Due Tomorrow:
1. Read and annotate the following for tomorrow. I will check that you have at LEAST 5 annotations, underlines, notes, or questions per page. IHaveaDreamSpeech and the assignment is pasted below:
Consider how the nation was left after the Reconstruction era; the goals in trying to help the freed slaves integrate back into society were abandoned. The conditions that Melba Patillo Beals describes during the 1950’s in Warriors Don’t Cry came out of a concerted effort to continue what was not finished after the Civil War ended. The Civil Right’s Movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s came directly out of what was not addressed or completed after Reconstruction ended. As you know Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader of the movement, a Baptist preacher and visionary who was able to inspire not only those oppressed in America, but the downtrodden throughout the world with his non-violent resistance (an idea from Gandhi’s work in India) and his commitment to true democracy for all. One of his most famous speeches in American history is one that he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. addressing hundreds of thousands of people who had gathered there to march in support of Civil Rights for everyone. His speech will be referred to throughout your life and will be a touchstone for other activities we do.
In order to study the speech, we first have to understand its words.
- Read the speech to yourself and mark it up (annotate) as you go- underline important sections, pose questions, make connections, and look up the words you don’t know and write their definitions in the margin of the paper.
- Research The March on Washington and on the back of this sheet of paper write down the purpose of the march, its outcome and reaction, and other interesting information related to it. In other words, answer the who, what where, when, why and how.
- We will have a Socratic Seminar next week on a section of the speech, which will be a chance for you to debate your thoughts on it.