Emily+Menz

**Unit Title** //This is the place where I belong//; writing inspired by location

**Prepared by** Emily Menz

**Grade Level** 9 - 12

**Estimated Timeline for Teaching** This unit could be covered in fifteen 50 minute lessons, and easily adapted for shorter or longer periods of time.

**Unit Overview** In this unit, students will think critically about the environments around them and in the texts that they read. Drawing from a place that is meaningful to them, they will use their chosen location as inspiration for writing. This should be meaningful for the students, and allows them to bring their outside lives into the classroom. Students will start to examine their location by responding to writing prompts, and will choose several pieces to further develop, taking them through the writing process. Having choice over which location to focus on is especially useful to English Language Learners, who may enjoy writing about their home country, or transfer students, who may be looking to embrace their new community or revisit the former home that they are missing. The students will also have choice in how they format their individual pieces. In addition to the writing, we will be looking at place-based texts, such as The House on Mango Street and Walt Whitman’s “Give me the Splendid Silent Sun.” We will also extend this to researching a “dream location” using the library and the internet.

**Theory to Practice** This unit is based heavily on the work of Stephen Smith and Debbie Dehoney, members of the National Writing Project and speakers at the 2009 Rural Sites Network Conference.

As Stephen puts it:

//The places in our lives – a favorite chair, a corner in the hallway, a particular stretch of beach, in your car traveling along a familiar road – provide shelter and escape. Such places give us strength and a sense of permanence.//

By encouraging students to write about “a place where they belong,” they are bringing their true selves into the classroom and writing in a way that is personally meaningful to them.

Along the same lines, Debbie explained:

//Children write best what they know most about. Middle and upper class kids comply to the accepted norms of behavior and read and write in an acceptable way (the way teachers want it), if we want them to write what they know best, we as teachers have to acknowledge and celebrate their world and experiences even when they are uncomfortable for us to hear.//

Giving students the opportunity to write about a place where they belong opens a door for their teachers to see into their world, allowing the teacher to acknowledge and celebrate it.

**Student Objectives** • Students will experience writing as a process, carrying a project through from pre-writing activities, drafting, and a final polished product. • Students will write based on their own personal experiences with place and location, creating works that are personally important to them. • Students will think critically about location, using critical thinking skills to compare and contrast their own experiences with those of others, which they will experience through supplementary readings and in-class discussions.

**Michigan Content Expectations** CE 1.1.2 Know and use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate, focus, and organize ideas (e.g., free writing, clustering/mapping, talking with others, brainstorming, outlining, developing graphic organizers, taking notes, summarizing, paraphrasing).

CE 1.1.5 Revise drafts to more fully and/or precisely convey meaning—drawing on response from others, self-reflection, and reading one’s own work with the eye of a reader; then refine the text— deleting and/or reorganizing ideas, and addressing potential readers’ questions.

CE 1.2.3 Write, speak, and create artistic representations to express personal experience and perspective (e.g., personal narrative, poetry, imaginative writing, slam poetry, blogs, webpages).

CE 1.3.7 Participate collaboratively and productively in groups (e.g., response groups, work teams, discussion groups, and committees)—fulfilling roles and responsibilities, posing relevant questions, giving and following instructions, acknowledging and building on ideas and contributions of others to answer questions or to solve problems, and offering dissent courteously.

CE 1.5.5 Respond to and use feedback to strengthen written and multimedia presentations (e.g., clarify and defend ideas, expand on a topic, use logical arguments, modify organization, evaluate effectiveness of images, set goals for future presentations). **I nstructional Plan Components ** **Resources**
 * pens or pencils, writing paper, drawing paper, colored pencils
 * copy of George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From." http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html
 * copies of __The House on Mango Street__ by Sandra Cisneros.
 * copies of "Give me the Splendid Silent Sun" by Walt Whitman. http://www.bartleby.com/142/130.html
 * copies of "I hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman. http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/I_Hear_America_.htm
 * copies of "I, too, sing America" by Langston Hughes.http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615

**Teacher preparation**
 * see texts mentioned above; prepare photocopies for corresponding sessions
 * secure computer lab for sessions 2 & 7
 * prepart to define/teach terms //dichotomy// and //dialectic// for session 3
 * organize treats for session 15, our celebration of the places we belong!

**Detailed lesson plans** __Session 1__ 1. **Prewriting Activity**: (Students will need paper, pens.) Students construct their own "Where I'm From" poem, based on the concept of George Ella Lyon's poem of the same name. Students begin by making lists that fit under the following categories: objects in your house, objects in your yard, objects in your neighborhood, names of relatives (unique is good!), family sayings, foods that are associated with your family, places where your memories are kept. After the students have filled out their lists, the teacher will read George Ella Lyon's poem. Students will see the poem on the overhead or document camera, and can reference it as they then take their lists and make their own "Where I'm From" poem. 2. **Literary discussion prompts**: (All students will need a copy of the book, or photocopies of the selected passages) Read aloud selected passages from __The House on Mango Street__ by Sandra Cisneros. Follow with class discussion. Questions to guide discussion:
 * What is the relevance of the title to the passages we have read? Why focus on place?
 * How does Mango Street form a part of the speaker's identity?
 * What descriptions are we give of place in this story? How does the place shape the plot?

__Session 2__ 1. **Prewriting Activity**: (Students all need blank paper, colored pencils) On the board, I will write "This is the place where I belong." At the start of class, students will be asked to draw a picture that would fit this heading in their lives. After allowing enough time for drawing, ask the students to flip the page over and write a few paragraphs about their chosen place. 2. Introduce the writing unit "This is the place where I belong." Hand out **Assignment Sheet** and read over with class; noting that their final portfolio will include three (or more) finished pieces on "the place they belong," all previous drafts and peer/teacher conferencing sheets, their write-up on"the place where I'd like to visit," and a **Self-Reflection** on the finished portfolio. Discuss expectations, answer any questions. Assignment Sheet Document: 3. **Prewriting Activity:** //Place as Dream Destination//; Getting thinking about place. (see sheet) Students list at least two places for each category. Students turn in finished sheet for a process grade. If time allows, after students finish they may begin research on a place they would like to visit. This will become a one to two page paper that will be due in the portfolio at the end of the unit. Students are encouraged to use visuals to enhance their work. We will spend more time in class on this next week. //Place as Dream Destination Instructions://

__Session 3__ 1. **Discussion Activity:** //Rural and Urban Places//; Continuing to contemplate location. (see link below) This starts with a discussion, and ends with students working in literature circle groups to discuss Walt Whitman's "Give me the Splendid Silent Sun," and how the urban/rural debate plays out in his writing. 2. **Prewriting Activity:** //Place as Sanctuary: hangouts or havens//; Getting writers to consider the vitality of their special places. (see link below) Direct students to look for (in hard copies from home or online) pictures of the places they belong. These can be used as inspiration for original writing; looking at a picture can remind us of details that the memory might not see. They can also include these in their final portfolio for an artistic touch. Instructions:

__Session 4 &5__ 1. Writing Workshop Day; students spend time writing, revising, and when ready, using peer conferencing (with **peer review sheet** to continue the crafting of their personal pieces. Students will read their work aloud to 1 - 3 peer reviewers, who will then orally report to the writer, giving them 1 - 3 praises, problem, and proposals for editing the piece. The writer being reviewed will record these comments on his or her peer review sheet. Alternatively, one peer reviewer could read a student's piece and write in his or her own comments to give back to the author. 2. Session 4 only: At start of class, work with students to create class **assessment rubric** for final portfolio. Students will discuss in groups of 4 what they feel should be the criteria for grading both the original writing and the travel reports. Then, as a whole group, we will share what each group came up with, and together create a final list that will be our assesment rubric. Documents available here:

__Session 6__ 1. **Grammar Minilesson**: //Using Prepositions to Create Parallel Structure in Writing// 2. **PreWriting Activity:** //Catalogue the Place//; applying parallel structure to place-based writing.

__Session 7__ 1. Class held in computer lab; students use the internet to research their "place I'd like to visit" that will appear as a short paper in their portfolio.

__Session 8__ 1. **Literary Analysis and PreWriting:** Using Walt Whitman's "I hear America Singing" and Langston Hughes' "I, too, sing America," to serve as springboards for a discussion on belongin in our nation. Activity ends with students writing their school environment, with "I hear my school singing. Full details available at: "http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=989

__Sessions 9 & 10__ 1. Writing Workshop Day; students spend time writing, revising, and when ready, using peer conferencing to continue the crafting of their personal pieces. 2. After a student has had his or her work peer reviewed, and has revised the work accordingly, I will meet individually with the student to confer about the writing. The student will then continue the process of drafting and polishing the piece.

__Sessions 11 & 12__ 1. (Unit continues with more PreWriting Activities and Mini-Lessons)

__Session 13__ 1. Writing Workshop Day; students spend time writing, revising, and when ready, using peer conferencing to continue the crafting of their personal pieces. 2. After a student has had his or her work peer reviewed, and has revised the work accordingly, I will meet individually with the student to confer about the writing. The student will then continue the process of drafting and polishing the piece. This is the final day for teacher conferences, and all students must have complete two for their final portfolio.

__Session 14__ 1. (Unit continues with more literary text comparisons and discussions on place in those texts)

__Session 15__ 1. Portfolios due today! 2. Students select one piece (or more, if time allows) to read out loud to the class. (This is a day to celebrate the places that we belong! Of course, the best celebrations include treats, so we'll have those, too.)