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 and Romania 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:
Flag Examples
with
Maps |
See some of the Dream
Flags from past years along with map
links to the places where they were
created--Dallas, Philadelphia, Portland,
along with Nepal and Rwanda. Click on
flags to enlarge them and read the
poems. |
Intro. Video
6 min. |
This 6-minute video
explains how The Dream Flag Project
Started and shows some of the annual
Philadelphia all-school celebration. |
Poem Clips
2 min. |
This short video
includes clips of various Dream Flag
poems being read at the Philadelphia
all-school celebration. |
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 it 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. 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.
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.
>Printable page of the
lesson 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
