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Lesson 2

Through reading an excerpt of an article by W.E.B. Du Bois, we will continue building on our understanding of the social and political environment left in the wake of slavery’s “end.”

Lesson Goals

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas within texts?

  • Can I recognize points of connection among the texts and perspectives to make logical, objective comparisons?

  • Can I gather and synthesize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of texts and topics, support claims, and develop ideas?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson, Vintage Books, 2010
  • Unit Reader
    • “The Migration of Negroes,” W.E.B. Du Bois, Public Domain, 1917

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read

We will read “The Migration Of Negroes” by W.E.B. Du Bois to expand our thinking about migration.

Listen and read along silently as your teacher reads aloud "The Migration of Negroes" by W.E.B. Du Bois. As you listen, keep the following questions from your Question Set in mind:

  1. What is the text basically about?

  2. How do the ideas and information in the text relate to what you already think and know about the topic?

  3. According to the article, what are three immediate causes of migration?

  4. What are the additional causes behind the immediate causes?

  5. What seems to be the underlying cause of most of the reasons? What evidence from the text supports your response?

  6. "There is a silent influence operating in the hearts of the growing class of intelligent Negroes that the insurmountable barriers of caste unnecessarily fetter the opportunities to which every living soul is entitled, namely, a fair chance to earn an honest living and educate his children and be protected by the laws."

    1. Review and unpack the italicized words and any others that are unfamiliar, and then paraphrase this quotation in your own words.

    2. How do the speaker’s choice of words and the sentence structure of this quotation help to convey his point of view about the situation faced by so many in the South?

    3. How is your paraphrased sentence different from the original?

    4. How is it the same?

After the excerpt is read, individually respond to the questions in your Learning Log.

Activity 2: Read

We will further explore “The Migration Of Negroes” by taking note of details that stand out to us in Du Bois’s language. We will use the Evaluating Ideas Tool in our exploration of the text.

Step 1

The Evaluating Ideas Tool supports and guides a process for evaluating a text, and it focuses on the author’s purpose, perspective, and credibility. It can help you think about and analyze relationships among details in the text, how those details suggest the author’s motivation for writing the text, and how the author views the topic. This tool focuses on a guiding question related to the author’s purpose or perspective and helps you make an observation or conclusion about the overall ideas, believability, and relevance of the text.

Step 2

Use the tool in the following way:

  1. Write down the guiding question in the space provided at the top. You might be assigned the guiding question by your teacher, it might come from a question set, or you might think of your own question. This question can help you focus your reading, or it might give your reading a specific purpose. It will usually be a question that leads to an evaluation or judgment about the text based on evidence that suggests its purpose, perspective, or credibility.

  2. As you read, note details (words, phrases, or sentences) that relate to the guiding question or that might give you evidence of the author’s perspective. Depending on how long the section of text is, you might find several examples. You can use the Attend to Details row on the tool to write down the details that most strongly relate to the guiding question.

  3. Based on the details you identify, determine and analyze the author’s perspective. The Analyzing Perspective row asks you to look at the words or phrases you selected in the previous row and think about why the author chose those words or phrases and not others. For example, if the author is using words like urgent or critical, you can get a sense of their perspective on the issue: the author considers it important and in need of immediate attention or action.

  4. After you have analyzed the author’s word choice and what that choice tells you about the author’s view, you can move on to your personal evaluation of the author’s ideas, the author’s position, and the information they present. Your guiding question will probably hint at what you are supposed to evaluate; you might be looking to assess credibility or relevance.

  5. The final step in this process is to evaluate the text based on the evidence you have gathered and your analysis of that evidence. The previous rows provide that evidence and analysis. In the Evaluate the Text row, you are making connections between your analysis and your evaluation. For example, if your evaluation involves determining whether the author’s argument is reliable, you will draw on the previous rows to support your judgment and observations about the text’s reliability.

Step 3

Work with a partner to reread the text. Take notes and discuss the following questions:

  1. What two to three words, phrases, or sentences from the text stand out to you? Why?

  2. What ideas or information are described in detail?

  3. What does the language cause you to see or feel?

Step 4

Work with your partner to reread the text and answer the one of the following questions on the Evaluating Ideas Tool:

  1. How does the author use language to convey a central idea?

  2. What is the perspective or point of view conveyed in this text?

Participate in a whole-class discussion to share your ideas and thinking before studying another text.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will further explore “The Migration Of Negroes” by analyzing the specific relationships of sharecropping and Jim Crow laws to the Great Migration in order to continue to build our background knowledge.

Step 1

One of the economic reasons for the Great Migration was the role of Black Southerners as sharecroppers. Reread paragraphs 15-23 of “The Migration of Negroes.” Then discuss the answers to the following questions with a partner:

  1. How did the arrival of the boll weevil influence the decision to leave the South? Did the arrival actually harm or benefit Black Southerners?

  2. What does the perspective of the White landowners in these paragraphs reveal about the role of Black sharecroppers in the South?

Step 2

Reread paragraphs 10 and 13. Du Bois specifically mentions Jim Crow cars as a reason that Black Southerners migrated from the South. Discuss the following question with your partner.

What is the larger related cause symbolized by the Jim Crow cars mentioned in the article?

Activity 4: Discuss

We will synthesize our understanding of this section’s texts and the relationships among their ideas by engaging in a whole-class discussion.

Engage in a whole-class discussion to analyze the relationships among the texts in this section and to synthesize our understanding, focusing on the following questions:

  1. How did sharecropping and Jim Crow laws affect the quality of life for African Americans in the South after the Civil War?

  2. What connections do you notice between the Du Bois article and the maps? Between the Du Bois article and the Lee article? Between the Du Bois article and Wilkerson’s stories of Ida’s, Robert’s, and George’s experiences?

  3. How was migration prompted by the effects of slavery and the “end” of slavery? What is the relationship between the “end” of slavery and the Great Migration, based on what we have learned from the texts so far in this unit?

Activity 5: Read

For homework, complete the sources Note-Taking Tool for “The Migration Of Negroes.”

For homework, complete the Sources Note-Taking Tool for “The Migration of Negroes” to deepen understanding by tracking and evaluating the effects of details. Use your completed tools from this lesson to help you respond to the following guiding questions:

Establishing Understanding

  1. What knowledge do I gain from this text? (Include page numbers for each note.)

  2. What questions do I still have after reading this text?

Deepening Understanding

  1. How does the organization of the ideas and information enhance my understanding?

  2. What stylistic elements stand out in this text? How does the style of the text enhance my understanding?

  3. What do the organization and style convey about the writer’s point of view and purpose?

Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.