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News
Notes #3
updates for participant schools
2/18/05
In
this News Notes:
News from the Schools
 Thank
you so much for joining in the Dream Flag
adventure. We hope your second week was a good
one. Many of you are already enjoying Langston
Hughes’ poetry
with students,
exploring some of the devices poets use, and
thinking about poems’ connections to our lives.
Fifty students
memorized “Dream Keeper” for one school’s tsunami
fundraiser assembly.
“Most
of the children really understood that the tsunami
is a real example of the world’s ‘too-rough hands’,”
wrote the school’s director. Our own sixth graders
shared favorite Hughes’ poems, especially “Mother
to Son,” discussing the metaphor of life as a
staircase, talking about “sharp tacks” in their own
lives, and noting how the mother said “never give
up.” In another sixth grade, students painted
watercolors to fit the poetry they read.
Some teachers
have extended Dream Flag lessons, combining them
with other units in English, geography, and drama.
To see these extensions to the basic
read-and-appreciate poetry lessons, click
here.
 We
received an email this week from a teacher wanting
some advice about fabric for the Dream Flags.
Remember, the only thing that is required is that
each Dream Flag is 8 ½” x 11” (hung vertically).
We’ve seen people use muslin, cotton, old sheets,
even cut-up plastic shower curtains. Anything
goes. The tighter the fabric weave, the easier it
is to write on the fabric. Our school, and several
other schools, have been using fabric you can run
through your computer printer. To find out more
about fabric, click here.
As you know, in
the Dream Flag Project, each student creates a dream
poem and transfers that poem to a piece of fabric
which is then decorated. The premise of the
project, though, is that the words then become part
of something bigger. Why? This is why: authentic
projects that go beyond the classroom are
important. A letter from Sonia Wu, a former sixth
grader (now an adult) who worked on a project of
similar impact, says it all:
“I wanted you
to know what a pivotal experience that was for
me—to work on a project where my individual
contribution mattered, to feel part of a group,
and to be part of something larger than that.”
We’d like to hear
from you about what you would like to do. Please
click here to ways to help kids
move the project beyond the classroom.
Speaking of help
. . . we would like to introduce you to our new
volunteer, Meg Ryan. Meg is a former teacher,
mother of Liam (age 2), and daughter of the late
Helen Holt, who started Dream Flags with us, and to
whom we dedicate our Project. Most important, Meg
is one of the most organized people we know. She
will manage the database that gathers information
and then helps make sure you get what you need at
the appropriate time. She will also coordinate many
of the logistics involved in the April 16th
regional celebration, any subsequent “goodwill”
travel exhibitions of the Dream Flags, and the final
return of the flags to the individual schools before
year’s end.
Our online
calendar (Click
here to print your own, if you haven’t already.)
tells us that we’re all about to have a Monday off
for Presidents’ Weekend. Enjoy. Thank you again so
much for your involvement in this project. Good
luck in the next step, the writing of the dream
poetry. Keep in touch.
Yours,
--Sandy Crow and
Jeff Harlan
Lesson Extensions
The Dream Flag
Project is meant to be a simple one—make a dream
poem, put it on fabric, connect it to the dreams of
others—both in the classroom and beyond, and share
your words with others outside the school. It is a
poetry-publication and community-building
experience.
For some
teachers, though, the timing this year has been just
right for incorporating the Project into another
ongoing unit, or for extending the Project beyond
the expected framework. We couldn’t resist sharing
some of their ideas.
A Flag Unit
(Primary Grades)
“Our 3-5 year olds and my class (pre-1st
– 2nd graders) are both in the midst
of study units on flags,” wrote Eleanor Childs,
of Philadelphia’s Montessori Genesis II School.
“They are learning about the national flags of
different countries as part of their geography
lessons. In my room, we are doing that, too,
but also learning about flags in a larger sense:
history, purpose, parts-of, types, symbolism,
etc. This week, my students are turning in
their plans for their personal flags. Then they
will make their flags from cloth as a special
home assignment.”
Comparing Poems
(Middle School and Up)
In an
extended poetry unit, Agnes Irwin School sixth
graders immersed themselves in the Langston Hughes
anthology The Dream Keeper, reading poems and
discussing certain poetic styles—repetition, use of
metaphor, musical rhythm—and themes.
A follow-up
assignment gave pairs of students a couple of days
to: locate and copy two poems (at least one by an
author other than Hughes) that were alike in style,
topic, or theme; illustrate the poems, and prepare
to teach the class about these two poems. Teacher
Carrie Brownell developed a rubric for grading the
presentations. (Click
here for a
scanned copy of the rubric.)
Langston
Hughes’ Plays (Upper School)
We
knew that Langston Hughes was a jazz musician as
well as a poet, but weren’t aware that he wrote
plays. Jasmine Ita Zowniriw, of Reading High
School, PA, wrote us that “I am gathering pieces
of Hughes’ plays and my students will be reading
them aloud in class (performing them for extra
credit).” She’ll try to record the event on
digital camera.
Feel free to
send us lesson ideas you wish to share. We’ll pass
them on as we can.
Fabric Ideas
This is a good time to start
scrounging for the supplies you need for the Dream
Flags. Visit the
CREATE section of our website for full
directions. Here’s a link to a
one-page cheat sheet on supplies to obtain
for the flags.
Basically, the
only thing that is required is that each Dream Flag
is 8 1/2" x 11" (hung vertically). We've seen
people use muslin, cotton, old sheets, even cut-up
blue plastic shower curtains. Anything goes.
Here are a
couple of tidbits of advice about fabric, beyond
what you'll get in the cheat sheet:
1) The
tighter the fabric weave, the easier it is to
write on the fabric
2) Practice
writing on the fabric you intend to use. Find the
pen or marker that works best with your fabric (i.e.
doesn’t bleed), so students won’t get frustrated
when copying their final poem onto the fabric. You
can buy fabric pens, but they run several dollars
each. Guard them or they’ll walk.
3) If you cut
the edges of the fabric with pinking shears, it will
ravel less.
4) If you have
access to a computer printer, there is a product
called Computer Printer Fabric. It comes in packets
of four 8 ½” x 11” sheets of white muslin, each with
a special backing that allows it to run through your
standard printer.
We’ve used this
fabric for two years. Once a student’s poem is in
its final version, we print it onto the fabric. You
may tear off the fabric backing once the ink dries,
or leave it on until you finish decorating the
flag.
Computer
printer fabric at our local Jo-Ann Fabric store runs
about a dollar a sheet, if you wait for the sale and
get the educators’ 10% discount. June Tailor is the
name of the company that makes the fabric we use;
other companies also produce computer printer fabric
sheets.
Where Will Your Words Go?
As you know, in
the Dream Flag Project, each student creates
a dream poem and transfers that poem to a piece of
fabric which is then decorated. The premise of the
Project, though, is that the words then become part
of something bigger.
First, each flag
is attached to a class clothesline (Dream Flag
line), displayed in the classroom or in the hall.
What’s next? If several classes are involved, these
class clotheslines can be strung around the school.
Some schools choose to connect Dream Flags in school
celebrations. Some hold a school-based poetry
reading/celebration with another school (perhaps a
Partner School), tying together those clotheslines
(Dream Flag lines) as well, at least for the event.
Perhaps your school will then choose to participate
in the Regional Dream Flag Celebration on April 16.
There, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, you and your
students will share poetry and connect dreams—either
literally or virtually, thanks to the Internet.
All this is about
connecting . . . about having the
students’ words become part of something bigger . .
. about them creating an educational experience
together that goes beyond the walls of the classroom
or the school.
Then what? Last
year, 2000 Dream Flags then traveled to the
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where they
lined hallways, recreation rooms and an
inter-building connector. Staff and patients
passed by them every day. We received wonderful
emails; folks didn’t want to give the flags back.
Following the exhibit—and before school’s end--all
the flag lines went back to the schools and the
flags to the students who made them.
This year,
Children’s Hospital is under construction. We’re
still committed, though, to sharing—to
the notion of giving students the opportunity for
their words to do a little good in the world. With
that in mind, we are contacting places within the
Philadelphia region where the Dream Flags may be
displayed and be helpful.
That’s what we’ll
arrange up in the Philadelphia region, for all who
want their Dream Flag lines shared.
There’s no reason, however, that those of you in
Georgia, in Ohio, in Boston, or in metropolitan DC,
shouldn’t do the same. We’ll be asking you in the
near future what you might like to do, and how we
might help you.
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