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Poetry Unit: Identity
Essential Question: How do we forge an identity?
Overview:
Suggested Grades: 5th-6th Grade Estimated Length: 1 - 2 weeks
In this unit, students will read 6 poems that speak to the theme of creating an identity. Throughout the unit, students will revisit the essential question: How do we forge an identity? Students will read thematically-paired poems from CommonLit and complete a graphic organizer that will help them track their own understanding of this theme to prepare for a literary analysis essay.
Vision of Mastery Skills to Teach & Reinforce
By the end of this unit, students will analyze 6 poems that share a common theme. Students will write a literary analysis essay that uses evidence from multiple poems to answer the essential question: How do we forge an identity?
- Writing a literary analysis essay
- Writing fluid explanations
- Citing evidence from multiple texts to support analysis
- Identifying poetic devices
- Analyzing the development of themes across multiple poems
- Determining how a poet conveys meaning through poetic devices
Final Assessment: Synthesis Essay
Over the course of this unit, you have gathered details from poems about creating an identity. Use the evidence you have gathered to answer the question: How do we forge an identity? Support your answer using reasons and evidence from a variety of the poems covered in this unit.
Alternative Assessment: Alternative Activity
Over the course of this unit, you have practiced identifying poetic devices in poetry and determining how a poet uses them to convey meaning. Create your own poem that either expresses what identity means to you or reveals a moment that helped you forge your identity. Be sure to use some of the devices that you have learned to convey meaning in your poem. Include a 1-2 paragraph summary with your poem that describes the devices you chose and how you used them within your work.
Assignment Relationship to Theme
How does this text answer the Essential Question?: How do we forge an identity?
How to assign
Reading & Questions
"Masks" (5th-6th Grade)
The characters in the poem have blue skin (their true identities), but they hide it with masks (false identities). They therefore don’t become friends or appreciate their true selves.
We forge an identity by showing our true selves to others and making friends. Friends can encourage us to show our true identities.
From the text page, click the “Assign Text” button or download the PDF. Have students read the text and answer the accompanying questions, then update their graphic organizers.
Reading & Questions
"The Rose That Grew from Concrete" (5th-6th Grade)
A rose grows in an unlikely place (concrete) because it persists in pursuing its dream. It grows into a beautiful flower even though nobody else cared about it.
We create an identity by pursuing our dreams with tenacity and resilience.
From the text page, click the “Assign Text” button or download the PDF. Have students read the text and answer the accompanying questions, then update their graphic organizers.
Pairing Questions for "Masks" and "The Rose That Grew from Concrete"
A. Both poems discuss the different ways we think about ourselves and others. B. Both poems use the colors blue and red as symbols for greater meaning. C. The poems are about love and the relationship between two people. D. The poems are about how people don’t care enough about one another.
Answers will vary; in “Masks,” lines 5-6 say, “They searched for blue / their whole life through,” suggesting that the two people in the poem are looking for people like themselves. However, because they hide their true
After students read each text and answer the accompanying questions, have them use their annotations and graphic organizer to answer the pairing question set.
Multiple Choice Question: Which of the statements below best describes a theme that both poems share? [RL.2, RL.9]
Open Response Question: In both “Masks” and “The Rose that Grew from Concrete,” the speakers refer to being alone. What do the poems suggest about how being alone can influence identity? [RL.9]
C. In “Identity,” the speaker wants to set themselves apart from others, while in “To a Daughter Leaving Home,” the speaker is being left behind. D. In “Identity,” the speaker lives in a fantasy world, while in “To a Daughter Leaving Home,” the speaker lives in the real world.
Answers will vary; students may discuss how both poets use devices such as figurative language and imagery to illustrate how independence plays an important role in helping shape one’s identity. In “Identity,” the speaker would rather be considered “a tall, ugly weed” (Line 4) rather than a flower “harnessed to a pot of dirt” (Line 3). In this way, the speaker states that identity is created when we dare to stand out and experience the world independently. In the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home,” the speaker uses the extended metaphor of a daughter learning how to ride a bike to represent a daughter leaving home and becoming independent from her mother. In this poem, the daughter “wobbled away” (Line 5), suggesting a shaky start to life on her own; however, she eventually gets the hang of riding the bicycle and rides off into the distance “screaming with laughter” (Lines 19-20). The poem suggests that independence is crucial to growing up and defining one’s identity.
Reading & Questions
"I Ask My Mother to Sing" (5th-6th Grade)
The speaker reacts positively to hearing his mother and grandmother sing about their cultural heritage.
Our cultural backgrounds help us forge our identities.
From the text page, click the “Assign Text” button or download the PDF. Have students read the text and answer the accompanying questions, then update their graphic organizers.
Open Response Question: What similar messages do the poems “Identity” and “To a Daughter Leaving Home” share about the role of independence in creating an identity? [RL.9]
Reading & Questions
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers " (7th-8th Grade)
The speaker describes all of the rivers he has known and compares his soul to the depths of rivers.
The experiences of our ancestors help develop our identities.
From the text page, click the “Assign Text” button or download the PDF. Have students read the text and answer the accompanying questions, then update their graphic organizers.
Pairing Questions for "I Ask My Mother to Sing" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers "
A. Both poems describe how rivers are important. B. Both poems show the bonds between family members. C. Both poems show an appreciation for culture and history. D. Both poems show how we can get to know places very well.
Answers will vary; students may discuss how the speakers’ identities are both linked to their backgrounds. In “I Ask My Mother to Sing,” the speaker describes how they have never been to Peking but “love to hear it sung” (Line 9), which suggests the speaker identifies with their cultural background. This cultural heritage is equally important to the speaker’s mother and grandmother as the speaker says in lines 13-14: “Both women have begun to cry. / But neither stops her song.” In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” the speaker names rivers that are important to African American history: Euphrates, Congo, Nile, Mississippi. The speaker figuratively links their own experiences to their cultural background when they say: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” (Line 10).
After students read each text and answer the accompanying questions, have them use their annotations and graphic organizer to answer the pairing question set.
Multiple Choice Question: Which statement best describes a shared idea within the poems “I Ask My Mother to Sing” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”? [RL.2, RL.9]
Open Response Question: What similar messages do the poems “I Ask My Mother to Sing” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” reveal about family and identity? [RL.9]
