A Booklet of Writing Activities for Cultural Understanding

Prepared by Meg Petersen

Plymouth Writing Project

These activities are designed to bring students’ cultural worlds outside of school into the classroom through writing. Students are encouraged to explore their homes, their communities, their heritage and their values in writing.

Students’ writing often improves when they can write about the worlds they know in their own language. These writings may lead teachers to a better appreciation of each student’s potential.

When these writings are brought into the classroom, school becomes a place better connected to the rest of the students’ lives. Sharing of these writing activities will allow teachers to better understand and appreciate the complex worlds students inhabit outside of the classroom, even when these worlds differ markedly from their own.

Skillful sharing of the writing which results from these activities can help students to better value and appreciate each other and build genuine community in the classroom. Sharing these writings can provide the opportunity to examine and begin to appreciate our differences and value each person’s contribution to the class.

These benefits are greatly increased when teachers complete the activities with their students and share their own writing with the class.

Flood of Memory Writing Activity

Draw a map of your childhood neighborhood and mark different significant events/ feelings that you associate with those places.

Alternatively, you could draw a floor plan of your childhood home and mark different events/feelings that you associate with different rooms and places.

When you finish sketching, or at the close of the time allotted, jot down all of the memories that came up as you were sketching.

From this material, begin a personal narrative (an account of a personal experience) based on something triggered by this activity.

Lineage Poems

I use the poem “Lineage” by Margaret Walker, which is available on the web at http://www.english.vt.edu/~LIT/BWW/unit2/lineage.html as a springboard for students to think about their own ancestors. I ask the students, “What do you know about your own ancestors? Where did they live? Where did they come from? What did they do to survive?”

I ask students to make a brainstorm list of everything they know about their grandparents and great grandparents and the generations that came before them.

If students do not know about their own particular ancestors, I ask them to think of the people who share their heritage.

When they have compiled their brainstorm lists, I ask them to begin to shape this material into a poem or a narrative.

Shimmering Moments Exercise:

List ten moments in your life that you keep coming back to, that just won’t let you go. These do not have to be huge momentous turning points in your life. Actually, no moment is too small to be a subject for writing.

When you have your list, I would like you to eliminate five of these that you don’t want to write about today. You can place a small x by the side, so that you will have these in your notebook for later.

Now eliminate two more.

Now eliminate two more, until you are left with the one that you will write about today. Remember, you can always come back to the others.

Now, before we begin to write about that moment, I would like you to engage in a few free writes to get ready (explain free writing if necessary). First, I would like you to take five minutes to write only about the setting of the event. In as much detail as you can, describe the setting where the event took place.

Okay, now I would like you to take another five minutes describe the people involved in the event. Describe yourself as you were at that time, both physically and emotionally. Describe also any other people involved in the event.

Okay, now write about why this event is significant to you.

Now, we are at last going to start to tell the story of the event. Try to integrate some of the details from the freewites you have done. Give at least ten minutes for this writing.

Share drafts. Look for what story is trying to emerge, where the pulse of the piece is, what the gift of the piece is.

Revise or continue.

Random Autobiography Poem

• Make a list of the towns and states you have visited or lived in. Put a note about what you saw or did there.
• List animals you’ve touched or petted. When? Where? What did it feel like?
• List the historic events you have witnessed. These can be neighborhood, city, state, national or international
• List things you’ve lost
• List some odd things you have experienced
• List places you have shopped and things you have bought
• List memorable things you have seen happen in your classroom, or with particular students
• List a few favorites, whatever comes to mind
• List places that are special to you and a few details about each.

Combining some of the opening lines below as starter dough with ideas in your lists, write and shape a poem about yourself.

• I was the expected
• I’ve held
• I lost
• I tell you sincerely
• Once
• Twice
• I bought
• I love
• I‘ve been scared
• I’ve seen
• I’m
• I learned
• I’ve heard
• I’ve had some
• I once
• And only one
• I have
• I witnessed
• I will testify
• I have stories

I found

Cultural artifact paper

Collect between three and five artifacts which represent things which are important in your life outside of school and can be used to symbolize aspects of your culture.

Talk about these artifacts with another person. Explain their significance.

Settle on one to use to complete this exercise.

Write to the following prompts about this artifact. Try to write for five minutes on each prompt.

1. Describe the artifact objectively so that someone who could not see it would get a good visual picture of it. Your aim is to be very objective in your description.
2. Present tense reflection—Imagine that you are using the artifact, or engaging in an activity associated with the artifact. Write from the world of the artifact itself. Speak as you would if you were there in the photograph or using the artifact. The aim here is to get directly into the world of the artifact. The way you do this will vary with the artifact itself.
3. Write about the significance of the artifact to you; try to explore all possible meanings. Try to go beyond pat statements to ways in which what this artifact represents colors your whole view of life. If we were to remove what this artifact represents from your life, how would your life be different? How would you be different?
4. Free associate, using the artifact as a base and coming back to it. You might return to describing the artifact if you run out of things to write until another idea occurs to you.

When you have completed all of these free writes, look at the material you have gathered. The form of this paper is open, as is the genre. The final paper should use the artifact as a lens to enable the reader to see you and your culture in a different way. Take risks with this. Let it go where it will. The idea is to reveal a lot about yourself and your culture indirectly through the artifact.

“Where I'm From” poem:

I use the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon to introduce the idea: The poem is available on line at http://www.studyguide.org/where_I'm_from_poem.htm

“I am From” Poem

Create lists of:

items found in your home, neighborhood, yard

sayings

names of relatives linked to your past

names of foods, dishes, games, drinks, from family gatherings

names of places from your childhood memories

Write a draft which used some kind of link or phrase like "I am from" to weave the poem together. End the poem with a line or two that ties the present to the past.

The results I have seen really bring out the students' home cultures. We have also experimented with doing a "Class poem" where everyone selects two lines of their poem to read around the group with the lines "We are from" rather than I am from.

Journal Writing Exercises

Collecting Exercise

One of the purposes of a writer’s notebook is to collect ideas and topics that you might want to explore late in a more sustained piece of writing. This exercise is meant to stimulate your thinking about people, events and issues in your life. It can help you to discover, in your own experience, knowledge and attitudes, potential topics for your writing.

In your notebook, record the following lists:

• ten things that you like
• ten things that bother you
• five things a friend would say that you are an authority on
• five things you would like to know more about
• five people who you admire and why
• five influential events in your life
• three crossroads or turning points in your life
• three people who taught you things you will never forget
• three interests you have in common with your students
• ten moments when you remember being really exhilarated—really full of happiness and glad to be alive
• three times when you were really scared.
• five…. (create a category of your own)

More Exercises for Journal Writing: Be sure to describe events objectively as well as describe your feelings about them.

• free-writes- recapitulate a day, concentrating on your inner life and

how outer events affected it.

• focus in on one event or image to further explore in a timed free-write
• close your eyes and be aware of imagery-- write a description of what

you see

• describe twilight imagery- pre-sleep thoughts
• write from an artifact
• write about something three times
• recall a place, being in a place, describe what you see
• recall a person, describe what you see.
• reconstruct your life history
• record significant life events
• explore significant life events
• recall crossroads points-- explore paths not taken
• pose yourself a question, go to subconscious and free-write in response.

A Process for Recovering Memories

Sit down with your notebook and jot down words or phrases for each memory that comes to you as you respond to the following prompts, so that you will have an abbreviated record of the incidents you recalled. Something as brief as “crazy man in the green hat” would do nicely. If these memories bring with them strong emotions, so much the better. If a prompt fails to call forth a response, that’s OK too, just skip it and move on the next item. The incidents you come up with do not have to be memories from your childhood.

· Recall a pleasant time in the past.

· Recall a building in which you once lived.

· Recall a secret you once had.

· Recall a magical person from your childhood.

· Recall an incident which filled you with dread

· Recall something dangerous you did when you were young

· Recall something that happened on a school vacation

· Recall something that happened in a classroom or schoolyard

· Recall something that happened near a body of water

· Recall a romantic infatuation

· Recall something that happened under the night sky

· Recall something that happened on a vacation

· Recall an image that has come to you in a dream

· Recall something you lost and never got back

Choose one of the incidents, one that calls up strong emotions and might have had consequences for your emotional life, but one that also has a story which would be interesting to tell. Close your eyes and go back to the beginning of that particular incident. Replay the “film” of it through to its end. Don’t analyze or interpret, but just let it play through your mind.

Then jot down as many significant details as you can recall. Be as specific as you can. Try to include data from all of the five senses. Write down what someone said, how they moved, and gestured. You will probably find new details emerging. Write those down too.

When you have done that, ask yourself what impact the incident had on your life. Your answer may help you to focus the poem, although you may not have a clear idea of the meaning before you begin.

Out of all that you have written, try to compose a poem of no more than 35 lines, telling your story as effectively as you can. Make sure the incident is held to one scene. Sometimes this means you will need to choose one incident out of many. Try to create the scene which seems the most vivid and intense. Start in the middle of the action. Avoid giving a lot of background information. Remember to show rather than tell the reader about the situation. Do not use end rhyme.

After you have finished drafting your poem, look it over and see if you have told it clearly and effectively. Often beginning writers find it hard to separate what they know from what they have actually told the reader. Look at and evaluate your word choice. Is the language interesting? Get response from other readers.

Recovering Those Fugitive Memories

1. Jot down a list of some of the places you have lived

2. Jot down a list of some of the jobs you have had. Include the weirder ones.

3. Jot down a list of old friends, people you don’t see much of anymore

4. Jot down two embarrassing things you have done and a lie you once told.

5. Jot down one triumph and two failures.

6. Jot down a list of remembered kisses

7. Jot down the names of someone who hurt you, someone who helped you, and someone you admired.

8. Describe a piece of clothing you once loved, name a piece of music you still love, and two old movies you still remember.

Write a poem where each line begins, “Around 19—“ or some variation of it. Plug in a few choice items from the above exercise, each of them sketched briefly with a few, well-chosen details. As other memories are triggered, get them down too, at least for the first draft. Jumble the chronology so that the memories don’t move in a clear progression, but jump back and forth. Make sure that at least three of the items interconnect, at least tangentially. Make sure you are showing each item with carefully selected details, rather than just telling the reader about the item.

Eliminate anything that isn’t interesting and replace it with something that is.

Look at your material. Think about how you could focus your poem around some overall theme. What impact does the poem seem to want to have on the reader. What can you eliminate or add in order to enhance that effect?

Share your draft with others to get their dominant response. Decide if you want to work to enhance that response or change the poem in order to work for a different effect.

An alternative to the above might be to compose a list poem, using some of these items a base. Write a poem titled, “People Who Died”, “Those I’ve kissed”, “People I’ve hurt” or “Some of My Failures” Keep each item spare, but vary them enough so the poem doesn’t get monotonous.

Remembering Room

Choose and circle one of these places:

kindergarten classroom First Grade Classroom

Childhood bedroom a funeral home “visiting room”

any “holy” room A room in a house where you don’t live anymore

Grandparents’ kitchen Hospital room

A church at Christmas A synagogue at Yom Kippur

Remembering the Details:

Imagine yourself in the room you picked and answer these questions based on your imaginary visit.

How old are you?

What are you sitting on?

What time of day is it?

What is the season?

How did you know that?

What can you see?

What can you smell?

What can you hear?

What can you reach out and touch?

Is there anything you can taste?

Are you cold or warm?

Are you alone? If not, who is with you?

What feelings do you have? How do you experience them?

Write a poem using at least three of the details you have imagined/remembered. Use more if you want, so that I can really see you in the room. (Unless a rhyme is really nagging at you, don’t rhyme.)

Autobiography Exercises

Exercises with Leads:

1. Write a lead to your autobiography. Don’t begin with “I was born in ___________.’ Instead, find a moment in your life that defines who you are and begin there.

2. Read these questions and answer them with leads. Pick one that intrigues you and write on.

Who are you?

When did you become an adult?

Why don’t you write?

How do people change?

Who were you?

Is the night sky the same as it was when you were a child?

What’s a dream you have?

Where do ideas begin?

Who will you be?

What have you lost that you wish you could regain?

What was your destiny?

What do you regret?

What is something you wish someone had warned you about?

What is something you wish someone had told you?

When did you meet a significant person in your life?

What is something you used to think?

4. Write five questions about yourself aimed at revealing harsh truths. Try answering one in a lead.

5. Look through your journal. Write down questions that a reader might have. Answer one of them in a lead.

The Name Activity

I use the selection from Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street entitled “My Name” as a way to get students started writing about their names. This reading is available on the web at: http://theliterarylink.com/mangostreet.html

I read the selection and ask students to write for ten minutes about their own names. Names are often full of rich cultural associations.

I have students share their writings with each other. This exercise helps to build community. It is especially useful when a group is first coming together because it helps everyone to remember and to appreciate each other’s names and backgrounds.

Camera Exercise

Secure donations of disposable cameras, enough for one for each child. Have children photograph the things that are significant for them in their homes and neighborhoods. Use these photographs as the basis of writing activities. Use the questions and suggestions listed here under the “Cultural Artifact Activity” on page five to help students to write about their photographs. These can be compiled in books to share in the classroom.