Use Poetry To Teach About Identity

• 1 activity

Most Facing History units begin with an exploration of the relationship between the individual and society, how that relationship influences our identities, and how it affects the choices we make. Poetry can provide a powerful point of entry into that exploration. To help students grapple with the complexities of identity, consider teaching one or more of the following poems from Facing History resources, in which poets write about the challenges they face navigating dual identities.

• In Two Names, Two Worlds, Jonathan Rodríguez moves between English and Spanish to explore his name, what it means to him, and what it suggests about him to others.
• In I Lost My Talk, Rita Joe, a Mi’kmaw poet and songwriter, shares her experience of being forced to give up her native language while attending the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia following the death of her mother.

To teach these poems, you might use one or more of the Read Aloud strategies. Because the poems are short, students will benefit from reading and hearing the poems read aloud multiple times. As they become familiar with the poems’ themes and purposes, you might ask them to consider how they can use the tone of their voices, pauses, and pacing to help capture the meaning when reading aloud.

To help students process each poem, consider having them respond to a question about the poem or its theme in their journals or select one or more lines to share in a Save the Last Word for Me discussion.

Students can use these poems as models for their own identity poems. You might invite your multilingual students to explore how expressing their ideas in two or more languages can help them explore the different facets of their identity and the challenges they might face at home, in school, and in their communities as they move through their worlds navigating different languages and cultures.