Overview
This curriculum unit will focus on the writings of Walter Mosley. It will center on the whole class reading of Devil in a Blue Dress, with the possibility of exploring other Easy Rawlins stories and/or other detective fiction written by African American authors.
A description of the target student audience follows. Langley High School is one of ten Pittsburgh Public High Schools. Over sixty-percent of our students are minorities. We are a Title I school with monies allocated to our school based on the high percentage of student applications for free and reduced lunches.
This unit will be implemented in a mixed grade level (9-12) special education resource English class. Included in the class are students with learning and/or emotional disabilities as determined by a psychological report and Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Each student's educational team has determined that they will not be successful in a regular education English class with their non-disabled peers. Therefore, the students are given adapted English instruction at their functioning level instead of actual grade level. This proves beneficial in that the students' IEPs drive instruction and I have some flexibility with content. Administrators instruct me to follow the district adopted Kaplan curriculum, but it is at my discretion to supplement, modify and adapt instruction based on student needs. It is my opinion that this unit can be modified and adapted for a regular education classroom as well. Included in this unit is a section for an activity used as an extension for my population of students with learning disabilities. This activity includes examining the notion of double-consciousness in Devil in a Blue Dress and subsequent Easy Rawlins novels. This portion of the unit would be very appropriate for any regular or honors education class.
The aforementioned Kaplan curriculum (9th grade) includes novels such as Monster by Walter Dean Myers, Tea Cup Full of Roses by Sharon Mathis and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Several of my students complained about the dreary theme of the books we read. Plots include a young African American male imprisoned for his involvement in a robbery and homicide, a young African American male struggling with his drug addicted brother and dysfunctional family and a Caucasian female recently raped, respectively. One student said quite frankly, "Why do we always have to read about bad stuff happening to black people, we know all about that!" When I asked what he would prefer to read he struggled to answer but seemed interested when I suggested mysteries. His point is valid. Walter Mosley's novels will provide students with exposure to an African American author and a positive main male character who is African American.
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