The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 11.04.02

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. Background Information
  4. Demographics
  5. The Song and Title
  6. The Play
  7. The Texts
  8. Imagery
  9. Objectives
  10. Strategies
  11. Classroom Activities
  12. Appendix A
  13. Appendix B
  14. Appendix C
  15. Appendix D
  16. References
  17. Endnotes

Strange Fruit: An Exploration of Imagery and Socio-politics of Post-Katrina New Orleans

Amanda Lynch

Published September 2011

Tools for this Unit:

Demographics

I am an Exceptional Education Strategic Reading and modified English teacher. Within the confines of my classroom, I have students who have experienced a variety of behavioral and academic challenges and who have varying cognitive abilities that have contributed to their being defined as being at risk. Our school is currently entering its second year in the turnaround process as mandated by No Child Left Behind, and as we enter this phase, we are working to create a more rigorous, relevant, and collaborative instructional environment between general and exceptional education content area teachers. Next year, we will be offering more collaborative core classes to provide a more rigorous academic experience for all of our students. This unit will be taught in both my modified English classes and collaborative English classes, with modifications being made based on the needs of my students.

Physically, there are many borders that exist within our school community. Many of our students align themselves with certain neighborhoods and despite the fact that each neighborhood nearly touches, they rarely cross these manmade borders. Their identities are so intrinsically woven into the fabric of their housing communities that it is often difficult to get them to see beyond these invisible borders. There are five major Section-8 housing units which feed into our school, with approximately 80% of our students residing in one of the public housing units and the remaining students live in homes surrounding the community or they have applied to attend through our districts open enrollment policy. The demographic population of our school is roughly 98% African-American, 1% Hispanic and 1% Caucasian; with almost 33% receiving exceptional education services. The lack of diversity within our school gives my students a very limited world in terms of socio-economic and racial diversity. I believe that this lack of exposure to other cultures and socio-economic settings, many of my students have become desensitized to the human conditions of others. Through this unit, they will explore their own resiliency and their power to change the world through active engagement in the public policy process.

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