Distinctive Voices...

I am currently trying to craft a unit of work for English based on the idea of "Distinctive Voices". The distinctive voices that the students are required to study are prescribed by the New South Wales Board of Studies. However, teachers do have some flexibility in terms of the specific / actual activities that they use to teach the material.

The "I Have A Dream" speech by Martin Luther King is an excellent speech to study. This excellence derives as much from the content of the speech as it does from the structure and techniques that Dr. King uses in conveying that content. I have always enjoyed the images that this speech allows us to create in our own heads (note to self: critical literacy).

In a sense we have 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 would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 


It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check – a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

I attach the speech for your viewing pleasure. Any one with ideas for lesson plans or activities, then feel free to share! I am currently focusing on this little section of the speech below looking at things like alliteration, lists, tone, repetition and anaphora.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 


I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ 


I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. 


I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 


I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.