

At a Glance
Language
English — USSubject
- English & Language Arts
Grade
6–12- Culture & Identity
Overview
Amanda Gorman captured the nation's attention with her inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb," and since then has published a children's book, penned a poem for the Super Bowl, and published an anthology of her poetry, Call Us What We Carry. To usher in the new year, she shared a new poem, “New Day’s Lyric,” which invites us to reflect on both the hardships and the hopes we are experiencing at the beginning of 2022. She begins the poem by writing:
May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
This mini-lesson uses “New Day’s Lyric” to invite students to reflect on the challenges they and their communities have faced recently and how we can respond collectively to these challenges and create positive change.
What follows are teacher-facing instructions for the activities. Find student-facing instructions in the Google Slides for this resource.
Activities
Activities
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