A Place Worth Being

Students will write a personal narrative where they describe themselves as a place. Not a specific place, but all the things a "place" consists of.

Level

Grades 6–12

Type

Narrative, Social-Emotional Learning

What Your Students Will Learn

Students will learn an interesting way to use descriptive language, and, for fiction writers, a way to build characters.

What You Will Do

Students will write a personal narrative where they describe themselves as a place. Not a specific place, but all the things a “place” consists of. What’s the weather? What’s the terrain? Is this a city or a suburb? A farm? A different planet? Are there lots of people there? What’s it smell like? Is it loud? Is there traffic? Street vendors and hustlers? You get the point. Turn the body and mind into an environment through your writing.

This prompt also works in the inverse, where an environment can be described as a person.

Looking for more inspiration from Jason Reynolds?

Watch his video For Every One, now available on 826 Digital.

Students! Submit your writing for a chance to be published by 826 National. In the spirit of further amplifying and celebrating youth voices, 826 National invites students ages 13 and up to submit writing inspired by this Spark, “A Place Worth Being”. Selected pieces could be published in a forthcoming publication from 826 National and Jason Reynolds. Learn more about this exciting opportunity here and check back this fall for more details!