Part I: Overview of the Unit
This unit of study centers upon
Richard Wright’s Native Son and
encompasses various Blues music, literature, and film relevant to the novel’s
time period. The unit gathers African
American history leading up to 1940 with Blues history of the 1930’s to prepare
students to read the novel. A vast
number of activities come together to teach Native
Son including character analysis, study guides, reading quizzes, literature
circle discussions, Socratic seminars, and analytical writings. After completing the novel, students must
demonstrate their learning by choosing at least one culminating assignment from
each of the following categories: knowledge-level exams, critical writing, and
creative projects.
There are five specific goals that relate to the district and state expectations of 11th grade language arts students. (The learner will) 1. Demonstrate advancing skills needed to read and respond to various genres and time periods of American Literature to analyze multiple components of American culture. 2. Demonstrate advancing skill in reading a variety of materials for a variety of purposes. 3. Write effective, persuasive analysis about American Literature for a variety of audiences, purposes and contexts. 4. Demonstrate knowledge of literature from a variety of cultures, genres. 5. Demonstrate skills needed to read and respond to literature.
Through
this Native Son unit, students have opportunities to
meet all course outcomes through reading, responding to, and writing about a
challenging multicultural text. By differentiating instruction,
multiple learning styles and intelligences are accessed and growth is
documented.
Part II: Overview of the Lesson
Within
my unit on Native Son, one of the most successful lessons that engages
student learning is “Writing Bigger’s Blues.”
This lesson begins with an anticipatory set where students and teacher
brainstorm the many different characteristics of Native Son’s
protagonist Bigger Thomas. Next, after
stating and having the students write down the objectives of the lesson, I
teach the Call and Response lyrical format with
an example on the board. After handing
out a guide sheet with examples and checking to ensure that each student has
grasped the concept of Call and Response, the students are challenged to pick a
specific point from “Flight” (Book Two of Native
Son) and write about Bigger Thomas’s problems from his perspective. The students are given time to compose their
song lyrics for Bigger and volunteers share the lyrics
they have written.
This
activity helps my students meet the outcomes and goals of the unit in three
basic ways. By analyzing a character in
writing, the students achieve a portion of unit outcome three: writing
effective persuasive analysis over American literature. Character analysis is essential for these
students to understand the complex and very different character of Bigger
Thomas, in addition to why Richard Wright portrayed Thomas the way that he
did. The fourth unit outcome requires
students to demonstrate knowledge of literature from a variety of cultures and
genres. This activity certainly attacks
that outcome as the students must demonstrate knowledge of African American Culture
from the novel genre as well synthesize that back in Blues lyrics, a poetical
form. This lesson moves students towards
achieving all five course outcomes/ state standards.
This lesson
works into the unit on Native Son
from two directions. Firstly, it helps
students gain an in depth look at Bigger Thomas. Also, this expands the students’
understandings of the Blues and provides a thought provoking way and different
manner of talking about the various elements of Bigger Thomas’s character by
providing valuable background information about the time period and setting
that allows students to see the events of the novel more clearly from Bigger’s
point of view.
Many
students use this form of poetry writing as a personal outlet for their own
problems. By being able to confront
their troubles in a fun, interesting, and different manner, students deal with
their problems in a constructive, non-confrontational style. This is offered as an enrichment activity and
many students extend this activity on their own time by writing blues lyrics
about their own struggles: homework Blues, Driver’s License Blues, English
Class Blues, etc. I see many of my
students sharing blues lyrics with their peers throughout the remainder of the
school year, long after our study of Native Son is complete.
Students
meet their educational goals by analyzing a character, choosing careful diction
to demonstrate understanding of that character, and by openly sharing their
writing. The “Writing Bigger’s Blues”
lesson is one to two days of a six week unit and one of many activities
designed to engage student learning.
Part III: The Native Son
Blues Unit is unique in that it offers a differentiated approach to assessing
student growth and learning. By offering
students choices from the three different categories—knowledge, writing,
creative—students can demonstrate their learning through the use of their
stronger intelligences.
This lesson
is different because it asks students to write a very structured form of song
lyric and challenges them to think critically about character analysis. It also aids in developing a classroom
climate conducive to sharing writing.
The weaknesses of this lesson are the stereotypes and prejudices of the
Blues students hold. Additionally,
having to research and understand something like the Blues to teach a single
lesson would be a drawback for teachers not familiar with the art form.
For those
interested in trying this lesson, I recommend gaining a general knowledge of
the Blues before starting and providing students with a handout and an
example. Since students have the option
of sharing their personal Blues lyrics, school appropriateness can become an
issue. Because Bigger Thomas is a crude
and violent character, student lyrics have the tendency to be crude and violent
as well. Although this fact reveals true
student understanding of the character, it would be advisable for a teacher to
discuss the parameters of appropriate content with his or her students before
beginning to write. This lesson would
work well for character or situation analysis in almost any piece of literature
but it is cohesive within the unit over Native
Son.
Part IV: This unit reflects my
teaching philosophy in that all of the activities surrounding our reading of Native
Son are designed to actively motivate student learning through choices and
creativity. In doing this, a
student-centered classroom with differentiated instruction keeps each learner
at a challenging pace and places the focus on the student and his or her improvement. Discussing the novel in a literature circle
format and discussing connections in a Socratic seminar format, students do not
have the option of passive learning.
They must engage in discussion and other meaningful activities to reach
their potential and are constantly pushed beyond their limits towards that
potential. The culminating activities at
the end of the unit exemplify my style and philosophy most effectively and
accurately. Based upon choices, students
are asked to assess their learning in three different categories: knowledge,
writing, and creativity. Each student
chooses from a list of approved activities and has the opportunity to take an
objective test over Native Son for
the knowledge option or write and illustrate a children’s version of the
novel. These choices provide students
the opportunity to meet their learning goals and empower them to look at
learning, and English, in an entirely different way.
Part V: This is an award winning practice because it motivates students to want to be in class, learn, and seek enrichment activities beyond the class period. This unit takes a classic piece of literature and teaches it in a manner that incorporates methodologies and pedagogy that are supported by current educational research and does so while maintaining elements of more traditional methods. Using Blues lyrics to complete a character analysis is not a method widely used but this practice engages students and motivates them towards a deeper understanding of Bigger Thomas and Native Son, not to mention a method of dealing with their own struggles and accompanying emotions. Writing Blues lyrics is a very effective way of dealing with the stress and daily problems teenagers face. More importantly, students are offered an opportunity to meet their learning goals in a variety of ways and in a manner that is more creative than the simple drill and recitation of study guides, quizzes, and tests. Students are actively engaged in the learning process and are stimulated to employ higher-level thinking skills through creativity and critical thinking. This is relevant to their own lives and helps students develop life-long literacy skills and a love of learning and reading.