Objective
: Students will be able to write an essay of at least 250 words comparing one American novel with another.
Preparation
: Though not necessarily in the same school year, students should have read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
The Scarlet Letter
and James Baldwin’s
Go Tell It On The Mountain
discussing the ways in which both authors incorporate the American oral traditions in their novels.
Procedure
: Using either the method of brainstorming or clustering ask the students to recall as many similarities and differences as they can regarding the plot, characters, and settings of the two novels. Write the list of similarities and differences on the board.
Presentation:
Instruct each student to review the list generated through class discussion and think of a topic for his or her essay on some aspect of comparing the two novels. Each student should select items from the list and reorganize them according to his-or-her topic for the essay. The student should then write a rough copy of his or her essay which can be reviewed by either a classmate or the teacher. Then the student should write and submit his or her final copy of the essay.