by Cayne Letizia
The collective trauma that educators and students experienced during the pandemic is something that we will all be dealing with for years to come. As schools closed 2 years ago and we prepared our students for a few days of work thinking we would return, days quickly turned into weeks that turned into months. To help my students process the event and record a once in a lifetime experience I had them keep a daily journal. The journal included news events, daily thoughts about being in lock down and reflections on remote learning. A theme emerged from the writing of my 7th and 8th graders. It was a theme of finding beauty in the small moments. Which student discovered a passion for baking? Who learned how to ride a unicycle? Some read more in quarantine they had all year while others found themselves home with siblings and families after years of just passing each other between practices and activities.
Using the image of the dandelion emerging from the crack I asked students to respond in their writer’s notebooks. I also shared with them how former students kept journals during the pandemic and many while in lockdown discovered hidden talents and passions. Students completed the https://www.mentimeter.com/ to post a word that came to mind from their sketch, excerpts & free write.
Students discovered the link between difficult or challenging times being sources of inspiration. Then I placed this graphic on the board for a table discussion.
We then moved to a reading of Tupac Shakur’s poem "The Rose that Grew from Concrete" and Julio Polanco’s poem "Identity." Students annotated the poems and discussed how it relates to the theme of the journal entries.
Students then created their own poems. They were encouraged to model their poem after the two poems, create a poem inspired by the dandelion emerging from concrete or reflect on their pandemic experience where they discovered a passion or interest.
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