A Poem of Possibilities: Thinking about the Future

I did the poem with freshmen and sophomores and they liked that, but the letter/poem to themselves was difficult for many. The idea of writing to themselves in 5 or 10 years, seemed almost impossible. It might be the group of mostly sheltered/remedial students I was working with, but most could simply not imagine what they would be doing in 5 years. They couldn't even commit to a job/school/family/military. For a select few, however, it was a really exciting writing assignment, and their letters were funny, touching, and revealing. Many of *those* kids counted it as one of their favorite writing assignments of the year during their portfolio conference at the end of the year.