The Magic History of Maya Angelou

The Magic History of Maya Angelou

Want to know the magic history of Maya Angelou and improve your reading skills and graded vocabulary? Engage your readers with one high-interest reading informational text and corresponding questions! 

It includes a warming-up activity to motivate them to learn about the topic and to check their prior knowledge on the topic, a reading text, some reading comprehension questions, two vocabulary activities, a collaborative exercise, and some final discussion points to deal with in a heads-together activity. You will also find the answer key and a printer-friendly version of the text.

Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first one, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and it brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Basic Facts

Maya Angelou ( born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, author, writer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, films, and television shows spanning over 50 years.

She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou was best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard

’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou