"Where I'm Going" - A new take on George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From" Poem

As educators we constantly have our eye on the prize: helping our students reach their best potential so they can have the great futures we know they deserve. With this unit you will take that a step further: by explicitly having students visualize their imagined futures and writing about it in a beautiful, keepsake poem.

Summary of steps:

1) This unit begins with a quick write unit hook activity and then a brief look at George Ella Lyon's amazing "Where I'm From" poem. (I used this as a formative assessment of students' annotation skills before I directly instruct them on that skill at a later date.)

2) Next, you will briefly discuss how this poem could be re-imagined to discuss a writer's future (by using simple future tense)

3) Then students will visualize their own fantastic futures using a brainstorming worksheet

4) Students draft their poems

5) Students revise their poems using suggested strategies

6) Students will present their poems to the class

Optional: You can print your students' poems out and then give them back as a keepsake gift at the end of the year (I tell students to stick it in their yearbook for their future selves to find and admire).

Included in this unit:

-A stylish Google Slideshow meant to be presented on the board throughout the unit

-Teaching instructions embedded in the "speaker notes" section of the Google Slideshow

-A quick write hook activity

-Links to the mentor text, two student examples and an instructor example

-A mini simple verb tenses review

-"Where I'm Going" Poem Brainstorming Worksheet

-Drafting, Revising and Reflecting Worksheet

-Rubric for grading final drafts of the poem and presentations (in a printable and embedded within the slideshow)

I cannot recommend this unit enough. My admins love it and ask to visit on presentation days every year. I've run it with on-level, co-taught and accelerated secondary groups with great success every time.