In
this News Notes:
Welcome to the Project!
Next
Tuesday, February 1st, 103rd birthday of
Langston Hughes is the official start of our
project--the date that we hope students in pre-K
through 9th grade in 31 different schools
(urban, suburban, public and private) in six
different states (PA, MD, DC, VA, OH, and MA!)
will step together into the world of Langston
Hughes, dreaming, poetry, art and connection. We
can't thank you enough for your interest in
making this project work and giving students the
time and place to articulate their dreams and
share them with others in a meaningful way.
And of
course some schools have already started! Thanks
to Maria Odelia at Penn Charter for sending us
these pics of some of her kids working on their
flags. They jumped right in at MLK Day and got
started. In their school, 3rd graders worked as
buddies with kindergarten. Here are a few and
we'll put more on the site eventually.
Please send pictures as you have the time
and ability to take them as your students go
through the project. We're hoping some groups can
take a picture of their participating students
sometime in the first week and send it in. More
about this in Ideas for the First Week.
Now the
project's in
its second year. It's great to have so many
returning schools and so many new ones joining
in. We're
our own best resources, and with that in mind,
we've set up mentor school pairs. There will be
more information on that coming up. If you have
an activity that is working well with your
mentor school, please let us know. It could be
valuable to others.
As we
move ahead, we'll send out periodic notes like
this one to stay in touch and
let you know about what's coming up and what's
happening in different schools. Also, we'll keep
an updated on-line calendar. More on this in
Important Dates and Calendar Items.
Though
we'll provide you with lots of dates and
reminders, it's important to keep in mind that
participation in The Dream Flag Project is
really what you make it. The basic commitment is:
to create Dream Flags with your students this
year. That's it.
A Dream Flag is an original dream
poem on 81/2 in. x 11 in. decorated fabric
attached to a line with other flags. How you
share them and with whom you share them is up to
you. What we provide on the web site, and through
connections we facilitate, is intended as an aid
to help you do the project in a rewarding way.
We'll
definitely use the site to share resources that will be useful
to everyone. So when you find good resources,
please take a moment to send them along (dreamflags@agnesirwin.org)
so we can all benefit. More about resources in
Langston Hughes and Writing Resources.
Thanks
again for your interest and your effort.
-- Jeff
Harlan and Sandy Crow
Ideas for the First Week
For the first week, it's great to start
with a few Hughes poems that your students will
like. "The Dream Keeper" is a sort of theme poem
for this project, and it would be great to know
how many students get to read this poem next
week. If you can, let us know if you read it
with your students. And if they memorize
it, let us know that too. It's a fun and easy
poem for memorization.
Click here
for a copy of the poem.
Email what you did with it to
dreamflags@agnesirwin.org
Hughes Background
It's also
nice to start with some background on Langston
Hughes. There are lots of books with this kind
of information and
some excellent web sites as well. Some of the
sites have Hughes poetry and even a recording of
him reciting his work! We have a list below at
Langston Hughes and Writing Resources.
Lesson Plan for
Elementary and Middle School
If you want a lesson plan, we have one designed
for six forty-minute class periods.
Click here to see a printable page of the plan.
It covers an introduction of Langston Hughes,
some study of his poetry, and drafting of
original dream poems by students.
High
Tech Option
If you happen to have access to a digital
camera, take a photo of your class (or classes)
and send them to us in email so we can post them
on the site to have some visual images of all
the people participating in the project. Email
to
dreamflags@agnesirwin.org .
If you happen to have access to a cassette tape
recorder and you tape your students reciting
"The Dream Keeper," you can send it to us and
we'll put it on the site as well! Our mailing
address is The Dream Flag Project / The Agnes
Irwin School / Ithan Ave. & Conestoga Rd. /
Rosemont, PA 19010.
Important Dates and Calendar Items
As we move through the project, we will
suggest a pace for the project so that
all who will participate in sharing flags will
be ready when the times comes.
The basic flow is:
February: Learning about Langston Hughes
and writing dream poems.
March: Doing the visual and assembly
parts.
April: Sharing the work with others in
various ways.
There is now an on-line calendar with many more
details that we will continue to update. It's
located in the NEWS section of our web site.
Here's a link to it.
Langston Hughes and Writing Resources
Here are some resources for
working with students as they study Langston
Hughes, leading to the writing of Dream Flag
poems:
The
CREATE
section of this site lists ideas for approaching
the study of Hughes and the creation of Dream
Flags for elementary, middle school, and high
school students.
Below are some excerpts from that section of the
site for convenience.
Click here for a printable page of the resources
below.
Langston
Hughes Related Web Sites:
Drop Me Off In Harlem
A wonderfully interactive site with major
sections on "Faces of the Renaissance," "A Place Called Harlem," and "Themes and
Variations." Very friendly navigation and lots of visual material along with
text. Also includes audio and video pieces. A/V materials are generally primary
source documents. Reading level about 6th grade and up. From JFK Center for the
Performing Arts in Wash., DC.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/artsedge.html
Academy of American
Poets
Has brief biographical sketch with links to
related poets and texts
of a
selection of poems. Included bibliography. Includes an audio file of Hughes
reading "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=84&CFID=5221575&CFTOKEN=87530490
Harlem Renaissance
Resource Guide
From Northern Kentucky University,
resources with basic explanation
of the Harlem Renaissance and focus on painters and poets. Special focus on
women of the Harlem Renaissance.
http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem.html
The Langston Hughes
Teacher Resource File
An extremely useful index of Hughes-related
material located on the
Internet School Library Media Center. The site includes biographical
information, bibliographies, criticism, and
lesson plans. –
Book
Links, Dec. 2001
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/hughes.htm
Langston Hughes Related Books and Others :
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes,
Illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
A collection of poems which are very accessible to young
readers. Poems are divided into sections by general theme.
Each poem is illustrated with a black and white etching.
Visiting Langston by Willie Perdomo and illustrated
by Bryn Collier.
A poetic text describing a girl's visit to the house where
Lagnston Hughes lived.
Love to Langston by Tony Medina and illustrated by
R. Gregory Christie.
A series of poems written in the voice of Langston and based
on experiences in his life. Includes notes that explain
biographical information related to each poem.
Harlem
Poem by Walter Dean Myers and illustrations by Christopher
Myers.
A poetic description of what Harlem was and is. Rhythmic and
jazzy in sound and illustration.
The Great Migration: An American Story
illustrated and written by Jacob Lawrence.
The original art of Jacob Lawrence, created
in 1940-41 tells the story of African
American movement from the rural South to
the North.
Jump Back, Honey Poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar and
illustrations by various artists.
Illustrated poems from the one of the most well known
African American poets before Langston Hughes.
In the Space of the Sky by Richard Lewis,
Illustrated by Debra Frasier.
A picture book focusing on wonder about the natural world.
Most pages have fewer than twenty words.
Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of
Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten,
1925-1964 edited by Emily Bernard.
Nearly four decades of correspondence
between Langston Hughes and a man who was
first his mentor and supporter and later his
trusted friend. For high school and adult
readers.
