Objectives:
1. To identify and analyze poetry by an African American poet.
2. To develop a list of individual fears and concerns.
3. To create an original poem in response to literature.
4. To study of the life and accomplishments of Maya Angelou.
Procedures:
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1. Discuss the poet, Maya Angelou.
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a. Maya Angelou was born in 1928, in St. Louis Missouri. During her childhood she experienced many difficult times including her parent’s divorce, rape, poverty, racial hatred and separation from her parents. Because she is a black woman she was denied a college education and various jobs when she was young. Angelou went to San Francisco with her brother where she was able to graduate from high school. She worked hard as a cook, waitress, singer and an actress in hopes of a better life. Then, she became involved in civil rights. She became the Northern Coordinator in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and traveled to England, Egypt and Ghana. She became the first woman editor of a newspaper in Africa. Currently, Angelou is a professor of American studies in the U.S. She has won many awards and presidential appointments for her poetry, songs and stories.
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b. Discuss Maya Angelou’s accomplishments and courage.
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2. Read
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
, by Maya Angelou.
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3. Discuss the fears mentioned in the poem.
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4. Identify the style of the poem.
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a. Two fears are listed, then “life doesn’t frighten me at all” line in a reassuring tone.
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b. examples:
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Shadows on the wall
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Noises down the hall
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Life doesn’t frighten me at all
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and
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Tough guys fight All alone at night
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Life doesn’t frighten me at all
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5. Students create an original poem in the same style as the author using at least four stanzas.
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* As a follow-up collaborative lesson, students would illustrate each other’s poems.
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6. Orally read individual poems in class and display at learning center.
