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Fifteen minutes each day, for one month
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| Overview |
 After studying about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what he believed in, students need the chance to apply those lessons. This is the action piece. This project allows students to participate in Dr. King’s dream by doing 100 acts of kindness. It encourages family and community involvement while uniting the classroom community around a common and important goal. Young students learn that they can make a difference as they live the dream that Dr. King so strongly believed in.
This lesson describes activities that take place between Dr. King's birthday and Valentine’s Day; however, the lesson can be adapted to take place any time of year that you choose.
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| From Theory to Practice |
In their book Mosaic of Thought, Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann
discuss
the importance of making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections
(55). Not only does this process increase comprehension, but these connections
also
make
the
new
learning
meaningful, relevant, and engaging.
The first connection our young students make to what they read and
hear is the connection to themselves. When students make these connections,
what they read and hear has meaning for them in view of their own life experiences
and
prior
knowledge.
This significance comes
when they “relate unfamiliar text to their prior world knowledge and
/or personal experiences” (55). This is our goal as we introduce young
students to history: to engage them fully and deeply in the story of real
people like themselves, helping them building connections between their own
lives
and the lives of the people they are studying.
The second way to make connections is to make text-to-text connections
as students see relationships and common themes between different sources of
information.
The third way to make connections is text-to-world. This is the primary
goal of this lesson as students take what they learned about Dr. King and become
actively involved in the process of making Dr. King’s dream a reality
in their own lives and the world they live in.
Further Reading
Keene, Ellin Oliver and Susan Zimmermann. 1997. Mosaic of Thought. Heinemann:
Portsmouth, NH.
Keene and Zimmermann’s book contains excellent strategies for teaching
comprehension, including ideas that can be used in reader’s workshops
K-12.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- Identify ways that they can make a difference with their choices and
actions.
- Participate in Dr. King's dream by caring for, helping, and supporting
others.
- Keep records of their acts of kindness on a 100s Chart.
- Participate in reading and writing activities for authentic audiences.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
- Books and other information sources about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including
Let’s
Read About...Martin Luther King, Jr. by Courtney Baker
and I am Freedom’s Child by Bill Martin Jr.
- Internet access to suggested Web sites
- Display board(s)
- Scrapbook
- General classroom supplies (paper, pens, pencils, envelopes, art supplies,
and so forth)
- Chart tablets and markers
- Supplies for Valentine's Day party
- Sample Letter
to Families Announcing the Project
- a 100s chart (additional
examples available in the Web Resources)
- (if desired) Letter Generator Student Interactive
Preparation
- Collect other sources of information about Dr. King. Books that might be
used during this study include the following:
- Young Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream by Joanne Mattern
(Troll Books, 1991).
- Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen
Rappaport
(Jump Sun, 2001).
- Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo
(Scholastic, 1993).
- Let’s Read About...Martin Luther King, Jr. by Courtney Baker
(Scholastic, 2001).
- Resources from Weekly Reader, Time for Kids, Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out, etc.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Poster Book published by Kids Books, Inc.
- If You Lived in the Time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine (Scholastic,
1994). Note: This book is word intensive and designed for older students, but
it
provides good
information
when used as a resource or reference book.
- Explore and bookmark appropriate Web sites, listed in the Web Resources
below.
Note that the sites include information and images which may be confusing or
upsetting for students (for instance, the Life site's photo labeled "Arrested
for 'loitering' and being manhandled by Montgomery, Alabama police").
Be sure to check the sites carefully to ensure that they are appropriate for
your students
and that they fit your district's standards.
- Obtain a scrapbook and display board(s).
- Create a 100s chart to keep track of class progress toward 100 acts of kindness.
(We passed our goal and began a second chart, so you might want to plan for that
possibility.)
Additional samples are available in the Web Resources.
- Collect classroom supplies and stock work centers in the classroom.
- Test the Letter Generator
Student Interactive on your computers to familiarize yourself with the
tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download
the plug-in from the technical
support page.
Instruction and Activities
- Learn about Dr. King.
For the week prior to Dr. King’s birthday. Several such
lessons
are
available on MarcoPolo
sites, including the following:
- Focus on Dr. King’s Dream.
Review some of the literature and Web sites shared
during your first week. Useful Web sites are listed in the Web
Resources (below). Books which can be used for your review are listed in the Preparation (above).
- Discuss what it means to be part of Dr. King’s dream.
- Read Let’s Read About...Martin Luther King, Jr. by Courtney
Baker
aloud to students. As you share the book, ask students to make connections between
the events and ideas in the books and their own experiences. When you reach the
last page of the book, ask students what the book means when it says we need
to “make
the world a better place for everyone.” Take the opportunity to help
your students see that Dr. King’s dream is on-going and how they can be part
of the dream.
- Read I Am Freedom’s Child by Bill Martin Jr. aloud to students and discuss
what it means to be “Freedom’s
Child”—what we can do as children of freedom to care for and help others.
- Plan and implement your project: Live the Dream.
- Use the January and February classroom calendars to count the days between
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and Valentine’s Day. (You need to decide
if you will begin on January 15, King's actual birthday, or on Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day.) Challenge your students to complete 100 acts of kindness during
that period.
- Ask students to brainstorm things that they think
they can do. Record their responses on a sheet of chart paper (so that you
can save the list for use during the entire project). Encourage
them
to
think
of ways
they
can help others such as recycling, collecting food for a local food pantry,
gathering toys for the homeless shelter, helping their parents or grandparents
at home,
helping
younger brothers and sisters at home, helping one another at school, and so
forth.
- Ask students to decide how you'll know when people have completed an act
of kindness. You may want to “catch
people being kind,” making the rule that students cannot report their
own acts—someone has to “tell
on you.”
If you choose this method, invite parents, grandparents, and other family and
community members to join in and report acts of kindness they've observed.
- Compose a letter with students to send home to families,
explaining the project and how families can participate (here's an example). If desired, use the Letter Generator Student Interactive to review parts of a letter and compose your letter as a class. Family members, neighbors, and classmates will soon become experts at noticing all the kind acts that are happening and becoming writers of great reports and affirming notes.
- Encourage students to use the classroom writing
center to write thank you notes to one another
for helping to find lost book bags, sharing crayons or pencils, helping
clean up
spilled paint, and so forth. These notes become documentation of an act
of kindness, and the added benefit is that students will be doing real writing
for a real purpose and a real audience.
- Make a display board for all
these notes. After
the project is officially completed, you can make a scrapbook of all
the notes, and add the collection to your classroom library.
You can continue to add to the book for the rest of the school year if
you want.
- Integrate this project with your math instruction by devising ways
to keep track of the acts of kindness that students choose to do. A great
option is to add a sticker to a 100s
chart
for each act of kindness reported. You can also use another piece of chart
paper to record the actual activities the students did, using tally marks
to keep a record
of
the number
of people who recycled, and so forth.
- Choose a class service project.
- Return to the list that students brainstormed when you began the project
and ask students to choose an activity that the class can complete as a group.
- Discuss the options, narrow down the list, and vote to choose
the option the class will complete.
- Once a project has been selected, ask students to brainstorm or discuss what
they'll need to do to make the project a success. Encourage your students to
set goals and think about ways to track their success.
- Follow through by involving students with the final step for the project,
by delivering the items to a collection point, having someone come
to your class to collect the items, and so forth.
- Also document the project as part of the larger list of 100s, on your 100s
chart, by adding notes to your display board, and keeping tally of your progress.
Example Project
You might choose to collect food for the local food pantry.
Once the food has been collected, students can sort all the items and make
a graph to record what they have collected before boxing up the donations.
If possible, you can invite a representative of the food pantry to come to
your class. Students can give their donation to the representative in person,
explaining about the project. Ask the representative to be prepared to explain
how the food will help people in your community. If you receive a thank you
letter, be sure to include the letter in your scrapbook.
- Celebrate!
- As a reflection and celebration piece, draw a large web- (or wheel-) shaped
graphic organizer. Write “Dr.
King’s
Dream” in the center. Create a spoke from the center for each student in the
class, with an oval at the end. Each student will choose something to write
in one of the circles. Students can share observations of what
they
learned
from
the
project, how they felt about being part of the dream, and so forth. The chart
will provide a record of what you have learned and experienced.
- Make a banner using the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., as found in Martin’s
Big Words or another book you've read. The sentence “Love is the key to
the problems of the world,” for instance, works well. You can use hand
prints to form the word “LOVE.”
- Display any books and images that you've collected as part of the project
as well as your display board of notes, brainstorming lists, 100s charts,
graphs, and reflection web. You might choose to keep this display up for your
next open house or educational
fair.
- Conclude your project with a Valentine’s Party as a tribute to friendship
and to Dr. King’s dream.
Web Resources
- 100s Charts—ideally, the chart for this project will be drawn on chart
paper and displayed on the classroom wall. These links provide examples of
possible layouts.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929.
http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=396
- Choose among additional Web and text resources as well as find links to lesson plans and classroom activities that can be used to supplement or extend this lesson, from the January 15 entry from the ReadWriteThink calendar.
- 123Greetings Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Cards
http://cards.123greetings.com/cgi-bin/newcards/
showthumbs.pl?q1=ejan_martinlutherday&log=lv10000b
- This site provides e-mail cards that may be sent to special people in celebration of Dr. King's birthday. The cards touch on the themes of dreams, peace, hope, and community.
- Photo Essay: Martin Luther King in His Own Words
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/mlk/index.html
- This Time.com collection pairs ten photos of King with excerpts from his writing. Each could provide a starting place for a classroom discussion of King's life.
- Dr. Martin Luther King Web Site from Mrs. Taverna's Class
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/taverna/98/king.htm
- Mrs. Taverna's class of young elementary students from Pocantico School created a timeline of Dr. King's life.
- The Dr. King Timeline Page
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/pages/buckman/timeline/kingframe.html
- Another elementary class, this time at Buckman School, created a timeline of Dr. King's life.
- Martin Luther King: His Greatest Triumphs
http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/24541
- The Life site provides a wealth of pictures of Dr. King, including this gallery of his greatest triumphs.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
The reflection and celebration web provides a strong assessment piece for this
lesson. By asking each student to contribute something for the wheel, you can
quickly see what students are taking away from the lesson. The web chart creates
a
record of what students have accomplished and how they feel about it all.
Additionally, the artifacts of the lesson (display board of notes, brainstorming
lists, 100s charts, and so forth) provide concrete evidence of the work that
students have completed.
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4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
7 - Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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