OBJECTIVE: To have students recognize contextual humor, reflective of America during a particular historical period.
STRATEGY: Application
MATERIALS:
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1. Students’ written homework.
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2. In-class reading of the following pages. Each is concerned with the problem of Jim Crow and race relations. Pages 9, 22, 201, second half p.223.
Step 1: Using the material students have written for homework, and notes taken during the in-class reading, assign one student to take Hughes’ point of view and one student to take Simple’s point of view.
Have the students debate the issues formally before the class.
Do not discuss after debate is completed, but . . .
Step 2: Have students write to what extent they find issues still valid; and to what extent they find them invalid. Encourage students to be as honest as they wish.
Step 3: If time permits, have students read their written opinions. In any case, their writing should, at this point, be graded only for clarity of thought and not in any manner for the opinion they express.
Step 4: Assign for homework:
Readings: “A Veteran Falls,” p.52; “Last Whipping,” p.74; “What Can a Man Say?” p.100 and “A Dog Named Trilby,” p.202.