A carefully crafted three-day instructional activity integrates poetry and visual art. By analyzing and comparing Langston Hughes' poem "Mother and Son" and Romare Bearden's collage "The Dove," readers explore the theme of hope. The...

Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...

High schoolers write a speech.  In this dreams lesson, students define the word dreams and list their own dreams.  High schoolers read and discuss Langston Hughes work, read and discuss excerpts from speeches by JFK and Martin...

Students find a group of words from an unlikely source and turn them into a poem. They discuss the central image in two well-known poems by Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. They write their own short poem expressing one central...

How does Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun factor into a discussion of the American dream? High schoolers define the American dream and recognize the historical setting of the play. Additionally, they identify...

Students analyze Dr. King's public addresses and Langston Hughes' poetry as a study of the Civil Rights' nonviolent approach to making an impact. In this protesting lesson, students read poetry of Hughes and speeches by Dr....

High schoolers recognize the importance of planning for the future. They think about and project themselves into the future. Students become aware that everyone encounters challenges in life and that they can be met and obstacles can be...

Third graders examine the phrase Touch and Go, and analyze the poem, Dream Variation by Langston Hughes. They read an African-American folktale and write interpretive paragraphs about the story.

Use this resource to support your class practicing inference with poetry and visual art. The plan calls for an examination of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and the "Mona Lisa" to promote speculation about artist's intent. From there, it...

Ninth graders, before being introduced to the novel "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry, experience of variety of activities dealing with raisins and dreams. They begin by writing a short essay predicting what they think will...

Rhyme, rhythm, free verse, imagery: Do these words describe poetry, or jazz music? The answer is both! A resource explores these similarities as scholars watch a video, engage in discussion, read author biographies, write poetry and...

Students research the background of Jacob Lawrence and study the music, poetry, and spirit of the Harlem Community that was present during Jacob Lawrence's formative and subsequent art productions. They create a piece of artwork...

Young scholars explore the life and works of black American playwrights to gain insight into how their works reflect and influence the black American experience.

Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...

Young scholars make inferences about characters in poetry. In this literature instructional activity, students read poetry and prose to determine how characters handle conflict in each of the genres.

Students explore American culture by reading classic literature in class. In this African-American history lesson, students read the story Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree while identifying the work and contributions of the real life...

Students analyze the work of Stephen Crane as a lesson on surrealism and an antihero. In this surrealism lesson, students complete discuss activities for the topic. Students then analyze Crane's poetry, his use of surrealism, and the...

Analyze poetry in a group setting. Middle and high schoolers read lyrics to a Tom Petty song and free write about the song's tone, setting, and speaker. They then complete the same activity in a group setting using seven poems. The...

Third graders complete a unit of lessons on the process of six trait writing. They identify good writing traits, read and evaluate poems, literature, and myths, utilize a rubric to evaluate their own writing, and evaluate classmates...

Tenth graders study the poetry of the US Civil Rights movement and the Black Arts movement over a 12 day period. They author a website showing works of poetry that students have chosen to analyze and relate to these movements.

Tenth graders develop a website documenting poetry integral during the civil rights movement in the United States. Working in pairs, 10th graders research the people and poetry of that was prevalent during the civil rights movement. ...

High schoolers identify and connect themes of selected nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art to Harlem Renaissance jazz. They compare and contrast historical and fictionalized versions of the jazz scenes of the Harlem Renaissance. They...

Learners explore poetry through jazz, rap, and hip hop music. They discover the common threads that run through the poetry and music. Students design their own lyrics to a jazz, rap, or hip hop selection and share their songs with the...

Fourth graders demonstrate and evaluate the six traits of writing. They read and identify good writing and bad writing, utilize a rubric to self-evaluate their own writing, participate in a Reader's Theater, and publish a class book.