Lesson 4

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • Reading of Chapter 4 from Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama, YouTube, 1995

• • “Corn-Pone Opinions,” excerpt from Europe and Elsewhere, Mark Twain, Public Domain, 1901
  • “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan, Threepenny Review, Reprinted by permission from Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency., 1990

Materials

Tools

• Telling Stories: Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist

• Video Note-Taking Tool

Question Sets

• Telling Stories: Section 3 Lesson 4 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Telling Stories: Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist

• Telling Stories: Section 3 Lesson 4 Question Set

• Video Note-Taking Tool

Activity 1: View – Discuss – Write

We will view and take notes on a video of Barack Obama reading from his memoir.

Step 1

Before viewing the video, discuss as a class what you know about the background and life of former President Barack Obama. Make a list of experiences you believe Obama might have had growing up and in high school. You will look for evidence related to this list of experiences as you watch the video.

Watch the video, which presents a 33-year-old Obama reading in 1995 from his memoir, Dreams from My Father, at the Cambridge Public Library. Use a Video Note-Taking Tool to write down and analyze key details as you consider the following questions:

[0:00-8:00] - Introduction

1. As Obama introduces himself and his book, what details from his life and experiences does he share? How do these details compare to what we listed as guesses about his early life?

2. What does Obama say about how his unusual background shaped his life and views of the world?

3. As he introduces the passage he will be reading [4:20], Obama characterizes himself as a "very angry" young man. How does he explain why he was angry during his adolescence? What evidence from the text supports your response?

4. Based on what you have learned from Obama’s introduction, what perspective do you anticipate he will have as a writer looking back on his adolescent experiences in the memoir he will read?

As a class, discuss what you have learned so far and what you anticipate about Obama’s perspective as a writer and reader of his memoir.

Step 2

Continue writing down key details as Obama reads from Chapter 4 of Dreams From My Father. Consider the following questions:

[8:00-10:00] - After the party

1. How does Obama characterize the "new map of the world" he perceives following the party and his conversations with his friend, Ray?

[10:00-12:56] - Learning from Black writers

2. During the next few months, what did Obama do to "corroborate this nightmare vision”?

3. Who are some of the Black writers he turned to? What did he learn from reading them?

[12:56-14:47] - After the basketball game

4. Obama depicts a dialogue he had after a basketball game among himself, his friend Ray, a young Muslim named Malik, and several others. Why does he say that afterward, he decided to keep his own counsel?

5. How does Obama as a writer use dialogue and his interpretive reading voices to bring this incident to life in a dramatic way?

[14:48-18:48] - An incident with his grandparents

6. The next incident Obama presents occurred a few weeks later. Who is involved in this vignette, and what occurred to cause it?

7. How does Obama as a writer use dialogue and his interpretive reading voices to bring this incident to life in a dramatic way?

8. Why do you think Obama might say that his grandfather’s words were like a fist to his stomach?

9. What did Obama realize when, after the incident, he sat on his bed and thought about his grandparents? What evidence from the text supports your response?

[18:50-end] - Turning to Frank

10. After the incident, Obama visits his grandfather’s friend, Frank. How is Frank characterized, and why might Obama have chosen to turn to him?

11. How does Obama as a writer use dialogue and his interpretive reading voices to bring this incident to life in a dramatic way?

12. From the dialogue Obama presents, what do we learn about Frank and his experiences and perspective as a Black man? Why do you think Frank says he has to watch himself and "be vigilant"?

13. Frank tells Obama, "Black people have a reason to hate." Why do these words, and the experiences Obama relates in his memoir, cause him to say, "the earth shook under my feet, ready to crack open at any moment" and "I knew, for the first time, that I was utterly alone"?

Activity 2: View – Discuss – Write

We will use our notes from the video to engage in a class discussion.

Step 1

As a class, engage in a follow-up discussion, considering the following questions:

1. What did you learn from the video about President Obama and his background as a teenager?

2. What has listening to Obama read from his memoir caused you to think about?

3. What connections can you make among Amy Tan and her experiences with her mother and the world, and Barack Obama and his experiences with his family and the world, as dramatized and made meaningful in their memoirs? Cite evidence from the texts to demonstrate the connection.

4. What incidents from your own life with your family, or your friends, might you dramatize into a meaningful memoir?

Step 2

In your Learning Log, write one or more paragraphs in response to Question 4. Try to emulate Barack Obama or Amy Tan as you think about how to retell an incident or experience from your life in a dramatic way.

Activity 3: Write – Discuss

We will work in pairs to think about how incidents and experiences from our own lives might be dramatized in a meaningful memoir.

In your Learning Log, quickly write about what you have learned from the Tan and Obama memoirs: about each of the writers, their lives as minority individuals coming of age in the United States, and the narrative genre of memoir.

Brainstorm a list of brief but important incidents from your own experiences with your family or friends that have shaped you and that might provide good material for a memoir in the style of Tan or Obama, or an essay in the style of Mark Twain. Think about memorable incidents like the ones Barack Obama depicts about Ray and the basketball players, the fight between his grandparents over Tut’s fears, and his conversations with Frank. Or consider any of the vignettes or incidents between Amy Tan and her mother in "Mother Tongue," or the recollection presented by Twain in "Corn-Pone Opinions." Pick out two or three ideas from your list that you see as most promising and that might most readily and memorably be dramatized in a short memoir or narrative essay.

With a partner, talk through the story of an incident you have identified as promising. Think about how characters from the incident might speak, and dramatize their dialogue using an interpretive reading voice, as Obama does, or as Tan and Twain depict their characters’ voices through language.

Provide constructive suggestions about how to make your partner’s remembered incident come to life in a written memoir.

Following your partner discussion, make notes about how to bring your remembered incident to life, including the characters and voices you will present, and some examples of dialogue you might use.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

We will review the Section Diagnostic task to continue thinking about how incidents and experiences from our own lives might be dramatized in a meaningful memoir.

As a class, review the Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist. Begin by reading, annotating, and discussing the task question and prompt.

Ask questions to clarify what you will be doing as you write a personal narrative to demonstrate your learning in this section of the unit, and to prepare for the Culminating Task.

Activity 5: Write

We will draft personal narratives that dramatize brief but meaningful incidents from our lives. We will use description and dialogue to bring our memoirs to life.

Before writing, tell the remembered story out loud to yourself, thinking about how you can use dialogue, characters, and their distinct voices to dramatize your narrative, as Twain, Tan, and Obama did. Then write a one- to two-page draft that begins by setting the scene for the incident. Then tell your story in a way that is both dramatic and meaningful. Think about what someone might learn from your story, much as you have gained insights from the personal stories told by Twain, Tan, and Obama.

Be prepared to revise and finalize your narrative in class during the next lesson, and then to do an interpretive reading of it for a small group of fellow students.