2020 Post #29 -- What Is Your House?

by Brett Vogelsinger

It is unprecedented to include two poems by the same poet in a single, annual series of Go Poems posts, but since "unprecedented" is the word of the day, it seems fitting.

Earlier this month, I shared how Idris Goodwin's poem "Say My Name" can inspire students to write about their own names.

Just days ago, Goodwin released a new poem, dedicated to all the children and parents trying to stay productive, creative, and sane while stuck at home.  It echoes the ideas about our human need to be creative that we read earlier this week in "Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale," but this time in practical, spot-on terms that children and adults need to hear in the spring of 2020.

Today's poem is called "Your House Is Not Just a House."

A challenge we might bring to students in a quickwrite during a live teaching session or via an online learning management system:  What is your house?  In what ways is it not "just a house" right now?

Share this poem and this prompt to see what your students create!

Further Reading:

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past ten years. He is the creator of the Go Poems blog and the author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Writing in All Genres.   Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

2020 Post #5 -- Say My Name

by Brett Vogelsinger

The poem "Say My Name" by Idris Goodwin requires no real introduction, as the poem is so engaging, students will jump right in.  It is a poem about the many stories behind a name,  stories of both how that comes to be ours and what others try to do with it. I was pleased to find this on the #teachlivingpoets Black History Month list alongside many other phenomenal spoken word poems to build into our routine.

After sharing the video, I share a series of questions as my students open their Writer's Notebooks:

How did you get your name? Is there a story behind it you could tell poetically?
Do you know your "almost" name . . . the name your parents were thinking about but did not choose?
Do people mispronounce your name?  If so, how?
Are there common mispronunciations that you hear people use in everyday speech that bug you?
Are there any words you intentionally mispronounce?  Why do you make this choice?

We freewrite for about three minutes to one of these questions, then share in small groups whatever writers are willing to share from their work.  Several of my students gave me permission to share their drafts with Idris Goodwin via Twitter, and were thrilled to see him respond.

This whole activity only takes about ten minutes at the beginning of class, but it plants seeds that we can return to later for personal narrative writing or a more polished poem.  Moreover, students opened up an shared bits of their personal history after hearing Goodwin's poem; this activity built community among my writers.

A Related Post on Go Poems

Further Reading:






Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth grade English teacher and NBCT at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA. He is the founding editor of Go Poems, facilitates his school's literary magazine, Sevenatenine, and contributes monthly posts at Moving Writers. Follow him on Twitter @theVogelman.