Kristen J. Grandfield
For Teachers
Books:
Samuel Cohen. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology (Boston, MA: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2004): This collection of essays contains a number of essays written by female African American and Latina women. There is the famous "Ain't I a Woman?" from Sojourner Truth as well as Alice Walker's "In Search of our Mother's Gardens". This collection gives teachers a place to read and reflect on women's voices throughout history and also provides some background information to relay to the students.
Stephen O'Connor. Will My Name Be Shouted Out?. This book is Stephen O'Connor's story of teaching literature and writing in the New York Public School system. He includes his own observations as well as excerpts from his students' writings. The book is poignant and informative for anyone teaching in an urban environment.
V.P. Franklin. Living Our Stories: Telling Our Truths. (New York, NY: Scribner, 1995). Author V.P. Franklin analyzes the lives of twelve major African American writers (such as Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and Gwendolyn Brooks). The authors' lives and work as well as their contribution to the African American community are analyzed. The book is a great resource for those interested in presenting information to students about the contributions of the writers.
Media:
DVD: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1982) – This video is from the Broadway Theater Archives and is directed by Oz Scott. The choreopoem itself debuted in 1978 and this production was done several years later. The video will certainly give some meaning to Shange's words and help more visual students understand the concepts.
Internet:
Voices from the Gap (http://voices.cla.umn.edu/VG/index.html): This website is dedicated to women artists and writers of color. There is a wealth of information about various writers with an entire section of interviews done with many of the writers featured in this unit.
Outta Ray's Head Lesson Plans (http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/litera1.htm): This website has a variety of resources and writing ideas to use within this unit. There are a series of memoir and vignette writing sections that teachers can use to enhance any section of this unit.
African American Women's History (http://www.womenshistory.
about.com/od/africanamerican/) : This website has information about African American women and African American writers. Another place to find background information. Teachers can also use the search option and find information about Latinas and other women of color.
Reading List for Students
For Classroom Activities:
Julia Alvarez "Audition" (poem): The poem is about a young girl and her mother going into a poor town looking (or auditioning) a new housekeeper for their home. The young girl imagines how she will win over each new housekeeper and in the end her mother picks the one girl in town who is not overly eager to become a housekeeper.
Sandra Cisneros. "My Name". The House on Mango Street: Esperanza explains to the reader that her name translates as "hope" but she also associates her name with all the things in her life: her parents, her sister and even, her great grandmother. She compares her name metaphorically to a number of things (the number nine, the records her father plays). This is a perfect piece for students to read and use a model when writing about their own names.
Sandra Cisneros. "One Holy Night" Women Hollering Creek: The short story starts with a quotation about truth and how someone has such power over you if they know the truth about you and what you've done. The story details the young narrator and her relationship with a man named Baby Boy. They have a secret relationship resulting in the narrator becoming pregnant and realizing that Baby Boy was too old and too dishonest to be her boyfriend or husband. The story also shows her family's reaction to her pregnancy. It is a story that shows familial relationships, loss of innocence and truth.
Nikki Giovanni. "In Praise of Teacher". Quilting the Black Eyed Pea (New York: Harper Collins, 2002): This poem is just as the title suggests. It is a poem written in prose form that praises a teacher from the speakers' life. Miss Delaney is a teacher that introduced the narrator to a variety of stories and exposed her to writings such as
Native Son
and to the writers Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Richard Wright.
Ntozake Shange.
For Colored Girls Who Have Thought of Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf
: The choreopoem has seven different women dressed in seven distinct colors emphasizing their suffering at the hands of black men and their ability to survive and overcome these hardships. The poem can be used in its entirety as in the lesson plans but teachers can also use excerpts throughout the unit.
For Outside Reading:
Julia Alvarez How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 1991). – This novel is the story of four Dominican sisters and their lives coming to New York City from the Dominican Republic. Each chapter is about a specific sister and interestingly, the novel starts in the present and works its way back to the girls living in the Dominican Republic.
Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street (Place: Vintage Books, 1991) -- The House on Mango Street is a series of vignettes told by Esperanza, the book's young Mexican narrator growing up in Chicago. The different vignettes introduce the reader to a variety of colorful characters and places. The forty four chapters take us through Esperanza's journey of growing up. Any of these chapters could be used to read and model.
Sandra Cisneros. Women Hollering Creek – Much like The House on Mango Street, this is also a series of vignettes. The stories take place on the Texas/Mexican border and are also a glimpse into growing up as a Chicana and also embracing family and tradition.
Nikki Giovanni. Quilting the Blacked Eyed Pea (New York: Harper Collins, 2002): Just one of many of Giovanni's collections of poetry. This collection features "poems and not quite poems" as Giovanni herself puts on the cover. She addresses 9/11 and post 9/11 years as well as authors James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Materials for Classroom Activities:
Copies of
My Name
from The House on Mango Street
Copies of
One Holy Night
from Women Hollering Creek
Chart paper and markers for "Ten Things I Learned"
Copies of "In Praise of Teacher" by Nikki Giovanni and "Audition" by Julia Alvarez
Class Set of the choreopoem (in book form) of
For Colored Girls Who Have Thought of Suicide
Copies of the following poems: Balances", "Kidnap Poem", "Choices", "BLK History Month" and "The Girls in the Circle" by Nikki Giovanni