I Believe Poems

I created my I Believe poem after Jacqueline Woodson's poem from Brown Girl Dreaming. I did this to use for a lesson I taught in a Poetry Unit for a 9th grade English class. Woodson's beautiful poem was our mentor text. My colleague created a frame from Woodson's poem that students could use as a scaffold. When writing this poem I began by trying to use the scaffold and decided that I wanted to also try to integrate another approach to share with students. So I made a list of beliefs and tried to group them by likeness. For example, I wrote down that I believed in summer time. But then I decided I wanted to get more detailed and focus on things I love about summer- swimming, porch sitting, and picnics. This approach actually worked better for me during the writing process.

I included this poem in my anthology because of the powerful reflection process it takes to compose such a poem. It was nice to sit and contemplate what is so important to me that I will use the statement I believe. It made me think about how those beliefs may help to change the future for the better. I also included it because I was BLOWN AWAY by the poems my students created. They were thoughtful, inspiring, and had incredibly inclusive messages. I've included one of my favorites by a student called I Want to Believe. Using this as a lesson in my classroom and seeing what students believe in make me truly hopeful that positive change is possible!