“I Have a Dream”

Eighth graders are currently engaged in a year-long theater class. During the first semester, theater arts teacher Tiki Fuhro has collaborated with her Middle School colleagues to enrich student learning in history and English. They have performed the short story The Bear Who Wasn’t—a parable on identity—for Lower School classes. They also worked on Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in conjunction with their current study of the Civil Rights Movement.

Students were asked to explore the relevance of the speech today, and to name their own dreams for the present and the future. Then they brought King’s words to life using their own voices as an exercise in public speaking. Each class rehearsed separately, creating their own staging, and then put the pieces together for one full presentation of King’s famous text during a Middle School assembly.