Emily Conner

I’ve taught with many of Linda Christensen’s poetry lessons, including the “Where I’m From” poem.

I have students write their poems to begin the immigration unit, grounding the study in their own sense of place. Later in the unit, we read narratives from young people who have immigrated to the United States and students research the places from which those young people came.

Finally, they write “Where I’m From” poems from the imagined perspective of one of those young people, based on their research about the places they studied.