The ABCs of Building Community

August 15, 2006 - In a new feature, “The ABCs,” which stands for Anti-Bias Classrooms, Teaching Tolerance offers an array of resources and ideas tied to a particular theme.  The first theme, to coincide with the new school year, is Community Building

Compiled by Jeff Sapp and Brian Willoughby

Power Poetry

Help students break out of “politics is boring” apathy with this poetry activity.

By Kirsten Ogden

California Poets in the Schools Program

Claremont, Calif.

Level:  Grades 6-8

Subject:  Reading and Language Arts

    In a recent creative writing class, I was shocked at the apathy my students had regarding laws and political platforms that promote haters or intolerance.  Several in the class were nearing voting age and one or two were legally able to vote, but no students were interested in finding out more about the political process.  One student simply remarked, “Politics is boring.”

    We began to discuss some of the current issues that would affect the students in our classroom.  College tuition was going up.  There were issues about immigration, health care, transportation, jobs and gay marriage.  They realized that many of these policies were designed to promote the intolerance of people whose ideas and beliefs didn’t fit in with the dominant group.  My students began to wonder how they might let other students know about these important issues.  We talked about the importance of sharing ideas and beliefs by finding a common language with which we might communicate.

    I wanted my students to see the range of social and political power that words could have, to see the way words could be shaped to give voice to the voiceless.  We had been learning how to use literary devices and had been reading poems by authors who used these devices well.  These writers also commented on the necessity of accepting varied voices in a traditionally white, male discourse.  I hoped they’d see writing as a means of transformation for themselves and their readers.

    Our writing process coincided perfectly with the President’s upcoming State of the Union address in January.  Their assignment was to listen to the President’s address and then use any combination of the poetic devices we’d learned to respond to an aspect or an idea within the speech.  The read their responses out loud in class.

    None of us was prepared for the range of responses written.  The next day, when each students read, there was a deeper fellowship in the classroom.  We were a diverse class, and we had found a way to share our personal opinions and practice tolerance of each other’s varied beliefs.  We learned to question rather than to criticize.  We learned to listen rather than to be right or wrong.

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