Do you have a dream Maya Angelou was

Do you have a dream? Maya Angelou was an author and civil rights activist. Her most famous piece is “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. ” Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the rights of the African American community. He had a dream and without him, progress would have not been made. F. Scott Fitzgerald, famous author of “The Great Gatsby”, suffered from Dyslexia, but continued to write. Anything is possible!

The Classroom • My classroom takes place in a 10 th grade English/Language Arts classroom. • 15 students, with nine being girls and six being boys. • There are five African American students, two Native American students, and the rest are Caucasian. • The class is considered an inclusion class and has one ELL student, one student with a mild form of Autism, and two students who are ADHD.

The Lesson: WV Standards ELA. 10. W. C 10. 1 produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in Text Types and Purposes. ) ELA. 10. W. C 10. 2 develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of all Language objectives up to and including grade 10. )

The Lesson Objective Students will write a well developed essay about a goal or dream that they have and how they plan to achieve that goal or dream.

The Lesson: Details In order for my students to get in the mindset of their goals and dreams, I want to introduce them to other people who may be of the same race or disability that were successful. I then want the students to write an essay about what their goal or dream is. I want it to be well thought out and researched. I want them to be able to pull from the people that we talked about in order to inspire them in creating and writing their own goals and dreams.

Why this is useful I feel this lesson helps to make me a culturally competent teacher because it shows that I can create a lesson that does not just touch on race, but also on disabilities. This lesson inspires my students to not accept stereotypes, but to look at other people’s struggles and successes. I want to inspire them to pursue whatever goal or dream that they may have and to understand that what makes you different is special and unique.

Sources Images: Martin Luther King Jr: "Martin Luther King Jr. " Mr Millers Class Blog. Web. 13 Sept. 2015. F. Scott Fitzgerald: "F. Scott Fitzgerald (Authors Series) by Ryan Sheffield. " Etsy. Web. 13 Sept. 2015. Maya Angelou: "Maya Angelou Remembered as Advocate, Inspiration to Counselors. " Counseling Today. Web. 13 Sept. 2015.