This course is designed for three hours a day for eight weeks. The normal class process will include a reading component, a writing section, and a discussion or activity section. It is always necessary to continue the format of the three elements mentioned above. Repetition of the format helps organize the time for the class, and also helps the student know what to expect when so that he can fulfill the course requirements.
The following are methods of organizing and presenting materials to the class:
Plan 1
Objectives
to help students understand what the artist does and how he is motivated to produce his art and to help the students develop their own creativity.
Methods
Read three representative poems from three Harlem Renaissance writers: “Yet Do I Marvel,” Countee Cullen, “If We Must Die,” Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes’ “I Too Sing America.” The first three poems should be those which are chosen by the teacher. The student will find visual aids to help explain the poem: newspapers, photographs, magazines, or art work can be used. Once the student has done this with the poetry the teacher has chosen, the student can then choose poetry he likes and following the same format find visual aids to help explain the poem. These visual aids should be displayed and presented to the class during the third hour of the class.
Plan 2
Objectives
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1. Help students to understand what the artist does and how he is motivated to produce art.
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2. To help students express themselves in writing.
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3. To have students begin to read the autobiographies of black Americans.
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4. To help students find relationships between their lives and the lives of other people.
Methods
Read selections from the autobiographies of black Americans. The stories to be used are parts of
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
, written by Alex Haley,
Nigger
by Dick Gregory,
Gemini
and the poem “Nikki Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni.
After reading selections from the early years of these black Americans, students will write a childhood experience they have had. Before students begin to write, the idea of autobiography and childhood experience should be discussed, keeping in mind that although everyone does not have the
same
experience, there is a relationship in the kind of experiences children have. The idea of the similarities of childhood experiences can be begun by having them remember their first adventure, their first time losing somebody (death, getting lost in a strange place, losing a friend), the first time they realized that they were different from other people.
Lesson Plan 3
Objectives
Help students appreciate the black experience and culture and give the student a hands-on experience in the classroom.
Methods
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1. Show the students the
Black Book
, and explain the format of the book. Observe the components of the book with the students newspaper articles, tickets from concerts, pictures, art, crafts, poetry, recipes, folktales, etc.
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2. Explain what a scrapbook is and find out if any of the students have ever made scrapbooks for themselves.
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3. Students can make a scrapbook of the two eras which have been discussed; this can be a thematic scrapbook if they want or they can make a scrapbook of their times.
Additional ideas for lessons:
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1. Read selected poems about growing up and have students write poetry.
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2. Make a storyboard that could be used for the slide presentation and write the script which would be taped.
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3. Family stories—the oral tradition is an important black experience; every family has its own family history. Have the students tell and record their family stories. These family stories should try to give the story the “flavor” that the family gives it. Later in the course the story can be storyboarded for possible filming and writing out.
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4. Make a book of personalities with brief autobiographical sketches accompanied by photographs from each era.
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5. Invite local artists into the class to either exhibit or to explain their art form and their own motivation and message in their art.