Hardship and Hope: Teaching Amanda Gorman’s “New Day’s Lyric”
This Teaching Idea invites students to analyze Amanda Gorman’s poem “New Day’s Lyric” and create a class poem about hope and collective action during challenging times.
Designed for students in grades 6-7, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a two-week unit exploring the essential question “How do we become who we want to be in the world?”
This Mini-Lesson asks students to reflect on how education has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and to propose changes they would like to see in schools when the pandemic ends.
Students will engage in perspective-taking activities to consider what it means to belong and how experiences and interactions with others can shape our identities.
Students will watch a short animated film and create illustrated “pearls of wisdom” to consider why it is important to develop relationships that help us feel seen, valued, and secure.
Students will read and analyze a poem that focuses on what it means to practice celebrating identity, both by loving who you are and by imagining who you can be.
Create a culminating experience for your students that helps them draw new connections between the concepts and ideas presented in this text set, themselves, and the world today.
Incorporate these community-building routines into your lessons to set a welcoming tone, allow students to connect with one another, and encourage goal setting.