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A Poem Is a Photograph
On Hand: Speak to Me (And I Will Listen Between the Lines) by Karen English (2004) or other poetry that speaks to the lives of your students, and photographs of familiar sights for students: backpack, cafeteria, school bus, playground, desk, sidewalk, and so on.
Mini-Lesson: Read Speak to Me (or your selected poetry book) and then reread it from beginning to end. (Speak to Me is about six urban kids and it begs to be read over and over again.) Take a moment to ask students what they observed about the poetry. They may make connections: "I have a pen with pink ink like Rica," or "I felt like Brianna when Siobhan didn't want to be my friend anymore." Or they may begin to notice that a poem can be long like "Walking Home Makes Me Feel Good" or incredibly short like "Five More Minutes and I Get to Go Home":
Five more minutes and I'll get to go home
What else is there to say?
Tell students that whereas a story or a personal narrative has a beginning, middle, and end-a poem can be compared to a photograph in which a single moment (and all of its meaning and ensuing emotion) is captured in time. Show them the photographs you have collected and choose one to model the first draft of a poem:
Brand new composition notebook
Smelling like fresh air
A place for my name
White pages, blue lines
Not yet marred by
Wobbly letters,
Misspelled words,
Crossed off thoughts.
My words
Not yet placed on the pages
Still sparkle in the breeze
Make any changes that occur to you. (My last line was originally "Still glow," but I crossed it off and explained to students that I wanted to use an image that connected to my line: "Smelling like fresh air.") You might spend time later revising your poem. If so, share your revisions during author's chair or another mini-lesson.
Invite students to use the photographs you've collected to write their own poems.
Extension: Suggest students bring in their own photographs from home to inspire their poetry.
Lesson from No More "I'm Done!" Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades by Jennifer Jacobson.
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