Why Literature Matters

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 16.02.08

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale and Background Information
  3. Objectives
  4. Teaching Strategies
  5. Classroom Activities
  6. Teacher Resources
  7. Bibliography
  8. Appendix: Incorporating Common Core State Standards
  9. Endnotes

Reading One Another: Fostering Passion and Identity Growth through African-American Literature

Robert McKinnon Schwartz

Published September 2016

Tools for this Unit:

Bibliography

Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition, Oxford University Press, 1971.  Containing the pedagogical triangle referenced in this unit.

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: Vintage, 1993. Wherein the featured letter “My Dungeon Shook” can be found.

“Biography: Jacob Lawrence (1917 – 2000).” The Philips Collection. 2016. www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/lawrence-bio.htm. For biographical information about Jacob Lawrence.

Bruns, Cristina Vischer. Why Literature? The Value of Literary Reading and What it Means for Teaching. New York: Continuum, 2011. Offers insight into why reading literature is important, including the featured transitional quality of reading.

“Cooperative High School.” U.S. News & World Report. 2016. www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/connecticut/districts/new-haven-school-district/cooperative-high-school-4499/student-body. Offers statistics for the purpose of this unit about the high school at which I currently teach.

Feger, Mary-Virginia, “I Want to Read: How Culturally Relevant Texts Increase Student Engagement in Reading,” Multicultural Education 13.3, (2006): 18 – 19, accessed August, 2016, http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ759630. Helpful in reinforcing the choice of literature (African-American literature) for this unit.

Gaipa, Mark. ""A Creative Psalm of Brotherhood": The (De)Constructive Play in Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"." Quarterly Journal of Speech 93, no. 3 (08, 2007): 279-307. http://search.proquest.com/docview/62049645?accountid=15172. Insight into Dr. King’s Letter.

Geiger, H. Jack. “Rachel and Her Children.” The New York Times. 1996. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/31/books/rachel-and-her-children.html?_r=0. A synopsis of the book featured in this unit.

Hayles, N. Katherine. “How We Read: Close, Hyper, Machine.” ADE Bulletin: Number 150, 2010: 62 – 79. Good information on why reading words from an actual page (as opposed to electronically) is important.

Lewis, David Levering. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking, 1994. This is where the excerpt from Passing by Nella Larsen can be found.

“Nella Larsen,” Black History Now, Sept. 16, 2011, http://blackhistorynow.com/nella-larsen/. Biographical information on Nella Larsen.   

“Prints, Drawings, and Photographs: Artist: Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917 – 2000, Workshop,” Yale University Art Gallery, 2016, http://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/27554. The image of the Jacob Lawrence painting is found here.

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