When was the last time you thought about your childhood? Students at Claflin University recently wrote poems in which they relived memories of their experiences growing up.

The students, most of whom are English majors, in Dr. Susan Till's Analysis of Literary Genres class used sensory details to make their childhood memories come alive for the rest of the class. As the students shared their stories, their identities emerged, and the classroom evolved into a community of learners and teachers.

Using the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon as a model for their writing, students composed autobiographical, detail-filled poems. They worked in small groups and organized their individual drafts into four stanza poems of 20-30 lines. Revisions made and poems finished, students read their work aloud for the entire class. From backyard cookouts, Easter Sunday speeches in church, hopscotch on hot summer days, and a purple dinosaur as a best friend, each poem reflected the identity of the person who wrote it.

"This assignment was unique to most traditional postsecondary teaching techniques," said junior English major Khalilah White. "It provided an outlet for students to evolve as writers and allow themselves to merge with their works to give readers a window into their personal lives."

The poetry project evolved into more than just a writing assignment when students compiled and published their poems in a chapbook, a small literary booklet.

"The writing assignment not only allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of my classmates' backgrounds," said sophomore English major Tyesha Gary, "but I was given an opportunity to reflect upon my childhood and briefly relive the good old days."

Poets in the class made a presentation at the sixth Claflin University Conference on Contemporary English and Pedagogy Conference in October. They read poems from the chapbook to an audience of English educators from secondary and postsecondary schools throughout the state.

Reflecting on the value of preserving memories, sophomore English major Saleisha Rigsbee said, "The paths of where we come from help to pave where we are going."

Special to The T&D

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