"I dream that we will face our difficulties together"

The fourth graders have been learning about the Civil Rights Movement. They have been conducting research and creating Google Presentations on specific events.  

I decided to explore another way of having the students express their understanding. Word Mover  (at ReadWriteThink) has a poetry creation option using some of the the text from the I Have a Dream speech. Using this text, I asked the students create poems that captured the themes and ideas of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Prior to sending them off to create, I demonstrated how to change the styles of the words and encouraged them to make their visual message support their written one.

Here are more messages of freedom and change:

Prior to this library lesson, the fourth graders and I read Martin and Mahalia: His Words, Her Song by Andrea Davis Pinkney.

I am thankful that Andrea Davis Pinkney has brought this special relationship between Martin and Mahalia, preacher and musician, to today's readers. The importance of music in the Civil Rights Movement is brought to bare in their relationship. After reading and discussing the book, I played them a few specific pieces of footage from The March on Washington. "Tell them about your dream, Martin!" are the words that Mahalia Jackson said to MLK jr. during his speech that day. Those words altered the course of the speech and the course of history.