Introductory Pieces

Today we started with two introductory features that I felt were really appropriate for a first class, and even more so for a class in which we need to be reflective and evaluate ourselves.

The first activity required that we write out our name, explain its meaning(s) to a partner and have the partner introduce us to the class. I worked with someone that I actually knew. By knew, I mean, we’ve had a year’s worth of classes together, I am often updated about her upcoming wedding plans, and we attended a memorial service and dinner the evening before. This, for me at least, qualifies as “knowing” someone.

However, learning about the origins of her name seemed more intimate than the seemingly intimate details I already knew. In sharing the story of my name, I shared many personal details about my family, their perceptions and their perspectives. I also revisited things that make me who I am that I hadn’t thought about in years.

I like this a lot, and even considered using it in my advisory next year. I’m sure it requires the warnings and rules necessary for sharing among high school freshmen that go unspoken in grad school, but it truly invites self-reflection, the building of trust, and the interest that many ice-breaking introductions lack (without the game show quality of Two Truths and a Lie, What’s the Most Important Thing in My Purse, etc).

The second activity that we used was the creation of a poem in which we start each line with “I am from…” and examine ourselves. I cheated and looked ahead to the scaffolding prompts which are supposed to be used in an evaluation of your fist effort. I even felt guilty in doing so, but honestly I was scared beyond belief by the word poem, and only scanned the paper for further support. (My actual effort is in another blog.) It turned out ok, I’d like to to think.

I’m not as certain that I would use this in the classroom without solid context. I’m worried that this is the type of activity English Language Arts teachers use to “deepen our understanding of ourselves,” but the process is the end and not the means to contextualize the lens through which we evaluate the world around us. ( I also don’t know if I agree with the idea that free verse, every line starting with the same phrase, stream of consciousness-type writing is poetry.)

I like the idea that where I’m from extends beyond physical locations. In this way I can be from people, ideas, beliefs and relationships. The history teacher in me sees a direct correlation between this activity and the five themes of geography.

To use this activity effectively, in either ELA or Social Studies, I would like to adapt the process. If I needed to skip ahead and find more direction, I think some of my students would need to as well. The addition of a brainstorming process might be very helpful. I immediately think of the five senses graphic organizer in which the students trace their hand and have each finger represent a sense. I think the brainstorming would help create the details to be mentioned in the written piece, and an emphasis on sensory details and imagery would make the work much more poetic. Moving the prompts up may encourage students to write knowing they can gather their thoughts first and write second. The first break in writing could then be a reading of the piece with an eye to the inclusion of all details from the organizer and the rewriting or reordering of the ideas already put onto paper.

Implications of Introductory Pieces on Teaching: Solid activities; may need slight adaptations; really should be used as pieces of a deeper study of self, not simply “creative writing activities” that are never revisited