Warm Up

How do you define American?

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Grab a laptop and go to the site: defineamerican.com

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Watch the pledge of allegiance video and then click on “stories” on the top menu.

Choose some of the videos to watch.

Today’s Game Plan

• Explore: A few case studies of social justice causes
• View: Collaboration Spoken Word Poems
• Do: Work on your own poetry or start a new poem with a partner of a group of three.

Case study 1: Jose Antonio Vargas

Watch: Film Trailer for "Documented"

His “coming out” story: "My Life As A Undocumented Immigrant"

Follow up story: "Not Legal and Not Leaving"

One of Vargas’s Projects: DefineAmerican.com

What does the gov’t say? Obama & Immigration

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Case study 2: Kevin Haebeom Vollmers

Explore website: Land of Gazillion Voices

Read: The stories of adoptees

Listen: Interviews & Podcasts

Collaboration Poems

Slam Poetry: The History of Twerking

• Another point of view: “Learning to twerk alone in my room”

Children of Divorce

White Privilege

Halloween

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Analysis

• What social justice themes/issues are present in the piece?
• What is the effect of multiple voices?
• What stylistic devices are used and how do they add to the message?
• What is the speaker’s intention? What do they want us to know?
• Purpose
• Theme
• Agenda

Work Time

Work on your own poetry or start a new poem with a partner of a group of three.

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Email me a link to a spoken word piece that you would like the class to view. Include a few sentences describing why you feel we should watch this piece.