Idea Transcript
Lesson Title
Teacher
Jamie Thomas
Duration of Lesson
2 class periods
Grade Level
Great Migration leads to Harlem Renaissance 8th
Lesson Topic
Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance
SC Standards and Indicators
8-5.7 Compare migration patterns of South Carolinians to such patterns throughout the United States, including the movement from rural to urban areas and the migration of African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest, and West 8-6.2 Explain the causes and effects of changes in South Carolina and the nation as a whole in the 1920s, including Prohibition, the destruction caused by the boll weevil, the rise of mass media, improvements in daily life, increases in tourism and recreation, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and the contributions of South Carolinians to the Harlem Renaissance and the Southern Literary Renaissance
Common Core Strategy(ies) addressed
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently
Academic Vocabulary Lesson Materials Needed (attached at end of lesson)
Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, Walter Dean Myers, Jim Crow Laws, Ku Klux Klan, sharecropping, boll weevil, middle class, Smartboard Lesson on Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance, For the Good of America Flyer (NAACP broadside, 1922-1939 can be found on Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Sir I will Thank You with All My heart: Seven letters from the Great Migration (class set) (can be found at http://historymatters.gmu.edu, Poems: Migration by Walter Dean Myers, One-Way Ticket by Langston Hughes, The Land of Hope by William Crosse, When I Return to go the Southland It will Be by Sparrell Scott, primary analysis worksheet.
Content Narrative (What is the background information that needs to be taught to understand the context of the lesson? Be sure to include necessary citations)
After Reconstruction was over, many African Americans began to move out of the South. The period from 1910 – 1920 is referred to as The Great Migration because hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the South. Some moved Midwest (those in Kansas area referred to as exodusters) for the opportunity of free land or employment through the government. However, most moved North to areas such as Chicago, Detroit, and Harlem. Major factors that contributed to African Americans moving were Jim Crow laws, and increase in violence by racist groups such as the KKK, and poverty (especially in urban areas due to sharecropping, the boll weevil infestation, and a hurricane) in the South and job opportunities in the North. This large scale migration significantly altered the population’s racial makeup in South Carolina. During most of the 1800’s blacks outnumbered whites in South Carolina two or three to one but by 1930 the majority of population was white. The Harlem Renaissance began with this large scale migration of African Americans from a rural Southern setting to a Northern urban setting. A middle class African American population began to grow and started celebrating African American culture specifically through creative arts. The Harlem Renaissance began to showcase African Americans in literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, and sought to reinvent African Americans from the white stereotypes that existed. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance like James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes celebrated ties to African cultural and questioned the position of African Americans in American life.
Lesson Set Content Objective(s)
Students will be able define what the Great Migration was, the major reasons it took place and its impact on the population change in South Carolina. Students will also be able to show how the Great Migration began the Harlem Renaissance. Students will be able to define the Harlem Renaissance and identify one of the major literary artists from it.
Literacy Objective(s)
Students will be able to analyze primary documents from the Harlem Renaissance and draw conclusions from them. Student will be able to create their own poems.
Lesson Importance
The student will understand the effects of African American migration from South Carolina/the South (from rural to urban) as well as how it began the Harlem Renaissance.
Connections to prior and future learning
Prior to the lesson students should learn about African Americans position in the South specifically with Sharecropping, Jim Crow Laws and the Ku Klux Klan. Future: Students should go on to connect this lesson with further lessons on the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement
Anticipatory Set/ Hook (Engage)
Teacher will show flyer (either on Smartboard or handout) “For the Good of America” published by NAACP (This can be found on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History GLC06197) Students are asked who do you think made this flyer? Who do you think was their target audience…whose attention were they trying to get? What was the point of this flyer? Today we are going to learn about many African Americans leaving the state of South Carolina in early 1900, what clues does this primary document provide that might explain one reason why?
Skill Development Initial “explain” portion of the lesson. Introduce vocabulary, explain/demonstrate/model the skill required for the literacy objective, introduce content components. The content portion is only a brief introduction; the bulk of the student learning will take place during the guided practice activity.
Introduce content components
Teacher should show attached Smartboard lesson(part I) on the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance. Teacher should go over map noting where African Americans were migrating to. Students should copy down key vocabulary from slide 5, complete push/pull factor table and create est. pie charts. A volunteer should be called on to fill in the pie chart for slide seven.
“I do” Skill from objective
Read aloud the introduction and first letter from “Sir I Will Thank You with All My Heart” Seven letters from the Great Migration: With the class, model how to fill out the primary document analysis paper.
introduce/explain/model
Guided Practice
This is the inquiry portion of the lesson, student-centered & often cooperative learning strategies used, teacher acting as facilitator, also known as Explore.
“We do” Activity Description Include student “explore” components and opportunities for them to explain their learning.
Checking for Understanding“Informal” Assessment
Students will choose 2 other letters from Seven Letters from the Great Migration and fill out their primary document analysis sheet. Students will discuss within small groups.
Group discussion over letters and answers to primary document analysis worksheet. Teacher should check for student understanding on why African Americans were choosing to migrate. While students are in groups teacher should also do quick check to see that information from the first part of the smartboard lesson was completed.
Closure Teacher will re-visit content and answer students’ questions developed during the Guided Practice component. Summarize the lesson, clarify content, and revisit content and literacy objectives. Teacher should show part II from the Smartboard Lesson. Teacher tell class Content Solidified that they will be looking at some of the poetry that came out of the Harlem Renaissance period by a few of the literary artists, particularly emphasizing Langston Hughes. Read poem “Migration” by Walter Dean Myers and complete questions, go over as class. Read “One-Way Ticket” by Langston Hughes, complete questions and go over. Read “The Land of Hope” by William Crosse, complete questions and go over.
Independent Practice “You Do”
Teacher will explain to students that they will be writing their own poem about leaving something that they had difficulty with behind and going forward to something new (maybe something they haven’t yet experienced but they are hoping will be better). Example might be leaving difficulties of middle school and the hopes of what high school will be.
Summative/ “Formal” Assessment Assessment
Completed primary document analysis worksheet Completed questions over poems Written poem
Differentiation During Lesson
For lower level classes- as class complete poetry questions together. For
higher level classes complete either individually or in small groups and then discuss
Assessment
For higher level classes, include in the requirements of their poems that they use 3 types of figurative language.
Reflection Lesson Reflection (What went well in the lesson? What might you do differently the next time you teach it? Evaluate the success of the lesson)
In the lesson the students really enjoyed reading the poetry and creating their own. However, the next time I teach the lesson I’d like to talk with the ELA teacher and discuss specifics poetic devices that I could have required that they put into their lessons. I’d also like to create a rubric that could be used for their poems rather than leaving it so open. I feel the students really got the idea on why African Americans were migrating from the South and how it influenced the Harlem Renaissance but, the lesson most certainly needs to be followed up with further study of the Harlem Renaissance.
Materials Needed for Lesson Lesson Material s and Handou ts
“For the Good of America” NAACP broadside, 1922-1939 http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/jim-crow-and-greatmigration/resources/lynching-america-ca-1926 Smartboard Lesson Primary Analysis Worksheet http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/written_document_analysis_wo rksheet.pdf “Sir I Will Thank You with All My Heart”: Seven Letters from the Great Migration http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5332/ “Migration” Poem by Walter Dean Myers (included in Smartboard lesson) “One- Way Ticket” by Langston Hughes (included in Smartboard Lesson) “The Land of Hope” by William Crosse (included in Smartboard Lesson)