#SOL18: MLK
One year.
Five years.
Ten years.
Twenty years.
Thirty years.
Forty years.
Fifty years.
Time slipped away.
What is the legacy that remains?
Yesterday Google displayed:
From friends on Twitter and Facebook:
Quotes, Speeches, Books and Resources:
15 MLK Quotes that Still Resonate (Newsweek)
Strong Quotes for MLK Day (Al Jazeera)
Inspirational Quotes for MLK Day 2018 (International Business Times)
Martin Luther King Jr. was More Radical than We Remember (TeenVogue)
Martin Luther King Jr Found Inspiration in Thoreau (Tween Tribune)
A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of MLK (Stanford)
The Greatest MLK Speeches You Never Heard (CNN)
Audios and Texts of His Most Famous Speeches
Celebrate? Yes
Commemorate? Yes
Teach about? Yes. We can do “Write Arounds” where students explain what each quote means to them. We can close read the “I Have a Dream” speech. We can analyze the effectiveness of the rhetorical devices that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used in his speeches. But is that enough?
Not just THAT ONE DAY! Instead consider what it means to stand for equity for all living in the United States. Consider what it means to have the same quality of life for all who live and work in the United States.
And then live the life that supports EQUITY for ALL!
That’s the legacy,
that’s the living,
that’s the WORLD
that Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed
and worked for over HALF A CENTURY AGO!
How are you living the “Dream”?
How would we know?
What would be our evidence?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
On this date: Pearl Harbor
“A date which will live in infamy”
December 7th Attack in Hawaii
US Congress Declared War on December 8th
Which images and speeches are most powerful? What criteria are you using?
On the Importance of Listening
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
As a literacy specialist, I so love the fact that the English/Language Arts Standards include, Reading, Writing, Language, and Speaking and Listening. However, I am always amazed by the amount of “speaking” and the lack of “listening” found in daily discourse.
Calm, quiet, rational – it’s not about the loudest voice. It’s also not about “Who talks the most?” and have they just worn down the listener who really is only listening with one ear? Or is listening and multi-tasking? Is that really listening? What should one really be listening for?
Are speaking and listening two sides of the same coin?
Is a monologue really communication? How important is speaking if there is no listener? And the flip side: Can there be communication if there is only a listener who never speaks? Does a “dialogue” always mean that the speaker and the listener are both equally invested in the communication?
Which of these quotes fits your schema about communication?
- “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” Peter Drucker
- “Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing”. William S. Burroughs
- “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” Rollo May
- “To communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man.” Marcel Marceau
Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_communication.html#aWJ5O5Zkmvq5EKqt.99
Why is communication hard?
So why does “communication” break down? Why is it hard to convey a precise meaning in words, coupled with our actions and emotions? Is it complex or as simple as this quote?
What message do you communicate?
Do your actions speak louder than your words?
When do you REALLY listen?
o5.13.14 Check out Julieanne’s post about a student conference. This was totally about listening to understand!
What do Employers Want?
Fellow blogger Dave Stuart, Jr. published this fabulous blog post “12 Skills the Common Core and Employers Want” on January 4, 2014. Please go read it and then come back.
Here is the book that Dave was quoting from:
I am in the process of reading the book, but I couldn’t wait to get to the end before posting this!
Here’s my shortened “Cliff-Notes” version of Dave’s post that I have been analyzing for the last ten days. Did you notice which Common Core Anchor Standards were most important to employers?
Which skills were #1, #2, and #3? Did you notice that those were all three Speaking and Listening Standards? And the content is way beyond an obligatory, one semester “Speech” class.
Study the chart for a few minutes and notice the color coding for the Anchor Standards? What patterns do you notice? (ahem, a bit of #close reading required!) Are there other standards that you would consider adding based on the full quotations in Dave’s blog?
For the 12 features, the following ELA anchor standards were listed:
-
- 4 Speaking and Listening Standards (yellow)
- 10 Writing Standards (green)
- 4 Language Standards (blue)
- 4 Reading Standards (white)
Is that what you expected? Granted, some standards are included in more than one feature. In the world of English Language Arts, there are 32 Anchor Standards. An unduplicated count above has 13 or 41% of those standards as skill areas that employers want.
Do your students have these skills when they leave your school? Why or Why not?
Do your students have opportunities to begin to develop these skills every day in every grade?
Please discuss!
Resource - Full 