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Lesson 1

We will analyze the Culminating Task and reflect on our own experiences to analyze the relationship between individuals and the communities to which they belong. We will deepen our understanding of community by examining the settings, themes, and other key details of a crowdsourced narrative poem that offers unique perspectives on people’s lives and their communities.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I accurately write down and summarize narrative details from a radio show’s presentation of the crowdsourced poem “Where I’m From"?

  • Can I, in a small group discussion, share my reading team’s analysis of the authors’ tones, both within the poem and in the story that frames the poem?

  • Can I use techniques, devices, and well-chosen details to create a description of my own community, using “Where I’m From” as a mentor text?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “‘Where I’m From’: A Crowdsourced Poem That Collects Your Memories of Home,” Casey Noenickx, Kwame Alexander, and Rachel Martin, National Public Radio, August 28, 2019

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss – Write

We will discuss the unit’s Central Question and reflect on its significance by completing a quick-write in our Learning Logs.

Step 1

Review the Central Question of the unit:

What does it mean to belong to a community?

Use the following questions to guide a discussion with a partner or small group:

  1. What is the Central Question asking?

  2. What might you already know in relation to the Central Question?

  3. What about the question piques your curiosity?

  4. How do you think this question relates to the texts or topic of the unit?

  5. If you were to provide an answer to the Central Question today, what would it be?

Step 2

In your Learning Log, write a response to Question 5. You will return to this initial response in later lessons to examine how your understanding of the Central Question has evolved.

Activity 2: Read – Write – Discuss

We will read and analyze the Culminating Task. We will identify specific knowledge we are expected to learn throughout the unit and specific skills we will need in order to be successful on the Culminating Task.

In a small group, read and discuss the Culminating Task Checklist. Determine what skills and knowledge you need to succeed on the Culminating Task. Respond to the following questions:

  1. What do I need to know to succeed on the Culminating Task?

  2. What do I need to do to succeed on the Culminating Task?

Discuss the questions as a group. Create a checklist in your Learning Log or use the Culminating Task Progress Tracker to determine what you need to know and do to succeed on the Culminating Task. For each knowledge and skill identified, assess how prepared you are.

Activity 3: Write – Discuss

We will begin by considering the word community, looking at how we define the term and at the words and concepts we associate with communities.

Step 1

Complete a quick-write in your Learning Log in response to the following two questions:

  1. What is a community? What are the key features that make up a community?

  2. To what communities do you belong? What are the key features of those communities?

For the communities you have identified, decide which you are most passionate about and which you feel most comfortable writing about to others.

Step 2

Share your quick-write with a partner. Determine common key features and sort them into categories (e.g., actions, culture, etc.). Are there differences among the general definition and features of community you noted and the communities in which you are members? Discuss similarities and differences in your responses.

As a class, share your responses. Write down responses and categories, as you might need to refer to them later.

Activity 4: Read

We will review the Unit Text List to familiarize ourselves with the texts we will analyze and discuss throughout the unit.

Step 1

Access and review the Unit Text List. Note the information that is included about each text. These texts are also listed in the activities in which they appear, under the Materials tab. You will notice that each text has an icon by it. These indicate where the text is located, which corresponds to the Location column in the Unit Text List.

Text locations:

  • Tradebook: These texts are full-length novels or nonfiction books you will most likely have copies of.

  • Digital Access: You can find these texts online. Use the information provided in the Unit Text List or on the Texts tab for the activity to conduct a web search for the resource. Digital Access resources include online articles, videos, podcasts, and other web sources.

  • PDF Texts: These are formatted PDFs of texts that are available for download on the Materials tab.

  • CD/DVD: These materials are available on CD or DVD and might also be available through online content providers.

Step 2

Review the Independent Reading Text Options. Here, you will find suggested options for independent reading related to the unit.

Activity 5: Listen – Write

We will listen to “‘Where I’m From’: A Crowdsourced Poem That Collects Your Memories Of Home,” an NPR radio show with author Kwame Alexander and host Rachel Martin. We will use an Attending to Details Tool to deepen our understanding of the texts.

Step 1

Think about the title, "‘Where I’m From’: A Crowdsourced Poem That Collects Your Memories of Home." Respond to the following question in your Learning Log:

  1. What predictions do you have about this podcast and the poem?

Listen to the podcast, paying specific attention to the poem, which was written by various authors from around the world.

Step 2

The Attending to Details Tool supports and guides a process for preparing to read, reading, and initially reacting to a text. This is a helpful process to internalize when you are working with a complex text that might require multiple reads, or one that is being read over a long period. Using this tool usually begins with a guiding question or reading purpose to determine which textual details to notice and annotate.

Answer the following guiding question on your Attending to Details Tool:

  1. How do the authors describe their communities in the poem? What details stand out to you? They might be specific lines, recurring ideas, or comments made by the hosts.

Step 3

Use the tool in the following way:

  1. Write down the guiding question in the space provided at the top. Read the text, paying attention to details that relate to the guiding question. Depending on how long the section of text is, you might find several examples. Use the Attend to Details row to write down the details that most strongly relate to the guiding question.

  2. Make connections between the details you wrote down and the guiding question in the Think About the Details row. This is often the "reasoning" that is asked for when you make an observation or claim, and then use evidence to support it. It makes your thinking visible to others and helps you remember what that thinking was if you come back to this later.

  3. In the Express Your Understanding row, write new connections, observations, ideas, or questions that result from reading and analyzing the text.

Step 4

Share the details you selected with a partner, and work together to complete the rest of the Attending to Details Tool.

Activity 6: Discuss

We will consider a segment of the NPR show and discuss questions regarding it. then we will consider the organization and intent of the poem.

Step 1

As a class, review the following exchange from the show and respond to the questions below, which can also be found on the Section 1 Question Set:

MARTIN: That was a good one, my friend. That was a good one.

ALEXANDER: It was. It was beautiful.

MARTIN: Yeah. It always makes you feel better about the—I don't know. I'm speaking for myself, but it makes me feel better about what's to come when you're grounded in what happened and where you came from.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely. Our listeners have just reminded us that remembering those things that matter, they help us move forward.

  1. What do the words and phrases "things that matter," "move forward," beautiful," and grounded" tell you about the hosts’ feelings about their homes?

  2. What is the tone of the poem? How did Alexander’s choice of words, phrases, details, and images to include reveal or contribute to the tone of the poem?

  3. What is the significance of the crowdsourced nature of the poem? How could the overall positive tone of the poem have been shaped by the portions of the original poems that were selected? What is the relationship between the mode of the poem (crowdsourced) and its topic (community)?

Step 2

Listen to the podcast again.

Participate in a whole group discussion about the following questions:

  1. There are 16 stanzas in this poem. How does the organization into stanzas of these images and lines depicting the home communities of the contributing authors contribute to the overall meaning? Pause after each verse and discuss what unifies all of the details in each stanza.

  2. What do you think the hosts of this podcast hoped to achieve in this publication? Do you feel they achieved their goal? Why or why not? Support your response with references to the podcast.

Activity 7: Read – Discuss – Write

We will study important concepts and challenging words from the text, paying attention to their use and meaning in the context in which the author presents them. We will use the Vocabulary in Context Tool as needed and write down important words in our Vocabulary Journals so that we can refer back to them later in the unit and incorporate them into our own work.

For this activity, you will use a Vocabulary Journal, which you will maintain for the entire unit. If directed, you might use a Vocabulary in Context Tool for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate. For some words, your teacher might present you with definitions.

Working as a whole group, review the Vocabulary List for the words for this text. Locate the words as they are used in the text, using the provided page number, and consider these questions for each:

  1. What does the context suggest the author means when using the word? What is its connotation, and how does that compare with a dictionary definition, or denotation?

  2. Why is this word and its meaning important in the author’s ideas in this part of the text?

  3. How might I use this word in my own thinking, speaking, and writing?

Write down the words and definitions with your notes about their meaning and importance in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning.

Share your responses with the whole group during discussion.

Activity 8: Write

For homework, we will each write our own “Where I’m From” poem using the poem from npr as a mentor text.

For homework, write your own "Where I’m From" poem, describing your community or communities and your place within them. Plan out your poem using the organizational techniques shown by the crowdsourced poem as a model for how to group your details into stanzas. For example, the first stanza might include details, imagery, or phrases related to the music of your chosen community.