This September, you and your students are in for a treat. Scope’s very own Senior Editor Jennifer Dignan has written a truly beautiful poem for the You Write It activity. “What My Name Means” addresses the oh-so-huge middle school theme of identity as the poem’s speaker reflects on how others see her and how she sees herself.
We’ve provided a lesson plan and activity sheet to help you guide your students’ analysis of Jennifer’s poem, as well as a guided writing activity to help your students write their own “What My Name Means” poems. We hope this You Write It will serve as a creative and fulfilling step in your students’ process of figuring out who they are and how they fit into the world—which is what middle school is about, right?
Here are a few of our favorite lines from the poem:
My dad thinks my name means
“weirdly obsessed with that band Imagine Dragons” and
“loves corny jokes, like me.”
My cat thinks my name means “always good for a snuggle.”
My best friend thinks my name means
“tells me the truth no matter what; best giggle in the world.”