Write Your Own "I Have a Dream" Speech

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Students use a fill-in-the-blanks work sheet to write speeches that imitate the form and content of Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Subjects: Language Arts, Social Studies

Grade Levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Objectives
Students will:

• listen to King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech; and,
• use a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet to express their dreams for the world in a format similar to King's speech.

Keywords
dream, Martin Luther King, speech

Materials Needed

• recording of King's "I Have a Dream" speech: History Channel Speeches (scroll down to Aug. 28, 1063); King Speech Audio; MLK Audio Clip
• text version of the speech (optional)
• "I Have a Dream Too!" work sheet

Procedure

1. Explain to students that they are going to learn about Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of the future and think about their own dreams.
    
2. Play a recorded version of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech so students can get a sense of King's delivery and of the excitement the speech generated.
    
3. Discuss with students King's dream for the country, and ask why people might consider the speech great. Ask students to think about their own dreams for the future.
    
4. Have students complete the ThinkQuest "I Have a Dream Too!" work sheet. [See Note in Materials Needed section above.]

Assessment
Students present their speeches to their classmates. Ask each student to privately grade his or her peers' speeches with a rating of 3 (good work), 4 (very good job), or 5 (superb effort). Average the peer scores to come up with each student's final grade.

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