Poem van Maya Angelou

• Engels
• MBO
• Studiejaar 2

Lesson aims

At the end of this lesson:
- You can talk about and link the message of a poem to the world today.
- You can write an informal letter with your opinion/ideas

Welcome

(5 min) Introduce the topic of today's lesson and the lesson aims

TALK TIME

In groups of 4 discuss these questions:

• Have you ever been treated unfairly? What happened? how did it make you feel?
• Are you always fair to other people?
• has there ever been a situation where you have treated someone unfairly?

(10 min)

The learners will be seated in groups of 4. each learner will answer the questions and share their answers within their group. 

The learners are stimulated to ask further questions besides the ones on the board. (like who, why, when etc)

The teacher will walk around to make the student's learning visible.

(5 min)

(Think) 

The learners will think for themselves and answer the question individually.

(Pair)

Afterwards, the learners will pair up and discuss their thoughts. (teacher walks around)

(share)

The learners will present their point of view (and what they discussed) to the whole class. The teacher will guide this process.

(1 min)

Before listening: The teacher will ask the class:

- "do you already know Maya Angelou or the poem?"

- What do you think the poem is about if you only look at the title?

Read the poem!

Think of the following:

• What is the poem about?
• How does it make you feel?

(15 min)

The learners will read the poem individually, while thinking of the questions on the board. 

They will be given a glossary list for any difficult words that they may come across. The teacher will explain any other words that are difficult while discussing the poem.

What do YOU think the poem is about?

the learners will answer this question after reading the poem. this will indicate if they understand the idea/theme behind the poem.

How does the poem make YOU feel? You may upload a picture as well ;)

the learners will answer this question after reading the poem. this will indicate if they can sense the tone of the poem. (do they feel sad/ gloomy/  etc. they are allowed to send in a picture of the way they feel as well.

The teacher will ask a few learners why they felt a certain way.

George Floyd

the teacher will show the learners how to do the following task ("modelling"). 
The teacher will read the stanza and explain why george floyd could be linked to it. 

The teacher will do so by giving some information about George Floyd, in case the learners don't know him.

Let's do this in your groups!

In groups of 4:
- Read the stanza (=couplet) that you are given by the teacher

- Who do you think of when reading this part of the poem?

- brainstorm together who you think of and why.

- be prepared to share with the whole class.

It can be anyone... someone famous, a family member, a friend etc.

(10 min)

The stanza's within the poem will be divided throughout the groups of learners. The learners will have to link their given stanza to a specific situation or person that come up in their mind when reading that particular part.

They have already been provided an example on how to do it by the teacher.

(3 min)

Discussion topic

• Is the message of the poem still relevant today?

You may think of the following:

self-esteem, mental health, vacination, discrimination of gender/appereances/faith etc...

(15 min)

Class discussion on the given question. why is it still relevant or not. the learners are stimulated to give examples and talk to eachother about certain topics, while the teacher monitors and guides the whole process.

The teacher may also ask further questions to stimulate the learners' critical thinking

Task: Writing

Imagine Maya Angelou was alive. Write an informal letter to her:

- Give your opinion on the poem "Still I Rise". 

- Tell Maya Angelou how racism/oppression is seen today. (e.g. black lives matter, own experiences etc).
- Ask her a question that you still have.

Done? 
Hand it in on Microsoft Teams under "Opdrachten".

(15 min)

The learners will do the writing task while the teacher monitors.

3 things I learned today...
2 Things I found interesting...
1 Question I still have...

(10 min)

Homework

• Hand in the task "informal letter to Maya Angelou"