Friday, February 3, 2017

Poetry Friday: Guidelines

This has been another tough week for teachers (and humanity in general). Coincidentally, it also happened to be the week when I launched a new unit of study into family history and immigration with my seventh grade students. (Thankfully I had notified parents about this unit before winter break, as I wanted kids to take advantage of seeing grandparents and relatives over the vacation and perhaps talk to them about family history and genealogy.)

The kids are eager to talk about the current issues as well as to learn about their own families and personal histories connect with questions of immigration and citizenship. (We have a large population of second generation students at our school, so many have direct access to stories about the US immigration and citizenship process.) I hope to write up more about our project soon, but I did write a post about Teaching Family History and Immigration at the Elementary Level, based on my years teaching third grade.


Poetry will be an important component of our study, both as a means of learning and discussing and as a means of personal response and reaction. Our eighth grade teacher shared the poem "Guidelines" by Lisa Suhair Majaj from Geographies of Light with her students this week as a way for them to better understand and talk about some of the issues.

At the bottom of the post, you can listen to acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye read the entire poem, "Guidelines." (Clicking here takes you to the full text of the poem.)

Excerpt from "Guidelines" by Lisa Suhair Majaj


If they wave newspapers in your face and shout,
stay calm. Remember everything they never learned.
Offer to take them to the library.

If they ask you if you're white, say it depends.
Say no. Say maybe. If appropriate, inquire,
Have you always been white, or is it recent?

(Click here to read the entire poem or click beliw to hear the audio.)

I am hopeful that our research and discussion around the history of US immigration and immigration laws will help my students reach a better understanding of themselves as well as their personal connections to immigration. Realizing the ways that their own ancestors may have been viewed and discriminated against (especially for students who have never thought of themselves as anything other than "white"), should be a powerful way to build a little bit of empathy and understanding for those caught up in the current immigrant crises.

And I think we all could use a little more empathy in the world right now.

(For the curious, my post on Teaching Family History and Immigration at the Elementary Level also has links to several lists of amazing books to use when teaching about immigration and family history.)

Penny has the Poetry Friday roundup at her site: A Penny and Her Jots.

Naomi Shihab Nye reads "Guidelines." 

20 comments:

  1. That is a fantastic project. I can't wait to hear how your students respond.

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  2. Both my partner and I are first generation Canadians, and we're actually among the few Canadian-born people we know - pretty much everyone you meet in my city came from somewhere else (even I came from another part of the country!) - we are a city of immigrants with so many stories to share. What a confusing, heartbreaking world we're living in.

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    1. Agreed, Jane. Teaching so many 2nd-gen kids, they understand immediately how these attitudes affect them and their families. Such a shame.

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  3. This country could definitely use more empathy right now. What an inspiring poem.

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  4. Wonderful to hear about Katie, and the poem, too. Several posts are about immigration, too. I traveled to NYC with students several years ago, and we spend several days on Ellis Island researching. There is a great website if you don't already know it. I have a collection of short stories about immigration too. Let me know if you want titles. Here's one book I treasure from Ellis Island: https://smile.amazon.com/WAS-DREAMING-COME-AMERICA-PAPERBACK/dp/0140556222/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486169838&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=I+Dreamed+I+Was+Coming+To+America

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    1. This is a new book to me, Linda, thanks for sharing! I'd love any further suggestions you have.

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  5. What a wonderful poem that so many cultures in America could resonate with. It brings me back to wondering why Donald Trump feels securely American, but he didn't treat the Gold Star family as if they were just as American. He questioned their culture and their commitment. They are just as American as him or more so because of the sacrifice of their son. There's still a cultural imperialism that underlies and reinforces racism here.

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    1. What I really hope my students will start to understand is that even those who are in the majority now weren't at other points in time - who we discriminate against is constantly changing. It's important to recognize it for the racism that it is.

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  6. What a topical unit! I'm sure they'll dig into this with an unexpected vigor!

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  7. "Have you always been white, or its it recent?" Love that. What an incredible post & poem all around, Katie. I really enjoyed the reading & comments by Naomi Shihab Nye, too. Your students are fortunate to have you guiding them through these important discoveries, personal and cultural.
    (I posted recently about discovering that I have traces of Middle Eastern and Senegal DNA, though I'm 'white'. What a delightful discovery, and yet humbling/sobering too, thinking about the experiences of ancestors.)

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    1. Very cool to learn new things about your family's history too! Right now we're working on a timeline of US immigration to be able to set our families' experience into the overall picture. Should prove insightful for them, I hope.

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    2. What a great idea. We could all learn from such an exploration!

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  8. Thanks for this poem and the link to the reading by Naomi Shihab Nye. "A clear light on the sometimes thorny terrain of belonging." Students will relate to this poem. It's accessible and lets us see the truth of our preconceptions.

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    1. Thanks for sharing your insights by Margaret!

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  9. Katie, thank you for this post! I'm very intrigued by this subject. Immigration has been a passion of mine since when I was in third grade -- seriously. It led me into Social Studies teaching. I also am a mom of internationally adopted kids. Some of my kids did GREAT with the family history assignments. Some got frustrated and started asking me not to walk/talk/be near them so that others couldn't guess we were related (in elementary school). We are fine....lots of talking and lots of love in my house I'm wondering what can we offer for kids in the third grade that are internationally adopted? Do you offer them resources for being a very young first generation immigrant? I have few resources....just curious how you handle it in your neck of the woods. Great post. Thanks!

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