a collection of polaroid pictures
Meg Takamura/IZA Stock/Getty Images (candy); Shutterstock.com (all other images)
Poem,

Ode to Family Photographs

A poem about moments that bring meaning to our lives

By Gary Soto
From the September 2021 Issue

Learning Objective: to write an original poem using “Ode to Family Photographs” as a model

Featured Skill: Poetry,
Common Core Standards
  • Anchor Standards
    R.10, W.3
  • Grade 6
    RL.6.10, W.6.3
  • Grade 7
    RL.7.10, W.7.3
  • Grade 8
    RL.8.10, W.8.3
TEKS Standards
  • Grades 6, 7, 8
    3a, 4a, 5a, 5b, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h, 5i, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6g, 6h, 7a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d, 9e, 9f, 11a

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Want to hear this poem read aloud? Click here!

Want to hear this poem read aloud? Click here!

Ode to Family Photographs

By Gary Soto

This is the pond, and these are my feet.

This is the rooster, and this is more of my feet.


Mamá was never good at pictures.


This is a statue of a famous general who lost an arm,

And this is me with my head cut off.


This is a trash can chained to a gate,

This is my father with his eyes half-closed.


This is a photograph of my sister

And a giraffe looking over her shoulder.


This is our car’s front bumper.

This is a bird with a pretzel in its beak.

This is my brother Pedro standing on one leg on a rock,

With a smear of chocolate on his face.


Mamá sneezed when she looked

Behind the camera: the snapshots are blurry,

The angles dizzy as a spin on a merry-go-round.


But we had fun when Mamá picked up the camera.

How can I tell?

Each of us laughing hard.

Can you see? I have candy in my mouth.

“Ode to Family Photographs” from NEIGHBORHOOD ODES by Gary Soto. Text copyright ©1992 by Gary Soto. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

Writing Prompt

Choose several photographs of places and events from your life that you remember fondly, or think about what “photos” you have in your mind of such places and events. Using “Ode to Family Photographs” as a model, write a poem based on the photos or mental images you choose.

This poem was originally published in the September 2021 issue.

video (1)
Audio ()
Activities (3)
Skills Activities
Writing Support
Answer Key (1)
video (1)
Audio ()
Activities (3)
Skills Activities
Writing Support
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

Close Reading, Critical Thinking, Skill Building

Essential questions: How are our identities shaped? What is the role of family in our lives? How do we remember the past? 


1. PREPARING TO READ (10 MINUTES)

Do-Now: Journal and Discuss (10 minutes)

  • Have students respond to the following questions in their journal or on a piece of paper: 

    • What are some of your earliest memories? Your most vivid memories? 

    • What do you think causes you to remember some things and forget others? 

    • What is the importance of photographs? 

    • The way that you take photographs is probably different from the way the adults in your life do. Explain how. 

  • Have students discuss their responses in pairs, small groups, and/or as a class. If students aren’t familiar with how photography has changed in recent decades, you may want to share with them some photos, cameras, and anecdotes that reflect how it has changed in your lifetime: from film cameras and film to digital cameras with memory cards, screens, and batteries; from manual focus and light sensors to automatic sensors and instant editing tools, filters, etc.; from developing physical photos in a darkroom lab at home or dropping them off at a store for a week (only to find that perfect photo wasn’t so perfect—and you couldn’t go back in time to capture it again) to taking/viewing/storing/sharing photos by the hundreds on smartphones. In short, not too many years ago, photography required a different kind of skill, patience, and persistence.

2. READING AND ANALYZING THE POEM (30 MINUTES)

  • As a class, watch the Poet Read-Aloud video in which Gary Soto reads his poem to your students (available in your Resources tab). 

  • Reread the poem aloud a few times and/or have students read it again silently to themselves.

  • As a whole class, in small groups, or in pairs, complete the Analyzing Poetry activity (available in your Resources tab). 

3. WRITING (30 MINUTES)

  • Invite students to write their own poems using our Poetry Planner activity (available in your Resources tab).

  • Have students write a first draft of their poem. You may want to have them come back to their poems for homework or on the following day of class for revision and editing.

  • Have students publish their poems with accompanying artwork or photographs. Or students can create an audio or video recording or a slideshow of images, or they can memorize their poem for a live performance. 

  • Host a poetry slam and invite students to share and perform their poems as a class. Post the poems around the room, play the video and audio recordings, and invite students who would like to read or perform their poems to do so.

  • Optionally, send students’ poems to Scope’s Poetry Contest using the Contest Entry Form. (For the contest, entries must be submitted by email and be in written form.)

Other identity poems from the Scope archives to help you and your students get to know each other at the beginning of the school year:

Text-to-Speech