Welcome to the Grade 4/5 class blog.

When the students came back after the holiday, they were asked to respond to a question. The question was, "If you could change the world for the better, what would you change?"

There were many wonderful responses (e.g., stop war, more housing, recycle more...). So...we've been trying to explore how we can make changes for the better in our classroom community and we have been learning about people who did make a difference (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges...).

This blog is a space where I'll be posting links to the videos that we watch in class. It's a space where I can share with parents the essence of some of the discussions that we have. It's also a space where I'll be posting some assignments and talking about some of the activities that we do.

We "have a dream" that our classroom community will be an exciting and compassionate space where the conversations will continue at home.

This blog is a work in progress. Over the next week or so, the format will gradually change.

Monday, January 10, 2011

I Have A Dream

Here's a link to Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have A Dream" speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Not only did we discuss the content of the speech, we watched carefully to figure out why he was an engaging speaker. We noticed things like the amount of eye contact, gestures, changes in volume and pacing, and the way that his speech was structured.
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