Happy Birthday Dr. King!!!

I feel it is so important to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his vision, and accomplishments.  This month has basically been dedicated to the man.  Not only that, I mention him throughout the year often.  However, January is a good time to remind students of his messages.  Here are some things that we have worked on the past couple of weeks since winter break.

Ok, fifth graders won't just read or listen to Dr. King's speech and totally get it.  They need background knowledge and guidance to understand the main messages.  Therefore, we listen to parts of the speech at a time, pause, reread & discuss, take notes, and continue.  This site is where I go to get the audio, since youtube is blocked at my school.  It also has words underneath if needed.  I feel breaking down the speech also allows kids to focus on each section at a time.  Here's a sample of how we marked the text: Marking up MLK's speech