Upper El Homework Due 1/16/18 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Options:

1. Choose an event taking place in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr to attend.  Some examples might include - MLK Celebration at King Park in Minneapolis on 1/15 at 6:30pm or the Friends School MLK Celebration on 1/12 at 7pm at the O’Shaughnessy.  Write about what you see, learn, hear, and feel at the event.  What did you learn about community, rights, and Dr. King?
2. Read the “African American Civil Rights” article on the History For Kids website (available: http://www.historyforkids.net/african-american-civil-rights.html).  Then choose at least one other person or topic to read about under the Civil Rights heading.  There are links available at the bottom of the page, or you can search History for Kids with the keywords “Civil Rights.”  Good examples might include: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks, Native American Civil Rights, Mahatma Ghandi, or Nelson Mandela. Write a summary of your research. Explain what you learned and why it is important to the Civil Rights movement. 
3. Memorize a portion of one of Dr. King’s famous speeches.  You may either choose a section and get it approved by your guide, or you may memorize the section of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” below.  Be prepared to recite your section to your class.

Essay Expectations:

Fourth grade students should write a minimum of two organized paragraphs with topic sentences for each paragraph.  

Fifth grade students should write a minimum of three organized paragraphs with topic sentences for each paragraph.

Sixth grade students should write a minimum of four organized paragraphs with topic sentences for each paragraph.  

All students should edit their work for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and basic grammar.  

Excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” August 28, 1963, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and before the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the mount with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the genuine discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, pray together; to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom forever, vowing that we will be free one day.