Do Now:
Semantic Map on Vacations Completion of this semantic map will allow you to draw personal connections between you and the text. It will set you up to compare and contrast your own experiences with that of the poems' narrators. On a semantic map, brainstorm ideas about "vacation." Where do you usually go on family vacations? What do the hotels look like? How is your lifestyle on vacation different than when you are at home? What's fun about traveling? |
STATION 1:
Read Langston Hughes's poem, "Merry-Go-Round." It is provided below. Write a 2-3 sentence summary. Then answer the following questions:
1. Setting: Is the merry-go-round in the North or South? Explain how you know its location. 2. Point of View: How would the poem be different if the narrator wasn't implied to be an African-American youth? Assuming the role of carousel operator, write a 3-5 line response to this boy's confusion. 3. Critical Thinking: African-American youth grew up only knowing racial segregation. How has the narrator's exposure to racial segregation affected his mentality and his self-perception - and thus, his ability to have fun? |
SEGREGATION
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MERRY-GO-ROUND
Langston Hughes (1902-1976) Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry-go-round,
Down South where I come from White and colored Can't sit side by side. Down South on the train There's a Jim Crow car. On the bus we're put in the back — But there ain't no back To a merry-go-round! Where's the horse For a kid that's black? |
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STATION 2:
Read Rob Wood's poem, "FREDEM." It is provided below. Write a 2-3 sentence summary. Then answer the following questions:
1. Text-to-Self Connection: On your sheet on loose-leaf, sketch your own brick wall and write in an abstract noun that represents your dreams. You may spell is phonetically if you wish. 2. Allusion: Why does the author mention the literacy tests that prevented African-Americans from voting? How are the literacy tests limited in their power, according to the poem? 3. Critical Thinking: Why would seeing "FREDM" written on a wall be more powerful than any of these synonyms or even the correct spelling of the word? Consider these alternatives: Liberty Free Will Independence Freedom Sovereignty Autonomy |
WHAT IS FREEDOM? |
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FREDEM
Rob Wood, 1965 Somebody wrote
What he hardly Knew how to write, But what he knew, With a piece of chalk On a brick wall And it was: FREDM And no literacy tests Can disqualify him 'Cause he knows It's FREEDM And the knowing And the telling Not the spelling |
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STATION 3:
Read Countee Cullen's poem, "Incident." It is provided below. Write a 2-3 sentence summary. Then answer the following questions:
1. Text-to-Self Connection: Bullies often use name-calling to mock others. List several names you're heard people call others (i.e. "wimp," "freak," "fat," etc). 2. Compare & Contrast: How does the narrator change from Stanza 1 to Stanza 3? Brainstorm appropriate adjectives. Identify whether this is a positive or negative change. 3. Annotation: Think of Stanza 2 as the turning point for the narrator. On the poem, underline the event - the "incident" - that causes the narrator's change. 4. Critical Thinking: Interpret the cliche, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Does this poem prove or contradict that statement? Why does the name-calling have such a big effect on the narrator? |
THE EFFECT OF RACIST SLURS |
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Incident
Countee Cullen, 1925 Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee, I saw a Baltimorean Keep looking straight at me. Now I was eight and very small, And he was no whit bigger, And so I smiled, but he poked out His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.' I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December; Of all the things that happened there That's all that I remember. |
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