Hodge

Unit: Harlem Renaissance Subject: Language Arts (Reading) Grade: 5th Goal: To introduce students to a cultural movement that deeply impacted modern Black history. Furthermore, my goal is for my unit on the Harlem Renaissance to serve as one of the cultural revolutions to engender students interest in literacy, social studies and thus schooling; laying the stepping stones for students to actively engage and partake in their education and schooling. Objective: SWBAT summarize and reiterate the main ideas of the information text. SWBAT to clearly articulate the role that African Americans played in World War I SWBAT articulate and explain the early beginnings of the Harlem Renaissances and name at least 3 major contributors to African American music and art Standard(s): CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text. Materials and Preparation: 15 Printed copies of pages 6-19 from The Harlem Renaissance A Celebration of Creativity: Journey to Freedom Highlighters (To highlight any key ideas, or supporting details) Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues: Students will be seated in the current classroom arrangement which takes into account personality differences and habitual talkers. Possible management issues are the usually ones, bad attitudes, apathetic and uncooperative behaviours and disrespect towards fellow classmates and/or teacher. If these should occur, we have a behavioural management system in place to rectify and redirect negative and unproductive behaviour; for example, the Give me 5,4,3,2,1 technique where I raise my open palm to the class and ask them to give me 5 as I work my way to 1. Students are given 5 chances to correct behaviour and give me their full attention. I plan to continue to use this wonderful technique during my unit instruction. Plan: (60 minutes) Introduction (9 minutes) This will be students first introduction to my unit. I will begin by asking students to access prior knowledge about African American history. Ask the class, What do you already know about Black History? Please name some famous events or cultural movements you are already familiar
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with? With hands raised, I call on students to share their contribution. I record all responses on the board in a cognitive map; the centre being Black History. I expect to get some responses concerning the Civil Rights Movement, the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps even Brown vs. the Board of Education but I dont expect to hear the Harlem Renaissance as an answer. If the Harlem Renaissance is not provided by the class, I will add it to the cognitive map. After, I will close the floor and say, You all know a lot about Black history, Im really proud of you all. Good to know you have been doing your best as students to learn as much as you can! This week we are going to begin learning about the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a remarkable time of creativity for African-Americans, especially those working in the arts. Black writers such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston wrote moving poems, plays, and books about African-American life. Jazz musician who are house hold names today were flourishing during the Harlem Renaissance. Much of this creativity and explosion of the arts among African Americans took place in New York City, specifically in the neighbourhood of Harlem. So these years became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Here I will ask the class if they can figure out the meaning of the world Renaissance given the context (the definition will be placed on the board as well). Continue saying, Today we are going to start the lesson by reading a little bit about the Harlem Renaissance, please silently read the first 3 pages to yourself please. Reading silently to themselves (5 minutes) Say, Can I please get a volunteer to read the first page? The second? And the third please? Excellent thank you. Please begin reading We continue in this manner, reading and dissecting the text for understanding, meaning and comprehension. Notes and ideas will be kept on the board and then will be copied into their homework book to review and study at the end of the lesson. Reading sessions usually continue between 30-40 minutes. Depending on the energy level and attitudes of my students I will gauge a good place to stop. However I do anticipate getting through the entire reading of 6-19 within the given time span. Reading (30 minutes) Exit Ticket (5 minutes): What is the Harlem Renaissance and when did it take place? Copy Notes (10 minutes) This will be done as soon as students finish exit tickets. The notes will also remain on the board throughout the day so students who finished assigned work early can finish copying down the notes. Assessment of Goals/Objectives Listed Above: Each student will be given an opportunity to read from the text. As this is being done, a participation grade will be given. I am looking for students overall engage with the reading and/or activity. Students will be marked down for refusing to participate in the reading and/or the activity. Students will also be penalized for disruptive behaviours such as talking out of turn and showing disrespect towards fellow
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classmates and or the teacher. Conversely, students will be rewarded for following directions, participating willingly in discussions and for sharing personal insight about the text, time period we are studying. In addition, I will read students exit tickets for understanding and comprehension of the text we just read. Such questions as, Can the student explain in their own words what the Harlem Renaissance is? Does the student understand the time period in which we are studying? will be asked as I look over the exit tickets. Anticipating students responses and your possible responses: Reading is always a challenging subject to get students excited for and engaged with. I will try my best to keep the pace upbeat and continuously moving with little down time, which tends to get students antsy and uninterested. I, for one, am very excited about starting my unit this Monday and am looking forward to seeing students reactions (negative or positive) to starting a new topic. I am pretty sure not many of the students would have heard of the Harlem Renaissance before. Accommodations: For my student who speaks English as a second language and for my students who are several grade levels below in reading and writing I will differentiate instruction for them in terms of reading requirements. They will take part in the discussions but they will also be partnered with another student in order to quell some of the misunderstandings and questions that will occur. However all students will be responsible for the exit ticket, which will be an independent assignment. Resources: Raatma, Lucia. The Harlem Renaissance A Celebration of Creativity: Journey to Freedom (2003). The African American Library.