Lesson 4

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson, Vintage Books, 2010

• • “Between the World and Me,” Richard Wright, John Hawkins and Associates, Inc., 1935
  • “One-Way Ticket,” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Langston Hughes, Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC., 1994
  • “The Lynching,” Claude McKay, Public Domain, 1922
  • “The South,” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Langston Hughes, Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC., 1994

Materials

Tools

• Attending to Details Tool

• The Warmth of Other Suns: Sources Note-Taking Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

Reference Guides

• Academic Discussion Reference Guide

Editable Google Docs

• Attending to Details Tool

• The Warmth of Other Suns: Sources Note-Taking Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will continue our exploration of the social and political environment experienced in the south by reading two additional poems. The first is titled “One Way Ticket.” we will read and take note of details that stand out to us using the Attending to Details Tool before exploring the poem’s language and structure in more detail.

Step 1

Listen and read along silently as your teacher reads the poem, and then consider the following guiding question using the Attending to Details Tool:

1. What is this poem about?

Discuss with a partner the following question:

1. What sticks out to you as important in the poem?

Step 2

Reread the text on your own, this time focusing on words and ideas that are repeated.

Individually mark words and phrases that are repeated or those that repeat ideas. Next to each marked word or phrase, describe the effect of the repetition on your understanding of the meaning of the poem.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will analyze the poem’s language, structure, and meaning in greater depth by discussing questions with partners.

Work with a partner to determine meaning and deepen your understanding, and then write down answers to the following questions in your Learning Log:

1. What is the speaker's stance on the poem's topic?

2. What most reveals the speaker's perspective?

3. How does repetition of words, phrases, or ideas impact the meaning of the poem?

Be prepared to share your responses in a whole-class discussion.

Activity 3: Read

The second poem is titled “The South.” we will read and take note of details that stand out to us using the Attending to Details Tool before exploring the poem’s language and structure in more detail.

Step 1

Listen and read along silently as your teacher or one of your peers reads the poem aloud, and then consider the following guiding question using the Attending to Details Tool:

1. What does the language cause you to think about?

Step 2

Reread the text on your own, this time focusing on specific words and phrases that have strong positive and negative connotations.

Individually mark positive and negative language using the plus or minus sign (+/-).

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

We will analyze the poem’s language, structure, and meaning in greater depth by discussing questions with a partner.

Work with a partner to determine meaning and deepen your understanding of the text, and then write down answers to the following questions in your Learning Log:

1. What is the speaker's attitude about the South? How do you know?

2. Which words or phrases are critical for understanding the poem? Why are those words or phrases critical for you to understand the poem?

Be prepared to share your responses in a whole-class discussion.

Activity 5: Discuss

We will discuss “One Way Ticket” and “The South” as a pair, how they connect to “The Lynching” and “Between The World And Me,” and how they connect to the ideas we’ve been discussing and learning about in this unit so far.

Participate in a whole-class discussion of the questions below in order to analyze the relationships among “One-Way Ticket,” “The South,” and the other unit texts.

1. What connections do you see between “One-Way Ticket” and “The South”? How are they similar? How are they different from each other? How are they similar to and different from “The Lynching” and “Between the World and Me”?

2. How do these poems enhance our understanding of the decision to migrate?

3. Wilkerson uses excerpts from some of these poems as epigraphs in the book:

   1. What connections do you see among the content of these poems and The Warmth of Other Suns and the experiences of Ida, George, and Robert?

   2. What is the impact of Wilkerson’s decision to use some excerpts of Hughes’ poems as epigraphs in terms of what her text conveys and how it influences our understanding?

4. What do these poems suggest about the relationship between the end of slavery and the Great Migration?

Activity 6: Read

For homework, complete the sources Note-Taking Tool for “One Way Ticket” and “The South.”

For homework, complete the Sources Note-Taking Tool for “One-Way Ticket” and “The South” to deepen understanding by noting and evaluating the effects of details. Use your completed tools from this lesson to help you respond to the guiding questions below:

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:

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

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

5. 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.