Black Out Poetry Civil Rights Reading, Writing & Art Project

Resource for Black History Month and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

The purpose of these activities is to help students read deeply while reading excerpts from historical civil rights speeches. So often, civil rights leaders like Dr. King are discussed as if they were super heroes. They are, in a sense, super heroes. But it’s important for students to realize that they were also regular people, often with very humble beginnings who found themselves in situations, environments and racist conflicts that caused them to act and speak in extraordinary ways. Why is this important? Because if students can think about them as people, instead of super heroes, then they can realize their own potential for standing up for what is right. This product endeavors to do this. It incorporates visible thinking routines, deep reading strategies, creative writing and art.

It consists of two parts and takes about a week of 30-60 minute sessions to complete. However, lessons from this product can be done in isolation instead of in a mini-unit.

Here's what you're purchasing:

1. Excerpts from 7 speeches about civil rights: Dr. King, President Johnson, Shirley Chisolm, Josephine Baker, and John F. Kennedy (minimal color).

2. Three Teacher Talk pages filled with teaching notes (minimal color).

3. Step Inside visible thinking response sheet for students (black and white).

4. Sentence-Phrase-Word visible thinking response sheet for students (black and white).

5. Top Three reader response sheet for students (black and white).

6. Theory Thoughts page for students (black and white).

7. Black-Out Poetry Directions for students (minimal color).

8. Black-Out Poetry List page for students (minimal color).

9. 7 black and white civil rights speech excerpts without clip art embellishments for black-out poetry.

10. Five complete black-out poems (student samples in full color).