Lincoln Students Get Creative with ELA Assignments

Lincoln 8^th grade ELA/AVID students in Madeleine Goc’s class have been enjoying the opportunity to delve deep into course topics this year thanks to some creative lessons.
 
Students started off the year by writing their own Pledges of Allegiance based on the mentor poem "Self Portrait with No Flag" by Safia Elhillo. In their identity unit, they did a lot of journal writing to reflect on the themes of each story and find their personal connections with each character. They read and analyzed For Every One by Jason Reynolds, and students wrote their own poems/letters of advice to dreamers, each based on their personal experiences when trying to achieve their dreams. Some students even took it a step further and created multimodal renditions of their poems, including spoken word recordings and videos! Check out this great video made by student Hager Alamarie. #SCSDSuccess
 
“To me, creative writing and narrative writing has as big a role in the classroom as argumentative writing, just like fiction has the potential to teach us as much about life as nonfiction does,” Ms. Goc explained. “In our classroom, we've been using creative writing to look deeper into texts, build connections between the content we're learning and the world around us, and we're making our voices heard. Compelling texts do more than provide facts; they move the reader to feel and listen by using perspective, wit, language, and voice. My writers have been using creative writing and argumentative writing alike to do that every day!”