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.
Birthday
Present for Langston Hughes
If you want to celebrate the birthday of Mr.
Hughes, here's a small-group assignment to get
it going. Groups have to create gifts of word
for Langston Hughes with their own idea or one
from the list.
Birthday Present for Langston Hughes:
Word document or
Web Page
Dream
Flags Lesson Plan for
Elementary and Middle School
If you want a lesson plan for the whole project, 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.
Prayer
Flag Background
Another place to start is with the idea that
this project will take our dreams and make them
fly. Our inspiration comes from the concept of
Prayer Flags, and here's a page with links to
many examples along with some explanation of how
they are intended to bring good wishes and
positive hope to all:
Prayer Flags Page
