2/9/2027

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

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Literacy of the Day

The girl who read her way back to her voice

Today’s writer went through something so painful as a child that she stopped talking completely — for five years. Here’s what brought her voice back: books.

Portrait of Maya Angelou Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Meet Maya Angelou! Something very sad happened to Maya when she was young, and for a long time she didn’t want to talk at all. But she still loved words — so she read every single book she could find.

Word of the Day: VOICE. Your voice is how you share your thoughts with the world. Sometimes it takes time to find it — and that’s okay.

Maya Angelou read many books, found her voice again, and became a famous poet
Let’s talk
  • Have you ever felt like you didn’t want to talk? What helped you feel better?
  • Why might reading books help someone who is sad or quiet?
  • What’s your favorite book to read when you want to feel better?
Reveal a factHide the fact
Maya read every single book in her town’s library for Black readers! When she finally started talking again, she had SO much to say — and grew up to write famous poems and books.
Try it

Whisper your favorite word! Everybody pick one word you love the sound of — like Maya did — and whisper it to a partner. What word did you pick, and why?

Quote of the day: Reflecting on her years of silence, she said, “I was saved… I was able to draw from human thought, human disappointments and triumphs, enough to triumph myself.”

Who said it?Hide
Portrait of Maya Angelou Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Maya Angelou — after a painful childhood experience, she went silent for nearly five years. During that time, a family friend named Mrs. Flowers helped bring her voice back by reading great literature aloud with her. Angelou went on to write I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and become one of America’s most celebrated poets.

Mrs. Flowers gave young Maya a simple rule: books weren’t just to read silently — she had to read them aloud. That single instruction changed everything.

Comparison of reading silently and reading aloud, and why reading aloud mattered for Maya Angelou
Let’s talk
  • Why might reading a book aloud, alone in a room, feel safer than talking directly to another person?
  • Angelou said her years of silence let her “draw from human thought” through reading. How can reading give you words for feelings you don’t have words for yet?
  • She became one of the most celebrated public speakers in the world after five years of not speaking at all. What does that suggest about how people change over time?
Reveal the answersHide the answers
Reading aloud to no one is low stakes — the book doesn’t judge, and you can start small. It let her practice using her voice again without the pressure of a real conversation. And books gave her borrowed language for things too big to say herself — other people’s words became a bridge to her own. Her later transformation into a celebrated speaker proves that a struggle at one point in life doesn’t fix your whole story; it becomes one chapter, not the ending.
Try it

Read it aloud! Pick a paragraph from any book nearby and read it out loud to a partner — with real expression, like you’re performing it. Notice how different it feels from reading the same words silently in your head.

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.