“I've Known Rivers”: A reflection on the synergy of multigenre, multimodal texts created by Elizabeth Richter

In this article an elementary literacy specialist reflects on the use of multigenre, multimodal texts to support the teaching of poetry. Over time her efforts to enrich students’ and teachers’ experience with poetry led her to explore the synergy between poetry and related informational, visual, and auditory texts in order to afford deeper insights into the poem and the poet. She recounts the implementation of a plan for studying Langston Hughes’ poetry, in particular, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” that made use of such texts. The work was guided by two questions: How does learning about the poet enhance our understanding of a poem? How does understanding the poem help us understand the poet? Given the outcome of this work, a second phase is planned, joining the study of two artists of the Harlem Renaissance, the poet Langston Hughes and the visual artist Romare Bearden, supported by multigenre, multimodal texts.