When my former students and I published DEAL WITH IT! Powerful Words from Smart, Young Women in 2007, we decided to write “Where I’m From Poems” by George Ella Lyon in lieu of short paragraphs about each one of us.
At the start of the 2007-08 school year, I shared my “Where I’m From” Poem with my students during the first week of school, which felt too early. This year, I’m sharing my “Where I’m From” Poem with them today as part of our weekly Poetry Friday Share at Morning Meeting.
However, I’ve decided to take it a step further and include notes about what some of the items mean so that it’s a bit more meaningful for them when they look back on it and if they decide to go online to use the template I described to write their own “Where I’m From” Poem.
Author Amok is hosting Poetry Friday this week. Click here to see other submissions.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
A couple of ways that I used my where I’m from poem this year are: I created a power point with photos of all the things that I am from, barbies, cassette tapes, different movies and events, etc. I showed the slide show as I read the poem, and it created an amazing visual for my kids. I am having my kids create their own power points now to go with their poems. I also used my poem for a revision mini lesson on adding details to strengthen writing. I took my poem and deleted all the personal details and took it down to the bare bones, then, I added details back in highlighting the additions as we went along. The kids then went back, did the same thing for the first half of their poem, got in small groups, shared their changes and helped each other add details to finish their poems. It was one of the best revision lessons I have ever had. Sorry this is sooo long!
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Love, love, love! this exercise… my newcomers enjoy this. We’re doing Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15) and this fits PERFECTLY.
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Our staff just did these poems this year. We are compiling them into a notebook. Here is mine: http://maclibrary.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/poetry-friday-a-drum-a-ring-and-a-blanket-poem-revisited/
Thank you for sharing yours.
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Oh, I love those I Am From poems. I did one awhile back; I should dig it out. Great idea for your students — I should do it with my kids, too.
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What a neat idea! It handles the preconception of poetry being inaccessible right at the start.
I’m feeling inspired to try a “Where I’m From” poem.
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