pmafricanam

Authentic Writing
Famous African Americans
Speech Assignment

The Assignment

Pre-Writing Activity

List of African Americans

Grade Level: Middle School
Class: Language Arts/Social Studies
Materials: access to a Library facility, Internet, periodicals, word processors, note cards

The Assignment

This is an speech writing activity that I use during Black History Month to celebrate and pay tribute to the many African American individuals who have made significant contributions in America's history. It also fulfills a speech writing requirement mandated by our Kentucky's Core Content for Assessment. Many students are only aware of the accomplishments of current well-known African Americans in the fields of sports and entertainment, so it's important to provide a means for students to research lesser known individuals in a variety of fields. Also, it's vitally important to enlist the help of your school librarian. I provided the names on my famous people list to her well in advance, so that she could pull reference materials and start a web site search in anticipation of our visit. On the same day that I announced the assignment to my students, I let them pick a name to research in the library. I told them that they would be given a report sheet and note cards to help organize their information. Although I gave them the report sheet that required them to gather specific information, I encouraged them to include additional information that would add excitement and fun to their speech presentation. It's important to be flexible in terms of how they present their speech, but I did require that the speeches be written and presented in the first-person point of view. By using first-person, the students could more easily step into the role of their character and use their imaginations and creativity to entertain the class. I encouraged them to use props in their presentations, but it was not a requirement and bonus points were not given. (Bill Pickens, the black cowboy, entertained us dressed in a vest, boots, and a huge Stetson hat.) The students learned a lot and the speeches were a huge success. It's a good idea to videotape the actual speech presentations.

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Pre-Writing Activity

A simple pre-writing activity is to have students brainstorm the names of outstanding African Americans who have made valuable contributions in a variety of areas. They can include explorers, educators, inventors, scientists, poets, actors, civil rights leaders, and athletes. Be sure to stress that many of these individuals beat incredible odds and overcame barriers of prejudice to accomplish what they did. This should be a teacher led activity, in order to keep the discussions flowing and on track.

List of African Americans

Each of these African Americans played a significant role in the lives of all Americans. Obviously, there are many more names that could be included, but this is a good start for you. I tried to include individuals from all walks of life including: civil rights leaders, historical figures, sports personalities, literary figures, and the entertainment industry.

Dred Scott	Crispus Attucks	Harriet Tubman
Sojourner Truth	Jackie Robinson	Benjamin Banneker
Frederick Douglas	Booker T. Washington	George Washington Carver
Martin Luther King, Jr.	Madame C.J. Walker	Thurgood Marshall
Marian Anderson	Matthew Henson	W.E.B. Dubois
Louis Armstrong	Langston Hughes	Duke Ellington
Charles Drew	Rosa Parks	Jesse Owens
Malcolm X	Maya Angelou	Count Basie
Mary McLeod Bethune	Nat King Cole	Bessie Coleman
Dorothy Dandridge	Colin Powell	Hank Aaron
Satchel Paige	Paul Laurence Dunbar	W.C. Handy
Mahalia Jackson	Bill Pickett	Ethel Waters
Ralph Abernathy	Angela Davis	Ozzie Smith
Muhammad Ali	Joe Louis	Wilma Rudolph
Alex Haley	Alice Walker	Phyllis Wheatley
Dizzy Gillespie	Cab Calloway	Count Basie
Huey Newton	Julian Bond	Mae Jemison
Andrew Young	Sidney Poitier	Ida B. Wells
Coretta Scott King	Carter G. Woodson	Clara Ward
Sonny Terry	Howlin' Wolf	Bessie Smith

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Procedures

I told the students about the research/speech assignment on day one and that they would be required to go to the library the following day to begin gathering information for their speech. I thought that the only fair way to assign the names would be to have each student draw the name of an important or influential African American from a box. I had already composed a list of the individuals I wanted to include in this activity. Now the students had the assignment information, an individual's name to research, and some index cards to help them organize their information.

As students researched their famous African American character, they were required to compile the information that they found on a report form. I've found that it is important to give students some guidelines for researching, rather than just turning them loose in the library with no formal way of recording information (the index cards were to be used in any way they chose to use them). Also, this allowed me to avoid being constantly plagued with questions regarding my expectations of each student. I typed a form sheet that asked for the following information:

Name of individual
Date of birth
Place of birth (if applicable)
Date of death (if applicable)
Significant childhood experiences
Occupation
Significant achievements
What do you admire the most about this individual

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Scoring Rubric

Up to 5 points is possible for each category. Give students some points in every category. I used the blank space at the left to give point values and the YES/NO columns were used for checks.
.

Organization:		Yes	No
Introduction	.	..	.
..	Present topic with strong lead	.	.
.	Provide overview of main points	.	.
Body		.	.
.	Present each point in detail	.	.
Closing		.	.
.	Summarize main points	.	.
.	Close with memorable statement	.	.
Content:		Yes	No
..	Appropriate to title	..	..
..	Evidence of comprehensive research	..	..
..	Significant information	..	..
..	Orderly flow and sequence	..	..
..	Accurate	..	..
..	Clear	..	..
..	Correct Usage	..	..
..	Specialized vocabulary	..	..
Mechanics:		Yes	No
	Clear enunciation	..	..
...	Expressive voice	..	..
...	Adequate volume	..	..
..	Steady pace	..	..
..	Eye contact with audience	..	..
..	Feet "planted"; minimal walking about	..	..
..	Good posture	..	..

Student's name_______________________________________

Scorer's Name_______________________________________

The best thing about the report is:

One way to improve your report would be to:

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Student Sample

George Washington Carver

    Opening
    No one ever dreamed that this weak, sickly child would grow up to be one of the most distinguished agriculturist in America. Hello, my name is George Washington Carver and just like brother Martin Luther King, I had a dream. A dream that would dominate my entire life and that would cause me to devote my whole life to that purpose. But wait a minute-I'm sorta putting the cart before the horse. Let me go back and start at the beginning.
    Early Life
    I was born to a slave girl near Diamond Grove, Missouri in 1864. I was raised by my owner, Moses Carver. Master Carver and his wife were awfully good to me and my brother Jim and treated us as their own sons. My brother Jim helped Master Moses outside, but because I was so sickly I had to work indoors with Miss Susan. I was a fast learner and Miss Susan taught me everything she knew about reading, cooking, sewing, and baking. I absorbed this information like a sponge. I had such a thirst for knowledge.
    Off To School
    Master Moses and Ms. Susan recognized my exceptional observational skills and keen curiosity. They also realized my love of nature and animals were well beyond my years. They soon realized that I needed to go off to regular school. Those days colored children, like me, were not allowed in the schools for white children so they sent me to Neasha, Missouri to attend the school for colored children. Later, I moved to Fort Schott, Kansas to attend high school and in 1891, I was admitted into Iowa State University and earned a BS in 1894 and an MS in 1897 in "Bacterial Botany" and "Agriculture".
    Adult Life
    My school days were difficult because I never had enough money and frequently had to drop out and enroll again. During that time I had to take on numerous jobs to support myself. I did every job with devotion and I quickly gained recognition everywhere I went. After college, I worked at Iowa State University. I was the first African American among the teaching faculty. But in 1897, Booker T. Washington convinced me to go to the Tuskegee Institute for Negroes to serve as the school's director of agriculture. I remained there until my death.

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Teacher Commentary

This was such a fun activity for the students and me. Although initially most of the students dreaded the thought of all the research involved and also of presenting a speech in front of an audience, the end result was certainly worth all the work. The student's ability to express themselves and their creative skills were quite evident in their final products. This lesson taught the students that speaking is an important method for communicating knowledge and ideas to others. The lesson is also a good collaboration of social studies (learning about people from the past) and the language arts. But most of all it demonstrated that learning about can be lots of fun.

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Online Resources

This is an excellent site for a collection of names of African American individuals who have been honored with a commemorative postal stamp. It gives you a wonderful biography of each recipient.

http://library.thinkquest.org/10320/Stamps.htm

This site contains an extensive archive of web sites related to Black History. When you get to the Education World's main home page, simply type in the words- Black History- in the search space.

http://www.education-world.com

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