Artifact Two: I Was Raised By
I Was Raised By
Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, write your own “I Was Raised By” poem. Your poem must include at least one sensory detail for each of your five senses, repeat the phrase “I was raised by,” and use concrete details. To help you write your poem, answer the following questions.
1) What and who can raise a person? Name five.
2) Link a sensory detail to each of the five that you wrote.
3) Use one metaphor to describe who/what raised you (remember the adjective concrete noun of abstract noun like “the vibrant music of coffee”).
RAISED BY WOMEN
Kelly Norman Ellis
I was raised by
Chitterling eating
Vegetarian cooking
Cornbread so good you want to lay
down and die baking
"Go on baby, get yo’self a plate"
Kind of Women.
Some thick haired
Angela Davis afro styling
"Girl, lay back
and let me scratch yo head"
Sorta Women.
Some big legged
High yellow, mocha brown
Hip shaking
Miniskirt wearing
Hip huggers hugging
Daring debutantes
Groovin
"I know I look good"
Type of Women.
Some tea sipping
White glove wearing
Got married too soon
Divorced
in just the nick of time
"Better say yes ma’am to me"
Type of sisters.
Some fingerpopping
Boogaloo dancing
Say it loud
I’m black and I’m proud
James Brown listening
"Go on girl shake that thing"
Kind of Sisters.
Some face slapping
Hands on hips
"Don't mess with me,
Pack your bags and
get the hell out of my house"
Sorta women
Some PhD toten
Poetry writing
Portrait painting
"I'll see you in court"
World traveling
Stand back, I'm creating
Type of queens
I was raised by women.
Reflection:
In my on-level class I had one student who had elected to leave literacy class, a required course for ELL students, because of difficulties she was having with a teacher. As a result, she was mainstreamed into my classroom, when her written English skills were still below par, and writing more than a few lines proved to be a challenge. However, after a few lessons and with definite scaffolding, I soon found that she excelled at poetry because she was able to overlook minor usage problems in quest of the greater idea. I found her poems to be particularly effective when she was given worksheets like the artifact above. Here students were asked to create “I Was Raised By” poems, a form poem that lends itself well to concrete and sensory linked imagery. I taught several mini lessons over metaphor, sensory detail, and imagery, and this poem was to represent the culminating assignment for these topics. She did particularly well when she was asked to give a specific number of examples, a model, and was allowed to revise with a peer. Although her poem was still short in length, she employed metaphor and creativity that was directly related to sensory detail and wrote about the “cotton candy colored palace” that was her bedroom. I was particularly fond of this assignment because the student was able to share details of her home country, Pakistan, of which many students were unaware without being impeded by a language barrier.
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