Lesson Title: Speech Community Poems

Instructional Resources/Materials:
U Turn by Derrick (Kirkland, 2013)
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in by E. E. Cummings
Love Yourz by J. Cole
Unit Enduring Understandings:
1. Students will understand that the speeches that they use in various speech communities are
accepted and can be incorporated in writing
2. Students will understand that they can represent their speech community in different forms
Unit Essential Questions:
1. What is a speech community?
2. Why is it important to represent your speech community?
3. What is audience and why is that important to writing?
Lesson Objective:
1.
Students will be able to communicate their speech community to others outside of it.
2.
Students will be able to vary language depending on audience.
Lesson Knowledge:
1. Students will know what a speech community is.
2. Students will know that audience impacts language choices.
Lesson Skills:
1. Students will be able to identify different speech communities that they are part of.
2. Students will be able to produce poems that vary in their language usage.
Common Core State Standard(s): CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Lesson Procedure:
1. First we will review the idea of audience. This topic would have been discussed previously,
so students would have prior knowledge.
2. Next we will introduce the idea of speech communities and discuss how our language use
varies depending on who we are communicating with.
3. We will then read through the two poems and song lyrics and discuss who the audiences for
the pieces are and what elements seem to be part of the writer or speakers speech community
with who they address in the works.
4. Students will then be asked to write two poems that are directed to people from two
different speech communities that they are part of. Students will have time in class to
brainstorm people and/or begin working on their poems.
Writing prompt: Consider the different speech communities you may be part of. How might
your language vary when communicating with your friends, family, teachers, etc.? Consider
two different people or groups of people you talk differently with and write two poems, each

directed at a different audience. Include who the poem is addressing somewhere on the page,
such as in the title.
Each poem should be a minimum of ten lines; there is no maximum limit on how long
they may be. Your poems do not need to rhyme or invoke a specific format.
If a significant portion of your poem is in a non-English language (more than four
consecutive words), provide an annotation with a translation. If theres something you feel
may be unclear to a reader of the poem, provide an annotation with an explanation.
5. Students will have the opportunity to share their poems in class the next day.
List Lesson Assessment(s) (Summative & Formative Assessments, Performance Task(s) &
Other Evidence i.e. Pre-assessments, Unit Tests, Quizzes, Essays, Exit Cards, etc.):
1. Discussion of the poems and speech communities
2. The two poems that students produce
Lesson Accommodations (special needs and gifted): The minimum length requirement can be
adjusted depending on students needs. Gifted students may write longer poems. Students will
also be told that they can write more than the two poems required.
What will you do if students do not understand?
If students do not understand, we will revisit one of the example poems and try to explain our
own thinking step by step. We will then have students brainstorm different speech
communities that they are a part of in groups rather than individually.
Extended Learning (Homework): Working on the poems will be homework
U Turn
U turn
left b Hind
Legs sprawl ing on top of Black back
Mountains
Rivers that Run Deep
Like Shebas Queens and she Loves
Open pours
inside empty cups that run over
hope like Escalades
that phaint in Darkness
that phreeze in Night

that phick in morning, morning

Uprising
Lite skin white men
Blues is my brothers
Black is my Berry
Sweet is my juice
So U turn back to me
I re turn back to U
I die daily 4 U

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and its you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
"Love Yourz"
Love yours
Love yours
[Hook:]

No
No
No
No

such
such
such
such

thing as a life that's better than yours

thing as a life that's better than yours
thing as a life that's better than yours
thing, no such thing

Heart beatin' fast, let a man know that he alive

Fake men mad, snakes
Snakes in the grass let a man know that he arrive
Don't be sleepin' on your level cause its beauty in the struggle
Goes for all y'all
It's beauty in the struggle
(Let me explain)
It's beauty in the struggle , ugliness in the success
Hear my words or listen to my signal of distress
I grew up in the city and though some times we had less
Compared to some of my niggas down the block man we were blessed
And life can't be no fairytale, no once upon a time
But I be God damned if a man don't be tryin'
So tell me mama please why you be drinking all the time?
Does all the pain he brought you still linger in your mind?
Cause pain still lingers on mine
On the road to riches listen this is what you'll find
The good news is you came a long way
The bad news is you went the wrong way
Think being broke was better
[Hook]
For what's money without happiness?
Or hard times without the people you love
Though I'm not sure what's 'bout to happen next
I asked for strength from the Lord up above
Cause I've been strong so far
But I can feel my grip loosening
Quick, do something before you lose it for good
Get it back and use it for good
And touch the people how you did like before
I'm tired of living with demons cause they always inviting more
Think being broke was better
Now I don't mean that phrase with no disrespect
To all my people out there living in debt
Cashing minimal checks
Turn on the TV see a Rolex
And fantasize about a life with no stress
I mean this shit sincerely
And that's a man who was once in your shoes

Living with nothin' to lose

I hope one day you hear me
Always gon' be a bigger house somewhere, but man feel me
Long as the people in that mother----- love you dearly
Always gon' be a whip that's better than the the one you got
Always gon' be some clothes that's fresher than the ones you rock
Always gon' be a bitch that's badder out there on the tours
But you ain't never gon' be happy till you love yours
[Hook]
Heart beatin' fast, let a man know that he alive
Fake niggas mad, snakes
Snakes in the grass let a man know that he arrive