Mariners class keeps MLK tradition alive
For 10 years, students in Cass Powell’s class at Mariners Elementary School have participated in an annual tradition for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which will be observed Monday.
Besides studying King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech that the civil-rights leader delivered more than 50 years ago, Powell’s sixth-graders become performers as they give a theatrical reading of the speech to other classes at the Newport Beach campus.
“Some of my current students remember watching the reader’s theater performance years ago when they were in their second- or first-grade classes,” Powell said Thursday, the first of two days of performances that ended Friday.
The students spent almost two weeks rehearsing the reading, a piece containing excerpts of King’s speech arranged by author Joan Nichols. Powell divvied up solo and group lines for her performers to read aloud.
Two years ago, sixth-grade teacher Jennifer Moss had her class join Powell’s students’ tradition of going door to door and performing the piece.
For this year’s reading, each class visited 11 classrooms, nearly every class at the school.
The familiar lines of King’s speech — “Let freedom ring!” and “Free at last! Free at last! — echoed through the rooms.
Second-grade teacher Lori Maurer said having her students watch the performance by Powell’s class Thursday brought life to the writing assignments they had done recently about King’s life.
Joan Duncan’s third-grade class, which Powell’s performers also visited Thursday, had already listened to audio of King’s speech and read books about his life.
Duncan said those studies are a good way for students to learn acceptance of people not only of different races but also of different family backgrounds and learning abilities.
Powell’s class concluded its studies of King on Friday by watching a video of him delivering the “I Have a Dream” speech.
