End of the Unit: Harlem Renaissance: 2014

Today's Agenda

I booked the lab today so that each of you can work at your own pace to get in some more practice and some decent review before tomorrow's quiz.

Please follow the agenda below to assure you are accomplishing the most work possible:

Complete the work for the post called Literary and Poetic Analysis Main Claim Practice.
Read the directions and do the work for the post called Review Quiz for Tomorrow.
Get as much done as you can for the post titled Create a Harlem Renaissance Haiku.

Some of these posts require you to leave comments and demonstrate critical thinking. Please make sure you read the directions in each post carefully.

Literary and Poetic Analysis Main Claim Practice

Please do the activity outlined in this post ON YOUR OWN.

Below you will find three different Literary Analysis prompts followed by a few main claims to go with each prompt. Please read each of the three prompts and their accompanying main claims. Then, in a comment to this post, identify which claim is best for each prompt. Please EXPLAIN why you believe that main claim best responds to its prompt. MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE COMMENT.

I have included an example comment for you to reference.

Prompt #1:
Carefully read the poem "Old Lem" by Sterling Brown. Then, in a well developed essay, analyze the poetic devices, techniques, or strategies Brown uses to communicate his message that overcoming racism and inequality would be a long, difficult journey for African Americans.

Main claim A for prompt #1: In "Old Lem" by Sterling Brown, it is clear that there was very little equality in American during and shortly after slavery.
Main claim B for prompt #1: Sterling Brown uses effective strategies in his poem to communicate his important message.
Main claim C for prompt #1: In "Old Lem," Sterling Brown uses the persona of Old Lem and the repetition of certain pronouns to communicate his message that the fight for equality would be a long, challenging road for African Americans.

Prompt #2:

Carefully read the poem, "The Barrier" by Claude McKay. Then, in a well developed essay, analyze the poetic devices, techniques, or strategies McKay uses to help convey tone.

Main claim A for prompt #2: In "The Barrier," McKay uses metaphors and powerful antithesis at the end to communicate his message that an unfair division is caused by racism.
Main claim B for prompt #2: In "The Barrier," McKay uses metaphors and imagery to communicate his sad, melancholy tone.
Main claim C for prompt #2: The poem, "The Barrier," serves as a great reminder that racism affected people in many ways, including love and relationships.

Prompt #3:

Carefully read the poem, "Dream Variations" by Langston Hughes. Then, in a well-developed essay, analyze the poetic devices, techniques, or strategies McKay uses to create a mid-tempo pace and rhythm.

Main claim A for prompt #3: In "Dream Variations," Hughes uses line breaks and punctuation to create a mid-tempo pace and rhythm.
Main claim B for prompt #3: In "Dream Variations," Hughes uses enjambment and imagery to convey his important message.
Main claim C for prompt #3: "Dream Variations" is about a young black man who dreams of a time when black people can openly be proud of their race and culture without the worry of white supremacy.

Review for the Quiz Tomorrow

We have a quiz tomorrow for this Harlem Renaissance unit. Below you will find an overview of what will be covered on this quiz, followed by a link to an online review quiz and a link to the vocabulary quizlet. Please look over what will be covered on the quiz, and then use the rest of class to work through the online review quiz and to also review your vocabulary words by using the quizlet link.

Tomorrow's quiz will cover...

What was the Harlem Renaissance?
Where did it occur?
When did it occur?
Where were some of the key writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers of the H.R.?
Why did the Harlem Renaissance occur?
What are the steps for reading, comprehending, and analyzing poetry?
What is the difference between poetry and prose?
Why do we paraphrase poetry?
You should know HOW to annotate a poem.
What should we look for when we annotate poetry?
You should know HOW to annotate a poem.
What is tone and how do you identify and describe it?
You should be able to accurately describe a poem's tone.
What are some things to consider when thinking about poetic form?
You should know the different types of poetry we discussed.
What a scheme? What is a trope?
You should know the PROCESS of literary analysis.
You should know your vocabulary words.

Review Quiz: click here

Many of the questions on this practice quiz are similar to tomorrow's quiz, so pay attention.

Vocabulary Quizlet: click here

(click on the flash cards or other options at the top to study the words)

Create a Harlem Renaissance Haiku

For this activity, you can choose to work by yourself or with a partner.

You will be looking at some artwork from the Harlem Renaissance and using it to inspire a haiku (or two). If you are working by yourself, you will browse the artwork at the end of this post and select ONE of the pieces that you want to describe in a haiku. If you are working with a partner, you will select TWO pieces of artwork and you will work together to write one haiku about each of the art pieces.

Each art piece is labeled with a letter. When you decide on the piece (or pieces) you will use, create a comment to this post and write your haiku or haikus in that comment. Please label each haiku with the letter of the art piece it is about. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS IN THE POST AS WELL (if you are working with a partner, please make sure BOTH of your names are in the comment). I have an example comment for you to look at and make sure you're doing this correctly.

In order to do this, you must understand what a haiku is.

A haiku is a three line poem that describes something in great detail. A haiku has a total of 17 syllables in the poem. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables.

Here are a few examples to show you what they look and sound like:

"Transcendentalism" by Mrs. Sampson

Trickling rivers

and coniferous forests

delighted Thoreau

"Gothicism" by Mrs. Sampson

Dark, eerie pathways

"Realism" by Mrs. Sampson

The dirty floor boards

in the broken down farm house

were lovely to Twain.

Here are the art pieces you can pick from to inspire your haikus:

A: "Parade" by Jacob Lawrence