Poems By You About You

Submitted by: Linda Stenberg  

This is an excellent activity the first week of school. It helps to get students involved immediately in the curricula, get to know each other, and it gives the teacher some examples of student work to post for Back to School Night.

Hand out the two poems entitled I AM, (see below--feel free toprint them out and reproduce them for your class).

Hand out the I AM MODEL, (see below); put a copy on an overhead projector, if available, for the entire class.

Using the model, create an original poem as a class, incorporating ideas from the students.

Assign I AM to the class.

Optional: Each student does an art project (collage, diorama, anything that shows WHO they are) to accompany the poem.

Students orally present their personal I AM poem to the class.

     I AM

     I am a carefree girl who loves horses.

     I wonder if there ever was a horse that could fly.

     I hear the stomping of a hundred mustangs on the desert in Arabia.

     I see a horse with golden wings soaring into the sunset.

     I want to ride swiftly over a green meadow.

     I am a carefree girl who loves horses.

     I pretend to be an Olympic jumper.

     I feel the sky pressing down on me as I ride along a sandy shore.

     I touch the clouds on a winged horse.

     I worry that I'll fall off and become paralyzed.

     I cry when a colt dies.

     I am a carefree girl who loves horses.

     I understand that I will not be able to ride every day of my life.

     I say, let all horses roam free.

     I dream about the day when I have a horse of my own.

     I try to be the best rider in the world.

     I hope to ride all my life.

     I am a carefree girl who loves horses.

     --ELLY TATUM

     I AM

     I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.

     I wonder what I, and the world, will be like in the year 2000.

     I hear silence pulsing in the middle of the night.

     I see a dolphin flying up to the sky.

     I want the adventure of life before it passes me by.

     I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.

     I pretend that I'm the ruler of the world.

     I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders.

     I touch the sky, the stars, the moon, and all the planets as

representatives of mankind.

     I worry about the devastation of a nuclear holocaust.

     I cry for all the death and poverty in the world

     I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.

     I understand the frustration of not being able to do something easily.

     I say that we are all equal.

     I dream of traveling to other points on the earth.

     I try to reach out to poor and starving children.

     I hope that mankind will be at peace and not die out.

     I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.

     --SANDY MAAS

     I AM--MODEL

     FIRST STANZA

     I am (two special characteristics you have)

     I wonder (something you are actually curious about)

     I hear (an imaginary sound)

     I see (an imaginary sight)

     I want (an actual desire)

     I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

     SECOND STANZA

     I pretend (something you actually pretend to do)

     I feel (a feeling about something imaginary)

     I touch (an imaginary touch)

     I worry (something that really bothers you)

     I cry (something that makes you very sad)

     I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

     THIRD STANZA

     I understand (something you know is true)

     I say (something you believe in)

     I dream (something you actually dream about)

     I try (something you really make an effort about)

     I hope (something you actually hope for)

     I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

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