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ORC Resource Number #3367
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Exploring the Power of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words through Diamante Poetry
Promising Practice
PROFESSIONAL COMMENTARY

This lesson encourages students to explore the ways in which powerful and passionate words communicate the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination, and the American Dream in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Paying attention to the details of King's speech as they read, students identify words to use in their own original poems. Students read (and listen or view, if resources and time allow) and pay close attention to King's use of literary devices, such as symbol and repetition, and analyze King's definitions of freedom, justice, discrimination, and dreams as demonstrated by the examples and details in his "I Have a Dream" speech. After a thorough exploration of the power of the speech, students select powerful words and themes from the text and arrange them into original diamante poems, seven-line, diamond-shaped poems based on contrasting words. While this lesson focuses on the "I Have a Dream" speech, the activities outlined here may be adapted to other speeches by Dr. King or famous speeches by others, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech, Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," or Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?"." (author/ncl)

OHIO STANDARDS
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English Language Arts Standards
Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard
NATIONAL STANDARDS
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Standards for the English Language Arts
Range of materials and purposes for reading
Reading strategies, language use, and conventions
Write, speak, and visually represent to create text
Purposes for using spoken, written, and visual language
RESOURCE TYPE
Instructional Resource
PRACTICE LEVEL
Promising Practice
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
Grades 9–10
TOPICS
English Language Arts --
Reading-Strategies & Skills;
Vocabulary;
Reading;
Strategies - Informational Texts;
Literature;
Poetry;
FOUND IN
KEYWORDS
Martin Luther King, Jr.;
"I Have a Dream" speech;
original diamante poetry;
literary devices;
literary analysis
Publisher: IRA/NCTE
Author: Sharon Webster