Write Like Obama, Speak Like Obama – Lessons with Final Review Quiz

The Teaching Unit for this course can be downloaded as a PDF file in the “Attachments” window. Upon course completion, you can take a Final Review Quiz, by clicking the “Take the Quiz” button. (You must subscribe to this course in order to take the quiz.)

1. English Language Arts emphasis on:

  • Guided Reading
  • Vocabulary Development
  • Journal Writing
  • Speech Making
  • Improvisation

2. PART I: Write like Obama

  • Photos from Obama’s childhood, adolescence and young adulthood used as models for literal and interpretive writing, haiku poetry, journal responses.
  • Selections from Dreams from My Father and comparable excerpts from writer Sandra Cisneros and storyteller Lou Del Bianco as models for descriptive writing, poetic imagery, comparative themes and cultural vocabulary.
  • Political cartoons, student writings used as models for opinion(interpretation) vs. fact (literal) activities.

3. PART II: Speak like Obama

  • Excerpts from Obama’s 2004 speech and 2009 Inaugural address to use to practice speaking.
  • Excerpt from Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech to use to practice speaking.
  • Elizabeth Alexander’s Inaugural poem as a model in poetic imagery and free verse and how they can be interpreted through the spoken word.

4. PART III: Vocabulary Review – Write Like Obama

Questions