SUBJECT: I Have a Dream

Electronic Poem

Teachers:

We welcome back the "I Have a Dream" project for the 1999-2000 school year! I will be moderating the project again and encourage your participation. When this project was run in previous years the responses from the kids had been overwhelming. I look forward in hearing from your students again this year. If you do not want each individual child to write a verse, please feel free to use it as a classroom project. It will be interesting to see what the kids will "dream" of for the new century.

Ideas for Using this project in your classroom:

1. The study of poetry and verse.
2. Strengthening written communication and expression.
3. Cultural awareness.
4. Students will be able to see commonalities and differences amongst each other no matter what part of the world they are living in.
5. Strengthening the use of e-mailing.
6. Strengthening geography skills. Students can map out where the responses are coming from.
7. If it is done as a group project, co-operative learning can be encouraged and strengthened.
8. Print out the responses and make a bulletin board or hang them throughout your school in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday. (I have done this and it is very impressive!)
9. Use it in teaching the writing method.

OBJECTIVES

1. Having young people share ideas and learn from each other.
2. Encourage young people to dream, wonder and not be afraid to take risks.
3. To familiarize the students with the contributions that Martin Luther King made to the Civil Rights Movement.
4. Making young people aware that many of their ideas and feelings are similar, regardless of skin color.
5. To those students who are from outside the USA, please feel free to mention a person from your country who had dreams to follow and was an inspiration to your society.

SUMMARY:

Students around the world will be writing a collaborative poem in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday, titled "I Have a Dream". We invite students from around the world to join us in this exciting KidLink Project.

DURATION:

December 13,1999 and will run indefinitely. This will give students in the Southern Hemisphere a chance to participate when they go back to school.

PROCEDURE:

We will be using Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech" as an inspiration to write the free verse poems. A copy of Mr. King's speech can be found at the following URL:

http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/king_b12.htm

Please send, via email to the KIDPROJ forum, a verse of 4-10 lines that you create.The first line of the poem should be entitled "I Have a Dream." Please include some background information like possibly your first name only, geographic location and possibly your school's name. If your native language is not English, please feel free to contribute your verse in your native tongue, and then translate into English beneath it if possible. We would love to see it!

Come and join us in the celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday.

EXAMPLE:

I HAVE A DREAM:

I have a dream that this world will someday be a very clean and safe place for all people to live. A place without crime, a place with a beautiful environment, and most importantly a place where you are judged not for what you look like or for where you live, but for who you are on the inside.

(first name and geographic location and any other information you would like to share)

Notice:

In order to participate:

1. It is necessary to subscribe to the KIDPROJ email forum to submit poems. Handy web subscription.

2. The grown-up leader should subscribe to KIDPROJ-COORD, the list for project discussion between grown-ups. Web subscription.

3. Students must answer the four KIDLINK questions:

1. Who am I?
2. What do I want to be when I grow up?
3. How do I want the world to be different when I'm grown up?
4. What can I do now to make this happen?

Poems:

Use the guide below to see the student work!

Information Contact: Patti Weeg, Title 1 Computer Teacher, Delmar El. School, Delmar, Maryland, USA. Home Page: http://www.globalclassroom.org  

KIDPROJ WWW Contact: Diane Smith