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A Multitude of Media
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Most students are familiar with King's “I Have a Dream” speech, but how many have heard the speech in its entirety? When King delivered his speech on stairs of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th, 1963, thousands of people watched on with pride and hope and a fire inside for change. Among these thousands were children, who joined others in Washington, D.C. to witness the historic event that was the March on Washington. Students of all ages can experience what it may have been like to be in front of the Lincoln Memorial during this event by visiting Freedom's Ring: King's “I Have a Dream” Speech, a project of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University in collaboration with Beacon Press's King Legacy Series. This animation features the entire speech given that day alongside thought-provoking visuals and a full-text presentation of the speech. Words improvised by King throughout the speech are highlighted as they appear in the text. Similarly, students will also notice words struck through with a line as the animation proceeds. Making excellent talking points, these are the lines that King omitted while he delivered his words. A works cited provides reference for the photos, illustrations, and historical documents that appear throughout the animation and allows for further reading and exploration.
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Project Idea
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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and words are captured beautifully in Martin's Big Words, by Doreen Rappaport, with illustrations by Brian Collier. These words have meant a lot of things to many different people throughout the past several decades. King's words have been used to inspire change, to ignite thoughts, and to challenge expectations. Provide your students with a selection of quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King. Have the students take turns reading aloud the quotes and discussing what each quote means. Then have students form groups in order to elect one of the quotes to be the class slogan for the month. Encourage students to form articulations supporting their choice, and provide a classroom environment where groups can debate which quote would best fit the class for this month. Perhaps it's a quote that resonates with the overall mission of the school. Maybe the quote is relevant to current events or to something that recently happened in the class or school. Taking ownership over the selection of the class quote can help students bond more deeply with the message that the words convey. Create posters and bookmarks of the quote that can be shared with the rest of the school. This project can be extended to a monthly focus, examining quotes from African American leaders in February to honor Black History Month, female leaders in March for Women's History Month, and famous poets in April for National Poetry Month.
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Matthew's Tip of the Month
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 January is a great month to ignite curiosity. Here are a few celebrations that occur throughout the month that you might want to explore with your students.
January 8th is Earth's Rotation Day, commemorating when French Physicist, Leon Foucault, demonstrated the Earth rotates on its axis in 1851. Discover what makes life possible on our Planet in the Planet Earth unit.
January 9th is Static Electricity Day, recognizing the The Triboelectric Series, a list of materials that are ranked by their ability to accumulate positive and negative charges. Explore Electricity in all forms and discuss how electricity is essential in our live.
January 17th is Kid Inventors' Day, honoring the life and inventions of Benjamin Franklin and encouraging young people everywhere to think outside of the box. The Experiments unit will satiate curious minds with hands-on activities involving electricity, magnets, motion, plants, and more!
Be sure to explore the additional resources TrueFlix has to offer on each topic, including videos, project ideas, and links to additional online resources.
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- Matthew Winner -
Library Media Specialist & TrueFlix Ambassador
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UPCOMING WEBINAR DATES
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Learn more about getting the most out of TrueFlix by attending one of our monthly online training sessions.
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Tuesday, January 10th 2017
3:00 to 4:00 pm EST
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Thursday, March 9, 2017
5:00 to 6:00 pm EST
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Tuesday, May 9, 2017
12:00 to 1:00 pm EST
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We'd Love to Hear From You!
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Have a suggestion for what unit we should cover next? Or have an idea on how we can make this newsletter even better? Whatever it is, we're looking forward to hearing from you.
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e-news Archive
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Get more tips and tools from our past newsletters
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January brings with it a new year, a new start, and an opportunity to present ourselves anew to the world. We celebrate and commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in January, and these celebrations can be filled with great inspiration, reflection, and togetherness. As President Barack Obama enters the final weeks of his term as the 44th President of the United States, it is also a time to reflect on how far our nation has come from when Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech through the election of our first African-American president. King's words are immortalized on the hearts and minds of millions, and he reminds us that “only in the darkness can you see the stars.” King's quote conveys that even in our most challenging times we can find miraculous beauty if we only look. Was he also paying homage to those who came before him, such as Harriet Tubman and those stars forming the “Drinking Gourd” that slaves would follow north in the night? Great strides have been made in history, many within our greatest times of suffering. The TrueFlix unit on 