Watch this video of Labi Siffre singing “My Song.”
The following activities and questions are designed to help your students use their noticing skills to move through the poem and develop their thinking skills so they understand its meaning with confidence, using what they’ve noticed as evidence for their interpretations. Read more about the framework upon which these activities are based.
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Warm-up: Listen to Dr. Maya Angelou speak about kindness in the video “Be a Rainbow in Someone Else’s Cloud.”
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Before Reading the Poem: Watch this video of Labi Siffre singing “My Song.” What lyrics or phrases stick out to you? Why?
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Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “Alone” by Maya Angelou. What do you notice about the poem? Note any words or phrases that stand out to you or any questions you might have.
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Listening to the Poem: Enlist two volunteers and listen as the poem is read aloud twice. Write down any additional words and phrases that stand out to you. Or you may opt to listen to a reading of the poem.
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Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group of students. What connections do you notice between the resources from the beginning of class and the poem? Why? What differences do you notice? What do you think of the line “How to find my soul a home”? Why?
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Whole Class Discussion: How would you describe the speaker? Why? What do you think of the repetition “Nobody, but nobody / Can make it out here alone”? Do you agree or disagree with these lines? Why?
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Extension for Grades 7-8: Write a creative response to the poem, in particular the sixth stanza of the poem that begins with the lines “Now if you listen closely / I’ll tell you what I know …” Your response might be a letter to the poet or someone of your choice or a poem of your own.
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Extension for Grades 9-12: (Teachers, we suggest printing out copies of the poems “Still I Rise” and “On the Pulse of Morning” before class. You can also find audio of “Phenomenal Woman.”) Join with a partner or small group and read or listen to more of Angelou’s work. For each reading, work with your partner or small group to take turns reading the poem aloud and sharing what you liked and noticed about each poem. As a class, discuss the themes that stood out most to you. Why did they stand out? What can we learn from Angelou’s work?
On September 9, 2015, we partnered with Swann Galleries and the Cave Canem Foundation to present Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gregory Pardlo, who paid tribute to the life and work of Maya Angelou on the occasion of the opening exhibit of her private art collection. Angelou’s collection includes over fifty works of modern and contemporary art by African American artists with whom she had long-standing relationships throughout her life. Read more.
Repetition refers to the use of the same word or phrase multiple times and is a fundamental poetic technique. Read more.