A classroom activity .Maya Angelou. Language through the Culture

Classroom Activities MAYA ANGELOU

Level: Low Intermediate

Time required:10 minutes

Goals: To get students to speak and listen to one another, to listen to general information, to activate background knowledge, to practice answering WH- questions, to develop pair and group cooperation.

Materials : Photos, the biography of Maya Angelou, a list of questions,6 or more envelopes with questions(divide all questions into 6 and put them into 6 envelopes)

Preparation: Create one set of questions and a text with biography for each group of three to four students. To help the learner read the text ,prepare lists of realities and definitions from the text for each group too.

Procedures: This is a simple exercise in which students ask questions to identify the famous personality. Before the beginning of this activity show the photo of Maya Angelou to the students and ask the question :

-Guess, what the text might be about? Who is this? How old is she? Where is she from? What is her profession? Etc.Students can predict the content of the text by the looking at the title ,reviewing photos.

a) The students form groups of 3 or 4students .Each group receives a biography of the writer and an envelope ,that contains pieces of paper on which “Wh”-questions are written. Ask your students to carefully read the biography and find the answers on giving questions.(each group has only three questions)Each member of the group select only one question from the envelope and answers it.

1 What is her name?

2 Where was she born?

3 When was she born?

4 Where did she grow up?

5 What is her occupation?

6 What kind of her works are best known?

7 Which autobiographical books did she write?

8 Which of her autobiographical book was nominated for the National Book Award?

9 Which of her poems was nominated for the Pulitzer prize?

10 When did she become the northern coordinator fo r the Southern Christian Leadership Conference?

11 What kind of job did she do in Egypt and in the Middle East?

12 What did she do in Accra, Ghana?

13 When did she return to the U.S.?

14 By whom was she appointed to the Commission for International Woman of the Year?

15 Why did she write a poem “On The Pulse of the Morning”?

16 What did she do in Hollywood as the first black woman director ?

17For which work did she receive the Golden Eagle Award?

18 Why was she twice nominated for a Tony award?

Give your students a fixed time period 4 (four) minutes to discuss the questions and complete the tasks. After the small groups have discussed each question, students in the class ,who have the same “Wh”- question form their own group,for example, all students, holding a “what” question meet in one group and discuss their responses. Debrief the groups by asking the following questions :What did you learn about Maya Angelou?

Outcomes:

a)Students read the text,

b)Students discuss a reading selections,

c)Students answer “wh”questions and discuss their responses in two different groups

d)Students learn the new information about a famous person.

Resources: Internet Биография MAYA ANGELOU | MotoLyrics.ru http://motolyrics.ru/maya-angelou.html#ixzz2x5ei82Zq 
Forum№2\2012,Forum,January 2000,Forum№3\2009 Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She is an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical books: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), The Heart of a Woman (1981), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), Gather Together in My Name (1974), and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award. Among her volumes of poetry are A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, 1995), The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994), Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987), I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983), Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), and Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize. In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1961 to 1962 she was associate editor of The Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East, and from 1964 to 1966 she was feature editor of the African Review in Accra, Ghana. She returned to the U.S. in 1974 and was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. She accepted a lifetime appointment in 1981 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request. The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou has written, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia, and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries "Three Way Choice." She has also written and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including "Afro-Americans in the Arts," a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. Maya Angelou was twice nominated for a Tony award for acting: once for her Broadway debut in Look Away (1973), and again for her performance in Roots (1977). From http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/87

collapse

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

Maya Angelou

Change, Attitude

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Maya Angelou

Time, Shows

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

Maya Angelou

Hope, Love, Work

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.

Maya Angelou

God, Else, Remember

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

Maya Angelou

Valentine's Day, Love, Smile

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

Maya Angelou

Romantic, Love, Hope

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Maya Angelou

Education, Mother, Ignorance

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

Maya Angelou

Anger, Fire, Bitterness

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

Maya Angelou

Learning, Life, Able

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Maya Angelou

Courage, Virtue, Practice

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Maya Angelou

Music, Between, Loneliness

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou

Great, Story, Greater

Nothing will work unless you do.

Maya Angelou

Work, Unless

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

Maya Angelou

Time, Beauty, Strength

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

Maya Angelou

Love, Respect, Die

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Maya Angelou

History, Courage, Pain

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

Maya Angelou

Mean, Words, Takes

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

Maya Angelou

Home, Place, Lives

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Maya Angelou

May, Defeated, Encounter

All great achievements require time.

Maya Angelou

Time, Great, Require

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

Maya Angelou

Life, Great, Laugh

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

Maya Angelou

Good, Him, Book

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Maya Angelou

Courage, True, Cannot

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

Maya Angelou

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/maya_angelou.html#bErVC7Th8wRsyMrj.99