Overview and Outcomes:

This is a 12-session Reading Leaf for two poems about freedom - Caged Bird by Maya Angelou and I, Too by Langston Hughes.  Children will identify the poetic and figurative language used throughout both poems and discuss the motivations of the poets in writing the poems and the impressions created for the reader.  They go on to compare and contrast the language and the themes presented in both poems and also perform both with a partner.

Synopsis of text:

We chose these poems for a Literary Leaf as they are a pair of poems threaded together through one particular social and historical context, and yet there is relevance within both that could be discussed with the children to look at human rights and attitudes to race and women today.

Links:

Human rights, race, equality, feminism