Objective: Students will identify causes of prejudice against newly freed slaves and poor whites in the South.
Procedure: This lesson ties together material discussed in the two previous lessons: the South and prejudice. First students read their poems from lesson 2 aloud after which students discuss the poetry or write their responses. A brainstorming session on “Why was prejudice so blatant in the South” follows.
Closure: Students write an essay titled: “Race, Class and Gender: The Past, the present and the Future.” With this piece of writing students get to express not only the gloomy past, but to come to terms with the present, and predict how they will like to see these three issues played out in their future world.
After these series of discussion and writing assignments students will be in a better position to deal with the issues of race, class and gender as they are presented in Harper Lee’s novel. After having built up their background knowledge, reading of the novel could then begin.