Great Stories
Montana Campus Corps:
College Students Meeting Critical Community Needs
The Words of Where They're From by Stephanie Swigart

The sophomores I taught didn't study poetry in middle school because they had a student teacher who chose not to teach the unit normally studied in Mrs. Pule's class. As a Project LETTERS scholar I was encouraged to conduct a community service learning project with my students to increase student/community involvement and relations. I was teaching my freshman class a poetry unit at the beginning of the semester when my cooperating teacher suggested I consider teaching the "Where I'm From" poems. When I researched the poems online I was moved to consider preparing a poetry slam performance reading for the community showcase as my community service learning project.

The lessons I prepared for the Where I From poems incorporated various podcasts for the audio learners, overhead transparencies and handouts for the visual learners and a template for the kinesthetic learners in my classroom. Furthermore, I prepared my instruction to follow the "I do, we do, students do" model to ensure student engagement. As I taught the lesson to my sophomores I could see that most of them were able and inspired to create their own unique perspective poems about their community. By the end of the first day of instruction most students were off to a good start on their poems.
The second day of instruction I grouped the desks into clusters so that they students had small groups with which to confer and work. I was amazed at how well the students utilized their support groups to find just the right words to describe their understanding of where they were from.

In my 7th period sophomore class there were two students who had missed the first day of instruction so I spent time catching them up to speed as the others were working in their small groups. One of the students needed little prompting and was quick to dive into the template showing remarkable individual flair and creativity. The other student, "Reno", was less enthusiastic. He seemed to be on board after my initial explanation of the assignment but when I left him to get started and to check on the other students in their support groups he hit some road blocks. When I returned to check on "Reno" and the other student he had his head in his hands, he was rubbing his eyes and struggling. We talked for a while and he said he just couldn't think of any adjectives to even fill in the blanks except stupid. I told him he could write stupid if that's how he felt because this was his poem and there were no right or wrong answers. He wrote stupid in the first blank but later crossed it out and spent the rest of the class period unable to work despite my best efforts at prompting, suggesting and reassuring him that he could do it.

From the first days of my student teaching assignment Reno stuck out to me as a particularly special person. He was very bright, had above average writing skills, great social skills with his peers and some serious learning/behavioral issues that got him in trouble with school authority. Through our previous class discussions, in which he was a student I could count on to actively participate, help engage his peers and provide good discourse about our material, I learned that Reno was actively involved and passionate about tribal affairs. He danced in powwow and knew about more policy than most adults let alone sophmores. I knew Reno could produce a "Where I'm From" poem with his eyes closed and both hands tied behind his back if he wanted to but with him it was all about motivation and choice.

When the bell rang dismissing class at the end of the second day Reno's template was blank whereas most students were well on their way to creating their own free-form creative poems. I reminded him as he was packing up that the template was just a suggestion, a starting point to get him o the right path and that he need not do it if it was limiting him but that he, like all the other students, was responsible for having 14 lines of poetry about where he was from. He said he knew and he'd do it later. Past experience with this student prompted me to suspect he was just saying he'd do it to get me off his case (the grade book showed at least a dozen missing assignments from him; A's in the assignments he turned in but he was still sitting at a 53% in the class). I asked him if he was really going to write his poem that night and he smiled at me cockily and conspiratorially, "No, probably not Ms. Swigart." I gave him by best stern teacher face and said "Why not?" He said he just didn't feel like it and he probably wouldn't feel like it later. I told him "I wish you would. You have a really strong voice in this community and it is important that you make it heard. Your words have the power to make an impact and to help you live the life you want to." He gave me a funny look and said " Yeah but not by writing a stupid poem." "Just try. When you're at home tonight and you're considering what to do after dinner just give it a chance. Try to write your poem." I urged in what I hoped was a light-hearted non-pressuring way adding "And go play outside, get some fresh air, drink lots of water and eat an apple" (my standard end of class directions to the students which students like him seemed to think funny). "Later Ms. Swigart" he hollered with a crooked smile as he slipped out the door.

The next day Reno uncharacteristically came to class before the bell rang (he was usually just squeezing through the door in the last second of the bell chime). Brandishing his paper as if it were a lottery ticket and he the lucky winner, he said in a manner characteristic of a boy much younger than him “I did my poem Ms. Swigart!!!" I couldn't help but smile as I responded "That's because you are amazing!"

My experience with Reno fueled the direction of the class discussion for the Where I'm from poems as we discussed the meaning and implications of the poems they were writing. We came to understand together that each student has a unique voice that comprises the whole community and community is formed in various ways, levels, subgroups and processes. We discussed how our process of writing and performing the poems mirrored the way community works: begin with a template; take out key words and substitute words that depict your individual's point of view; work in small groups to understand how your individual point of view is tempered and influenced by your closest peers; take your individual voice/poem and select the most meaningful to you as your group selects the most share group poems with the class and get feedback; perform poems to the entire community.

Weeks later as the students spoke to the community about where they were from using poetic expression and unified voice, I understood more fully how community and education are inextricably joined. In a world where it is more common to get an automated voice recording on the other end of the phone rather than a real person to talk to, it is reassuring to know that community exists to support and nurture the growth and contributions of its youth and that their youth still have the heart to share their points of view no matter how untraditional or revolutionary. As we continue to navigate the future with the wisdom of the past, the reciprocal educational process of any community is a guiding light.


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