A successful writing workshop unit is writing coming of age poetry. Not only does this allow for authentic voices, but it is also highly motivating for students, and there are many powerful mentor texts to build thinking around coming of age writing. Middle and high school students are living this daily, and encouraging them to use their writing voice to share their successes and struggles is beyond powerful. If writer's workshop is new to you, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you are an old hat, read on.
Suggested Texts
Mentor texts are incredible sparks for students. The following suggested texts have different themes and vary in narrators, allowing for students to connect to different texts focusing on identity, loss of innocence, shifting relationships, and growing to more independence.
“Because it looked hotter that way” by Camille T. Dungy is a poem that reveals that beauty and youth are fleeting and everyone ultimately grows up, as the teenage girls share vulnerability and stories of their teacher’s lost youth.
“Ground Swell” by Mark Jarman is a poem that focuses on a critical age when everything changed for the narrator. At 16 he is surfing but also suffers the loss of someone to the Vietnam War shifting his understanding of the world into his adulthood.
“Oranges” by Gary Soto is an excellent choice for middle school students as the main character is a 12-year old boy on his first “walk” with a girl representing his first romantic connection, navigating growing up and facing challenges with confidence.
Poetic Elements in Focus
Coming of age poetry has poetic elements that are often prevalent. Repetition is a key tool in coming of age writing because the goal of the writing is to show growth over time based on a specific time, hardship, or relationship that has changed. The repetitive lines often change over the course of the poem revealing the poet's understanding of their growth through time. Repetition can be in lines or structure. Allow the students to see that repetition is a purposeful tool authors use to show growth over time.
Imagery gives a glimpse into the life of the authors and their stories. Imagery shows the emotions of the narrators as they grow through a change in life. Imagery not only gives a sense of emotional environments or memories, but also grounds the reader in objects or people that have changed over time. Including imagery grounds the reader in a specific memory to adulthood.
Strong verbs provide movement for the coming of age poems as the reader is following an emotional path to adulthood. Strong verbs anchor the poem by producing stronger emotions throughout the poem. Strong verbs also provide the reader a sense of the pace of the poem as the narrator grows from innocence to the realization of adulthood.
Specific nouns provide emotional weight or cultural connections. Naming a specific high school or naming a specific food item allow the reader to feel a connection to the author and it allows the reader to make broader assumptions about the life of the poet.
Lesson Outline
After the mentor texts are chosen and the poetic elements are prepared, the workshop is ready to begin! Focus your mini lesson on annotating the mentor texts with the students, reading them more than once to gauge deeper meaning. Focus on the poetic elements from above and discuss the power of the author’s craft moves. Discussing the themes and poetic elements will provide students with a foundation for the type of poetry they will be writing.
Once the mentor texts have been analyzed and discussed, students can begin to brainstorm categories of memories that can be used to build a coming of age poem. Students can start with memories in the mentor poems and then add memories that are not in the poems. This will lead to students building their own list of memories. Sharing as a class allows students to add even more ideas to their list. Providing sentence starters like “I am 15 years old and….” invites students to open their minds up to more ideas.
Students then need time to draft. This is essential to the workshop model. Conferencing can happen during this time, even in the beginning stages as students are developing their ideas. Feedback is valuable at all steps of the workshop.
Sharing is critical. I love using a poetry "readaround" where students are given the opportunity to share in a circle and receive feedback. This works best if ground rules are set and all students are respectful and provide meaningful feedback. Sentence starters for feedback are incredibly helpful at this stage. Collect the written feedback and provide it to students at the end of class so they are actively engaged in giving feedback to classmates rather than reading through on their own. This may take more than one class period depending on the size of your class.
Revisions are so important. Provide students with the peer feedback and the criteria for the assignment as a checklist so students can engage in making changes to their drafts. Allow for peers to review the criteria and continue to give feedback and allow for revisions until students provide a polished copy to turn in for credit. Students are assessed on using the criteria that was required for the task.
Reflection and publication are the final steps. Reflecting on the writing process and making goals for growth and sharing successes increase motivation for future writing pieces. Publicly display student work in the classroom or through a digital gallery to share the pride students have in their writing!
As you are navigating the idea of coming of age themes with students in their writing, pair your unit with a coming of age novel like The Giver by Lois Lowry for younger students, Ghost by Jason Reynolds for middle to early high school aged, Bridge to Terebitha by Katherine Paterson for middle school or Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger or The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for high school students.
Find all of the resources you need for this writer's workshop lesson here.
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