The All-Time Greatest Panel linked famous historical figures to Obama's "State Of the Union" speech. The panel started with an opening statement given by ourselves pretending to be our character, and later flowed into a discussion.
5th graders from High Tech Middle were invited to listen to our opening statements and discussion. They participated by asking questions in order to get a better understanding of how our character would be interested in Obama's speech.
my Opening statement for muhammad ali
The economy and the struggle for racial equality has improved tremendously over the years. There is no doubt in my mind that because of everything that my fellow civil rights activists and I, have strived to achieve, we’re able to live in a free country today. Congratulations, all the hard work has finally paid off. And there is also hard work being put into funding research just like my reasearch center, the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s center, is doing. But even with these accomplishments, civil liberties is yet to be further worked on.
Obama said that he still believes we are one despite what others say. And in a prior speech he said that we aren’t black America or white America. We are the United States of America. Therefore, don’t listen to what others have to say, because there will always be people trying to bring you down. Protect your dreams just like we did in the 1960’s. We protected and stood by what we believed in and because of that we have all the rights to say that America has changed for the better.
As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984. And in 1997, I opened up an outpatient rehabilitation center that offers many programs to help those with diseases or disorders. Obama mentioned that he was starting a Precision Medicine Initiative in order to advance the process of curing diseases like cancer and diabetes. I was very satisfied to hear that Obama is taking the initiative in funding research just like how my center is doing. However, he should focus on creating more centers like mine. Either way,Obama and I, along with many others, are striving to improve the health of everyone. And to quote Obama directly, “we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier.”
Obama said that he still believes we are one despite what others say. And in a prior speech he said that we aren’t black America or white America. We are the United States of America. Therefore, don’t listen to what others have to say, because there will always be people trying to bring you down. Protect your dreams just like we did in the 1960’s. We protected and stood by what we believed in and because of that we have all the rights to say that America has changed for the better.
As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984. And in 1997, I opened up an outpatient rehabilitation center that offers many programs to help those with diseases or disorders. Obama mentioned that he was starting a Precision Medicine Initiative in order to advance the process of curing diseases like cancer and diabetes. I was very satisfied to hear that Obama is taking the initiative in funding research just like how my center is doing. However, he should focus on creating more centers like mine. Either way,Obama and I, along with many others, are striving to improve the health of everyone. And to quote Obama directly, “we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier.”
Overall, the panel was fun and and educational at the same time. I learned a lot about my character, Muhammad Ali. It was interesting to me because most of were really interested in getting into character and we dressed up and even thought about how our character would actually respond to the questions asked. I'm especially proud of my opening statement because I studied Ali's speeches/poetry carefully and I tried to make it sound like something he would actually say. I used it as mentor text and I tried to make it sound similar. I liked learning that I could change the words of one of Ali's speeches but still keep the meaning behind it. This was definitely a fun project.
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