Lesson Plan : "The Man Who Was Almost A Man"
Teacher Name: | Michelle E. Carter |
Grade: | Grade 9-10 |
Subject: | Literature Activities |
Topic: | Historical influeces in African American literature. |
Content: | African American Literature Reading Analysis |
Goals: | Students will make connections between the events and social attitudes of the time period, its influences on the author and the author's work. |
Objectives: | Reading Analysis E/W 12.3: Relate literary works and authors to major themes and issues of their eras. Recognize the characteristics of major chronological eras E/W 10.3: Make predictions, draw inferences, and connect prior knowledge to support comprehension. E/W 9.3: Explain the relationships between and among elements of literature: characters, plot, point-of-view, tone, theme, and setting. |
Materials: | Richard Wright's "The Man Who was Almost A Man" Timeline of African American History during the 1940s and 1950s Timeline of Wright's life |
Introduction: | Students will be asked to write down thier predications, based upon the title, what the text will be about. Students will be given a writing prompt amswering the question "What makes an adolsecent an adult?" |
Development: | The teacher will collect the predictions and writing propmt answers. The teacher will read aloud the first passage of the text and place students in groups to determine the main character, point-of-view, and setting based upon the language. |
Practice: | The teacher will model how to identify components of a text that suggests historical importance to a particular culture. For example the use of the African American vernacular suggests that many African Americans were not formally educated and Dave working in the field suggest sharecropping was still popular. |
Accommodations: | Students will return to their previous groups and compare and compile their list of historical influences in the work. Then compare their compiled lists to the author's life for similarities or influences. |
Checking For Understanding: | Students will be asked several high order questions in which they must justify their answers with evidence from the text and the author's life. |
Closure: | The teacher will explain that most literature is influenced by the author's life or the way the author viewed the worlf at the time the work was written, which oftentimes gives the work historical importance. |
Evaluation: | Comprehension quiz identify the historical influences in the text and how they correspond with what you know about the author. |
Teacher Reflections: | Teacher will lead a class discussion asking students: What is the theme of the story? Why is the title not "The Boy Who was Almost a Man? What would have been a mature solution to Dave's problem? Based upon your knowledge how do adults feel about minors owning and using guns? Speculate the outcome of Dave's life. Is Dave's race important? why or why not? |
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