Literature Study and Criticism of American Literature: Harlem Renaissance

Welcome English 11 students! You are in for an exciting month of studying literature created right here in America. Remember, America is the melting pot, so that means the literture you explore will be rich, diverse, and filled with information that you can relate to. Over the course of the month, we will work together to explore, and examine the works of an American author, and supplemental material which will help you to understand your main text at a deeper level. This webquest requires that you do your best to meet the challenges, and complete the project as it is assigned.

Your task and challenge this unit is to explore American literature, specifically women's literature, and multicultural subject matter. You will work with a reading partner to read  a short story by Nella Larsen, a Harlem Renaissance writer. You will work together to analyze the story, noting the historical, cultural and social significances of the main text. As you read the book, you will also read supplemental material of that time period, a poem, which you will compare and contrast to the story. You and your partner will then work individually to write a poem or short story which tells of a time when you struggled for acceptance. You will share and evaluate your poems.

1. Please use the link below to familiarize yourself with the struggles of African American women in the early 20th Century.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframwomentimeline/a/aaw1920_time.htm

2. Please use the links below to familiarize yourself with the term, "passing"

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/december/passing-as-white-121713.html

http://racerelations.about.com/od/hollywood/tp/Passing-For-White-In-Hollywood.htm

3. With your partner discuss a time when you have pretended to be different than you are for social acceptance.

4. Begin reading the main text, Passing, by Nella Larsen. As you read, take notes in your Quote Journal and note:

• The setting of the book
• The main characters; who are they, what kind of people are they?
• The predicted theme
• How the theme is different than your original prediction
• The tone of the book
• The symbolism and metaphors used to create a beautiful or engaging text

5. With the whole class watch the visual movie sample of, Imitation of Life. You may preview the movie here.

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/88753/Imitation-of-Life-Original-Trailer-.html

6. Read the poem As I Grew Older, by Langston Hughes; click on this link to read it.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/as-i-grew-older/

7. Use the poem to compare and contrast the meanings of the main text and the short poem; how are they similar, how are they different? What literary devices are used to create the tone and theme of the poem to make it similar to or different than the main text?

8. Individually write a poem or short story about a time when you struggled for acceptance. Share your poem with your partner, and give constructive criticism of his or her work.

I hope you enjoyed reading and analyzing two great literary works by two Harlem Renaissance writers, Nella Larsen and Langston Hughes. Both authors shared their struggles, and you dissected the literary devices used to make the reader part of the story and poem. You also read some supplemental material which familiarized you with the time period, and watched a portion of a movie which depicted a young woman's struggle to be accepted into the world she desired to live in. To demonstrate your understanding of the unit, you wrote about a time when you struggled to gain acceptance.

If you would like to learn more about social struggle and acceptance please click on one of the links below.

http://www.africanamericanhistoryplace.com/Harlem_Renaissance.html

http://www.poemhunter.com/zora-neale-hurston/

http://www.poemhunter.com/gwendolyn-brooks/

Kent, George E. A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990.

Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Br-Ca/Brooks-Gwendolyn.html#ixzz30uIgDcYq

Common Core Standards:

RL: 2-3, grades 11-12

RL: 7, grades 11-12

W: 4, grades 11-12

California Common Core State Standard

State Board of Education. (2013). California Common Core State Standards. Sacramento, Ca: California Department of Education.

Websites used for this WebQuest

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframwomentimeline/a/aaw1920_time.htm

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/december/passing-as-white-121713.html

http://racerelations.about.com/od/hollywood/tp/Passing-For-White-In-Hollywood.htm

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/88753/Imitation-of-Life-Original-Trailer-.html

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/as-i-grew-older/

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Br-Ca/Brooks-Gwendolyn.html#ixzz30uIgDcYq

This WebQuest is created for students in their junior year of high school. The Common Core State Standards addressed in this WebQuest are:

RL: 2; Determine two or more central themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and buid on one another to produce a complex account.

RL: 3; Analyze the impact oof the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama; where a story is set, how action is ordered, how the characters are developed.

RL: 9; Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century foundational works of American literatur, including how two or more texts from the same period trea similar themes or topics

W:4; Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriat to task, purpose and audience.