Edward Abarca

EDU 280

Prof. Christensen

1 May 2018

Multicultural Lesson Plan

Subject: English 12

Multicultural Goal: Promote positive gender, racial, cultural, class, and individual identities

• Observable Objective: Students will draw connections among ideas

CCSD Standard: 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 L.11-

12.1-3.)

• Observable Objective: Students will justify a stand or decision and produce a new

or original work.

Lesson: To view various works and ideas and eventually compose similar, but original forms of

work

Gardner’s Intelligence: This lesson has an intrapersonal setting to it because the students will

have their own ideas and point of view when given the topic and will demonstrate the previously

mentioned within their own work.

* Students are in the middle of a unit on poetry. They have already learned the various poetry

styles and various tools to be used when writing poetry. Furthermore, students have also learned

how to identify them, purpose, etc. when analyzing poetry. This lesson is split between two days

where each day will have the same amount of content *

Equality by Maya Angelou

You declare you see me dimly

through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.

Equality, and I will be free.

You announce my ways are wanton,

that I fly from man to man,
but if I’m just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand?

We have lived a painful history,

we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.

Equality, and I will be free.

Equality, and I will be free.

Take the blinders from your vision,

take the padding from your ears,
and confess you’ve heard me crying,
and admit you’ve seen my tears.

Hear the tempo so compelling,

hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.

Equality, and I will be free.
Let America be America Again by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

Do First: Warm Up: Read Equality by Maya Angelou and identify a theme.

Mini Lesson: Explain the theme of Angelou’s poem and read Let America be America Again by

Langston Hughes. Compare the theme of both Angelou and Hughes’ poems. Talk to students

about how racism impacted and influenced them to write their famous works

Guided Practice: Give students epitaph worksheet which shows them that poetry does have many

different purposes.

Exit Slip (End of Day 1): Have students write an autobiography based on the cultural heritage

involving where they came from, various traditions, languages they speak, etc.

Independent Practice: Among their peers, students will share their autobiographies and search for

similarities among their cultures. After they have done this, the students will write their very own

poems about the impact culture has in their life and about that they have learned while also

connecting different cultures in their writing.

Name __________________________ Date _________

Epitaph Poetry

An epitaph poem is a short piece written for a deceased person.

Epitaphs usually are in memory of the person as reflections of
their lives or as words of praise. The poem can be funny or
serious.

Put It To Use:
Let us write an epitaph on Martin Luther King Jr.

Step 1: Think It Through

Brainstorm a list of ideas that remind you of
Martin Luther King Jr.

Brainstorms:
Reverend, had a dream, segregation, non-violent, march, civil
rights, Alabama, bus, free at last, shot, peace

Step 2: Write Your Poem

Using your descriptions, write a poem about Martin Luther King
Jr. The poem can rhyme.

Reverend King
Had a dream
He marched for love
He spoke of unity
He stood for freedom
He believed in his community
After a bullet laid him to rest
His dream continues to live on
Reverend King started a battle
That finally was won.

© This poetry worksheet is from www.teach-nology.com

Name __________________________ Date _________

Try Your Hand at an Epitaph

Now it is time for you to give it a shot!

Challenge:
Write an epitaph of a famous person who is now deceased.

Step 1: Words to work with

Think of a famous person who is now deceased. It can be a
singer, actor, or athlete.

Epitaph for __________________________

Step 2: Brainstorm
Think of several descriptions that come to mind when you
think of this person. Examples are what they stood for,
famous songs or movies, what they looked like, or how they
died.
Brainstorm Box

Step 3: Write Your Poem

Using your ideas, write a short poem in memory of the
person you chose. Try to make the poem rhyme.

© This poetry worksheet is from www.teach-nology.com

 References

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/poems/epitaph.html

12 Poems to Read for Black History Month. (2017, February 03). Retrieved from

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/12-poems-read-black-history-month

Cookson, S., Angelou, M., & Angelou, M. (1995). The Complete Collected Poems of Maya

Angelou. World Literature Today,69(4), 800. doi:10.2307/40151688

Reflection: In this lesson plan, the student learns to apply their previous knowledge of analysis

and continues in connecting ideas and application when writing their own works. The grade level

the students is achieving for is grade 12 so they do meet the requirement because the level of

work given to the student is no high nor lesser. In this lesson, the student is viewing works from

well know people of color and analyzing how America was impacted by racism or not accepting

cultural diversity. The student also composes their own work with elements from their own

culture as well as other students’ cultures. This lesson really allows the student to engage with

the lesson because it may peak their interest and because the student is hands on learning how to

write poetry. The students are also working together and building connections among one

another. In my opinion, a main strength this lesson has is the actual assignment, but the weakness

may be that the guided practice is not as strong as it needs to be.