WRITE THE WORLD REVIEW ARCHIVE

Read the piece here.

1. Warm-Up: Freewrite

From the country of your ancestors to the city where you were born to the place you first felt you could really be yourself, tell us, in a poem, what “origins” mean to you.

That was the challenge we posed to writers for our origins-themed poetry competition. For this five-minute warm-up, put poetry aside, and just answer as many of these questions as you can, stream-of-consciousness style. Not all of the questions will necessarily apply to you, so feel free to skip around:

• From where does your family originate? (globe, country, region?)

• How was your community derived?

• What has shaped your sense of self?

• What has shaped your sense of home?

• What has shaped your language?

• What has shaped your sense of culture?

• What connects you to the earliest days of your childhood?

2. Read and Reflect

• Read the poem “White Clover Roots” aloud to class.

• Read the poem a second time and have students mark any clues about who the speaker is, what their origins are, and what they are grappling with.

• Share.

3. Enter the Writer’s Mind

Now read the poet’s Q&A, having different students read the questions and answers. Have students write down anything that surprises or inspires them about the writer’s responses.

Question: Where did the inspiration for this piece come from? The seed of the idea for it?

Answer: Australia, along with other post-colonial countries, is currently

undergoing a painful process of truth-telling and attempted reconciliation for the wrongs perpetrated against First Nations peoples. As an Anglo-Celtic descendant of convicts and settlers, White Clover Roots is my attempt at grappling with this convoluted, painful history and my place in it.

Question: What did you find challenging about writing it?

Answer: The feelings of guilt and disconnection that flow through this piece are very real. I live in the so-called ‘lucky country’, but First Nations peoples are the most disadvantaged people in Australia, as a result of treatment at the hands of White Australia. As well as this emotional challenge, it was difficult to capture a balance between contrasting ideas: between the world’s oldest continuing culture and the rest of the nation, barely two centuries old; between honesty and poetic expression; and between my own perspective and the broader cultural conversation. However, I believe that attempting to capture difficult themes is better than staying silent.

Question: How did your perspective on the subject matter change through the writing process? From first word to last?

Answer: I don’t often take the time to edit my own work; but revising White Clover Roots over and over forced me to take a long inward look at myself and what I was trying to say. Although the poem ends with a feeling of guilt and yearning, finishing the piece helped me move past these emotions to embrace a different relationship with my heritage and place in a divided country. I can’t change the wrongs of the past- but through acknowledging them, I can help create a better future. I also began to embrace, rather than mourn, my disconnection to cultural heritage. Overall, it was an extremely rewarding act of both truth-telling and self-exploration.

Question: What do you hope readers will take away from this piece?

Answer: We’ve all heard the saying ‘write what you know’; but sometimes, writing what you want to know, without having all the answers, without having your feelings figured out, can produce some of your best work. The more daunting, personal and vulnerable the subject matter, the more beautiful and powerful your writing can be.

Ask students: does the writer’s intention for the poem match your own experience

reading it? What surprised or inspired you about their reflection on the writing process?

4. Write what you don’t know

Heeding this poet’s advice, let’s write from a place of unknowing. As Erin articulated in her Q&A: “We’ve all heard the saying ‘write what you know’; but sometimes, writing what you want to know, without having all the answers, without having your feelings figured out, can produce some of your best work.” Indeed, sometimes it’s by exploring parts of our past that we don’t understand that we find meaning or a universal truth.

Erin’s poem begins with this line: “How can I call myself X, when I…”

Later in the poem, she adds a variation: “How can I call myself X, when I don’t even know…”

Your turn: Think back to the warm-up exercise, and all that surfaced about your origins in your five-minute freewrite. Now answer two questions:

1. What don’t you know about your origins?

2. What do you want to know?

5. Pull it all together

Let’s go back to the original prompt, dear writers:

From the country of your ancestors to the city where you were born to the place you first felt you could really be yourself, tell us, in a poem, what “origins” mean to you.

6. Q&A with YOU (the author)

Note to Teacher: The onset of ChatGPT has made the job of discerning plagiarism all the more difficult. One way to steer students toward writing their own original work is to ask them to regularly reflect on their writing process. Engaging students directly with the development of their work rather than just the end product makes them more aware of the tools, techniques, and approaches they are employing. It is also a form of accountability that discourages plagiarism. For any writing assignment—especially those completed at home, consider having students turn in an accompanying “Author Q&A”.

After you’ve completed a draft of your poem and taken time to peer review and revise, respond to this Author Q&A, and then post your answers with your poem:

1. Where did the inspiration for this piece come from? The seed of the idea for it?

2. What did you find challenging about writing it?

3. How did your perspective on the subject matter change through the writing process? From first word to last?

4. What do you hope readers take away from this piece?

Common Core Standards Alignment for this Lesson

Reading Standards for Literature, Key Ideas and Details, Grades 9-10

• Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Reading Standards for Literature, Key Ideas and Details, Grades 11-12

• Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Reading Standards for Literature, Craft and Structure, Grades 9-10

• Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

Reading Standards for Literature, Craft and Structure, Grades 11-12

• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)

Writing Standards, Text Types and Purposes, Grades 8, 9-10, 11-12

• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences

Production and Distribution of Writing, Text Types and Purposes, Grades 8, 9-10, 11-12

• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

Production and Distribution of Writing, Range of Writing, Grades 8, 9-10, 11-12

• Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.