‘WE ARE ________’
FDSH Diversity Action Troupe writes poems with Butler students
-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert <br> FDSH senior Josie Novencido and sophomore Simeon Roberts, members of the FDSH Diversity Action Troupe, explain a "We Are" poem to students in Timmi Dencklau's fourth grade class at Butler Elementary School on Tuesday.
-Messenger photos by Kelby Wingert <br> Students in Timmi Dencklau's fourth grade class at Butler Elementary School work together to write a "We Are" poem with help from members of the FDSH Diversity Action Troupe on Tuesday.
-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert <br> Fort Dodge Senior High sophomore Simeon Roberts observes a group of students as they write a "We Are" poem in Timmi Dencklau's fourth grade class at Butler Elementary School. Roberts is a member of the Diversity Action Troupe at FDSH.
-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert <br> FDSH senior Josie Novencido and sophomore Simeon Roberts, members of the FDSH Diversity Action Troupe, explain a "We Are" poem to students in Timmi Dencklau's fourth grade class at Butler Elementary School on Tuesday.
-Messenger photos by Kelby Wingert <br> Students in Timmi Dencklau's fourth grade class at Butler Elementary School work together to write a "We Are" poem with help from members of the FDSH Diversity Action Troupe on Tuesday.
-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert <br> Fort Dodge Senior High sophomore Simeon Roberts observes a group of students as they write a "We Are" poem in Timmi Dencklau's fourth grade class at Butler Elementary School. Roberts is a member of the Diversity Action Troupe at FDSH.
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The fourth-graders in Timmi Dencklau's class at Butler Elementary School are special. They wonder about next year. They hear their teacher. They see hardworking people. They want world peace and friendships. And they are all unique.
On Tuesday, members of the Diversity Action Troupe from the Performer's Club at Fort Dodge Senior High School visited the classrooms at Butler to teach the students how the things that make them different are what make them unique, and that they have more similarities with each other than they do differences.
In the afternoon, FDSH senior Josie Novencido and sophomore Simeon Roberts went into the fourth grade classrooms at Butler and facilitated a group activity. After dividing the class into smaller groups, Novencido and Roberts asked the groups to each write an "I Am" poem.
An "I Am" poem is a series of sentences in which the author -- or in this case, authors -- describe themselves. The lines all start with things like "We are," or "We wonder," or "We hear," or "We want," or any other combination of prompts.
"It's to make people see their uniqueness and what makes everybody different, but also to show them what brings them together," Novencido said.
After the groups finished writing their poems, they presented them to the rest of the class. While each poem as a whole was unique -- just like each student in the classroom is unique -- some themes were echoed from group to group.
"I think they had a lot of fun and it got them thinking about what brings them together and their similarities that they have with each other," Novencido said.