The Student will:
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Increase personal self-esteem and pride as a result of studying African American culture.
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Understand and appreciate the literature selections to be studied.
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Learn factual information about United States History, specifically the eras of slavery and the Great Depression.
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Improve classroom interaction skills by working on group projects and participating in classroom discussions.
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Gain a factual historical perspective on African American culture.
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Improve critical thinking skills.
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Practice the use of study skills such as note-taking and conducting research.
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Improve writing skills.
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Increase vocabulary development.
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Improve reading skills.
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Learn about recommended literature such as Newberry Award winning books.
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Develop an appreciation for African-American art.
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Introducing the Unit
The very first thing I would do is to create a “literate environment.” In doing this, I would display a vast variety of related materials (not mentioned in the bibliography) such as biographical posters of famous historical and contemporary African-Americans. In addition, I would use bulletin boards, related pamphlets, brochures, songs, poems, choral readings, puzzles, teacher-made games and activities such as “Black Facts Challenge.” Further, I would include related
Scholastic
and
Scope
articles,
Ebony
and
Ebony. Jr.
magazines, autographed photographs of famous African-Americans such as General Colin Powell, historical charts, documents and timelines, maps and travel brochures plus a vast selection of fiction and non-fiction books, from picture books to reference sources.
I would introduce the unit to the students by reading the book
Nettie Goes South
by Turner. This powerful, beautifully illustrated book gives an overview of the problem of slavery in the South.
Before reading the book, I would ask the students how many of them had visited the South. (Many of them have relatives in various states in the South.) After they share experiences, I would show the
Nettle Goes South
picture book and ask them to predict what they think the book is about. After sharing predictions and reading the book, we would discuss how the posted predictions relate to the actual story. Also, this story is
excellent
for introducing story mapping!
Or another approach
Show a filmstrip “The Old South” (Troll Associates) and ask the class to compare/contrast the filmstrip with their perceptions of the South of today. Discuss the slavery of the Old South and its absence today.
The Reading Process
In implementing this unit it is important to recognize that improving reading skills is a primary objective of this unit. Therefore the directed reading thinking activities must have certain characteristics which make them constructive reading activities. First, the pre-reading phase must set purpose, make connections and tap prior knowledge. The teacher is meant to be a resource person who leads “from behind.” In this role, the teacher must provide a “link” from the known to the unknown. The metacognitive process must be modeled “by thinking out loud” as the teacher is constantly modeling for the students in the reading process.
There are many activities that can be used in the reading thinking processes in the
before
,
during
, and
after
reading phases. This unit only lists examples of such activities. The goal is to construct meaning from the text in choosing activities for the students. A lesson plan that illustrates a directed reading activity (DRTA) is attached in the lesson plan section. Finally, there are many opportunities for modeling with a strong focus on the aspect of metacognitive awareness, even though these are not specifically stated throughout the unit. The ultimate goal is to assist the students in becoming better readers and to encourage them to enjoy reading.
Why Study Literature?
It is my hope that through the study of literature the students will consider past and present experiences and their reactions to those experiences. As a result, they will gain insights into their feelings, actions and value system. With this increased awareness of self and greater understanding of others, hopefully will come a greater sense of responsibility to self and to others. The intent of this unit is to serve as a stepping stone to helping students mature as individuals, in addition to creating an interest in reading and improving reading skills.
The literature selections will serve as springboards for discussion. Through reading and discussion, the students will compare and contrast characters and situations to their own lives. This approach hopefully will offer clarification, encouragement and knowledge that will aid the students in dealing with the emotional aspects of their conditions of living. Literature can speak to their needs if it is carefully selected and presented. First, the selection must be of interest; then it must relate to them personally. Finally, the students must be able to articulate their ideas as they relate to the literature, so the techniques used by the teacher are of ultimate importance. For example, the questions that spark the discussion must be given careful consideration to ensure involved participation.
My basic approach to teaching the literature is first to read, then analyze, then discuss and evaluate. However, in this unit we will watch the movie of
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry
before reading the novel. The reason for seeing the movie before reading the novel is to motivate the students. Since many of my students are reluctant readers, the movie creates an interest in reading the book. From past experience, I have found this approach works well with the students. After viewing the movie, we will analyze and discuss some of the related basic philosophic concepts as these relate to the lives of the students. Then the students will study the books to examine vocabulary, literary devices, comprehension and other skill-related activities.
This unit precludes in-depth structural analyses of all the writings. Students will consider such literary devices as point of view, symbolism and setting. For example, when characterization is of importance in a selection, characterization will be studied. This literary device might be overlooked in the next lesson because the chosen lesson might lend itself better to the study of some other aspect of literary devices. The study of literary device will be used mainly as a means for interpretation of meaning for discussion and extended activities.
Oral Literature
It is very important in the study of African-American literature to focus on the oral literature of the people. One reason for emphasizing this study is because the early literature of the African-Americans was primarily oral. This was because the people of African-American heritage, in the days of slavery, were not allowed to be educated. As a matter of fact, it was illegal to teach them to read or write. Therefore, it is important that the students have opportunities to read/share examples of this literature that was passed down loyally for several generations.
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry
is, indirectly, an example of this literature.
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry
was told to the author, Mildred Taylor, by her father throughout her growing up years. Many such stories are passed down from one generation to the next. Virginia Hamilton’s
The People Could Fly: Black American Folktales
and the collections by Joel Chandler Harris,
Jump
,
Jump Again
, and
Jump On Over
are examples of this literature that are excellent for reading aloud by the teacher just for student enjoyment. It is interesting to note that Harris used animals to symbolize people, especially the white master and the slaves in revolt. It would be of interest to redo the tales by substituting fictional people for the animals.
Poetry
Much of the oral literature was later published in the form of poetry. Jupiter Harmon’s writing around 1750 marked the beginning of the first efforts of the literary emergence into the European movement. The extension from the oral tradition to the published did not come easily because of opportunities denied African-American writers. Arna Bontemps, Paul L. Dunbar, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks are some of the most prolific writers.
Black Out Loud
,
I am the Darker Brother
,
Bronzeville Boys and Girls
, and
Dream Keener
are some of the excellent collections and anthologies of African-American poetry. Also, the bibliography contains recordings of anthologies.
The students will read and listen to poetry primarily for enjoyment. If time permits, they will discuss poetry, participate in writing activities or analyze for literary devices. Further, poetry lends itself well to many creative activities such as illustrating, dramatizing and role playing.
Music
Throughout
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry
there were references to spirituals. These Negro spirituals were passed down from generation to generation, as was their literature. These songs were meaningful because they addressed the oppression the African-Americans faced as slaves. Many of the spirituals masked meanings known only to the slaves themselves. For example, loudly singing certain songs that could be heard by slaves in a nearby plantation could have meant to “meet in the swamp at midnight” to discuss how poorly the master was treating them.
The students would enjoy singing songs from
Walk Together Children. I’m Going to Sing: Black American Spirituals
(with music and illustrations). The bibliography has other references for recordings of African-American music that students would enjoy hearing. The students could compare/contrast the old spirituals to contemporary music by African-American artists, or use them to trace the development of music from the spiritual, through the age of jazz, up to today’s rap music.
Art
Slowly people of the Western World have come to understand that the African art forms have meaning and beauty. The work they did was different from that done in Europe. With great skill they shaped works of art in their own forms. Craftsmen could be artists too. They worked with gold, silver, glass, cloth and clay. Today their work is found in museums all over the world. Some of these works are advanced forms of carving and sculpture. They used many kinds of materials and many different ways to use the materials of art. Western artists have learned much from the African artistic expression. Beautifully carved African masks, spoons, knives and other common objects, in addition to carefully made pottery, woven mats and tapestries are on display in museums throughout the world today.
For many years whites could not accept the idea that black men and women could produce works of art. Yet a few African-Americans did finally break through. Henry O. Tanner, who did much of his work in Paris, was one of the world’s greatest artists in the 1890’s. After he gained fame in Europe, his paintings were brought back to the United States for museum display. Many of them were on religious subjects.
Tanner was not the first important black artist. In the 1830’s, Edmonia Lewis was well known as a sculptor. Her most famous work was a statue called
Forever Free
. She was later matched in fame by Meta Fuller, who studied in Paris at the same time as Tanner. Her great sculpture,
the Wretches
, showed how she cared for all suffering people. Richard Barthe was the first black sculptor to be made a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters.
Other black artists have been leaders in their fields of work. Among them are Charles Alston, Jacob Lawrence and Howard Pippin. Pippin was one of the greatest self-taught painters. Probably his greatest known work is “John Brown Goes to his Hanging.” Alston is an artist of many talents whose paintings have become well known. He has also designed public buildings. One of the best known of these is the Harriet Tubman Elementary School in New York City.
Jacob Lawrence, probably the best known of African-American painters, has painted many works that show life in the ghetto. His well known exhibition that opened at the Whitney Museum in 1974 projects the black experience in America consistently and effectively. Lawrence was both heir to the “Negro Renaissance” and child of the Great Depression. He was part of the mass migration of the African Americans from the South to the North. He later recreated the famous “Migration” series. In the paintings he captured the anonymous humanity, the rhythm of people in flux, the vulnerability of the masses, the forces driving people like bits of paper in the storm. The study of this series would provide visual appeal and convey the emotionality of the Great Depression to the students.
Jacob Lawrence
by Milton Brown, a pictorial presentation of many of Lawrence’s works, provides an excellent reference for his paintings. Including the “Migration” series, his six series provide an imposing study of African-American history in paintings. The other series are: “Toussaint,” “Tubman,” “John Brown,” and “Harlem.”
Winslow Homer’s depictions of African Americans will be the next artist’s work for study. Homer conveys so much realism about everyday life of the African American during the 1850’s. There are many books of Homer’s work which would be accessible to most teachers. The prints in the books could be used with an opaque projector for classroom discussion, if the actual prints were unavailable for study.
Homer had a real interest in African American life. During the 1870’s he revisited Petersburg, Virginia and spent time using them as serious subjects of his paintings. In the “Cotton Pickers,” he gave the women dignity and physical beauty. There is a sympathetic humor in “The Carnival,” in which two women are sewing up a young buck in a brilliant pierrot costume. The contrast of the dark skin and the multi-colored clothes, seen under sunlight that picks out bright notes, reveals a color sense rich in juxtapositions and harmonies. His “A Visit from the Old Mistress” is a good study of class differences in the black and white cultures. Later in Homer’s life he spent much time in the tropics.
Winslow Homer in the Tropics
by Hannaway is an excellent source of blacks as subjects of this art. The prints are in color and insightful commentaries about each work make it a very good reference for teachers and students. The very famous “The Gulf Stream” is displayed on the outside cover of the book. This painting of the Bahamian lying on the deck of a dismasted boat waiting apathetically for inevitable death is a powerful version of a recurring theme, the peril of the sea. Some other paintings with the tropical theme with depictions of dark-skinned natives are: “Shark Fishing,” “The Conch Divers,” “Sea Gardens, Bahamas,” “Sponge Fishing/Bahamas,” “Under the Coco Palm,” “Rum Cay,” “The Turtle Pound,” “The Water Fan,” “After the Hurricane” and others.
One contemporary African American artist that students should know is Faith Ringgold, born during the Great Depression in Harlem. They should learn about her because her art is somewhat different from the other artists. It differs by the media she used in her expression.
“The U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Advent of Black Power” is a response to the unfair advantage that white people have. It exhibits one hundred faces; ninety are white and ten are black. The words ‘white power’ are spelled out in large white letters dividing the faces, ‘black power’ is also spelled out in smaller black letters placed diagonally along the canvas. The entire painting is like a large postage stamp. It expresses Faith’s desire to send a message: inequality is wrong and must be stopped.
Her expertise with cloth, which she had learned as a child, became a part of her work. She learned the art of quilting from her mother and grandmothers. This skill led her to produce “Edith and Bessie,” her aunts, in two life sized cloth masks. They can be worn as a costume or hung from a wall. She used many materials to make them. The heads are painted canvas, the dresses are embroidered cloth with beads and fringes. Another, “Martin Luther King,” is larger than life size. The head is made of foam rubber, sewn and painted in a way to make the face look like him. She even let the stitching show his wounds. As her soft art developed, she began to make sculpture and eventually quilts. “Lena” is a soft sculpture of a homeless woman in Harlem. Then Faith Ringgold began to use her soft art to tell stories, an art that she learned from her mother. Her quilt, “Sonny’s Quilt,” tells the story of Sonny Rollins, a well-known jazz musician in pictures.
Her picture book,
Tar Beach
, combines autobiography, fictional narrative, painting and quilt making into one art form. It is the first in the five quilts in Ringgold’s “Woman on a Bridge” series in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Reading this colorful picture to the students would be an excellent way to introduce them to the Harlem female artist. Ringgold’s work will inspire the students to explore a variety of media in creative artistic expression.
Finally, a trip to the Yale Art Gallery will be part of the unit. “Weighing Cotton,” by Thomas Hart Benton depicts the mood of the Great Depression. The 20th century sharecroppers scene is depicted with no faces, representing anonymity of the era. Even the bags of cotton look like bones. Thomas Eakins’ “Will Schuster and the Black Man Going Shooting” shows a black man and a white man in a boat. It is a study in double vision and consciousness, in skill, balance, motion and the relativity of white and black. Among other paintings to be viewed are “Coney Island” by Reginald Marsh and “The Battle of Bunker’s Hill” by John Trumbull.
A Historical Perspective
Prior to studying the African-American literature selections, the students will study a factual historical perspective of the African-Americans. The factual accounts will provide insights into the culture of a people who were brought to this country in bondage and forced into servitude.
It is important that students understand that of all the people who make up the “mixed salad” of this nation, the African-Americans were the only group to arrive here in chains. This factor alone makes the African-American culture unique. Not only did they come involuntarily, but they were denied opportunities to learn the new language and customs.To further their isolation, they were denied the right to speak their native language and to practice their native customs and traditions. The denial of practicing their customs and speaking their native language was just the opposite for other immigrants.
Other immigrants came here voluntarily in hope of finding a better life and were not forced to abandon their customs. This profusion of differences among immigrants created a singularity or bond that contributed to making this nation great. It was different for African-Americans because they were totally disenfranchised, stripped of freedom, rights and dignity.
European slave merchants who first arrived in Africa in the 18th century eventually brought a total of approximately 15 million slaves to the New World Colonies in Central and South America , West Indies, and finally to North America.
In 1619 the Colonists in Jamestown, Virginia purchased 20 African-Americans as indentured servants. Then Virginia began importing slaves at the rate of about 1,000 per year. By that time, slavery had spread throughout the colonies.
Slavery continued to grow despite opposition and conflict. The Civil War, lasting from 1861-1865, was sparked by bitter controversy about the future of slavery. This war, which claimed more lives than any other armed conflict in American history, centered around states’ rights to extend slavery into newly acquired territories.
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, stated that all slaves were free. This Proclamation marked the beginning rather than the ending of the black struggle for freedom. From the late 1800’s to the 1960’s, black people were treated as second class citizens.
Due to custom and a body of laws referred to as the Jim Crow laws, blacks were robbed of their civil rights. Since white lawmakers, especially in the South, believed in firm control of the blacks, there was no legal recourse for them.
For a short time after the Civil War, the blacks enjoyed degree of freedom. They established their own schools and began participating in government. It was not long until the white supremacists regained control. Groups such as the Klu Klux Klan began to flourish. Many blacks were terrorized or killed if they attempted to gain economic independence or if they attempted to assert themselves in any way. There was no justice for blacks in the southern courts. Many people were imprisoned or sentenced to hard labor for minor charges.
Legally, black citizens in the South were no longer slaves. But they were forced to live in oppression that was really no better than slavery. They were forced to become sharecroppers on land of a former master. The payments for using the land were usually so large that it was virtually impossible to purchase land of their own. Then laws were created to prevent participation in government for those who did not own land. So the conditions led to segregation in living conditions, in churches, in schools, and in all aspects of public life.
A Federal government, now eager to repair the damages to a country split apart by the war, ignored the plight of the blacks. With no political or economic base, and subject to the terror of the white supremacists, the blacks remained for nearly a century barely better off than they were before the war. The period during the Great Depression was especially difficult for African-Americans. The economic plight for most Americans was poor, but the Thirties were devastating for many African-Americans. By 1930, black workers on the farm had many problems. Most farmers in the South were tenant farmers, and the owners of the land they farmed were beginning to buy farm machinery. This meant that fewer farmers were needed, since these machines could do more work than any man. Black farmers and their families migrated from the South to the North in a steady flow. Once in the cities, they found that their farm skills did not mean much. This great migration of black workers to the North continued because of conditions in the South. However, it meant that they had to take the lowest paying jobs in the factories, work as servants, or take menial jobs in factories and restaurants. Low pay meant no real improvement in the way a family could live. Worst of all was the old Jim Crow fearthe black worker was the last hired and the first fired.
During the period between the two world wars the United States experienced the Great Depression (1929-39). There were many causes of the depression. The blacks were especially hurt because their farm labor was no longer needed in the South and the new machinery in the northern factories replaced them. So there were fewer jobs and loss of wages for many. The country suffered from widespread unemployment, and many people experienced hard times. In 1932 thirteen million people did not have jobs. A large part of them were black women, who were therefore forced to do many things to keep their families together.
In Norfolk, Virginia in 1935, eight out of every ten families had to have relief. The rate of unemployment for black workers was almost four times the rate of unemployment among white workers. It became increasingly difficult for blacks to get work because now the white worker was forced by necessity to do the minimal jobs that were previously done by black workers. “Last hired and first fired” proved to be true in the worst possible way. Yet, somehow life was a little freer, this made it a little better.
Then in the 1950’s changes began to improve the lot of the blacks. The historic moment came when the Civil Rights Bill was signed in 1964, almost one century after Lincoln declared freedom for the slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation.
Also, the students will do research and present oral and written reports on topics such as slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great Depression, and Civil Rights. They will look at such important related historical documents as the Emancipation Proclamation and the United States Constitution, and the related amendments. Through research and study of the factual accounts of African-American heritage, the students will gain insights that will provide basic understandings for and increased appreciation of the study of African-American literature.
A Synopsis: Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry
is a story of survival of the human spirit. This is a story about Cassie Logan, an African American girl, raised by a family determined not to surrender their humanity and independence simply because they are black. Cassie has grown up as a child protected, strong and unaware that any person could consider her inferioror force her to be untrue to herself. It takes just one year for her world to fall apart because of acts of prejudice and discrimination.
The story is set in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. Even though slavery has been abolished for over a half-century, life has not changed much for African-Americans in the rural South.
The Logans are a hard working family. The mother, Mary Logan, is a teacher and the father, David, works on the railroad. Because of hard work the family enjoys the privilege of home ownership, which is a rare privilege for blacks during the thirties.
The story tells of many injustices that the family suffers because of their race. For example, even though Cassie’s mother is a teacher, her children are required to use old textbooks discarded by white students. The Logan children are purposely splashed and dirtied by a white school bus driver as he drives the white children to their own school. The Logan children must walk to another school designated for black children.
The story tells of the burning of homes of the blacks who rebuff white men. The blacks are supposed to shop at local stores. When the Logans go to Vicksburg to make purchases, local merchants are angered and retaliate on the family. They eventually force Mary out of her teaching job and the family faces loss of their home and land.
The story details accounts of relationships among Cassie’s brothers and sisters. It tells about the joys and sorrows they experience with their friends.
This is a story about how the awareness of prejudice is learned through the eyes of a young child. The depiction is cruel, destructive and humiliating. Even though the story took place over fifty years ago, there is evidence of the same discrimination being inflicted today. It seems as if prejudice and racism will never cease; it continues in various guises. In spite of hardships, human beings display courage and independence as Cassie does in
Roll of Thunder,_Hear My Cry
.
(Table available in printed form)
Strategies and Activities
Some of the activities and strategies to aid the students in accomplishing the objectives related to the study of slavery and the Great Depression eras are:
Slavery
Playwriting
Prepare a short play about a slave market in Africa. A slave trader has four slaves for sale. He describes them to a European buyer who finally purchases them for four barrels of rum.
Panel Discussion
Prepare a panel discussion on slavery. One person is the discussion leader who explains how slavery changed life in Africa. Two speakers give excuses for continuing the slave trade. Two others explain why slave trade is evil and should be ended.
Map Skills
Using an outline map of the world, draw a route that a ship might take from West Africa to the West Indies and to the new world. Tell how many weeks each part of the trip might take. (Remember that a good sailing ship can sail from 100 to 200 miles a day with good winds.) Show the times and distances on your map.
Maintaining a Log
Pretend that you are the ship’s captain and you must maintain a log of the journey. Write dally entries in your captain’s log of your journey transporting slaves from America to the new world.
Notetaking
Pretend you are aboard a slave ship as a passenger because no other transportation was available. Make notes on what you observe and use the notes to write an article for a newspaper.
Listing
Read Paula Fox’s
The Slave Dancer
. This is the story of a teenager who was kidnapped to make music so that the slaves could get exercise on a slave ship. List ten things that you witnessed as a reader that really bothered you.
Devising a Plan
Imagine that you were an African soldier who was sold to slave trader. You have arrived in the new world and are sold as a slave. Describe your situation as a slave. Describe how you would escape or how you would plan a revolt with the other slaves.
Short Story Writing
Write a short story about a slave who runs away from his/her master. Make it exciting with many descriptive details. Give it a happy ending.
Listing and Explaining
Make a list of at least ten places in your neighborhood that would be good hiding places or “stations” for runaway slaves. Write one or two sentences for each place telling why it would be good for this purpose.
Diary
Maintain a diary of your daily activities as you leave New Orleans as a slave to travel to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Tell about the places and people you encounter.
Letter Writing
You are an African-American land owner. You have just learned that the property owner next to you is the Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan. Write a letter to a friend about the situation.
Letter Writing
You are an African-American living in the North. Write a letter to your friend in the South who is a slave.
Word Bank
Make a word bank for all the words you are learning related to slavery. Use these words to create puzzles and other creative activities.
Time Line
Construct a time line of events related to slavery, labeling events and dates from the time of the African slave trade to emancipation.
Letter Writing
You are an African-American slave in the South. Write a letter to your friend in the North telling about your life.
Great Depression
Writing News Articles
You are a social worker and your job is to write a newspaper article telling the unemployed how to take care of their families during this crisis time.
Dialogue Writing
You are a poor tenant farmer in the South. Create a dialogue between yourself and a man who is well-to-do and wants to buy your land and machinery because he really does not want you living there.
Biography Writing
During the Great Depression there was a government called the Black Cabinet. Write a one page biography about one of these members of the Black Cabinet: Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. Robert Weaver, Dr. Ralph Bunche, Carl Rowan, Dr. James C. Evans, Judge William Hastle, Robert Vann, or Frank Horne.
Writing Comparisons
Read Chapter 5 of
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck. Compare the account of this white tenant farmer to that of the black tenant farmer.
Research
What was the New Deal? Write a report explaining how it helped deal with the poverty of the Great Depression.
Writing Ads/Campaign Slogans
Why was Franklin Roosevelt considered a great president during the Great Depression? Write campaign ads/slogans for his election.
Mural Painting
Paint a mural or large poster depicting a historical event related to the Great Depression.
Other
Oral Presentation
Present a report to the class on a visit to one of the southern states. Tell about your visit. What places did you visit? What did you learn?
Poetry Reading
Read poetry by Langston Hughes or Gwendolyn Brooks, in small groups, just for enjoyment.
Finding Violations of Constitutional Rights
Read the first seven articles of the Constitution. Brainstorm as to what you think each of these means. As you read
Sounder
, record how these constitutional rights were violated.
Summarizing
Read the Emancipation Proclamation. Summarize what you think it means.
Current Events
Find news articles about African-Americans and share with the class your summaries of what you’ve read.
Collage
Look through old copies of
Ebony
and
Ebony.Jr.
magazines and find clippings for making a collage. Tell how it relates to this unit.
Trip Planning
Plan an itinerary for an automobile trip to Mississippi (the setting for
Roll of Thunder
) List the travel time, places you will visit on the way, and what you will do when you arrive. List the places you want to visit in Mississippi. Explain why these places are of interest.