Zoila M. Brown
Prepare for Presidents' Day celebration by discussing the ballad entitled "Abraham Lincoln: A Man for all the People," by Myra Cohn Livingston. This coincides with the social studies theme on the Civil War. The poet disseminates a great deal of civil and political information about the former President. She relates that he spoke of justice and liberty for all. She also mentions details from his profession as a lawyer to him being shot in his head by Booth. An open-ended question about the author's purpose would be appropriate to meet a CMT objective. Another objective is for students to use information from the text to write down two ideas they would use in a speech. In order to achieve these objectives, the students must be guided through the poem. First, I will read the ballad aloud, then have students read along with me. After the readings the students should realize that the poem is telling a story. Point out that it is heroic and tragic. "Booth shot him in his head." Set the criteria for the open-ended responses. Use graphic organizers to guide students' responses. The stanzas in this ballad are short and rhythmic so students will enjoy reading it, and as a result it becomes memorable. This poem is therefore a good piece to memorize, not so much by rote, but through repeated readings. One year I used this ballad for choral reading with all my classes. Each of my four
classes concentrated on two or three stanzas, thus making it easier to memorize. The students enjoyed reciting and were excited when I recorded their combined choral recitation. The teacher who has a single class could divide the class into four small groups and assign a section of the ballad to each group, then have the students recite in chorus as a whole class activity. Remember to make modifications for students with special needs. They could be given just one stanza to recite along with the students who have additional stanzas.
The Washington poem by Nancy Byrd Turner may also be used during this season. It tells about George Washington's childhood and shows how he did many things that children in his day did. For example, he played by the river.
March: Narrative
This is Women's History Month. The narrative poem by Eve Merriam titled "Elizabeth Blackwell" is found in Independent Voices. Eve Merriam is especially interested in women's rights. She tells the story about a young woman named Elizabeth Blackwell who applied to enter medical school in the 1840s, when women were not permitted to study medicine. The following lines from one stanza reveal the discrimination against women during that period.
Now Elizabeth Blackwell, how about you?
Seamstress or teacher, which of the two?
You know there's not much else that a girl can do.
She, however, became the first woman in the United States to be formally trained as a physician. The vocabulary in this poem is somewhat advanced, so the teacher will need to plan to use vocabulary strategies before the students read the poem. Some unfamiliar words may be: indubitably, anatomy, disguise, hoyden, sanctuary, sinister, contaminated, and fumigated. An effective strategy to define these words, as well as to establish background for the poem, is presenting a passage with context clues for these words. I have appended a passage I constructed. This is just a suggestion. Of course, by the time I get ready to execute this lesson I may have a better 'story line' or more precise context clues. Summarizing this narrative would be a worthwhile activity pertinent to the CMT objectives. Cooperative groups of three or four students will produce a Reader's Theater script.