African American poetry and creative expression provided a framework for students to explore history, identity, and cultural storytelling through the integration of literary arts and visual practice. Engaging with visual art works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and student art inspired by authors Amanda Gorman, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou, students analyzed how language, imagery, and emotion convey cultural narratives and personal experience. Through poetry workshops, they wrote identity poems, using both rhyme and free verse, translating poetic elements into visual form using color, symbols, and mixed media. By creating artworks inspired by their writing and presenting them through a gallery walk and poetry reading, students examined how words and images work together to communicate voice, vision, and collective memory.

Students engaged in the inquiry process through a structured progression of exploration, creation, and reflection.

The introduction to our inquiry began with students identifying key story elements such as characters, settings, and events. They analyzed how poetry and art communicate feelings, ideas, and experiences, using the work of authors like Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Amanda Gorman, alongside artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

We maintained the inquiry by guiding students through hands-on creative and reflective practices:

• Writing: Students wrote original poems connected to their identity, culture, or learned stories.

• Creating: They created visual artwork directly inspired by their poetry or literary themes.

• Reflecting: They used ongoing discussion and reflection to describe and justify their artistic choices.

The inquiry culminated in a wonderful showcase at Convergence 2026. It was incredible to see so many families visit the gallery and share the pure joy of seeing our students' work on display. What a truly unforgettable experience for our first graders!

Our students engaged in the inquiry process by connecting art and poetry and making abstract ideas real. First, they looked at African American poetry by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Amanda Gorman alongside the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat to figure out how words, shapes, and colors tell stories about history and feelings. Then, they took big ideas, like courage, dreams, and social change, and turned them into original poems and artifacts using paint, collage, and mixed media.

The questions that resulted from our unit focused on our students' own wonderings, fears, dreams, and understanding of the ways they may initiate change in their world. After listening to the stories, some of the questions that arose included: "What fears did the artists, authors, and illustrators have to create the work that they did?" and "When were these stories published and experienced?"

While our inquiry originally set out to explore deep historical narratives through Henry’s Freedom Box, we realized that this specific text and the complex, multi-layered tasks attached to it took too much time. Because of our strict time constraints and the widely differentiated learning and writing abilities in the first-grade classroom, the students could not work fast enough to complete the intensive project as it was initially designed.

To support their diverse needs without losing the core concepts of courage, dreams, and social change, we shifted our inquiry focus. Instead of moving forward with the lengthy Henry’s Freedom Box and the additional exploration of the concept of "freedom" via creativity, we pivoted to more accessible, immediate poetic and visual structures. This allowed us to honor the students' differentiated paces, giving them the extra time they needed to successfully process the big ideas and express themselves fully.

We approached all of our lessons through a deliberate sense of wonder, encouraging students to remain curious and open‑minded throughout the learning process. At every stage — from initial discussions to hands‑on making, revision, and the ongoing development of their projects — students were consistently challenged with “why” and “how” inquiry questions. This routine not only pushed them to think critically about their choices, but also helped them build a deeper understanding of the concepts, materials, and intentions behind their work. 

A particularly powerful example of this inquiry‑based approach emerged during the creation of the image and curio boxes inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem “Dream Variations.” These artworks became a culminating demonstration of how students had learned to move from curiosity to interpretation to creation. As we entered the final days of the project, students were invited to consider a deceptively challenging question: How does one take a single line of poetry and transform it into a singular visual image? 

To begin this process, the poem had to be experienced — not just read, but heard, absorbed, and allowed to resonate. We encouraged students to slow down and let the language settle in their minds. From there, an image begins to form almost instinctively, like a small motion‑picture screen flickering to life behind closed eyelids. We asked them to pay attention to that moment of imaginative spark: What do you see when you close your eyes and listen to a line from this poem? What unfolds in your mind? What instinctive picture rises to the surface? 

Visual Examples of this can be found at the bottom of this site in the COMPLETED BOXES documentation photos.