Q1 has started with a Unit on Social Justice and the American Dream. Texts we're reading include poetry of Walt Whitman and Lagnston Hughes, informative articles on the Am. Dream, and Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Here are the first four journal topics of the year. Students write for 4-6 minutes, then pair/share. Listeners must ask one question about something they heard and would like clarified or to know more about. 1. 9/11 Reflection -List all the things you are grateful for… -Choose one thing- -Why are you grateful for it? -How would your life be different without that thing/item/person/place/idea? 2. 9/13 Who is America? -What does it mean to be an American? What are the qualities that make someone American? Explain. -Who is America? What kinds of people are American? Explain. -On a scale of 1-10, how American are you? Explain your answer. 1. Not American at all 3. Not very American (just a little American) 5. Somewhat American 7. Really American 10. Essential American 3. 9/25 What is the American Dream….to me? 1. Make a list of all the things you think of when you hear “American.” -Why are they American? Explain. 2. What is the “American Dream?” (What do you think it means?) -Why have immigrants come here and continue to come here? Explain. -What do you hope for the future of America? Explain -What do you hope for YOUR future in America? Explain -What is your ideal version of America? Explain -How is your dream for your future in America, similar or different to Whitman and Hughes’s dream? Explain 4 9/27 My Dream
1. Did you like the poem? Why? Why not?
2. What does it remind you of? Where does it take you? (You cannot answer 'no' or 'nothing' here. Read and reread the poem until something pops into your brain. It could be anything - a place, a movie, a song, a dream, an experience, a friend, another poem, an idea, a TV show, etc.) 3. What emotion is created? What is the mood/tone of the poem? Circle all the strong words and/or images and/or figurative language. Then add them up - what emotion is created? (You don't have to necessarily feel the emotion. Sometimes you might feel it, sometimes not. But, you must analyze the poem to understand the mood/tone, which is always expressed as an emotional quality or atmosphere.) 4. Can you relate to the poem? Explain. Hughes responds to Whitman's poem giving voice to those excluded or left out of "I Hear America Singing." Hughes confidently proclaims that "He too is America." Whitman revolutionized American Poetry. He wrote in Free Verse - no rhymes, but plenty of rhythm. He also believed that America was a land of brotherhood and equality. He was called 'The Bard of Democracy' and 'The Good Grey Poet.'
Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze, And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows, I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened, Then Baxter and Calabro, Davis and Eberling, names falling into place As droplets fell through the dark. Names printed on the ceiling of the night. Names slipping around a watery bend. Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream. In the morning, I walked out barefoot Among thousands of flowers Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears, And each had a name -- Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins. Names written in the air And stitched into the cloth of the day. A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox. Monogram on a torn shirt, I see you spelled out on storefront windows And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city. I say the syllables as I turn a corner -- Kelly and Lee, Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor. When I peer into the woods, I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden As in a puzzle concocted for children. Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash, Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton, Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple. Names written in the pale sky. Names rising in the updraft amid buildings. Names silent in stone Or cried out behind a door. Names blown over the earth and out to sea. In the evening -- weakening light, the last swallows. A boy on a lake lifts his oars. A woman by a window puts a match to a candle, And the names are outlined on the rose clouds -- Vanacore and Wallace, (let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound) Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z. Names etched on the head of a pin. One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel. A blue name needled into the skin. Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers, The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son. Alphabet of names in a green field. Names in the small tracks of birds. Names lifted from a hat Or balanced on the tip of the tongue. Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory. So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart. *This poem is dedicated to the victims of September 11 and to their survivors. |
Sky HeussenstammLanguage Arts and Drama Teacher at Archives
January 2020
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