In her analysis of Martin Luther King’s speech, Nancy Duarte brought attention to the patterns created through his figurative language: the call and response, allusions, metaphors, etc., and she lays them out in multi-colored vertical bars for audiences to see. There is a geometric shape, there are patterns, and so, there is math.
Helping students understand the structure of Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech can help them better appreciate the brilliance of his craft in both creating and then in delivering his unforgettable message, “I Have a Dream.”
Students listen to various oral history recordings of what it was like for many Kentuckians on the first day that their school was integrated. Using their analysis of the evidence, they then decide how they would describe the first days of school desegregation in Kentucky. In other words, how did people in Kentucky experience school desegregation?
This is a "doing history" lesson in which students are put into the role of the historian trying to make sense of the past.
