The Fruits of Labor by Diego Rivera, courtesy of the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund.
The following activities and questions are designed to help your students use their noticing skills to move through the poem and develop their thinking skills so they understand its meaning with confidence, using what they’ve noticed as evidence for their interpretations. Read more about the framework upon which these activities are based.
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Warm-up: Join with a partner or small group and discuss: What does the word labor mean? What are some important jobs in your community? How might your community be different without these jobs and workers? Share with the class.
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Before Reading the Poem: Look closely at the print The Fruits of Labor by Diego Rivera. What do you see? What stands out and why? Look again. What else do you see?
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Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “Labor” by Jericho Brown. What do you notice about the poem? Note any words or phrases that stand out to you or any questions you might have.
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Listening to the Poem: Enlist two volunteers and listen as the poem is read aloud twice. Write down any additional words and phrases that stand out to you. You can watch a video of the poet reading the poem.
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Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group of students. How do the resources from the beginning of class connect to the poem? What does this poem say about labor? If you could ask this poet a question, what might you ask? Why?
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Whole Class Discussion: What is the most impactful imagery in the poem? Why? How does the speaker feel about work now, as an adult? How might this compare to the jobs you shared at the beginning of class?
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Extension for Grades 7-8: Read and listen to more poets reading their work in the Dear Poet series. Write a letter to Jericho Brown, or find a poet whose work speaks to you and write a letter to them. What questions do you want to ask? What connections to the poem can you make? Share your writing with your class and submit your letter.
- Extension for Grades 9-12: Think back to the community work you discussed at the beginning of class. Read more poems about labor and workers. Write your own poem about work or about something the poem inspires you to think about.
Dear Poet 2025 is a multimedia education project that invites students in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to celebrated poets reading their work in a series of recorded videos. Poets will reply to a set of student letters and a selection of these correspondences will be published by the Academy in a special booklet this summer. Dear Poet 2025 is now accepting submissions through April 24. Learn more.
Voice: an expression denoting the comprehensive style of a speaker adopted by the author in a poem.