Strategies
Students participating in this unit of study will read a variety of texts, including poetry, prose and film.
Suggested Prerequisites:
include The Autobiography of Malcolm X, an autobiography with Alex Haley; "Letter From Birmingham Jail," a letter to clergy by Martin Luther King, Jr.; and "Sing it Loud-I'm Black and I'm Proud," a song by James Brown.
Required Sources:
is a short list with which everyone participates, including listening to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddamn", and discussing its contrast to "We Shall Overcome" the anthem of the earlier civil rights period; reading "Poetry is not a Luxury," an essay by Audre Lorde which communicates, among other things, the philosophy "I feel, therefore I can be free"; the main source of creative reading we will do is with "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf," a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange, with which we will compare and contrast Tyler Perry's film "For Colored Girls"; in addition, for background we will view and discuss the documentary "Black Power Mixtape, 1967-75", a film by Goran Olsson and how we, as historical "outsiders" see the period visually; as well as "read" a fictional drama called "Night Catches Us", a film by Tanya Hamilton.
Independent Reading:
is necessary for raising the reading levels of students, as well as a lifelong practice I encourage in my room. Furthermore, reading meets the expectations of the School District of Philadelphia's Reading Across the Curriculum program agenda. Suggestions the students may choose from include but are not limited to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, with Alex Haley, Soul On Ice, a memoir by Eldridge Cleaver, and Soledad Brother, a memoir by George Jackson. The core of womanist texts include A Taste of Power, a memoir by Elaine Brown, Angela Davis: An Autobiography, an autobiography by Angela Davis, Blues Book for a Black Magic Woman, a poetic memoir by Sonia Sanchez, Revolutionary Petunias, a travelogue by Alice Walker, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, a memoir by Maya Angelou, and Assata: An Autobiography, an autobiography by Assata Shakur. A few directly autobiographical poetry books include Nappy Edges, a collection of poems by Ntozake Shange, Good News About the Earth, a collection of poetry by Lucille Clifton, and of course Black Magic Woman, by Sonia Sanchez.
Other Suggested Texts:
represent a selection of key works from or on the period. They provide background information and a certain amount of contrast to the female voices that are the focus of the unit. They include: chapter six of "Black Power and American Culture: Literary and Performing Arts" in New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-75 by William L. Van Deburg, and "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" or "Whitey on the Moon," music by Gil Scott Heron. These last two songs by Gil Scott can open students to the period and its mentality: each symbolized at the time the antagonism towards mainstream white and pop cultures.
Group Discussions and Literature Circles:
are essential to creating a sense of the community of the period for this specific unit, as well as for the new community being established within my room. We generally sit in a tight circle to facilitate this sense of collaboration.
Personal Interviews:
with women in the neighborhood who lived through the period beginning with the mid-1960s. I have received a grant to use video cameras in my classroom, but interviews can be recorded in notes with a simple template if there is no technology available. These are crucial to understanding the unit's theme of "the personal is political," and should be geared towards exploring experiences with discrimination and popular culture at the time.
Written Film Critiques:
are modeled on actual film reviews from the Internet Movie Data Base, and represent real world writing skills, as well as the possibility of publishing finished critiques in the school newspaper or elsewhere, such as "Teen Voices" magazine, TheBlacktop.org, and through other opportunities in the Philadelphia area. There are bound to be opportunities for teens to publish in every major city, and there are national sites as well for those who do not find them locally.
Creative Writing:
in poetry encompasses a lot of strategies in my room, on an almost daily basis, and is therefore more of an individual process over an extended period of time than any one strategy I would promote here. That said, I recommend several books in the appendix for teaching creative writing, but most especially Hip Hop Poetry and the Classics, by Alan Lawrence Sitomer and Michael Cirelli and The Poet's Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux.
Timelines:
are terrific! I recommend a double timeline, with historical events in the greater society (such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King's murders) and poetic events below (such as the dates of publication for each poem or book of poetry).
Graphic Organizers:
for describing the stakeholders during the period, as well as for communicating their relationships with each other will help to connect the material with more visual learners. I recommend a double entry journal for the films, poems and memoirs, in which one side has an event, incident, idea or quotation, the other side a response or reaction.
Collage:
Can be a lot of fun for more visual associations with the time. Images of Angela Davis' (and others') iconic afros can be combined with photos of the black power fist, the black panther mascot, and collaged with excerpts of poems for fun and pedagogical learning.
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