Name: ______________________________

My Guilt Maya Angelou

Directions:
Read Maya Angelous poem My Guilt. You have two goals 1) understand the content of
Angelous poem and 2) determine a theme that is revealed in the poem. To do this,
complete the following:

Small Group:
1. Read and breakdown the lines in each stanza.
a. Re-write = write the line in your own words
2. Think about what Maya Angelou believes.

Stanza 1:
1. In your own words, re-write line 1 and 2.

2. In your own words, re-write line 3 and 4

3. In your own words, re-write line 5

Stanza 2:
1. In your own words, re-write line 1 through 3.

2. Connection: Who do you think Vesey, Turner, Marcus, and Martin King are?

3. In your own words, re-write line 5.

Stanza 3:

1. In your own words, re-write line 1 and 2.

2. In your own words, re-write line 3 and 4.

3. In your own words, re-write line 5.

Group: Create a Theme Bag

1. Write the poems theme on the outside of the bag.

Maya Angelou believes that

___________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
.
2. Identify as many pieces of textual evidence support/prove the themes
argument.
Write each piece of evidence on one strip of paper. One strip = one piece of
evidence.
Put each piece of evidence into your theme bag.
3. Complete the following phrase:

The connection between theme and evidence is like

_________________________________ because
________________________________________________________________________

__
________________________________________________________________________
__________.