Characterization: Place Poem

This comprehension strategy is better known as a get-to-know-you activity and poem from George Ella Lyon that teachers use at the beginning of the school year because it is a really accessible list poem. We want to know our students and for our students to know one another. We also want our students to know the authors they are reading are human beings, too. The authors in this anthology are living authors with lives within and beyond these stories.

To Prepare

Copy any short fiction from the anthology. There is a digital version online, but you can also take a picture of the book and share it with students via the learning management system (Canvas, Google Classroom). If you have printers in your school, you can make a copy for each student to tape into their notebook.

Launch the Lesson

Start with a write-in. Project three options on the white-board or overhead project for students to select from (or make these available on your learning management system). A note about these write-ins, students should feel free to reject the prompts or develop their own during the writing time. For this prompt focused on place and where we are from, here are a few suggestions:

Informational: Write 5 facts about where you are from. It can be where you live now or where you lived once. Imagine your writing as a travel brochure and these are places to go in your town.

Argument: The places we live shape who we become. Agree or disagree. First, tell us where you life or places you have lived. Then, consider both sides: On one hand, I agree… On the other hand, I could disagree…. However, if I had to choose, I’d say.

Narrative: Tell a story about a place that makes you most feel safe and or happy. Your happy place. When do you go there? Who is there? What makes you feel safe or happy?

Reading from Just YA

Distribute the text or direct students to locate the text within the anthology. This lesson works especially well if you select several stories so that more perspectives are included in the conversation around characters’ sense of place.

The short fiction seems to work best for this so that you can examine character traits and support a connection between where the student-reader is from and the character-narrator is from in the text. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Read the short fiction independently, as a teacher read aloud, or as guided reading.

Step 2: Step into the shoes of the character. Make a list of any character’s attributes. List details about the story: setting, conflicts, important plot points, themes, etc.

Step 3: Using the template, create a “Where I Am From” poem about your favorite character.

Step 4: Think of opposing figures in the story novel (antagonist and protagonist) and juxtapose these two characters to create a poem for two voices.

Get Moving: Open Mic

After students have written their poems, have a poetry open mic. Allow students to share their poems and peers to guess the characters revealed in the poems. Or use the open mic as a replacement for book talks/reports.

Closure

In a discussion or pair-share reflection, return to the write-in prompts to talk about the argument question: In what ways does place shape us, and in what ways do we shape place? What is our responsibility in the places we share with others if this is true?