Martin Luther King Jr - Core Knowledge Foundation

Martin Luther King Jr.’s
“I Have a Dream” Speech

by Tim Bailey

UNIT OBJECTIVE

This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based
teaching resources. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize,
and analyze original texts of historical significance. Students will demonstrate this
knowledge by writing summaries of selections from the original document and, by the
end of the unit, articulating their understanding of the complete document by answering
questions in an argumentative writing style to fulfill the Common Core State Standards.
Through this step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze any primary
or secondary source material.

While the unit is intended to flow over a five-day period, it is possible to present and
complete the material within a shorter time frame. For example, the first two days can be
used to ensure an understanding of the process with all of the activity completed in class.
The teacher can then assign lessons three and four as homework. The argumentative
essay is then written in class on day three.

LESSON 1

OBJECTIVE

Students will be asked to “read like a detective” and discover what Martin Luther King
Jr. was talking about in his “I Have a Dream” speech, given on August 28, 1963, at the
March on Washington, by knowing what is explicitly stated, drawing logical inferences,
and demonstrating these skills by writing a succinct summary using the author’s words
and then restating that summary in the student’s own words. In the first lesson this will be
facilitated by the teacher and done as a whole-class lesson.

INTRODUCTION

Tell the students that they will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a
Dream” speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, DC. Resist the temptation to put the document into too much context.
Remember, we are trying to let the students discover Dr. King’s message based solely on
his words.

MATERIALS

• “I Have a Dream” Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (abridged) (PDF)
• Full text of the “I Have a Dream” Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (PDF). Provided for

the teacher’s reference.
• Summary Organizer #1 (PDF)
• Overhead projector, Elmo projector, or similar device

PROCEDURE

1. All students are given an abridged copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a
Dream” speech and then are asked to read it silently to themselves. Make certain that
students understand that the original text has been edited for this lesson. Explain the
purpose and use of ellipses.

2. The teacher then “share reads” the document with the students. This is done by
having the students follow along silently while the teacher begins reading aloud. The
teacher models prosody, inflection, and punctuation. The teacher then asks the class
to join in with the reading after a few sentences while the teacher continues to read
along with the students, still serving as the model for the class. This technique will
support struggling readers as well as English Language Learners (ELL).

3. The teacher explains that the class will be analyzing the first part of the “I Have a
Dream” speech today and that they will be learning how to do in-depth analysis for
themselves. All students are given a copy of Summary Organizer #1. This contains
the first selection from King’s address.

4. The teacher puts a copy of Summary Organizer #1 on display in a format large
enough for all of the class to see (an overhead projector, Elmo projector, or similar
device) and explains that today the whole class will be going through this process
together.

5. Explain that the objective is to select “Key Words” from the first section and then use

those words to create a summary sentence that gets at the gist of what Dr. King was
saying in the first section of the document.
6. Guidelines for Selecting Key Words: Key Words are very important contributors to
understanding the paragraph. They are usually nouns or verbs. Don’t pick
“connector” words (are, is, the, and, so, etc.). The number of Key Words depends on
the length of the original paragraph. This selection is 249 words long so we can pick
up to ten Key Words. The other Key Words rule is that we cannot pick words if we
don’t know what they mean. As the class begins selecting words, there will be
opportunities to teach students how to use context clues, word analysis, and
dictionary skills to discover word meanings
7. Students will now select up to ten words from the text that they believe are Key
Words and write them in the box to the right of the text on their organizer.
8. The teacher now surveys the class to find out what the most popular choices were.
The teacher can either tally this or just survey by show of hands. Using this vote and
some discussion, the class should, with guidance from the teacher, decide on ten Key
Words. For example, let’s say that the class decides on the following words: freedom,
Emancipation Proclamation (two words that together make up a single idea can be
used if it makes sense to do so in context), hope, Negro, segregation, discrimination,
shameful, Declaration of Independence, promise, and unalienable rights. Now, no
matter which words the students had previously selected, have them write the words
agreed upon by the class or chosen by you into the Key Word list in their organizer.
9. The teacher now explains that the class will use the Key Words to write a sentence (or
two) that gets at the gist of what Dr. King was saying. This should be a whole-class
discussion-and-negotiation process. For example, “The Emancipation Proclamation
brought hope, but segregation and discrimination are still part of Negro life, and that
is shameful because the Declaration of Independence promised all people unalienable
rights.” You might find that the class decides they don’t need some of the Key Words
chosen to make the summary even more streamlined. This is part of the negotiation
process. The final negotiated sentence(s) should be copied into the organizer in the
third section under the original text and Key Word sections.
10. The teacher explains that the students will now restate their summary sentence in
their own words, not having to use Dr. King’s words. Again, this is a class
discussion-and-negotiation process. For example “African Americans were promised
the same rights as everyone else but that hasn’t happened yet.”
11. Wrap-up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. If you
choose, you could even have students use the back of their organizers to make a note
of these words and their meaning.

Name: ______________________________________________________

“I Have a Dream” Speech

Original Text:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the
greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we
stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree is
a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared
in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the
long night of their captivity. But 100 years later the Negro still is not free. One
hundred years later the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles
of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later the
Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in
the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So
we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the
architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution
and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to
which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—
yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable
rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. . . .

Reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers
House as the proprietor New York, NY. Copyright: © 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. © renewed
1991 Coretta Scott King

Summary:
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In Your Own Words:
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h, Summary Organizer 1

Key Words:
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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
www.gilderlehrman.org