by Shana Burg. Currently, I'm planning out a literature unit and as part of that process, I did some searching online yesterday.I found this activity on the wonderful Read-Write-Think website. This lesson allows students to thoroughly examine the seminal "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr and compare with “The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.” a poem by Nikki Giovanni. Since I couldn't find an online copy of the Giovanni poem, I ended up purchasing two of her books of poetry, Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People
and The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1995
. I think that this will be a really good "Into" activity for my students and also will fit in very nicely with the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. (In a somewhat related note, I would love to show the inauguration to my students, but don't have cable in my classroom. Will places like CNN livestream this?)My GATE students will be my guinea pigs on this unit, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works out well for them (and for me!).
One of the greatest things about the Internet? Receiving an e-mail from the author of A Thousand Never Evers. I think as a culminating activity my students may be e-mailing or blogging some questions to her! This is something that I think may be of great interest to my GATE students.
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6 comments:
Great ideas! Thanks!
Wonderful! Your classroom sounds like a great place to be!
Love Nikki Giovani!
Sounds like a great unit of study, if you haven't already you might check the Library of Congress and The National Archives--you'll find photos, movies, full audio speeches etc. I love primary sources, N
It sounds fantastic. You'll have to give us the wrap up.
Thanks for the mention of the ReadWriteThink site! We are very proud of what we have to offer. If you are interested, we pay educators to publish their lesson plans and teaching ideas. Please let me know if you would like more information.
I have always loved MLK day and showing a Rosa Parks video called "Mighty Times: Legacy of Rosa Parks." Usually we do notes during the movie (a KWL - what did you know, want to know, learn - about Rosa and the civil rights movement), a philosophical chairs discussion (something like "will we ever have an african-american president?" i guess i won't be doing that this year), and an essay. The essay is about how you related to Rosa Parks. I usually get some of the best writing of the year from my kids during this exercise.
Because of Obama's election and his inauguration this January, I think it will be even more inspiring than usual.
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