This lesson is a remix of the lesson plan "'Gate A-4' by Naomi Shihab Nye," which can be found at the following link: https://goopenva.org/courses/gate-a-4-by-naomi-shihab-nye. The original lesson and its materials are a product of EDSITEment!

The original source includes a video of Naomi Shihab Nye reading her poem. The lesson's guiding questions are:

-What is empathy?

-When do you feel safe? 

The original source materials are aimed at ninth grade learners. 

Paired Passages

After students are familiar with the Nye's poem and have possibly completed some of the activities in the EDSITEment! lesson plan, have students extend the reach and meaning of the poem through a variety of synthesis activities.

-Have a variety of children's books on hand (depending on the size of the class teachers may want to opt for at least twenty or thirty). Have students select books written for younger audiences to pair with Nye's poem. The pairings can be based off stylistic or thematic similarities. (Children's books that are ideal for such pairings are Jon Agee's The Wall in the Middle of the Book and Life on Mars. The works of Jon Klassen would also be ideal, as would Night Animals by Gianna Marino. Students could journal about the connections, or students could convert Nye's poem into a children's book. 

-Have students pair Nye's poem with writings from the collection Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience. The poems in this collection are written largely by first and second generation immigrants and refugees currently residing in the United States. Their origins span the globe and include multiple cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds. Students can pair these poems with Nye's in order to make the conversation about a topic as opposed to a singular literary work. Javier Zamora's collection Unaccompanied would also work well for this task.

-Have students play the role of editor and locate poems from a variety of sources that would work well in a collection similar to Ink Knows No Borders. Teachers could have students draft letters to the authors (poets) requesting permission for their poems to be included in the collection. These letters could cite Nye's "Gate A-4" as an example of the type of poems to be included and explain why the other poets' works should be included and how their works would expand the collection's potential meanings. 

-Have students complete writing tasks that pair Nye's poem with news articles or documentary sources. 

-Have students write about their own experiences with empathy, safety, and community. 

-Students could work to convert Nye's poem to a different genre. In other words, students would work on how to adapt an original piece of art into something new.