Skip to Main Content

Lesson 2

We will read and deconstruct Fatimah Asghar’s poem, “If They Should Come for Us” and compare it to “Where I’m From.”

Lesson Goals

  • Can I read a poem with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension?

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of texts?

  • Can I analyze how an author’s perspective influences the position, purpose, and ideas of a text?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “If They Should Come for Us,” Fatimah Asghar, Poetry, March 2017
    • “‘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: Read – Write

We will create a “Writer’s Rhetorical Toolbox” section in our Learning Log to write down interesting rhetorical and stylistic strategies that we might emulate in our own writing.

Reading like a writer involves studying how an author writes and determining why the author makes specific writing choices at the paragraph and sentence level. Understanding what those writing choices means and deconstructing how the author made those choices can help you emulate those choices in your own writing practice and diversify your range of writing strategies.

In your Learning Log, create a section titled "Writer’s Rhetorical Toolbox." As you read the texts in this unit, write down various writers’ stylistic strategies that you find interesting and would like to emulate in your own writing.

Activity 2: Discuss – Read – Write

We will read the poem “If They Should Come For Us” by Fatimah Asghar.

Read "If They Should Come for Us" to yourself, annotating for initial thoughts, questions, or points of confusion.

Share your initial responses with the whole group.

Activity 3: Discuss – Listen – Write

We will listen to the poem “If They Should Come For Us” by Fatimah Asghar.

Step 1

Listen to your teacher read "If They Should Come for Us" aloud. As you listen, underline five or six lines in the poem that resonate with you or that you think are important.

Step 2

Listen as your teacher reads the poem aloud again. This time, read the lines you underlined aloud at the same time as your teacher. Consider the following questions:

  1. What do you notice about the lines that were read aloud?

  2. Did many of you choose the same lines?

Step 3

Debrief with a partner or in a small group, focusing on the following questions:

  1. Why did you choose the lines that you choose?

  2. Did we choose any of the same lines? Why?

Step 4

Write down notes about the stylistic strategies you observed in the poem in the “Writer’s Rhetorical Toolbox” section of your Learning Log.

Activity 4: 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. 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 5: Write

We will write about the poem “If They Should Come For Us,” by Fatimah Asghar.

Select one line from the poem and do a 5-minute quick-write, responding to some or all of the following questions:

  1. What stood out to you in this line?

  2. Why did you choose it?

  3. What personal connections can you draw and what questions do you have about the poem based on the line you chose?

Activity 6: Discuss

We will connect the poem “If They Should Come For Us” to “Where I’m From.”

In a small group, discuss the following questions:

  1. How does the line you chose to analyze connect to "Where I'm From"?

  2. Where does "If They Should Come for Us" diverge from "Where I'm From"?

  3. What questions do you have after reading "If They Should Come for Us"?