CKLA Unit 6: The Genius of the Harlem Renaissance, Volume 1
Focus:
This unit examines a selection of essays, poems, and plays produced by Black writers in the early 1900s. Most of the works students will read in this unit were produced either by people who lived in Harlem, New York, and who were a part of the artistic flourishing there or were produced by keen observers of the movement. In terms of literary skills, students will focus on analyzing the themes and ideas of an artistic movement and how they are expressed in a variety of texts. Students will also identify and analyze the central ideas and argumentative structure of nonfiction essays. Throughout the unit, students will be asked to make judgments about how the texts they read reflect different ideas, themes, and aspects of the Harlem Renaissance.
In this unit, students will be exposed to content-area vocabulary and words derived from Greek and Latin roots, such as amo, erro, facio, fragilis, finis, and neos. Students will work on grammar skills involving eliminating wordiness and redundancy in their writing and distinguish between frequently confused words. Students will plan, write, edit, and publish a multimedia report about a person, place, concept, movement, or event of the Harlem Renaissance.
Students will read selections from The Genius of the Harlem Renaissance, which is the first volume of a two-part reader. This first volume contains readings, with a few exceptions, from the first part of the Harlem Renaissance (1915–1926). As the twentieth century approached, Black creatives made substantial contributions to America’s cultural lifeblood. Their works were signs of things to come and set the stage for the expressive explosion of literature and art we now know as the Harlem Renaissance. Each passage will include a brief biography of the author, as well as information about the events that were happening at the time the passage was written.
—written by the Reader’s editor, Dr. Andrea Oliver
Number of Lessons: 10
Instruction Time:
90 minutes (Each lesson is broken down into 45-minute segments.)
Additional Search Terms:
push factors • emancipated • assimilate • revival • The Great Migration
