Martin Luther King, Jr. Contest and Activities

MLK EMU Luncheon and MLK Celebrations Across the District

Martin Luther King, Jr. contest is held every year at Ypsilanti Public Schools.
MLK Essay winners announced. The YPS annual Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest Winners were announced this week. Over 1,000 students entered in the following categories: Essay, Realistic Fiction, Computer Drawing, Poster, Collage, Math Graphing, Photo Journalism, Poetry and Technology. The Grand Prize Essay Winner is Ypsilanti High School senior, Genevieve Jones. District essay winners have been invited to attend the annual EMU Martin Luther King Jr. Day President's Luncheon, Monday, Jan. 21. Details: Paula Sizemore, (734) 714-1093.

Contest Information
Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay/Creative Arts Contest
Theme: "What does Dr. King's dream of character mean to you?"

Theme taken from one of Dr. King's speeches: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

The theme was selected because we felt that it tied to many of the things that Dr. King said over the years about having a purpose to your life, living your life in a way that will make a difference or inspire others.

This year's categories are the same as in past years except we have added two new categories: Math Graphing and Collage.

Encourage students to use effective, descriptive, exciting, precise and expressive words. It is another opportunity to review the rules of Standard English: punctuation, spelling, capitalization and grammar.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Discussion regarding Dr. King, his life, his values, and his methods all relate to the core democratic values that are being required for the Social Studies MEAP test. Regardless of the grade level that you teach, mentioning these terms and how they relate to the theme provides good exposure to the terminology our students will be expected to know. The core democratic values are:

Fundamental Beliefs:

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness-Americans have a right to life and happiness, as long as they do not hurt others.  Liberties include freedom of ideas, speech, religion, press, privacy and many others.
Common Good-People give up some personal freedoms for the good of a larger group.
Justice-All people are treated fairly.
Equality-All United States citizens shall be treated the same.
Diversity-America is a mixture of different cultures blended together with equal liberties under the law.
Truth-American democracy depends on citizens and government telling the truth.
Popular Sovereignty-The American government is ruled by the people through their vote.
Patriotism-American citizens have a national pride and loyalty to core democratic values.

Needless to say that current and historical events are relevant to this topic.

Suggested MLK Educational Websites:

Encarta Africana
http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/mlk.asp
Martin Luther King, Jr.
King's challenges to segregation and racial discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s helped convince many white Americans to support the cause of civil rights in the United States.

Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.life.com/Life/mlk/mlk.html
A Life Tribute

Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/king.html
He led a mass struggle for racial equality that doomed segregation and changed America forever

Martin Luther King Jr.
http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/1964a.html
Collection of MLK Websites

Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.holidays.net/mlk/
Welcome to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day On the Net
A Celebration of the Man and the Holiday
"I have a dream speech"

Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil-Rights Leader
http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/lucidcafe/library/96jan/king.html
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.jeannepasero.com/mlk.html
"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important."
-Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/mlk/man/MLKsound.html
In His Voice
Excerpts from King's most famous speeches. The first two are from the "I have a dream" speech; the last is from the speech King gave the day before he was assassinated.

Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9087/mlk.html
Arts and Crafts Bulletin Board Discussion Topics Language Activities Lift Every Voice and Sing" Songs for Children Recommended Links

Graphic Organizers

WRITE DESIGN ONLINE
http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/
Five main types of organizers
Graphic organizers are valuable instructional tools.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
http://www.k111.k12.il.us/lafayette/fourblocks/graphic_organizers.htm
Graphic Organizers are used to enhance pre- and post-reading experiences during Guided Reading. Listed below are links to examples and directions for some of the more common graphic organizers:

LEARNING RESOURCES: GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic73.htm
Visual thinking can be expressed in many ways. Graphic organizers are one way for visual thinkers to arrange their ideas. There are unlimited ways to express these visual ideas. Graphic organizers have many names including visual maps, mind mapping, and visual organizers. Although many students plan with paper and pencil, technology tools can be very helpful because they allow easy editing

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm
A graphic organizer is an instructional tool used to illustrate a student or class's prior knowledge about a topic or section of text

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
All types of organizers
It is the hope of the committee that these ideas and suggestions will be of value to you. It is always exciting to see the work that the students have put into these entries. Please stress to each student the need to take pride in the work they submit. The judges are looking for quality work that reflects effort. We look forward to viewing the efforts of the students this year. Thank you for your help and support. 

Copyright 2007 Ypsilanti Public Schools, Ypsilanti, Michigan USA