ABSTRACT
My students in East Los Angeles were reluctant to write on topics that I thought were interesting: What did they want to be when they grow up? Who did they look up to? What did they do over the weekend? In my narrow, suburban mind, I thought they simply didn't have enough experiences to write a lot to these prompts, but I persisted, certain that one of them would encourage writing. I finally stumbled on a narrative prompt that got them writing—we had just read a nonfiction story about the Titanic. My students were fascinated by the stories of people using the famous ship to immigrate to the United States. “That sure is different than how my family came to the U.S., Miss,” Dulcie remarked. “How did your family get here?” I asked. A thousand hands shot up. “Do you all have stories about this?” I inquired. Heads nodded vigorously. “Take out a piece of paper,” I instructed, inspired. For once, no one complained. “Tell me your immigration stories.” You could have heard a pin drop. It was the best writing that I got all year.
