyon’s poem, “Where I’m From” below.
This type of text can give our students an understanding of how writing can help us to tap into past memories and bring them to life again, a rich ground to explore. Lyon herself even suggests some directions you could explore for further writing exercises and styles (see below).
But for the time being, let’s look at using Lyon’s poem as an exemplar for getting our students (and perhaps ourselves) to create their own “Where I’m From” poems. Lyon’s poem makes an excellent model to scaffold for our students how to write and what to write about in their poems, it acts as an organisational structure for writing, provides ideas about how to create powerful imagery and ideas about the sorts of experiences to focus on. Now I will outline how I used Lyon’s poem to create my own “Where I’m From” poem.
After my stanzas were complete, I read them aloud to begin to re-arrange their order until the rhythm and cohesion felt logical and comfortable to read and speak. Where I’m From I am from hay-bale cubby house bricks and where a chainsaw roar meant warmth; from a playground acres wide, twin towering pines and the comforting smell of Lanolin. I am from fresh fruit and vegetables straight off the vine and pumpkin vines overcrowding the grass; from the heartbreak of leaving that land for fields of sugarcane and generational judgement. I am from cheeky smiles of nieces and nephews; from moral exclusions to celebrations and self-expectations of perfectionism. I am from a mother I am like because of whom she is; who is despite her own. I am from the east; from schools that fought to get what they have and the people who persevered through loss and rough lives with potholes like the dirt roads they travelled. In my poem I chose to evoke imagery about the first place I lived and grew-up as a child, the major life event of leaving that place and moving to another state, to imply the importance of my family to myself and my relationship with them, a little bit about my upbringing from a religious standpoint, my own self-expectations (and what I believe I could be capable of), as well as implications of my own educational background. Now we have discussed how to create a “Where I’m From” poem, we should consider how we will assess and evaluate one. How do we go about creating those criteria? Bloom’s Taxonomy, which identifies various ways of thinking with differing complexity can be a very useful starting point as you try to phrase your assessment criteria. It is also helpful to reflect on your own thinking processes as you create your exemplar task in the assessment criteria design process. Writing style and word choices are vital in making effective criteria. It is important that you write succinct statements to give your students a clear understanding of what is expected, as most students will use your assessment criteria as a combination of gauging your learning intentions and as a measure of success criteria to check how they are tracking with the task. During my creation of the following assessment criteria rubric for the “Where I’m From” writing prompt, I first thought about what components were characteristic to this form of writing; specifically that it was to evoke personal experiences, use poetry devices and stylistically appropriate descriptive language, and use an appropriate structure to create a coherent written piece. These are what I used as a basis for my assessment criteria. You can see the completed rubric below. Do I believe that our own personal histories, cultures, personalities and experiences can shape and impact the sort of teachers we become? Absolutely. Personally, I cam from a pretty close-knit family, my parents have been married for 30+ years, I have only lived in a few houses (most of which were working farms) and have attended 5 schools through to finishing my VCE. I have lived in a country area most of my life as part of the lower socio-economic status bracket. This has meant that some educational opportunities were different for me than students who may have lived in more built-up areas, closer to enriching experiences like museums, galleries and other resources. This has made me more aware of how I might be able to compensate or provide a variety of resources for my own students as a teacher so that I might be able to provide them with the most enriching educational experiences possible. My relatively fortunate upbringing with my own family, I hope, will allow me to be more conscious and aware of social and cultural implications for my students, particularly of those that may not be as fortunate as I was growing up. In summary, everything is related; we are coloured by our own experiences and perceptions of the world around us and we cannot separate ourselves from our personal histories. It would be foolish to believe that these would not impact our teaching, but we can control whether they impact us positively and make us the best teachers we can possibly be or if they will turn us into the cantankerous, curmudgeon, jaded teachers students avoid. For further information about works referenced: Where I'm From - George Ella Lyon Information About George Ella Lyon Downloadable Content:
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