April 11, 2006

I updated many of the pages on the classroom web page.  Therefore, I ran out of time to write this entry.  Sorry.

On Tuesday, we went to the writing lab to do some research.  I need the students to understand the times surrounding the Harlem Renaissance.  This way, they can be more expressive when they read their assigned poem because they will know what the writer is trying to express.  For example, if they do not know what lynching is, they will not understand the despair the poet is trying to express.

I used the timeline from the Negro Baseball League movie as the basis for studying the background of the times.  The movie examines the struggles of blacks from the Restoration after the Civil War up through Brown vs. Board of Education in 1956.  We are examining how blacks struggled to form their identity in a society that did not always accept them as equals.

Ultimately, I want the students to be examining themselves.  The final project will project their understand of themselves and their place in the world as they see themselves today.  Just as the black writers of the Harlem Renaissance were excited to explore their roots and express their hopes for the future, I want to see the students expressing themselves through a creative presentation.