Classroom Activities
Introductory Lesson
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to summarize and define the five core aspects of reading, and to cite evidence when reacting to past laws outlawing literacy. The teacher will engage students’ attention first through a silent discussion reacting to a few key quotes from Douglass’ writing, asking students to identify ways in which they do or do not feel a similar connection to reading. As the teacher briefly reviews the five areas of literacy with examples, students will assess their own reading. Students will then apply these skills to reading the excerpted anti-literacy laws listed above, engaging in a written or spoken discussion to answer the question “What was the purpose of these laws, and do you think they were effective?”
Lessons 2 & 3: The Purpose of Literacy is Self-Liberation
By the end of these two lessons, students will engage with autobiographical and fictional writings from the perspective of antebellum Black readers in order to identify the impact of literacy and the role of basic phonics. In the first day focused on phonics & “illegal” reading, students will begin by analyzing excerpts from Webster’s blue-backed speller, available in the resources and also through searches online, with the teacher emphasizing the introductory nature of this text. Students will then annotate Chapter 10 of Douglass’ autobiography, following the procedure described above, as the teacher reads aloud. Students will close by reflecting on Douglass’ experiences, with a particular focus on the ways in which he takes a speech meant to discourage his mistress from teaching him and makes it a personal manifesto on the importance of literacy. On the second day, students will apply the phonics principles laid out in the speller to read aloud and annotate Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “An Antebellum Sermon” and France Ellen Watkins Harper’s “Learning to Read.” Both poems are written in an adopted voice, something key to underline for students, but both poems engage with questions of literacy and rights. Harper’s poem is straightforward, with basic vocabulary, while Dunbar’s is written in a dialect that will require careful work by students. After reacting to these concepts in class discussion, students will review a list of 9th grade readings, and identify a biographical or autobiographical text not currently in the curriculum they would like to read before graduating high school.
Lessons 4 & 5: The Purpose of Literacy is Intellectual Growth
After these lessons, students will be able to define a classical education and debate the purpose of education through a key institution of Philadelphia history, while also building vocabulary knowledge through Greek and Latin roots. Students will begin by exploring layered texts to build background on the Institute for Colored Youth, including Google Maps images of the old Institute location, the story of Jesse Ewing Glasgow Jr., the original Will and letter to the paper dismissing college education for Black students, and the opening paragraphs of William Whipper’s address to the Reading Room Society. Students will define the original mission of the Institute for Colored Youth, debate the different views of education defined in the writings, and predict how the Institute will be conducted. On the second day, students will review the journal entries of Emilie Davis and contrast those with the final exam questions she would be expected to answer by the end of her learning. Students will complete a self-assessment on Greek and Latin roots of vocabulary, and identify at least one piece of classical or canonical literature written before 1900 which they would like to read before graduating high school.
Lessons 6 & 7: The Purpose of Literacy is Social Functioning
After these lessons, students will be able to not only summarize the impact of the Carlisle Indian School and contrast its mission with that of the Institute for Colored Youth, but also apply their reading skills to a broader range of primary sources by exploring the digitized archives. Students will begin by building background knowledge through a short video history of the school and a trailer for Home From School: The Children of Carlisle, a documentary covering the 2021 repatriation of students who died in the 1880s. To establish background understanding, students will review the digital archives of Carlisle Indian School, searching by topic with teacher guidance. The next day, students will annotate the two examples of school newspapers and read aloud student writing using the guided oral reading protocol to assess and practice their own fluency. This mini-study will conclude with students adding at least one text created by a teenager or young adult to their personal syllabus; teachers may want to consider using this as an opportunity to expand the definition of “text” and allow students to add a filmmaker or social media presence to their syllabus with appropriate justification.
Lessons 8 & 9: The Purpose of Literacy is Self-Determined
In these lessons, students will analyze the relationship between higher education and activism and the role of one group of students at the University of California San Diego in defining their own education. The teacher will begin by giving students a basic background understanding of campus activism in the 1960s, using suggested materials, and students will analyze the ways which campus and societal upheaval can interact and what this can say about previous opposition to the Institute for Colored Youth and offering college pathways at the Carlisle Indian School. Students will build their background knowledge of the Lumumba-Zapata Coalition and the Third College through a review of different primary and secondary sources including news reports and Angela Davis’ video reflection from Herbert’s Hippopotamus. On the second day, the teacher will explicitly teach text structures and signal phrases, leading students in an understanding of genre and text features and how these can impact comprehension, before students analyze the Lumumba-Zapata course of study and use it as a model to begin building their personal syllabus in a structured format. Students will contrast the opening paragraphs of this proposal with the assimilationist writings from Carlisle Indian School, and also review their local curriculum for major concepts or ideas that may be missing and should be added to their personal syllabi.
Lessons 10 & 11: The Purpose of Literacy is to Make Change
In these lessons, students will analyze the online resource guides of the Black Lives Matter movement to answer the question “Why is background knowledge important?” and “What is the role of history in activism?” As a transitional text, students will first read an excerpt of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, beginning in chapter 11 when he describes his reading experiences with “Many who today hear me [...] will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade”52 and continuing through his discussion of the importance of history. Students will then compare his writings to the current Black Lives Matter movement, divided into jigsaw groups to explore sources that will give them a background understanding of the movement locally and nationally. The next day, students will educate one another on their findings and further analyze the importance of background knowledge to understanding the curriculum resources suggested by Black Lives Matter at Schools Week of Action. After identifying some key concepts and ideas covered in these resources, students will add two nonfiction sources to their personal syllabi.
Lesson 12: Closing Discussion
In the final lesson, students will cite evidence from their annotations across the unit in order to engage in a class discussion on the purpose and function of literacy. Modeling their writing after either the Lumumba-Zapata Coalition’s introduction to their demands or the preamble of the Pittsburgh African-American Education Society53, students will add a statement of purpose to their personal syllabus that identifies their goals and expectations for their learning throughout high school. These syllabi will form part of students’ individual learning plan portfolios that can follow them throughout high school.
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