full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Larry Irvin: A program to empower Black teachers in the US

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I had a chance to teach a summer program a few years back in my hometown of New Orleans. I had a gurop of 32 young men, age ranging from nine to 14, all bclak boys. I wteand to set a tone the first day of class. I want to compare and ctsrnoat the mindsets of the contemporary young folk in contrast to my constituents and how we grew up and how we aespird. So I asked them the old cliché question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Here were the responses. Twenty nine said Kevin Durant. Three said lorebn James. Now, I had two thoughts. First was I was flabbergasted because, obviously, these young boys don't know basketball. Because LeBron is the man, if you ask me. But my second thought was, the narrative still hasn't changed. The scope of possibility is still very limited. Sports, settres, ennteirmtneat. We don't see ourselves really outside of those arenas. Something has to change.

Open Cloze

I had a chance to teach a summer program a few years back in my hometown of New Orleans. I had a _____ of 32 young men, age ranging from nine to 14, all _____ boys. I ______ to set a tone the first day of class. I want to compare and ________ the mindsets of the contemporary young folk in contrast to my constituents and how we grew up and how we _______. So I asked them the old cliché question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Here were the responses. Twenty nine said Kevin Durant. Three said ______ James. Now, I had two thoughts. First was I was flabbergasted because, obviously, these young boys don't know basketball. Because LeBron is the man, if you ask me. But my second thought was, the narrative still hasn't changed. The scope of possibility is still very limited. Sports, _______, _____________. We don't see ourselves really outside of those arenas. Something has to change.

Solution

  1. black
  2. contrast
  3. streets
  4. lebron
  5. aspired
  6. group
  7. wanted
  8. entertainment

Original Text

I had a chance to teach a summer program a few years back in my hometown of New Orleans. I had a group of 32 young men, age ranging from nine to 14, all Black boys. I wanted to set a tone the first day of class. I want to compare and contrast the mindsets of the contemporary young folk in contrast to my constituents and how we grew up and how we aspired. So I asked them the old cliché question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Here were the responses. Twenty nine said Kevin Durant. Three said LeBron James. Now, I had two thoughts. First was I was flabbergasted because, obviously, these young boys don't know basketball. Because LeBron is the man, if you ask me. But my second thought was, the narrative still hasn't changed. The scope of possibility is still very limited. Sports, streets, entertainment. We don't see ourselves really outside of those arenas. Something has to change.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
black male 8
male teacher 3
black men 3
lebron james 2
male teachers 2
cipher series 2
black man 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
black male teacher 3
black male teachers 2

Important Words

  1. age
  2. arenas
  3. asked
  4. aspired
  5. basketball
  6. black
  7. boys
  8. chance
  9. change
  10. changed
  11. class
  12. cliché
  13. compare
  14. constituents
  15. contemporary
  16. contrast
  17. day
  18. durant
  19. entertainment
  20. flabbergasted
  21. folk
  22. grew
  23. group
  24. grow
  25. hometown
  26. james
  27. kevin
  28. lebron
  29. limited
  30. man
  31. men
  32. mindsets
  33. narrative
  34. orleans
  35. possibility
  36. program
  37. ranging
  38. responses
  39. scope
  40. set
  41. sports
  42. streets
  43. summer
  44. teach
  45. thought
  46. thoughts
  47. tone
  48. twenty
  49. wanted
  50. years
  51. young