MARTIN LUTHER KING WRITING

     In our reading unit, we have been talking about character traits.  I thought Martin Luther King Jr. Day was a great time to integrate reading, writing, and social studies.  Students already had a great understanding of character traits before this lesson.  So, I started with an introduction, who was MLK?  Students obviously had learned about him in previous grades as they clearly stated many facts about him.  After our discussion we watched a video on MLK.  It provided more details about MLK's life.  Next, we made a list of character traits King portrayed.  They had made a list with many ideas from trustworthy to caring to helpful.  The writing portion of this lesson was to prove that MLK really portrayed these character traits.  They had to use a written text, facts from the movie, and their prior knowledge to write an expository paragraph explaining why MLK was a certain character trait.  Below are two videos of some groups working together on this project.   The final project is still being worked on and I hope to hang them in the hallway for the month of February, African American History Month.