Who Are My People

Through George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” and poems by Langston Hughes and Pat Mora, students notice how identity lives in ordinary details. They create a short poem, song, rap, or drawing that represents what they carry and consider how those influences shape how they lead and participate in community.

Big idea

We do not become ourselves all by ourselves. People, places, memories, and communities leave fingerprints on who we are and how we lead.

Participation and care

Offer more than one way to reflect or share. Students may speak, write, draw, create, work with a partner, use a private response, or pass when a prompt feels personal. Keep student ownership of their stories, examples, and choices at the center.

01 · Prepare

See the learning and gather what you need.

The complete teacher guidance is built into this page. Open a separate file only when it helps you facilitate or gives students a place to work.

Students will

Identify people and communities that have helped shape who they are.
Notice how specific details in “Where I’m From” communicate identity and belonging.
Create an original poem, song, rap, or drawing using personally meaningful details.
Connect sources of identity and belonging to leadership, responsibility, and the people they may want to serve.

Materials

Presentation slide deck with the poems.
Student writing or drawing space; optional digital creation tools.

Teacher background

Identity is formed in relationship. The people, places, communities, traditions, and everyday experiences students carry can become sources of strength and civic purpose. Students must control what they create and share.

02 · Facilitate

Follow the experience flow.

Move through the sequence at a pace that fits your group. These experiences are designed to be concrete, personal, and choice-filled.

Welcome and frame

2 minutes

1
Connect to the previous experience: students considered how they are known; now they will notice what has helped make them who they are.
2
Define people broadly: family is one possibility, not the only one.

Start with your people

3 minutes

1
Give students 30 seconds to picture two or three people.
2
In pairs, students name one person and one small thing that person says, does, cooks, plays, teaches, or believes.
3
Remind students that they may pass or keep a detail private.

Read and notice

10 minutes

1
Use the slide deck to share poems by George Ella Lyon, Langston Hughes, and Pat Mora as collections of details—not complete biographies.
2
Invite students to listen for objects, places, people, phrases, foods, sounds, and memories.
3
Ask: Which detail helped you picture the speaker’s world? What might it suggest, even without explanation?

Gather your details

3 minutes

1
Students make a quick list: an object, place, food or sound, often-heard phrase, person or group, and a story, belief, or hope they carry.
2
Words and fragments are enough; spelling and complete sentences do not matter yet.

Create your piece

7–10 minutes

1
Students choose details that feel true and make a short poem, song, rap, or drawing.
2
Offer sentence starters such as “I am from…,” “I am from the sound of…,” and “I carry… with me wherever I go.”
3
Encourage specific details without requiring every starter or explanation.

Share by choice

3 minutes

1
Students may underline one line to share, describe a detail without reading it, or pass.
2
If time allows, invite a few volunteers; model with one honest, age-appropriate detail of your own.

Close and connect

2 minutes

1
Name that the people and places students carry can become sources of strength, purpose, and responsibility.
2
Bridge to the next experience: some important parts of a person may not be visible right away.

03 · Facilitator notes

Keep student ownership at the center.

Use these as reminders, not rules that make the experience feel heavy.

Teacher moves

Keep the definition of people broad: family, chosen family, friends, teams, neighborhoods, cultural or faith communities, and other meaningful groups all count.
Do not require heritage, family history, immigration, adoption, foster care, loss, or trauma stories.
Do not grade rhyme, grammar, or how personal the work is. The goal is noticing and naming.
Listen for details that help you know students better, but do not ask students to explain what they choose to keep private.

04 · Facilitation materials

Open only what you will use.

The teacher guide is already on this page. These supporting files have a separate classroom purpose.

Supporting materialPresentation slidesUse the revised slide deck to lead the experience.Supporting materialGeorge Ella Lyon, “Where I’m From”Read the poem through an authorized classroom source.Supporting materialStudent Guide 2 · Who Are My PeopleDownloadable student planning and creation guide.