Layers

As my students and I continue our rhetorical analysis work and study well-known (often beloved) stories, I shared Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield. I asked my students to write about what the Story they are exploring tells us about the time/forces of its making.

One of the reasons I want my students to engage in rhetorical analysis is that I want to encourage them to peel back the layers of any story whether that story is their own, fictional, or factual. This poem is such an interesting thinking and writing prompt because all too often we do not believe our own witness for a number of complicated reasons. It is always worth exploring those reasons and those layers.

What are the layers of your story?

Image by Stefan Schweihofer from Pixabay