Angelou, M. (1978). Still I Rise. Retrieved, September 30, 2018, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise
(poem, above grade level, teacher led)
Still I Rise is a poem from Maya Angelou’s third volume of poetry And Still I Rise. This poem uses a lot of imagery to show the idea of strength over oppression and injustice. Maya Angelou stresses the idea of resilience in the repeated phrase, “I Rise.” This poem has a lot of cultural relevance now that may also lend itself to some discussion on discrimination and the history of slavery.
This poem would be a good higher level addition to this text set, for students to get practice reading poems out loud. It would specifically address the CCSS standard RL5.2: how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic. It would tie in with the focus of this text set on the importance of point of view (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6: Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.) and how Angelou uses her “voice” to get her point across. Students could also make text-to-self connections as well, reflecting on times when they may have felt hopeless or downtrodden (for fifth graders, most likely as a result of bullying) and discussing how they may have “risen” from it/how they came to know their own self-worth.