March 11

AGENDA:

1. Poem, "Where are you From?"
2. So, Where are you From?
3. Common Thread Project

HW: Vocab on Friday; "If" memorization starts Monday

Where I'm From

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
          from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
          and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
          with a cottonball lamb
          and ten verses I can say myself.
I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
          to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded --
leaf-fall from the family tree.
 

“Where I’m from” Poem
Preparation
 
Step 1: Answering the following questions will prepare you to write your “Where I’m From” poem
 
 

1.      Describe where you live.  What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it feel like? (This could be your actual house, or it could be another place that represents where you are from.)

 
 

2.      What objects or belongings can be found in your home or room (list at least three)

 
 

3.      What are the names of people in your “family” (they could be alive or deceased, they do not need to be blood-relations)

 
 

4.      List two or three family traditions

 
 

5.      What phrases, words or sayings are important to you or to members of your family?

 
 

6.      What are some beliefs that represent where you are from?

 
 

7.      What foods are important to you or your family?

 
 

8.      List 2 or 3 important childhood memories.

 
 

9.      Describe the weather where you are from?

 
 

10.  What do people do where you are from?

 
 

11.  What are your favorite things to do?

 
 
Step 2:  Incorporate your answers to the questions above into your “Where I’m From” poem.  Simply add “I’m from” or “From” to the beginning of each line, in the same style as the sample you have been shown. You do not have to use all of the words or categories you brainstormed under Step 1. As you compose your poem, you can add new words and phrases that describe where you are from.