Entering History: Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lesson Plans

Student Interactives

Calendar Activities

Professional Library

 

LESSON PLANS

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments

Students are often asked to perform speeches, but rarely do we require students to analyze speeches as carefully as we study works of literature. In this unit, students are required to identify the rhetorical strategies in a famous speech and the specific purpose for each chosen device. They will write an essay about its effectiveness and why it is still famous after all these years.

 

Grades   9 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

I Have a Dream: Exploring Nonviolence in Young Adult Texts

Students will identify how Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of nonviolent conflict-resolution is reinterpreted in modern texts. Homework is differentiated to prompt discussion on how nonviolence is portrayed through characterization and conflict. Students will be formally assessed on a thesis essay that addresses the Six Kingian Principles of Nonviolence.

 

Grades   11 – 12  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Examining the Legacy of the American Civil Rights Era

As part of their study of Richard Wright’s Black Boy, students research and reflect on the current black-white racial divide in America. By examining the work of literature in the context of contemporary events, students will deepen their understanding of the work and of what it means to be an American today.

 

Grades   4 – 7  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Boars and Baseball: Making Connections

In this lesson, students will make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections after reading In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. After sharing and discussing connections, students choose and plan a project that makes a personal connection to the text.

 

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing Poetry

Word Mover

Word Mover allows children and teens to create “found poetry” by choosing from word banks and existing famous works; additionally, users can add new words to create a piece of poetry by moving/manipulating the text.

 

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CALENDAR ACTIVITIES

Grades   1 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  June 7

Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in 1943.

Using the poem "My First Memory (of Librarians)," students connect memory, their senses, and the language of poetry.

 

Grades   7 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  August 28

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.

Students explore the "I Have a Dream" Foundation's website and brainstorm ways they can help themselves or others at their school achieve their educational dreams.

 

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PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY

Grades   6 – 8  |  Professional Library  |  Book

Living Voices: Multicultural Poetry in the Middle School Classroom

Jaime Wood offers middle school English language arts teachers material for teaching poetry by Nikki Giovanni, Li-Young Lee, and Pat Mora; the text includes graphic organizers and other resources.

 

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