River View students learn about MLK with unique projects

Leonard L. Hayhurst, Coshocton Tribune
·3 min read
Seventh-graders Timothy Murray, Hudson Cox and Aiden Woitel of River View Junior High School work on zentangles, an art design using words, dots, lines and curves. The piece was to draw inspiration from the life and "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr., coinciding with the annual holiday in his honor.
Seventh-graders Timothy Murray, Hudson Cox and Aiden Woitel of River View Junior High School work on zentangles, an art design using words, dots, lines and curves. The piece was to draw inspiration from the life and "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr., coinciding with the annual holiday in his honor.
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WARSAW — Teacher Mary Bell of River View Junior High School said students have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. for years, so it can take some unique concepts to continue to hammer home his message and impact on society.

Heading into the annual holiday to honor the noted civil rights leader of the 1960s, seventh-grade students completed zentangles and found poems based on King's life and his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

"Everyone thinks Martin Luther King was only about getting equality for black people, but he was not. He wanted peace and equality for everybody. He wanted everybody to be treated equal, regardless of the color of their skin," said Bell, an English Language Arts teacher. "His whole goal just wasn't African Americans, he wanted the whole world to have that equality."

Teacher Mary Bell of River View Junior High School talks with students about Martin Luther King Jr. and a found poetry assignment where they used his bio and text from the "I Have a Dream" speech to create their own work.
Teacher Mary Bell of River View Junior High School talks with students about Martin Luther King Jr. and a found poetry assignment where they used his bio and text from the "I Have a Dream" speech to create their own work.

Found poems use words and phrases from another work rearranged to create a new piece. It should be sections particularly meaningful or interesting to the writer that they then organize around a theme or message.

Students were to find 10 to 15 phrases from a bio on King and a transcript of the "I Have a Dream" speech with an eye toward keying in on themes such as freedom, peace and dreams. They could use their poem topic and conjunctions to bridge the parts.

A zentangle is an art style using structured drawing patterns. While this is often dots, lines and curves, words can also be incorporated as the students did at RVJH. They are usually drawn on single pieces of papers, called tiles, and can be put with others to form mosaics.

"These kids have learned about MLK their entire lives. They know a lot about him. To do just a basic lesson, let's read about him, let's answer questions — that's boring. They've done that for multiple years," said Bell.

Seventh grade students at River View Junior High School watch Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech prior to working on a found poetry assignment using the text of the speech of King's bio to create their own work.
Seventh grade students at River View Junior High School watch Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech prior to working on a found poetry assignment using the text of the speech of King's bio to create their own work.

Art teacher Amy Fox also instructs American History. She wanted to incorporate Martin Luther King Day into her curriculum. For her history class, it's about looking at the impact King had on society and contemplating what would be different if he hadn't led the charge for equality when he did and how he did.

"I knew this was a subject we were going to do anyway and it was one that would be more meaningful," Fox said of incorporating MLK into the art lesson. "It's talking about what we've learned from what's happened in the past. What if he hadn't been a speaker? What if he hadn't been peaceful, but more violent of a protester? What could have happened if he had not gone about it the way he had or not spoken up at all?"

Seventh-graders Neveah Stevens and Peyton Vickers of River View Junior High School work on zentangles, an art design using words, dots, lines and curves. The piece was to draw inspiration from the life and "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr., coinciding with the annual holiday in his honor.
Seventh-graders Neveah Stevens and Peyton Vickers of River View Junior High School work on zentangles, an art design using words, dots, lines and curves. The piece was to draw inspiration from the life and "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr., coinciding with the annual holiday in his honor.

These are questions student Addelynn Roberson had. She liked the found poetry lesson, because she thought it fit with King's speaking style, which sounded like poetry to her.

"It was a big deal back then and it really impacted today's society," she said of the Civil Right Movement. "If that hadn't happened, what would today's society be about?"

llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com

@llhayhurst

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This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: River View students learn about MLK with unique projects