Curated OER
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Young scholars analyze sculpture, poetry, and music to gain an understanding of historical events. In this critical thinking skills lesson, students take a closer look at African-American history as they examine "Lift Every Voice and...
Huntington Library
The Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes
Eleventh graders discover the poetry of Langston Hughes. In this social issues lesson plan, 11th graders experience the views of Langston Hughes. Students read Hughes' poetry and discuss the basic theme. Students evaluate the political,...
Curated OER
Electronic Poetry Project
Students create a digital project to go with a poem. In this technology lesson, students pick a poem and create images to go with it. They make background music for the narration of their poem and attach it to a PowerPoint...
Curated OER
Romare Bearden: Piecing Together A Viewpoint
Students examine the history of Romare Bearden and her artwork. The lesson consists of some virtual field trips and projects. The lesson is designed to be taught as either a social studies or art lesson. The teacher could also teach this...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
War and Poetry
A band of brothers or the Devil's agents? Nobel warriors freeing the oppressed or mercenaries working for the military/industrial complex? Groups examine poems from the Civil War, World War I, and World War II to determine the poets'...
Curated OER
Performance Poetry as Social Commentary
Young scholars explore poetry that examines social concerns. In this poetry lesson, students research poems and poets. Young scholars present their findings to their classmates.
Curated OER
Zora Hurston Teacher's Guide
Learners 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...
Curated OER
Carson McCullers: Loneliness and Frustrated Love
Students examine the themes of loneliness and frustrated love in the work of Carson McCullers. In this theme analysis lesson, students complete a comparison of patterns in the novels of McCullers as a part of a theme analysis.
Curated OER
What Caused the Great Depression?
Analyze the many causes of major political, economic, and social developments during the 1920s and 1930s, with emphasis on the Great Depression. Read photographs from the 1920's and the 1930's, then write a brief explanation of what you...
Curated OER
Black History Web Design
Each student or student team creates a web page. Students research and make decisions for content of the page. Each web page should contain at least six images and six links, as well as any necessary commentary. Students indicate on the...
Curated OER
The Roarding 20's
Tenth graders are introduced to the social, economic and political developments of the 1920s. Using historical developments that are part of the indicator, they create a three-dimensional graphic organizer.
Curated OER
Urban Concentration and Racial Violence
Students research one of the many urban race riots in U.S. history, from the New York City riots during the Civil War to the "Red Summer of 1919" or the hate-strikes of 1943. They present their findings in the form of a newspaper's front...
Curated OER
Deep like Rivers: Four African American Poets of the 1920s and 1930s
Students examine work by outstanding African American poets from the time period of the 1920s and 1930s. They study aspects of American and African American social, cultural and artistic history that influenced the content of some of the...
Curated OER
Langston Hughes
Young scholars identify similarities between Hughes' poetry and music (jazz and the blues).
Curated OER
The Search for Identity: "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Learners read the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God". While reading the novel, they identify and discuss the figurative language used and use a passage of interest to them and analyze it in a written paper. They also discuss events...
Curated OER
An Immigrant's Story
Students discuss famous examples of historical fiction as a genre and why it is used so often. They create an original piece of historical fiction by developing a character who is an immigrant to the United States. They are assessed...
Curated OER
Murals, Memories, and Making Art
Fourth graders examine the life and works of famous artists. Using the internet, they take notes and present their information to the class in an oral presentation. They create their own original artwork in the same style of their...
Curated OER
Murals, Memories, and Making Art
Fourth grade reading students study art works by famous artists. They use various tools for learning about the artist, and they present their information by writing and speaking about the artist. They also create artwork in the style of...
Curated OER
Romare Bearden
Students examine and discuss a collage by the artist Romare Bearden. They analyze the impact of jazz on art, listen to jazz, and create an original collage.
Curated OER
Marian Anderson: From Page to Stage
Students become immersed in a compelling anecdote of the civil rights movement through the experience of constructing dramatic scripts. An added goal is to equip students, through this "hands-on" experience, to critique dramatic...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: A Harlem Renaissance Retrospective
In this activity, students work in collaborative groups to conduct Internet research and create a museum exhibit that highlights the work of selected artists, musicians, and poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
Crayola
Crayola: Bold and Bright in Harlem (Lesson Plan)
This lesson plan incorporates art into a social studies or language arts class. Students create their own pictures, using the work of Harlem Renaissance artists as inspiration. Also provides resources and adaptations to try with this...
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Sti Lesson 2: Langston Hughes and the Blues
Explore relationship between music and poetry in this African-American history lesson on Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance, and other artists such as Bessie Smith, John Hammond, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Musical Harlem
The Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge offers a great unit for introducing jazz to young scholars. Its use of Harlem as the "glue" which binds together elements such as jazz history and jazz terminology, makes it particularly effective for the...