This is the first of periodic resource lists for
2009 participants. Please take what you like and
leave the rest!
What's the Dream Flag Project? That's
a question we might want to start with to let
our students know that we're doing something
that's not just in our school, but in schools
across the country and the world. This year,
there will be students as far away as Nepal
making Dream Flags, and there are students in at
least nineteen of the United States.
Here
area some places to see what Dream Flags is all
about:
Participant
List |
List of the 70+ schools that have signed
up so far. Some have links to their
school sites. See where they are. |
|
Look Who's Dreaming |
A
partial list of participants with
pictures, some linked photo galleries,
etc. Some include links to Yahoo Maps to
show where they are. |
Poem
Videos |
Videos of students from different
schools reading their Dream Flag poems.
(PC format or for Mac's with Windows
Media Player.) |
Flag Examples
Hand Written
Typed
Others |
These are examples of flags made by
students from different schools. Some
show flags where the poems is written by
hand. Another sample shows flags where
the words are printed onto the cloth
(more complicated.) There are many
ways to make them. |
Our
Theme Poem
Students may want to get going right away, but 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. It's an easy one to memorize.
We can sing as well with "The Dream Flag
Song" Here are some useful links.
Copy of
"The Dream Keeper"
Hear "The Dream Flag Song."
Music and words for "The Dream Flag Song."
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. One of our
favorites is Love to Langston, a
collection of poems that focus on different part
of his life with biographical pieces to go with
each poem. Some of the
sites have Hughes poetry and even a recording of
him reciting his work! We have a list 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
