Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise", offers young scholars an opportunity to consider how poets use literary devices to create powerful messages. After a close reading and discussion of the poem, class members reflect on how they can...

The emotional and spiritual oppression of slavery in the African-American experience is the focus of this instructional activity. Middle schoolers analyze various texts by Frederick Douglass and Maya Angelou related to freedom...

Students view examples of Depression era images and relate them to chapters from Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this Maya Angelou lesson, students discuss chapters 8 and 9 from the text and define setting. Students...

Young scholars discuss equality and fairness by reading a Maya Angelo poem.  In this U.S. history lesson, students read the poem I Know Why Caged Birds Sing, and discuss how the era it was written in affected the words.  Young...

Students examine the experiences of African American women. In this poetry lesson plan, students use their literary analysis skills to compare the poetry of Maya Angelou to rap music performed by Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill.

Students create a human rights project based on their instructional activity with Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this human rights instructional activity, students participate in a humanitarian gesture as volunteers...

Ninth graders explore the concept that education is related to freedom. In this human rights lesson, 9th graders read The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. Students dialogue about their readings and education as it relates to human...

It is easy to forget the power that written or spoken word can have in effecting change. Using quotations from such inspirational leaders as Maya Angelou, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., encourage your class members to...

"I all alone beweep my outcast state." After a discussion of the "Shakespeare in American Life" segment in which Maya Angelou's relates her reaction to Sonnet 29, class groups create and perform a scene about an outcast that includes the...

Students explore the concept of philanthropy. In this service learning lesson, students examine the impact of the works of Cesar Chavez, George Washington Carver, Sunderlal Buhuguna, and Abdul Sattar Edhi.

Students examine gender bias and stereotypes. In this discrimination lesson students participate in class discussions and poetry reading in order to examine the gender stereotypes of fears and develop the...

Eighth graders become acquainted with major events, especially related to the life and times of Anne Frank and compare personal and family chronology to Twentieth Century events. They examine how discrimination existed in the past and...

Students examine the changing view of women during the 20th century. Using art, literature and music, they identify the various perceptions used throughout history. They also predict what women's' perceptions are going to be in the next...

Students define discrimination and relate it to their own experiences. In this discrimination lesson, students discuss feeling like a stranger and complete a personal experiences worksheet. Students then find strategies to reduce or...

Students brainstorm all they know about World War II and Anne Frank. They create a timeline of the events that occured. They research the events on the timeline in their own family history.

High schoolers examine and define the different types of immigration. Using different documents, they identify types of migration. In groups, they compare and contrast the migration experiences of the Africans and the British. They...