Madeline M. Craig
Content: Poetic and Prose Selection
Seeing ourselves objectively and understanding how our fluctuating emotions impact our day to day choices is an important lesson for adolescents to learn. Giving ourselves grace when we make mistakes, overcoming obstacles and bouncing back after a set-back are essential themes that connect youths across the nation.
Speechless (2020) by Maria Fernanda Benavides is a nonfiction, narrative essay that explores how racism and microaggressions caused her to develop self-doubt. Through her writing she shares her feeling of numbness when she felt her voice did not make a difference.
Amari Explains a Frown to Her Little Brother (2020) by Mahogany L Browne explains racial profiling through poetic imagery. Browne details the conversation many families have surrounding public safety and racial bias, even alluding to events of racial injustice such as the murders of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till.
Activism Everywhere (2020) by Mahogany L. Brown is a poem centered around voice, both the power of the individual voice and the necessity of the collective voice. This poem highlights the importance of finding and using our voice to ensure progressive change.
Instruction: Student-led Discussions
As a routine has been established, students should be well adapted to discussing in small groups. A written recording of student observations, comments, and provoking thoughts for this week’s conversation will be kept in a new section of their writer’s notebook. To continue established routines, but to also encourage more authentic conversations, only a couple questions will be posted to encourage students to formulate their own observations. Possible guiding questions are as follows:
- How did people’s positive or negative reactions to pieces of the authors’ identity shape how they viewed themselves? Is this a universal theme?
- How important is individuality? How important is it to acknowledge commonalities with others?
Writing Prompt: Reflecting on the Present
At this point, students may have pieces they are continuing to work on and add to, however, it is important to give students options and choices to grow their writing stamina. For this section, I wanted to include a prompt to have writers think on the theme of reflecting on their present identities:
Create a list of qualities you feel make up your identity. Out of this list, select the top three that are most important to who you are. Try to think about why these are important pieces that make you, you. Write on why these qualities are at the top of your list and how they present themselves in your personality. Finally, choose one and describe a moment when you realized this was a defining quality of yourself.
