Success Story: Lawrence High School Amplifying Student Voice Through Poetry, Identity, and Community

Challenge:

Lawrence High School, part of Lawrence Public Schools in Massachusetts, sought to deepen student engagement and forge stronger connections between classroom learning and personal identity, particularly for students in their Freshman Seminar course.

Educators were looking for a meaningful way to support identity development and creative literacy in a way that resonated with the student body and sparked enthusiasm for writing.

Solution:

To achieve this goal, Lawrence High School partnered with Multicultural Classroom® to deliver the Blue Ink Literacy Time (BILT) Workshops, a poetry-focused writing experience created and led by Roberto Germán, a published author and proud Lawrence native.   BILT is rooted in the belief that storytelling and self-expression are powerful vehicles for academic success, emotional development, and connection.

The workshops were designed to help students find their voice, explore their identity through writing, and gain confidence in both spoken and written communication. With a mix of in-class sessions, assembly-style events, and teacher collaboration, the BILT program made an immediate impact across multiple learning levels.

Program Highlights:

Poetry with Purpose

The BILT workshops launched during the Freshman Seminar poetry unit, with students participating in dynamic, participatory sessions that encouraged reflection, storytelling, and emotional honesty. Students explored the power of words, shared personal experiences, and crafted original poems centered on themes such as resilience, belonging, and cultural pride.

Assembly Event

The culminating event, a school-wide assembly, gave students the opportunity to hear from Roberto Germán directly and experience a collective celebration of poetry and self-expression. The energy, vulnerability, and shared celebration of identity during the assembly were a testament to the workshop’s success in building trust and excitement around the writing process.

Teacher Collaboration

Mr. Germán also spent time during the day working directly with Freshman Seminar teachers, modeling strategies and supporting curriculum alignment. This hands-on professional development helped teachers continue the work in their own classrooms beyond the workshop sessions and strengthened their ability to create space for meaningful student expression year-round.  Freshman Seminar teacher Rachel Garland noted that Germán helped build a classroom community where students felt free to write without judgment.

“When we read his poems, I see students’ eyes light up, like, ‘Wait, he knows about that?’ It builds this sense of: ‘I can do this too.’”
— Rachel Garland, Freshman Seminar Teacher

The testimonials from Lawrence High School students paint a powerful picture of transformation:

“I really learned how to express myself using words because of his book. I learned how to add emotion to my words.”

“My favorite poem was Sweet Dreams. It uses candy as a metaphor for deeper issues, it was really meaningful to me.”

“Reading City of Promises felt like reading about my own city. It gave me confidence and inspired new ideas for writing.”

Lasting Benefits:

• Elevated student confidence in writing and public speaking.
• Strengthened connection between personal experiences and classroom learning.
• Empowered educators to guide creative expression with care and intentionality.
• Created a culture of storytelling, trust, and emotional intelligence in the Freshman Seminar program.
• Created space for creative risk-taking and authentic peer connection.
• Reframed literacy as a tool for empowerment rather than assessment.

The continued partnership between Lawrence High School and Multicultural Classroom demonstrates how culturally relevant creative writing can be a catalyst for academic growth, self-expression, and community empowerment. As students discover the strength of their voices, they begin shaping not only their stories, but their futures.