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Lesson 1

We will continue to study the mythology of homeownership in America, recognizing that the American Dream, while compelling, has not been equally accessible to all Americans—a fact that Langston Hughes has referred to as a “dream deferred.” We will examine the imagery in the Hughes poem and read an excerpt from a Smithsonian article by Isabel Wilkerson that overviews the Great Migration, with a focus on the discriminatory housing practices that Black Americans faced when they arrived in northern cities like Chicago. Through our work examining and comparing these texts, we will develop claims that investigate the following question: Why has homeownership been a “dream deferred” for many Americans?

Lesson Goals

  • Can I make connections and comparisons among a video, poem, and historical narrative related to the idea that for Black Americans the American Dream has been a “dream deferred”?

  • Can I form a claim about homeownership as a “dream deferred” in America, using evidence from various types of texts?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “This Is Home,” Off/Page Project, YouTube, 2014
  • Unit Reader
    • Excerpts from “The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration,” Isabel Wilkerson, Smithsonian Enterprises, 2016
    • “Harlem,” excerpt from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Langston Hughes, Estate of Langston Hughes. Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC., 1994

Optional

  • Tradebook
    • Excerpts from Act 2 of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry, Random House, 1959

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: View – Discuss – Listen

We will watch a video made in response to a richmond, California, investigation into public housing in order to begin thinking about how the dream of owning a home for many black Americans has been undermined by the history of discriminatory, substandard housing in the us.

Watch the video "This is Home" by the Off/Page Project, paying attention to the photography and lyrics that stand out to you. You might use the Video Note-Taking Tool to help you take notes.

Discuss with the class what you have seen, experienced, and thought about while watching the video. Consider and discuss the following questions:

  1. How does the video’s portrayal of home compare with other ideas about home you have been examining?

  2. What does the third rapper’s question, "Where do we go next?" make you think about?

Activity 2: Listen – Discuss

We will read Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” to consider his question, “What Happens To A Dream Deferred?” in relation to discriminatory housing practices in America.

Step 1

Listen to a reading of Langston Hughes’ famous poem, "Harlem," paying attention to the poem’s structure as a series of questions and figurative comparisons, or similes.

Step 2

Discuss the series of comparative images from the poem as listed below and what they suggest about a "dream deferred":

  • "dry up like a raisin in the sun"

  • "fester like a sore"

  • "stink like rotten meat"

  • "crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet"

  • "sags like a heavy load"

Consider the final question of the poem and its contrast to the previous series of images. Discuss the following questions:

  1. What might Hughes be suggesting can ultimately happen to "a dream deferred"?

  2. How might homeownership have been a "dream deferred" for many Americans?

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will establish an understanding of the Great Migration, its impact on American history, and its relationship to homeownership by reading and forming claims about an article by Isabel Wilkerson.

Step 1

As a class, briefly discuss two questions about the Great Migration:

  1. What do you already know about the Great Migration?

  2. How might the Great Migration have been connected to the idea of home and to homeownership for Black Americans?

Read and annotate Paragraphs 1-10 from the first two pages of excerpts from Isabel Wilkerson’s Smithsonian article "The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration" (up to "the courage within themselves to break free").

Form an evidence-based observation or claim about the Great Migration and its impact on American history. Share and discuss your observation or claim with the class. Then discuss the following question:

  1. How has the Wilkerson article expanded or challenged your understanding of the Great Migration?

Step 2

Read and annotate Paragraphs 11-14 from the excerpts, searching for details presented by Wilkerson to explain her claim, "When African-Americans sought to move their families to more favorable conditions, they faced a hardening structure of policies and customs designed to maintain racial exclusion."

With the class, share the details you annotated and explain how those details support Wilkerson’s claim.

Activity 4: Read

We will examine a narrative recounted by Isabel Wilkerson about Lorraine Hansberry’s family and explore how that story led her to frame the eternal question: “Where Can African Americans Go?”

Step 1

Read Paragraphs 15-23 of the excerpts from “The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration," considering the following text-specific questions:

  1. What experiences did the Hansberry family encounter when they attempted to make a better life for themselves and their four young children?

  2. What do we learn about the play that Lorraine Hansberry wrote in response to her family’s experiences?

  3. What does Wilkerson say about the eternal question she poses: “Where can African-Americans go?”

  4. How does this question relate to Langston Hughes’ question, "What happens to a dream deferred?"

Step 2

Write down the following question on your Analyzing Relationships Tool:

How does Wilkerson’s eternal question relate to Langston Hughes’s question, "What happens to a dream deferred?

Use the Analyzing Relationships Tool to examine Paragraphs 15-23 for details that answer this question while drawing connections between those details to make claims about Wilkerson’s ideas. Discuss possible claims with the whole class that could be supported by the details you have identified.

Activity 5: Read – Discuss – Write

We will conduct a jigsaw and examine passages from Wilkerson’s article more closely in order to see how she develops her ideas and uses language and syntax to convey them.

Step 1

In this jigsaw, you will first work with an expert group to read and analyze one of the assigned paragraphs. Then you will form home groups, where you will share your analysis of the assigned paragraph from your expert group in a jigsaw discussion.

Form an expert group with two other students. Read and analyze one of the following paragraphs from Wilkerson’s article, as assigned by your teacher:

Merely by leaving, African-Americans would get to participate in democracy…. The people who migrated would become the forebears of most African-Americans born in the North and West. (para. 9)

Richard Wright relocated several times in his quest for other suns…. a catalog of videotaped assaults and killings of unarmed black people, from Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991, Eric Garner in New York in 2014, Philando Castile outside St. Paul, Minnesota, this summer, and beyond. (para. 24)

We can no more reverse the Great Migration…. And a tornado triggered by the wings of a sea gull can never be unwound. (para. 28)

Analyze and discuss your expert group’s paragraph in response to the following questions:

  1. What central claim does Wilkerson make in your paragraph?

  2. What specific examples does Wilkerson refer to as she explains and develops her claim?

  3. Identify a sentence that your team thinks is particularly powerful. How does Wilkerson use language and the syntax of her sentence to make this sentence stand out?

You are now an expert on the paragraph assigned to your group.

Step 2

Form a home group of three students, each of whom examined a different paragraph. Using the previous questions as your guide, engage in a jigsaw discussion, summarizing what your expert group discovered about your paragraph.

Compare the three paragraphs and draw conclusions about Wilkerson’s use of examples to develop her ideas and her use of language and syntax to bring them to life. Share your conclusions with the class.

Step 3

In your Learning Log, write a new sentence addressing something you have learned about the Great Migration, using the Wilkerson sentence your expert group identified as a model for how you use language and syntax to convey your ideas.

Activity 6: Discuss

We will develop a claim about the experiences black Americans were faced with in relation to the supposed American dream.

With a discussion partner, consider what the texts examined in this lesson suggest about home and homeownership for Black Americans. Using an Extending Understanding Tool, consider relations among details from "This is Home," "Harlem," and “The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration."

Form a claim in response to the following question:

  1. In what ways has the American dream of homeownership been a "dream deferred" for many Americans?

Activity 7: Read

For homework, we will read an excerpt from Lorraine Hansberry’s play a raisin in the sun to see how her own family’s story of discriminatory housing has been immortalized in a dramatic work.

For homework, read the excerpt from Act 2, Scene 1 of A Raisin in the Sun while considering the following text-specific questions:

  1. Who are the characters in this scene, and how do they seem to function as a family?

  2. What is it that Mama has done that sets off the discussion in this scene? How does she explain why she has taken this step?

  3. What are the various reactions of the other members of the family to Mama’s decision? Why might they react as they do?

  4. When Mama reveals that the house is in Clybourne Park, what do her explanation and others’ reactions suggest might be a complication to fulfilling her dream of homeownership?

  5. How does this scene from the play relate to what we have been studying about the American dream of homeownership?

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