Lesson Plan: Dare to Dream

Essential Questions

• How did racism affect everyday life for Black Americans in recent U.S. history?
• What does it take to make your dreams a reality?

Literature Connection

• Novel: Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
• Graphic novel: Bessie Coleman: Daring Stunt Pilot by Trina Robbins

Preview Text Features (5 minutes)

Guide students to locate the play. Then help them preview the text features using the following prompts:

• Read the play’s title and subtitle (the text beneath the title). To “dare to dream” means to have the courage to hope for something that is unlikely. Why might it have taken courage for Bessie Coleman to dream of being a pilot? Answers will vary. Sample answer: The subtitle says that Coleman was the country’s first Black and Native American woman pilot. You can guess that she didn’t fit the image of a pilot at the time. It would have taken courage to set that goal for herself, knowing that few people would support or even understand her ambition. 
• Read the sidebar “Time Machine: Bessie’s America.” What are three ways in which American life in 1918 was different from life today? Airplanes were pretty new in 1918. In the South, Black children and White children were sent to separate schools. Women couldn’t vote.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Direct students’ attention to the vocabulary box. Read the words (aviation, spectator, tailspin, plummets, achieve) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading by telling students they’ll make inferences while reading “Dare to Dream.” Explain that making an inference means using clues from the text to figure out something that isn’t stated. 
• Point out the activity at the end of the play. Tell students they will complete it after reading.

• Assign roles to students and read the play aloud as a class. Stop after each scene and ask students to summarize what happened.
• After reading, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• In Scene 1, what does Gus mean when he tells Bessie, “You’ve got three strikes against you”? (interpreting text) Gus means that Bessie has three qualities that will make it difficult to achieve her dream of becoming a pilot: She’s Black, she’s a woman, and she’s shorter than the average pilot.  
• Based on Scene 2, why does Robert Abbott pay for Bessie’s pilot training in France? (character’s motivation) Abbott pays for Bessie’s training to help Bessie and himself. As one of America’s first Black millionaires, he probably knows how difficult it is to pursue your dreams as a Black person in America and wants to improve Bessie’s chances. Bessie’s success will also make him richer. He states that his newspaper will write about Bessie’s story, which will sell a lot of papers.
• In Scene 3, what do you learn from Bessie’s letters to Abbott? Why do you think the author chose to present this information through letters and not through dialogue? (author’s craft) Through the letters, we learn that Bessie is working hard, having fun, and making progress toward her goal of becoming a pilot. The letters provide this information more quickly than dialogue would.
• In Scene 4, what do you learn about Bessie from her reaction to the “Whites only” gate? (character) We learn that Bessie has a strong sense of right and wrong, and that she isn’t afraid to speak up when she sees injustice. She doesn’t like the idea of Black people being made to enter the airfield through a different gate, so she tells the tour guide that she won’t perform unless they change the rules. She wants everyone to be treated equally.
• In Scene 5, you learn that Bessie planned to open a flight school. Why was this important to  her? (character’s motivation) Bessie believed that children were the hope of the future, and she wanted to encourage them to dream big. You can also guess that because she’d been forced to leave the country in order to learn to fly, Bessie wanted to create more opportunities for people of color in the U.S. 
• Where in Scene 5 is there a clue that something might go wrong later in the play? (plot) In Scene 6, Bessie dies when her plane goes into a tailspin and she falls out of it. We learn that her seat belt wasn’t buckled. In Scene 5, we have a clue that something like this might happen when Abbott says, “Promise me you’ll wear your seatbelt today?” and Bessie’s reply suggests that she won’t.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• Based on the play, how did Bessie affect the lives of Black kids who witnessed what she achieved? (drawing conclusions) Bessie inspired Black kids to dare to dream. Ruby Mae is an example. Her note to Bessie reads, “I want to be a pilot like you. You made me believe I can.”  
• What’s a dream of yours that might seem impossible to others? What do you think it would take for you to make it a reality? (making connections) Answers will vary.

• Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Inference activity.
• Assign students to work independently on our Elements of Historical Fiction Skill Builder.  (Click here to see all your Skill Builders for this feature.)
• Writing prompt: Imagine that you’re another student from Ruby Mae’s school, and you have the chance to speak at a memorial event for Bessie. Write a short speech about Bessie and what she meant to you. Include details about Bessie’s visit to your school, her accomplishments as a pilot, and the kind of person she was. Use information from the play as well as your own imagination.