1 Day

Write-A-Palooza Names & Notebooks 1. Bellwork: Create a Name Tent for yourself. On your name tent, include your name, your class period and a symbol that represents you. 2. Welcome to Write-A-Palooza! 3. Set up Writer’s Notebooks: Front ½ writing, Back ½ Vocab.  Number pages 1-50.  Create a Table of Contents on page 2  On page 40 put a VOCABULARY tab with a sticky note 4. Read aloud: Elizabeth Alexander letter 5. Brainstorm words on Innaugural Language Collection that others say about Obama. 6. Share & discuss. 7. Watch Obama’s Inauguration address and collect words he uses to describe himself. 8. Share & discuss

9. Brainstorm words others use to describe you and words you use to describe yourself. 10. Share words. 11. Read Aloud: “Where I’m From” by Georgia Ella Lyon 12. Think Write: Where are you from? 13. Underline 1 sentence that stands out to you in your writing. 14. One sentence read around (and record on the computer to create group poem). 15. Watch will.i.am “Yes We Can” video 16. Exit slip: How will you add to your language collection in the future?

“Words matter. Language matters. We live in and express ourselves with language, and that is how we communicate and move through the world in community. President-elect Obama has shown us at all turns his respect for the power of language. The care with which he has always used language along with his evident understanding that language and words bear power and tell us who we are across differences, have been hallmarks of his political career. My joy at being selected to compose and deliver a poem on the occasion of Obama’s Presidential inaugural emanates from my deep respect for him as a person of meaningful, powerful words that move us forward. And as his campaign was a movement much larger than the man himself, I understand that as a country we stand poised to make tremendous choices about our collective future. The distillation of language in poetry, its precision, can help us see sharply in the midst of many conundrums. This is a powerful moment in our history. The joy I feel is sober and profound because so much struggle and sacrifice have brought us to this day. And there is so much work to be done ahead of us. Poetry is not meant to cheer; rather, poetry challenges, and moves us towards transformation. Language distilled and artfully arranged shifts our experience of the words – and the worldviews – we live in. This is only the fourth time in our history that a President has featured a poet at his inaugural. I hope that this portends well for the future of the arts in our everyday and civic life.” Elizabeth Alexander December 2008

Inaugural Language Collection p. __ Words Obama will/does use when talking about himself

Words others (like Elizabeth Alexander) use when talking about Obama Respect Tremendous Profound Transformation

Words that you use when talking about yourself

Words others might use when talking about you

Where I'm From by Georgia Ella Lyon I am from clothespins, from Clorox and carbontetrachloride. I am from the dirt under the back porch. (Black, glistening, it tasted like beets.) I am from the forsythia bush the Dutch elm whose long-gone limbs I remember as if they were my own. I'm from fudge and eyeglasses, from Imogene and Alafair. I'm from the know-it-alls and the pass-it-ons, from Perk up! and Pipe down! I'm from He restoreth my soul with a cottonball lamb and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch, fried corn and strong coffee. From the finger my grandfather lost to the auger, the eye my father shut to keep his sight. Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures, a sift of lost faces to drift beneath my dreams. I am from those moments-snapped before I budded -leaf-fall from the family tree.