Illustrating Poetry

I have always been a fan of poetry! I am in awe at how some poets can capture so many emotions with just a few words. We read a new poem each week. I introduce it on Monday and we read it together each day to help build fluency. On Fridays, I ask my students to illustrate the poem we read over the week.

Sometimes we read silly poems like Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein. My favorites to use with them are Robert Frost and Langston Hughes. This is the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes (which is also, I believe, a great example of grit).

Mother to Son

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

And these are the illustrations from my kiddos of this poem.