This poem is not difficult to understand at all. He pretty much says exactly what he means. He is a child of multiracial decent. Like many other blacks in his time, he battled with identity, blaming his parents. When he matured, he realized he was wrong to blame others, because he was truly proud of his heritage, regardless of the difficulties it caused him. He expressed the difference between the death of a white man and the death of a black woman, one of privilege, one of poverty. This may not actually be how his parents died, but in those times, many rich men had children with African American women, yet they kept separate lives, and often kept it a secret. This poem is representative of the mindset and segregation of races during Hughes’s adolescence and even adulthood.
1.Have students write biographies. Using some of the same methods of “LIVES OF”, kids can write their own autobiographies, or write portraits of their neighbours, kids in their classroom, teacher, families, their favourite creative person or hero. This activity could be used to teach research skills, especially the all-important one of how to use the library.
2.Make creative bookmarks based on heroes or heroines from history.
3.Have you class write and illustrate its own book: FUTURE LIVES OF THE STUDENTS: FAMILY, FAME, FORTUNE. Each student will write a brief autobiography of themselves as future adults. What did the students accomplish? What were their highs and low’s? What quirky, funny things took place? What have the neighbours noticed?
4.Explore the subject of creativity. How do people create? What is it like to live a creative life? What are the secrets of success?
5.Put on imaginary talk shows with students playing the roles of famous people. Learn how to interview people, how to make a list of interesting questions and go about finding the answers, how to take another’s point of view.
6.Make a “hero quilt” using your favourite method of classroom quilting, such as having each student contribute a decorated piece of heavy construction paper. Students will each pick a hero from history and illustrate in words and pictures on a “quilt square”.
7.Design imaginary “hero fanny packs”. What personal items would each hero be likely to be carrying around?
8.Use these life stories as a way of exploring history. What was going on during these people’s times? How and why did things change? Why, for example, there were so few women in early literature and art history? How did wars and upheavals influence the creation of masterpieces?
9.Use these biographies as a way of discussing how religion can be a factor in shaping a person’s life. Look up a famous person’s religious affiliation and discuss how this was an influence.
10.Use biographies as a way of discussing tolerance of or discrimination against women, minorities, or people who stand out as “different”. How did prejudices of the times shape each person’s life? How did each person cope?
Malaysia is home to many natural wonders, which are wreathed in legends. From popular island getaways to tranquil lakes and awe-inspiring mountains, there are fascinating stories behind them all. Be enthralled by these mystifying tales, which have been told and retold over the years from one generation to the next. Rich in adventure and sagas about fairies, heroes, magic curses and heavenly celestial beings, these legends are fascinating to all. Interesting characters, some heroic, others destructive make these legends most engaging. Below is the list of legends found in Malaysia.
Using legends to teach is a way to get children interested and learning through fun stories. Above are some good legends that teachers can use as platforms to teach similes, metaphors, personification and more. Below are the stages in teaching legends.
1.Introduce to the students the definition of a legend. Explain that a legend is a story handed down from generation to generation and included information about the past. They usually take place during a specific time in history and in a specific place.
2.Read aloud a legend to get children familiar with what a legend is. Discuss questions with the class such as what the legend tells you about the time period, what characters of the story were important, what parts of the legend makes it interesting to people.
3.Check your state standards and see what specific standards your students need to know. As a class, begin to read the story given. As the story is read, list on chart paper the structural elements of the legend. Save the chart paper and later, as you read different genres, such as fairy tales, fables and myths, begin to discuss with children the structural differences.
4.Introduce vocabulary words that students are not familiar with. Provide students with a student-friendly definition that they will understand. Have them record it in a vocabulary notebook.
5.Focus on figurative language that takes place in the story and point it out to the students as you go through the text, such as similes, metaphors, hyperbole and personification. Have the class record them in a notebook.
6.Map the story using a graphic organizer. Have children list the characters, setting the problem and the events that take place in chronological order.
Hilary Tham’s “Becoming a Woman” highlights the receiving of maternal wisdom that only women who are going through it. This poem presents various portraits of the transition from childhood to adulthood. Becoming a woman is a rite of passage that starts with the changes of early puberty and ends with a woman’s first periods. A girl grows and changes in ways that prepare her to be able to have a baby. These changes occur in certain stages. Gender representation on female clearly takes places in this poem. The poet perhaps tells the story within her own experiences on becoming a woman. After all, it becomes necessary for a little girl going through this phase; becoming a woman, and it is someone called mother to teach her little child about becoming a woman through her own experience and from what her later mother’s told her. Then, it becomes a woman responsible, the great responsibilities carry out from generation that men can’t do - give birth. It’s an honour for a woman to give birth and it becomes mother’s responsibilities to carry out their jobs to tell their child especially girl on becoming a woman.
Sometimes words can be more powerful than actions and when spoken by great orators, they inspire us to greatness and connect us to the world around us. After I watch the video of “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King, Jr., I it attracts my attention to listen to more famous speeches in the world. Therefore, I search online to get more information. These are the greatest speeches ever spoken; a collection of messages from some of the greatest and most notable orators in history.
TOP 10 Greatest Speeches:
10. Socrates “Apology”
9. Mahatma Gandhi “Quit India”
8. John F. Kennedy “Inaugural Address”
7. Queen Elizabeth I “Against the Spanish Armada”
6. Franklin Delano Roosevelt “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation”
The girl in the story has not been accepting any man to be her husband because she thinks everyone is not good enough. But when she thinks she has chosen the best life partner, she regrets when seeing him reveal his true identity. There are plenty of these kinds of cases in real life. Not to mention about relationship things, it happens in other aspects as well. They are all about complaining and the feeling of discontentment. When you stop complaining, every job is happily done even though with low pay, every house is comfortable to stay as long as it can provide us shelter, every child is the gift of God even though he or she is disabled, every trip means you have holidays that you can stop, sit back and relax, every call you receive means you still have family, friends and relatives who remember and care about you. And last, every breath is the symbol of staying alive!
Think of at least 3 benefits of using speeches by famous figures, in the classroom.
a)Most of the time, speeches by famous figures are trustable. Famous figures will not make up stories but they will relate to the facts in reality. Their speeches might influence students to be great thinker in the future.
b)Good speeches not only influence students’ thinking, they also inspire students to achieve higher performance in their study.
c)Speeches by famous figure can be good examples for students to produce quality writings. The guidelines can be useful.
2. Go to www.youtube.com and find the audio-visual on the speech. In not less than 50 words, state would the audio-visual be of any use in helping understand the speech better? State your reasons.
Students are poor listeners most of the time. They would prefer visual input if possible. Nevertheless, it would be even better if both audio and visual exist at the same time. The concept is just like people tend to watch more television than listening to radio. We cannot deny that audio-visual speech has helped students to understand the speech better as in the context of they can learn from the facial expressions, intonation, speed, gestures and body languages during speech delivering. The liveliness at least can attract their attention to listen and focus.
3. Who is Martin Luther King?
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
4. Based on the questions below, analyse the features of the given written speech:
a. What is the purpose of the speech?
The purpose of Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech was to unite both white and coloured people. King Jr. was an African American, so he felt the discrimination between blacks and whites firsthand. He wrote the speech in hope that the people listening would be able to feel the pain that the African Americans were going through, and they did. King Jr. played a major role in stopping discrimination.
b. What is the tone of the speech?
The tone of the speech is persuasive, sincere, intellectual, honest, passionate and motivational.
c. What interesting major feature(s) can you see from the speech? (i.e. Repetition of phrases, emphasis on certain things said etc)
In the speech, there are quite a number of repetitions of phrases: i) “I have a dream”, ii) “Now is the time”, iii) “One hundred years later”, iv) “We can never be satisfied”, v) “With this faith”, “Let freedom ring” and “free at last”. Emphasis through repetition makes these phrases more memorable.
d. Any interesting facts that you can gather based on the background of the speech?
1)The speech is known as “I Have a Dream” but those words were never in the original draft, they were ad libbed on the day.
2) It lasts 17 minutes and is widely considered to have been drafted in New York and then in Washington in the hours before the rally.
3)As a result of the speech, Dr King was named Man of the Year by Time Magazine in 1963, and won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
4) Dr King drew his references from a wide variety of sources, including the Bible, the US Declaration of Independence and Shakespeare.
5)The speech was watched by more than 200,000 people assembled for the March on Washington, the largest march of the civil rights movement, as well as millions on television.
6) According to his co-authors, Dr King was so busy with the march that, 12 hours before the speech, he still did not have a firm idea about what he was going to say.
7) It was ranked the top speech of the 20th Century by a poll of academics.
8) It is said to have had several names and drafts, including “The normalcy speech” and “A Cancelled check”.
9) Dr King was the subject of one of the Irish band U2’s most famous songs, Pride (In the Name of Love).
10) Describing watching the oration, his co-author Clarence B Jones said the speech “went on to depart drastically from the draft I'd delivered”, adding: “In front of all those people, cameras, and microphones, Martin winged it.”
5. Suggest a while-reading activity that can be derived from this particular speech.
