Literacy Benchmark Assessment: Mini-Lesson On Still I Rise
Literacy Benchmark Assessment:
Mini-Lesson on Still I Rise by Maya Angelou Jennifer Bell
Grand Canyon University: EED-525
December 3, 2014
Still I Rise Reading Mini Lessons
The seventh grade students at Tapestry Charter School will begin their poetry unit with “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. This lyric poem, while optimistic, deals with important themes such as slavery, racism, and overcoming trauma. The students will dissect the poem, first looking at vocabulary and figurative language, later analyzing structure and narrative, in order to practice fluency, and move on to full comprehension of the symbolic text, line by line. Finally, after gaining meaning, the students will reflect on how the themes of the poem resonate in …show more content…
their own life, and write a journal response.
Standards
Reading
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.5
Analyze how a drama 's or poem 's form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Language Arts/Vocabulary
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.A
Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word 's position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Writing
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Objectives:
Students will read poem to promote oral language and new vocabulary. Students will analyze unfamiliar words in context of the poem
Students will identify literary devices and figurative language used in poem.
Students will discuss narrative and practice fluency by listening to poem and reading poem with expression.
Students will analyze poem, identifying meaning and the big ideas.
Students will demonstrate comprehension of poem, by writing a response that connects to their own life.
Learning Strategies: Graphic Organizer, highlighting vocabulary, underlining pronouns, choral reading, mixed media, activating background knowledge, connecting, drawing inferences, summarizing, visualizing.
Key Vocabulary Words:
Trod, sassiness, beset, certainty, soulful, haughtiness, welling, swelling, ancestors
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou, 1928 – 2014
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Lesson Plan Day #1 / Oral Language and Vocabulary:
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4)
Connect poetry and subject matter to background knowledge and read poem, looking for unfamiliar vocabulary.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Group Discussion
Poetry
Who likes poetry? Take a poll of students.
What is poetry?
Why do people write poetry?
Is music poetry?
Poetry is an art form that makes a statement, tells a story, and expresses feelings and ideas.
Types of poetry: haiku, ballad, ode, ABAB poem, ABAC poem, blank verse, sonnets, etc.
What do the students know about Civil Rights and Slavery?
What do the students know about Maya Angelou?
Born in 1928 and died May 2014
She is best known for her series of autobiographies, the first being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) that tells her life up to the age of 17. This book is a coming of age story, which tells how literature can help overcome racism and trauma.
Active in the Civil Rights movement, poet, writer, playwright, dancer, actress, film director
Named “America’s most visible black female autobiographer”
Maya Angelou experienced severe trauma as a child. A friend of her family attacked her. When the man was brought to justice and subsequently killed, she became mute for five years. Her life is an example of triumph over obstacles.
Read poem and highlight vocabulary.
Students will take turns, reading one stanza at a time. After each stanza is read, students will highlight unknown vocabulary. Students will participate in a discussion to uncover meaning of words.
Assessment/Journal …show more content…
Activity
Student will record all vocabulary words and meanings in their journal.
Vocabulary
Trod – walk, bear down, squash, tramp, crush
Sassiness – impudence, guts, gustiness, nerve, boldness
Beset – overrun, to cause suffering to, hurt, torment
Certainty – a state of mind in which one is free from doubt, positive ness, and sureness
Soulful – feeling, deep, passionate
Haughtiness – air of supremacy, arrogance, snobbishness
Swelling — enlargement, increase
Welling — beginning, emergence, outflow
Ancestors — family, forefathers, a person from whom one is descended from
Lesson Plans Day #2 / Word Patterns and Word Analysis
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.5)
Discussion of poetic structure, imagery and figurative language in Still I Rise.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students read Still I Rise again. Discuss different types of poems and the rhyming scheme of this poem. Have the students circle the rhyming words in the poem.
Rhyming words lies, rise gloom, room tides, rise eyes, cries hard, yard eyes, rise wide, tide fear, clear gave, slave
Students will then locate the figurative language and literary devices used in poem, beginning with similes and metaphors.
Identify similes and metaphors
simile like moons and like suns shoulders falling down like teardrops like dust, I’ll rise
I walk like I’ve got oil wells
I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
I dance like I’ve got diamonds
Metaphors
I am a black ocean
I am the dream and the hope of the slave
Assessment/Journal Activity
Students write down their favorite image from the poem and illustrate.
Lesson Plans Day #3 / Fluency
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4,)
Discussion of narrative, point of view and tone of poem and practice reading to improve fluency.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students read Still I Rise Again. Discuss different types of poems and the rhyming scheme of this poem. Have the students circle the rhyming words in the poem.
Students discuss narrative and tone of poem. This poem is a lyric poem, which is a non-narrative short poem that reveals the speaker’s personal feelings, state of mind, expression or thoughts.
Discussion questions:
What is the point of view? Poem is first person and a conversation.
Who is the speaker talking to?
What is the tone?
Is there a conflict?
What does she do with the conflict? Is she arguing or laughing it off?
Students underline all the pronouns in the poem.
Students divide into small groups and practice reading the poem. During the last five minutes of class, each group reads the poem to the class, dividing up the stanzas, with expression.
Lesson Plans Day #4 / Reading Comprehension
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.A,
Student will analyze poem, stanza by stanza, to determine overall meaning.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students look at each stanza and discuss meaning and symbolism. Make sure previously discussed vocabulary and figurative language is called out and identified appropriately. As each stanza is discussed, notes are written on the board. Students may make their own notes on the worksheet. At the end of the discussion, students write a brief paragraph about major themes in poem.
Notes on each stanza:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Notes: you can justify yourself, or justify racism, but they are lies
If you throw me in dirt, dust will be kicked up (imagery)
From dust, which is negative, she’s rising
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Notes: Is she really upset about the “you” being upset?
Oh, are you upset that I’m bold? Oil wells are powerful, rich and big. Why are they in her living room? She discusses power within her house. Oil is slick and slippery. Perhaps she glides like she’s walking on oil.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Notes: She has power, connecting her life force to the moon and the sun, which are not abstract. They are real. Her power is real and there everyday. It is certain and always present. This is a confident speaker.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Notes: What is she describing there?
When she discusses “broken with bowed head and lowered eyes.” Broken was an animal term, applied to slave. Slaves experiences. Shame. She was raped when she was young. She’s a woman. Women did not have the same rights. Shoulders falling down like teardrops (simile and imagery).
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
Notes: Back to sassiness. Oh, did I offend you by believing in myself? Why are the gold mines in the backyard and the oil wells in living room? She is still describing her home as a place of substance and worth. Is she scolding or arguing with the person she is talking to? No, she is laughing, and perhaps teasing and taunting them.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Notes: She is connecting her own life and experience to something that lives beyond her. Air cannot be captured or held. It is illusive. Even violence cannot stop her power or confidence. Here it moves beyond her own confidence, and connects to Civil Rights.
Air is also like a spirit.
Civil Rights leaders like MLK and Malcolm X, Medgar Evers was shot. Other leaders were injured. She saw a lot of her friends die and become injured for their Civil Rights. When this was written over 10 years later, she is describing their mission, which lived on.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Notes: She’s going back to personal and linking in to her power as a woman. She was a large woman, over six feet tall and not a conventional beauty. She’s saying she feels beautiful, regardless of what other people think. Sexiness is about confidence. She’s also dancing and happy.
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Notes: Out of slavery, out of racism, black ocean leaping and wide (I am growing and getting stronger and more powerful. I control the tide. The Black National movement was growing and getting stronger
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the hope and the dream of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Notes: nights of terror and fear, speak to slavery and violence of Civil Rights (Knights can also be the Klan) From night to day, now there is light and everything is clear.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave – What gifts? Heritage? Song, story, rhythm, physicality, intelligence, traditions, memories, pride.
I rise repeated three times. Do we say it the same every time? Or are their different ways to say the last three lines? Civil Rights leaders did things differently and had different beliefs. MLK was inspired by Gandhi and believed in the power of non violent protest and
Malcolm X believed “by any means necessary” racism must end. Just as these leaders believed in different solutions, there are also different solutions for other problems.
Assessment/Journal Activity
Write brief paragraph about major themes in Still I Rise.
Lesson Plan Day #5 / Writing
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.9)
Student will demonstrate comprehension of poem and connect to his or her own life.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students are shown a youtube video of Maya Angelou discussing poem and then reciting from memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0 In the video, Maya Angelou speaks directly about how every human being encounters some sort of obstacle in their life, and must decide how they will “rise above.”
Assessment/Journal Activity
Students will connect poem to own life, reflecting on what it means to rise up or rise above obstacles.
Discussion questions:
Have you ever been made fun of?
Have you ever been bullied?
What do bullies do?
Have you ever felt like the world is cruel or just unhelpful?
Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t believe in yourself?
Do you have a situation or obstacle to overcome?
Have you been in a situation where you needed to let something go? Or address it head on with confrontation?
Have you ever been in a situation where you just didn’t want to get up in the morning and face the day?
Observing Reading in the Classroom
Observing in classrooms from fourth through seventh grade, I noticed some major differences. The fourth and fifth classrooms were generally using a textbook for their weekly lessons. A typical week would include reading a text, answering comprehension questions, studying spelling and vocabulary words that supported the lesson and taking a spelling, vocabulary and comprehension test at the end of the week. The texts were short and geared towards the middle. I didn’t observe evidence of much differentiation, except in the case of the spelling words. There were two lists to choose from and the students with more learning challenges received the easier list. Writing seemed to happen separately from reading. While students were encouraged to answer comprehension questions in complete sentences, their writing prompts for essays were not connected to their reading. The weekly lessons were fairly cookie cutter, and the students all seemed to know what to expect. My sixth and seventh grade observations were completed at a school with a strong constructivist theory in place.
They students were reading a text over a much longer period of time, and experiencing comprehension questions with a build. There was much more room for inferencing and prediction strategies. The students got to know the characters over time, with a lot more depth. They were able to question the motives of a character, make connections to the real world, and determine the importance of the big ideas in the text. The text itself was more thoughtful and language rich. There was just more time to really absorb the material and develop a love of reading. While I understand the reading level of the older students is more advanced, I have witnessed longer reading units before, and feel the fourth and fifth grade students could make more connections with a more in depth text at their level. For this reason, I chose to spend a majority of my observation time at the middle
school.
The constructivist school had a more dynamic reading plan for its students, with more comprehension strategies being put into practice in meaningful ways for a diverse body of learners. This fall, the seventh grade students read The Giver by Lois Lowry over the course of two months. The students were encouraged to read chapters as homework at home, and then the teacher and students would read aloud and discuss at school. Each chapter segment had a list of vocabulary and comprehension questions to accompany the readings and these weekly exercises were taught alongside understanding the major elements of a novel. Plot, characters, genre, theme, exposition, protagonist, conflict and resolution were all discussed at length. It was interesting to see the students become more and more invested in the book, and the larger themes of morality, while understanding the makeup of the structure. The students understood what a utopian society was and compared it to a dystopia. Their final project was to write about the two, and create their own example of one of these communities. This diverse group of students, were all judged according to their abilities, allowing for success at all levels.
Mini Lesson Experience After observing their progress with The Giver, I wanted to give them a text worthy of analysis that we could read within that time period, so I looked at modern poetry. Because they hadn’t yet covered poetry in the seventh grade, it was important to draw upon their experience in previous grades. Choosing Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou was deliberate, in that the form and language seemed clear and accessible and not too flowery or old fashioned. The theme of Civil Rights and justice seemed appropriate for this age, which is just starting to become reflective and able to handle ideas associated with oppression. And this idea of “rising above” seemed tailor made for a middle school audience, who is struggling to learn the idea of restraint and impulse control amidst conflict.
Day one of the lesson began with introducing the poem, the subject matter and the author. In order to activate their background knowledge, the discussion first centered on poetry and why poetry is important. Only a few of the students admitted to liking poetry and most vocalized that poetry was old fashioned and not important to them. However, when probed deeper, students revealed they enjoyed music and agreed poetry was connected to the music experience. During one class, a student was most insightful, when he remarked that poetry needed to be read out loud in order to be understood. And most students seemed clear that poetry was about expressing feelings or making a statement. Another student perfectly set up the lesson by remarking “poetry is like a mystery or a riddle to be decoded.” This was a great point and allowed students to understand why we needed to look at the poem line by line in order to understand its meaning.
The students were fairly interested in the life story of Maya Angelou, especially the fact of her experiencing trauma at a young age and not speaking for five years. They had lots of questions. Their teacher suggested the subject of rape be downplayed, so most specific questions remained unanswered. The conversation was steered towards her prestigious career and the Civil Rights movement. These seventh grade students were particularly interested in issues related to justice, so the topic seemed to be a good fit from the start.
There were very few materials needed for this project, just a handout of the poem, highlighters, a laptop, projector and white board. The students at this school use an interactive journal for all core classes, and are encouraged to reflect and record their thoughts. Knowing this, the assessment for the week will revolve around their journal, reflection and activities.
After checking on their background knowledge, the students did their first read through of the poem and highlighted the unfamiliar vocabulary. After each stanza, there was a pause to discuss word meanings. Instead of offering up definitions, the students were pushed to decode the words, by how they were used, roots words, prefixes and suffixes. After a discussion, the meaning was given to them, and they recorded in their journal. The first day was smooth for both of the two Language Arts classes. The students seemed attentive to the material, and some wanted to jump in and decode the language right away.
Day two was about recognizing the structure, the imagery and figurative language in the poem. The students quickly understood the rhyming structure and located the rhyming words. They reviewed the difference between a metaphor and simile and located examples of these literary devices. The discussion moved towards imagery and what was each student’s favorite example. The students were instructed to write their favorite example in their journal and illustrate it’s meaning.
Day three was a fluency exercise. Fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy and proper expression. Before the reading practice, it is important to uncover the purpose of the poem, the tone, and the speaker. The seventh graders easily identified Still I Rise is written in first person narrative. Their next assignment was to read through the poem and underline all the pronouns. They discovered there are quite a lot of pronouns in this poem and because it goes back and forth from “you” to “I,” and it is in fact, a conversation. The tone could be taken as argumentative, but because of some of the words, like “laughed’ and “danced,” are used prominently, we all decided the tone was optimistic, firm and positive. This helped them get into the feeling of the poem, before reading aloud. The students then divided into small groups of 3 or 4 and practiced reading the poem together and then alone. At the end of this class, a few of the groups read the poem aloud to the class, as we listened for expression and emotion.
Day four was by far the most interesting day, as it was time to put the previous work together and delve deeply into the true meaning of the poem, using the determining importance strategy. The students knew the poem was about overcoming obstacles, but now it was time to uncover the larger themes in the poem that were significant to history. Stanza by stanza, we uncovered the meaning, and the students seemed to stay interested, as they were reminded that poetry could often be a mystery or a riddle to decode. The students in both classes were particularly engaged for this discussion, especially with the stanzas that spoke directly to the American slave experience and the Civil Rights movement. The students were reminded Maya Angelou knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many other Civil Rights leaders. The class discussed the different views of the various leaders, along with how so many met a violent end. When the class reached the stanza that read “you may kill me with your hatefulness,” they were asked if the Civil Rights movement ended with Martin Luther King, Jr. The point of something continuing seemed to touch a nerve and they felt the importance of the words of this poem. When we got to the line that reads “I am a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling, I bear the tide” the students connected the meaning with the help of their earlier vocabulary work. The ocean is growing and spilling over. The Black National Movement was growing and there was no stopping progress. As we reached the last stanza, together, we listed all the major themes of this poem on the whiteboard. The students called out oppression, pride, courage, bravery, discrimination, racism, sexism, slavery, Civil Rights, integrity, and more. The students then were assigned to write a brief paragraph in their journal summarizing the major themes of the poem.
For the last class, I began with a short youtube video of Maya Angelou talking about Still I Rise and then reciting this poem. I wanted the students to see her discussing the universality of this poem and how everyone has something to rise above at one time or another. The students all listened intently and seemed to enjoy her take on the poem. They noticed the joy and confidence in her face and voice when she spoke the words. Afterwards, they pointed out she substituted some words, and slightly changed the end. I explained she wasn’t reading the poem—she was performing the poem. She was giving it feeling and making it her own. That’s an example of what art can do, and why art can be experienced at both a universal and personal level. The students were then given their final assignment and summative assessment. They needed demonstrate understanding of the poem’s meaning, connecting it to their own life, and describe an experience where they “rose above.”
My mentor teacher’s influence was instrumental in coming up with this assignment. She is honestly, the first teacher I have observed, who puts all the constructionist principals to work everyday. When the students walk into the class, there is a list on the board of supplies they will need, and a quote for them to copy and reflect upon. After putting their backpacks away and getting out their supplies, the students write down the quote and explain what they think it means. She calls on each student and listens without judgment. Then, she breaks down the quote. For unfamiliar words, she uses a substitution strategy, asking the students to replace unfamiliar word with a synonym, seeing if the sentence makes sense. She uses graphic organizers a lot, and is a big fan of Thinking Maps, which is a specific graphic organizer system. After the last lesson, she chose to read another poem that was similar to Maya Angelou’s poem. She didn’t tell the students that one of their classmates wrote the poem the week before, entitled “I Believe.” The students compared and contrasted the different elements in the poem for further understanding. The students were all surprised when she revealed one of the students wrote the other poem. This was a great exercise because the student’s poem was a personal reflection about standing up for oneself, which led perfectly into the class’s summative writing assignment. Other interesting suggestions included creating a movement for each stanza and drawing a representation of each stanza.
This class experience was beneficial to me in many ways. It allowed me to witness major reading comprehension strategies like activating background knowledge, connecting, drawing inferences, predicting, questioning, summarizing and visualizing, and put them into action in my own lesson plan. I felt teaching reading at this level was a definite strength for me, opposed to teaching phonics and beginning reading. My ability to bring all the students into an engaging discussion was useful to their comprehension and hopefully allowed them to connect not only the major themes and ideas in the poem, but also connect it to both history and their own life.
References
Tompkins, G. (2014). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Merrill/Prentice Hall.
(n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2014, from http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise
Maya Angelou Still I Rise [Motion picture]. (2007). Youtube.
Mini-Lesson on Still I Rise by Maya Angelou Jennifer Bell
Grand Canyon University: EED-525
December 3, 2014
Still I Rise Reading Mini Lessons
The seventh grade students at Tapestry Charter School will begin their poetry unit with “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. This lyric poem, while optimistic, deals with important themes such as slavery, racism, and overcoming trauma. The students will dissect the poem, first looking at vocabulary and figurative language, later analyzing structure and narrative, in order to practice fluency, and move on to full comprehension of the symbolic text, line by line. Finally, after gaining meaning, the students will reflect on how the themes of the poem resonate in …show more content…
their own life, and write a journal response.
Standards
Reading
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.5
Analyze how a drama 's or poem 's form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Language Arts/Vocabulary
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.A
Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word 's position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Writing
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Objectives:
Students will read poem to promote oral language and new vocabulary. Students will analyze unfamiliar words in context of the poem
Students will identify literary devices and figurative language used in poem.
Students will discuss narrative and practice fluency by listening to poem and reading poem with expression.
Students will analyze poem, identifying meaning and the big ideas.
Students will demonstrate comprehension of poem, by writing a response that connects to their own life.
Learning Strategies: Graphic Organizer, highlighting vocabulary, underlining pronouns, choral reading, mixed media, activating background knowledge, connecting, drawing inferences, summarizing, visualizing.
Key Vocabulary Words:
Trod, sassiness, beset, certainty, soulful, haughtiness, welling, swelling, ancestors
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou, 1928 – 2014
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Lesson Plan Day #1 / Oral Language and Vocabulary:
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4)
Connect poetry and subject matter to background knowledge and read poem, looking for unfamiliar vocabulary.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Group Discussion
Poetry
Who likes poetry? Take a poll of students.
What is poetry?
Why do people write poetry?
Is music poetry?
Poetry is an art form that makes a statement, tells a story, and expresses feelings and ideas.
Types of poetry: haiku, ballad, ode, ABAB poem, ABAC poem, blank verse, sonnets, etc.
What do the students know about Civil Rights and Slavery?
What do the students know about Maya Angelou?
Born in 1928 and died May 2014
She is best known for her series of autobiographies, the first being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) that tells her life up to the age of 17. This book is a coming of age story, which tells how literature can help overcome racism and trauma.
Active in the Civil Rights movement, poet, writer, playwright, dancer, actress, film director
Named “America’s most visible black female autobiographer”
Maya Angelou experienced severe trauma as a child. A friend of her family attacked her. When the man was brought to justice and subsequently killed, she became mute for five years. Her life is an example of triumph over obstacles.
Read poem and highlight vocabulary.
Students will take turns, reading one stanza at a time. After each stanza is read, students will highlight unknown vocabulary. Students will participate in a discussion to uncover meaning of words.
Assessment/Journal …show more content…
Activity
Student will record all vocabulary words and meanings in their journal.
Vocabulary
Trod – walk, bear down, squash, tramp, crush
Sassiness – impudence, guts, gustiness, nerve, boldness
Beset – overrun, to cause suffering to, hurt, torment
Certainty – a state of mind in which one is free from doubt, positive ness, and sureness
Soulful – feeling, deep, passionate
Haughtiness – air of supremacy, arrogance, snobbishness
Swelling — enlargement, increase
Welling — beginning, emergence, outflow
Ancestors — family, forefathers, a person from whom one is descended from
Lesson Plans Day #2 / Word Patterns and Word Analysis
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.5)
Discussion of poetic structure, imagery and figurative language in Still I Rise.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students read Still I Rise again. Discuss different types of poems and the rhyming scheme of this poem. Have the students circle the rhyming words in the poem.
Rhyming words lies, rise gloom, room tides, rise eyes, cries hard, yard eyes, rise wide, tide fear, clear gave, slave
Students will then locate the figurative language and literary devices used in poem, beginning with similes and metaphors.
Identify similes and metaphors
simile like moons and like suns shoulders falling down like teardrops like dust, I’ll rise
I walk like I’ve got oil wells
I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
I dance like I’ve got diamonds
Metaphors
I am a black ocean
I am the dream and the hope of the slave
Assessment/Journal Activity
Students write down their favorite image from the poem and illustrate.
Lesson Plans Day #3 / Fluency
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4,)
Discussion of narrative, point of view and tone of poem and practice reading to improve fluency.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students read Still I Rise Again. Discuss different types of poems and the rhyming scheme of this poem. Have the students circle the rhyming words in the poem.
Students discuss narrative and tone of poem. This poem is a lyric poem, which is a non-narrative short poem that reveals the speaker’s personal feelings, state of mind, expression or thoughts.
Discussion questions:
What is the point of view? Poem is first person and a conversation.
Who is the speaker talking to?
What is the tone?
Is there a conflict?
What does she do with the conflict? Is she arguing or laughing it off?
Students underline all the pronouns in the poem.
Students divide into small groups and practice reading the poem. During the last five minutes of class, each group reads the poem to the class, dividing up the stanzas, with expression.
Lesson Plans Day #4 / Reading Comprehension
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.A,
Student will analyze poem, stanza by stanza, to determine overall meaning.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students look at each stanza and discuss meaning and symbolism. Make sure previously discussed vocabulary and figurative language is called out and identified appropriately. As each stanza is discussed, notes are written on the board. Students may make their own notes on the worksheet. At the end of the discussion, students write a brief paragraph about major themes in poem.
Notes on each stanza:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Notes: you can justify yourself, or justify racism, but they are lies
If you throw me in dirt, dust will be kicked up (imagery)
From dust, which is negative, she’s rising
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Notes: Is she really upset about the “you” being upset?
Oh, are you upset that I’m bold? Oil wells are powerful, rich and big. Why are they in her living room? She discusses power within her house. Oil is slick and slippery. Perhaps she glides like she’s walking on oil.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Notes: She has power, connecting her life force to the moon and the sun, which are not abstract. They are real. Her power is real and there everyday. It is certain and always present. This is a confident speaker.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Notes: What is she describing there?
When she discusses “broken with bowed head and lowered eyes.” Broken was an animal term, applied to slave. Slaves experiences. Shame. She was raped when she was young. She’s a woman. Women did not have the same rights. Shoulders falling down like teardrops (simile and imagery).
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
Notes: Back to sassiness. Oh, did I offend you by believing in myself? Why are the gold mines in the backyard and the oil wells in living room? She is still describing her home as a place of substance and worth. Is she scolding or arguing with the person she is talking to? No, she is laughing, and perhaps teasing and taunting them.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Notes: She is connecting her own life and experience to something that lives beyond her. Air cannot be captured or held. It is illusive. Even violence cannot stop her power or confidence. Here it moves beyond her own confidence, and connects to Civil Rights.
Air is also like a spirit.
Civil Rights leaders like MLK and Malcolm X, Medgar Evers was shot. Other leaders were injured. She saw a lot of her friends die and become injured for their Civil Rights. When this was written over 10 years later, she is describing their mission, which lived on.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Notes: She’s going back to personal and linking in to her power as a woman. She was a large woman, over six feet tall and not a conventional beauty. She’s saying she feels beautiful, regardless of what other people think. Sexiness is about confidence. She’s also dancing and happy.
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Notes: Out of slavery, out of racism, black ocean leaping and wide (I am growing and getting stronger and more powerful. I control the tide. The Black National movement was growing and getting stronger
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the hope and the dream of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Notes: nights of terror and fear, speak to slavery and violence of Civil Rights (Knights can also be the Klan) From night to day, now there is light and everything is clear.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave – What gifts? Heritage? Song, story, rhythm, physicality, intelligence, traditions, memories, pride.
I rise repeated three times. Do we say it the same every time? Or are their different ways to say the last three lines? Civil Rights leaders did things differently and had different beliefs. MLK was inspired by Gandhi and believed in the power of non violent protest and
Malcolm X believed “by any means necessary” racism must end. Just as these leaders believed in different solutions, there are also different solutions for other problems.
Assessment/Journal Activity
Write brief paragraph about major themes in Still I Rise.
Lesson Plan Day #5 / Writing
Objective: (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.9)
Student will demonstrate comprehension of poem and connect to his or her own life.
Materials: Poetry Journal, handout of poem to paste into journal, highlighter, pencil, and laptop connected to projector, whiteboard and dry erase markers.
Procedure:
Students are shown a youtube video of Maya Angelou discussing poem and then reciting from memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0 In the video, Maya Angelou speaks directly about how every human being encounters some sort of obstacle in their life, and must decide how they will “rise above.”
Assessment/Journal Activity
Students will connect poem to own life, reflecting on what it means to rise up or rise above obstacles.
Discussion questions:
Have you ever been made fun of?
Have you ever been bullied?
What do bullies do?
Have you ever felt like the world is cruel or just unhelpful?
Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t believe in yourself?
Do you have a situation or obstacle to overcome?
Have you been in a situation where you needed to let something go? Or address it head on with confrontation?
Have you ever been in a situation where you just didn’t want to get up in the morning and face the day?
Observing Reading in the Classroom
Observing in classrooms from fourth through seventh grade, I noticed some major differences. The fourth and fifth classrooms were generally using a textbook for their weekly lessons. A typical week would include reading a text, answering comprehension questions, studying spelling and vocabulary words that supported the lesson and taking a spelling, vocabulary and comprehension test at the end of the week. The texts were short and geared towards the middle. I didn’t observe evidence of much differentiation, except in the case of the spelling words. There were two lists to choose from and the students with more learning challenges received the easier list. Writing seemed to happen separately from reading. While students were encouraged to answer comprehension questions in complete sentences, their writing prompts for essays were not connected to their reading. The weekly lessons were fairly cookie cutter, and the students all seemed to know what to expect. My sixth and seventh grade observations were completed at a school with a strong constructivist theory in place.
They students were reading a text over a much longer period of time, and experiencing comprehension questions with a build. There was much more room for inferencing and prediction strategies. The students got to know the characters over time, with a lot more depth. They were able to question the motives of a character, make connections to the real world, and determine the importance of the big ideas in the text. The text itself was more thoughtful and language rich. There was just more time to really absorb the material and develop a love of reading. While I understand the reading level of the older students is more advanced, I have witnessed longer reading units before, and feel the fourth and fifth grade students could make more connections with a more in depth text at their level. For this reason, I chose to spend a majority of my observation time at the middle
school.
The constructivist school had a more dynamic reading plan for its students, with more comprehension strategies being put into practice in meaningful ways for a diverse body of learners. This fall, the seventh grade students read The Giver by Lois Lowry over the course of two months. The students were encouraged to read chapters as homework at home, and then the teacher and students would read aloud and discuss at school. Each chapter segment had a list of vocabulary and comprehension questions to accompany the readings and these weekly exercises were taught alongside understanding the major elements of a novel. Plot, characters, genre, theme, exposition, protagonist, conflict and resolution were all discussed at length. It was interesting to see the students become more and more invested in the book, and the larger themes of morality, while understanding the makeup of the structure. The students understood what a utopian society was and compared it to a dystopia. Their final project was to write about the two, and create their own example of one of these communities. This diverse group of students, were all judged according to their abilities, allowing for success at all levels.
Mini Lesson Experience After observing their progress with The Giver, I wanted to give them a text worthy of analysis that we could read within that time period, so I looked at modern poetry. Because they hadn’t yet covered poetry in the seventh grade, it was important to draw upon their experience in previous grades. Choosing Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou was deliberate, in that the form and language seemed clear and accessible and not too flowery or old fashioned. The theme of Civil Rights and justice seemed appropriate for this age, which is just starting to become reflective and able to handle ideas associated with oppression. And this idea of “rising above” seemed tailor made for a middle school audience, who is struggling to learn the idea of restraint and impulse control amidst conflict.
Day one of the lesson began with introducing the poem, the subject matter and the author. In order to activate their background knowledge, the discussion first centered on poetry and why poetry is important. Only a few of the students admitted to liking poetry and most vocalized that poetry was old fashioned and not important to them. However, when probed deeper, students revealed they enjoyed music and agreed poetry was connected to the music experience. During one class, a student was most insightful, when he remarked that poetry needed to be read out loud in order to be understood. And most students seemed clear that poetry was about expressing feelings or making a statement. Another student perfectly set up the lesson by remarking “poetry is like a mystery or a riddle to be decoded.” This was a great point and allowed students to understand why we needed to look at the poem line by line in order to understand its meaning.
The students were fairly interested in the life story of Maya Angelou, especially the fact of her experiencing trauma at a young age and not speaking for five years. They had lots of questions. Their teacher suggested the subject of rape be downplayed, so most specific questions remained unanswered. The conversation was steered towards her prestigious career and the Civil Rights movement. These seventh grade students were particularly interested in issues related to justice, so the topic seemed to be a good fit from the start.
There were very few materials needed for this project, just a handout of the poem, highlighters, a laptop, projector and white board. The students at this school use an interactive journal for all core classes, and are encouraged to reflect and record their thoughts. Knowing this, the assessment for the week will revolve around their journal, reflection and activities.
After checking on their background knowledge, the students did their first read through of the poem and highlighted the unfamiliar vocabulary. After each stanza, there was a pause to discuss word meanings. Instead of offering up definitions, the students were pushed to decode the words, by how they were used, roots words, prefixes and suffixes. After a discussion, the meaning was given to them, and they recorded in their journal. The first day was smooth for both of the two Language Arts classes. The students seemed attentive to the material, and some wanted to jump in and decode the language right away.
Day two was about recognizing the structure, the imagery and figurative language in the poem. The students quickly understood the rhyming structure and located the rhyming words. They reviewed the difference between a metaphor and simile and located examples of these literary devices. The discussion moved towards imagery and what was each student’s favorite example. The students were instructed to write their favorite example in their journal and illustrate it’s meaning.
Day three was a fluency exercise. Fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy and proper expression. Before the reading practice, it is important to uncover the purpose of the poem, the tone, and the speaker. The seventh graders easily identified Still I Rise is written in first person narrative. Their next assignment was to read through the poem and underline all the pronouns. They discovered there are quite a lot of pronouns in this poem and because it goes back and forth from “you” to “I,” and it is in fact, a conversation. The tone could be taken as argumentative, but because of some of the words, like “laughed’ and “danced,” are used prominently, we all decided the tone was optimistic, firm and positive. This helped them get into the feeling of the poem, before reading aloud. The students then divided into small groups of 3 or 4 and practiced reading the poem together and then alone. At the end of this class, a few of the groups read the poem aloud to the class, as we listened for expression and emotion.
Day four was by far the most interesting day, as it was time to put the previous work together and delve deeply into the true meaning of the poem, using the determining importance strategy. The students knew the poem was about overcoming obstacles, but now it was time to uncover the larger themes in the poem that were significant to history. Stanza by stanza, we uncovered the meaning, and the students seemed to stay interested, as they were reminded that poetry could often be a mystery or a riddle to decode. The students in both classes were particularly engaged for this discussion, especially with the stanzas that spoke directly to the American slave experience and the Civil Rights movement. The students were reminded Maya Angelou knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many other Civil Rights leaders. The class discussed the different views of the various leaders, along with how so many met a violent end. When the class reached the stanza that read “you may kill me with your hatefulness,” they were asked if the Civil Rights movement ended with Martin Luther King, Jr. The point of something continuing seemed to touch a nerve and they felt the importance of the words of this poem. When we got to the line that reads “I am a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling, I bear the tide” the students connected the meaning with the help of their earlier vocabulary work. The ocean is growing and spilling over. The Black National Movement was growing and there was no stopping progress. As we reached the last stanza, together, we listed all the major themes of this poem on the whiteboard. The students called out oppression, pride, courage, bravery, discrimination, racism, sexism, slavery, Civil Rights, integrity, and more. The students then were assigned to write a brief paragraph in their journal summarizing the major themes of the poem.
For the last class, I began with a short youtube video of Maya Angelou talking about Still I Rise and then reciting this poem. I wanted the students to see her discussing the universality of this poem and how everyone has something to rise above at one time or another. The students all listened intently and seemed to enjoy her take on the poem. They noticed the joy and confidence in her face and voice when she spoke the words. Afterwards, they pointed out she substituted some words, and slightly changed the end. I explained she wasn’t reading the poem—she was performing the poem. She was giving it feeling and making it her own. That’s an example of what art can do, and why art can be experienced at both a universal and personal level. The students were then given their final assignment and summative assessment. They needed demonstrate understanding of the poem’s meaning, connecting it to their own life, and describe an experience where they “rose above.”
My mentor teacher’s influence was instrumental in coming up with this assignment. She is honestly, the first teacher I have observed, who puts all the constructionist principals to work everyday. When the students walk into the class, there is a list on the board of supplies they will need, and a quote for them to copy and reflect upon. After putting their backpacks away and getting out their supplies, the students write down the quote and explain what they think it means. She calls on each student and listens without judgment. Then, she breaks down the quote. For unfamiliar words, she uses a substitution strategy, asking the students to replace unfamiliar word with a synonym, seeing if the sentence makes sense. She uses graphic organizers a lot, and is a big fan of Thinking Maps, which is a specific graphic organizer system. After the last lesson, she chose to read another poem that was similar to Maya Angelou’s poem. She didn’t tell the students that one of their classmates wrote the poem the week before, entitled “I Believe.” The students compared and contrasted the different elements in the poem for further understanding. The students were all surprised when she revealed one of the students wrote the other poem. This was a great exercise because the student’s poem was a personal reflection about standing up for oneself, which led perfectly into the class’s summative writing assignment. Other interesting suggestions included creating a movement for each stanza and drawing a representation of each stanza.
This class experience was beneficial to me in many ways. It allowed me to witness major reading comprehension strategies like activating background knowledge, connecting, drawing inferences, predicting, questioning, summarizing and visualizing, and put them into action in my own lesson plan. I felt teaching reading at this level was a definite strength for me, opposed to teaching phonics and beginning reading. My ability to bring all the students into an engaging discussion was useful to their comprehension and hopefully allowed them to connect not only the major themes and ideas in the poem, but also connect it to both history and their own life.
References
Tompkins, G. (2014). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Merrill/Prentice Hall.
(n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2014, from http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise
Maya Angelou Still I Rise [Motion picture]. (2007). Youtube.