Association of Fil-Am Teachers of America, Inc.
To strive, maintain, and persevere in achieving the highest level of competency in the teaching profession.
BALIKTURO 2014 Project
Name of Presenter Maria-Lourdes Teh-Bradley
Title: The Power of Poetry Through Maya Angelou’s Voice
Area of Specialization or Curriculum Topic:
Elementary Intermediate Level, English Language Arts
Type of Presentation: Workshop
Session Abstract: Examining Maya Angelou’s skillful use of imagery throughout the poem “Still I
Rise” can help one understand and interpret the poem’s theme and message.
Target Audience: 5th and 6th Grade Reading Teachers
Learning Outcomes: Learning Targets
After the workshop, Grade 6 Reading teachers, together with their students, will be able to:
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Examine how imagery can be used to represent ideas, themes, and periods in history.
Find cultural relevance and text-to-self connections to the poem, “Still I Rise”
Reflect on resiliency in their own lives, school, and community
Determine the origins of their “voice” and for what they would like to use it
Session Description:
This Poetry Workshop emphasizes skills of literal and figurative language, close reading,
discussion, and writing. It informs teachers and students how poetry has its own unique format,
language, and poetic devices such as metaphors, similes, and personification, and how these
poetic conventions can add a tremendous impact to a poet’s message.
In sharing Maya Angelou’s poetry to sixth graders, we support their expanding vocabularies,
promote a deeper awareness of words and language, and develop their confidence in
comprehending texts of all kinds.
Students are free to develop their own interpretations of the message of the poem based on their
own cultural identity, experiences, and knowledge.
Software: Generally Microsoft Powerpoint or Prezi Presentation available in a thumb drive or
accessed in the Internet.
Other Presentation Requirements: overhead projector, Smartboard, whiteboard
Learning Targets:
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Examine how imagery can be used to represent ideas, themes, and periods in
history.
Find cultural relevance and text-to-self connections to the poem, Still I Rise.
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Reflect on resiliency in people’s own lives, school, and community.
Determine the origins of their voice and for what they would like to use it.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
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How do I respond when faced with tough circumstances?
How have my background and experiences contributed to the person I have
become?
What struggles and obstacles have I, and others who share my cultural
background, had to overcome?
How and why does society continue to put down certain groups?
For what do I want my "voice" to be used?
STILL I RISE...Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
NOTICING WHILE READING
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After reading the poem aloud, ask...
What do you NOTICE with the structure of the poem?
Aside from having stanzas, verses, and rhyming words, what else do you notice?
Elicit the fact that the poem uses repetition.
What lines are repeated? Why did Maya Angelou use repeating lines?
What powerful vocabulary did you notice in the poem?
ELEMENTS OF IMAGERY
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Define or Review...
Personification
Metaphor
Simile
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole
READING CLOSELY
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Read STILL I RISE.
Divide into small groups.
Highlight examples of imagery in the poem.
Annotate words that you SEE, HEAR, FEEL, TASTE, and SMELL.
Identify the type of imagery used in each stanza. How does each imagery
strengthen the power of the poem? What does each imagery mean to the poem?
Group share.
CRITICAL THINKING
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Respond to essential questions:
How do I respond when faced with tough circumstances?
How have my background and experiences contributed to the person I have
become?
What struggles and obstacles have I, and others who share my cultural
background, had to overcome?
How and why does society continue to put down certain groups?
COMMUNITY INQUIRY
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After annotating the text and sharing with others about it...
Divide into two groups.
Set up the room with two concentric circles of chairs.
One group sits in the inner circle and another group sits in the outer circle.
The inner circle responds to the first and second questions while the outer circle
observes the discussion and prepares to summarize what they have heard.
Each person in the inner circle can either respond to the question or react to
someone else's thinking.
The groups switch. The outer circle becomes the inner circle and answers the third
and fourth questions.
INTERPRETIVE QUESTIONS
1. Who could be the "YOU" the author is referring to in the poem? Who could be the
"I" in the poem?
2. What is the tone of the author in the poem? In what ways do you personally
connect with the poem?
3. Which groups of people in society or at school are "shot with words," "cut with
eyes," "killed with hatefulness?" What can be done to change it?
4. You are part of many different groups such as your family, your cultural group,
your religious group, and your gender group. Share an example of how you have
faced adversity as part of one of these groups. How have you risen against it?
WRAP UP!
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Bringing Poetry Into the Life of Your Child
Encourage children to read the poems of famous writers of poetry for children: Shel
Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Naomi Shihab Nye, etc.
Read poems by these authors aloud to your child and encourage him or her to read
parts of the poems aloud to you. This improves reading fluency!
Use the books of Dr. Seuss as a way to encourage your child to hear rhyme and
enjoy the sounds of words. Again, share the reading aloud!
Play the game of "Find A Rhyme." While walking with your child or driving in the
car, say a word and ask your child to say a word that rhymes with it. Go back and
forth. This will encourage your child to play with the sounds of words and recognize
rhyme.
Buy your child a special, small book that he or she can carry around and use to
write poems or observations.
BALIKTURO Project