Positive Platforms @positiveplatforms-blog - Tumblr Blog

Week 5: My story continues

As we begin our sixth and final week of summer camp, students have a chance to reflect on their work this summer through their final showcases.

The Drama Club at Roberto Clemente was hard at work last week designing set backdrops for their adaptation of Cinderella from Into the Woods. All summer long the entirely student-run production has written a script, held auditions and cast campers in all roles including the narrator and director, hand-decorated their set, and prepared for their show this week. The show will debut later today to friends and families!

Meanwhile at Luis Munoz Marin, students have been perfecting their dance moves to debut their choreography at their final show on Friday. Once again students and families will get a chance to see how students have been working on expressing themselves.

As part of a mixed-media art project, #InOurOwnHands, with artist Tim Gibbon, students at Julia de Burgos revealed their final mural on Somerset Street this Monday. Students at Julia de Burgos and Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School wrote messages on their hands, photographed their hands, and silkscreened the images onto nearby walls in their community. Check out their Instagram account: https://instagram.com/in_our_own_hands/ for more images!

The practice and effort on display each day leading up to these shows represents the students’ commitment to create final projects that best express who they are. Through their art, the students have a chance to reach their communities with their voices and their hopes for how they may carry on in the future.

#summer camp #my story continues #final showcase #in our own hands

Students at Julia de Burgos brought their truth and creativity to share their voices and hopes with their community #positiveplatforms #InOurOwnHands #creatingcommunity #writersandartists

#creatingcommunity #inourownhands #writersandartists #positiveplatforms

Students at Julia de Burgos unveiled their mural advocacy project #InOurOwnHands on Somerset Street #positiveplatforms #writersandartists #creatingcommunity

#creatingcommunity #inourownhands #writersandartists #positiveplatforms

Students double as cast and crew members, and as set decorators at Roberto Clemente Middle's Drama Club, as they prepare to perform their show for friends and family #IntoTheWoods #Cinderella #summercamp #positiveplatforms

#intothewoods #cinderella #positiveplatforms #summercamp

With just a week more at camp, members of Roberto Clemente Middle's Drama Club put the finishing touches on their set decorations #IntoTheWoods #Cinderella #summer camp #positiveplatforms

#summer #intothewoods #cinderella #positiveplatforms

Daphne Brooks, a Philadelphia-based writer, speaks to students at Roberto Clemente Middle about why she tells her story. In Kennedy's Big Visit, Brooks describes the importance of building and supporting relationships between children and family members who are incarcerated #KennedysBigVisit #DaphneBrooks #positiveplatforms

#daphnebrooks #kennedysbigvisit #positiveplatforms

Try out a free write after watching the video:

Introduce yourself in a number poem. You can count to 10 or 12 or how ever many numbers and details you wish to describe how you see yourself.

You can title the poem, "_____ Things To Know About Me," filling in the blank with which ever number you choose.

What does it feel like to give yourself the power to describe how you see yourself and how you are? Are there parts of who we are that are easier to offer by way of first introduction? Are their parts less visible, less ready?

#free writes #summer camp #spoken word #poems that inspire #Ariana Brown #Volver Volver

Try out a free write after watching the video: Write down advice to a younger sibling or cousin, to yourself, or to someone in your community about how you learn to accept who you are. You can write it as a how-to list, in a joke or riddle, in a recipe, in a story that has been passed on in your family - in which ever way feels right for you.

#free writes #summer camp #spoken word #poems that inspire #Namkyu Oh #For My Little Cousins

Week 4: How I made it

Midway through our penultimate week of camp, conversations have been slowly turning to how to use this summer’s momentum to continue building community and telling stories.

Before exploring that conversation, students began last week discussing the role of social media in their lives and the power of different outlets to educate and inform how we see the world. At Roberto Clemente Middle’s media club, students discussed the case of Sandra Bland and the role of social media in telling multiple, necessary accounts of the news. The students spoke about the urgency of using social media to keep people informed and to help communities band together to make it through each day.

Students also discussed what it means to cultivate a social media presence and build accountability into their relationships with friends online. Each of them described how they develop an understanding of how to share information and how to ensure their privacy even among friends.

In keeping those conversations in mind, take a look at the following prompts to try and reflect on moments when we try to make it through:

> Describe how you looked in a mirror at the age of 4, what you see at your present age, and what you think you’ll see in 10 years. How have you changed? How will you change? Have you grown differently? Do you feel stronger?

> Think of yourself in a new place in the future. Before leaving, you pack a suitcase filled with survival tools. These are all things that can help you get through a tough day. What are things that you would fit in your suitcase?

#summer camp #free writes #positive platforms #how I made it

After last week's preview with Mr. Juan, students at Muñoz Marín had a chance to hear from Mark Martinez, the author of The Poor Man and His Princess #positiveplatforms #readaloud

#readaloud #positiveplatforms

Students in Ms. Iman's class at Muñoz Marín read David's Drawings by Cathryn Falwell, and today will get to hear from Mark Martínez, author of The Poor Man and His Princess #readaloud #positiveplatforms

#readaloud #positiveplatforms

The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

#poems that inspire #people call me #Langston Hughes #I Too

The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

#poems that inspire #what I remember #Nikki Giovanni #My First Memory (of Librarians)

The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

#poems that inspire #where I come from #Naomi Shihab Nye #Before I was a Gazan

Week 3: Poems that inspire

As you begin working on the free writes, creating a map that reflects your own experiences, look through these poems to find new ways of approaching your story.

In her poem, "Before I was a Gazan," Naomi Shihab Nye introduces a young boy learning to confront the intersecting definitions of family and geography. Here the narrator tries to negotiate responsibilities of a math test, missing homework, relationships with his family, all while considering what it means to be Gazan.

"...and I was going to find it and turn it in,

make my teacher happy,

make her say my name to the whole class,

before everything got subtracted

in a minute..."

For the narrator in Nick Makoha's poem, "Promise to my unborn son," where he comes from begins with understanding how the stories that came before him create a path for him to explore on his own in the future.

Both poems reflect the possibility of drawing from multiple lived experiences and places and relationships to find a response to "Where are you from?" that feels true to what each person lives from one day to the next.

#poems that inspire #where I come from #Naomi Shihab Nye #Nick Makoha

Week 3: Where I come from

Parts of this conversation began in the first week of camp, as students introduced themselves and in so doing used their neighborhood or their city to name who they were. Often enough, "My name is..." is followed by "I am from..." Both allow us to introduce part of our complex stories in the space of one or two sentences.

At Julia de Burgos Elementary's Media Club, students worked on interactive Instagram posts and talked about how they see their neighborhoods and how they identify who they are. Students learned about self-reporting and the power of using their voices to tell their stories and describe where they come from. Through the creation of their own Instagram panels, students had a chance to construct their own narratives away from preconceived notions about their neighborhoods.

Here are some prompts to help reflect on these conversations:

> A friend from out of town is coming to visit but they don't have a map of where you live. Write them directions to your home using local places or landmarks or restaurants that mean something to you.

> Are there stories that have been passed down to you - an old family memory, a joke with a friend, a word of advice about what to (or what not to) order from a local food spot - that remind you of where you come from?

Pick from one of the above and write about it, or write your own story that you would want to pass on.

#summer camp #free writes #where I come from

Week 2: Poems that inspire

While reading through the prompts, try looking to these two poems to hear two poets navigate the nature of memory and how it changes over time.

In “My First Memory (of Librarians),” Nikki Giovanni describes the impact of her first library visit and the different opportunities that revealed themselves.

“The welcoming smile of my librarian

The anticipation in my heart

All those books-another world-just waiting

At my fingertips.”

Franz Wright re-imagines memory in the present in “Auto-Lullaby,” and creates new possibilities for the reader to discover in everyday and fantastical moments.

“Think of a sheep

knitting a sweater;

think of your life

getting better and better.”

#poems that inspire #Nikki Giovanni #Franz Wright #What I remember

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Positive Platforms