Harlem Renaissance
Nancy Barrett and Margaret Kennedy
This is one of three lessons of a unit on the Harlem Renaissance.
During this lesson students will explore examples of everyday life of Harlem
in the 20s and 30s by examining photographs and texts. In addition,
students will develop research skills as they familiarize themselves with
some American Memory Collections. Subsequent lessons will engage
students in learning about several Harlem personalities and their artistic
contributions.
Objectives
Students will be able to
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Analyze historical conditions which led African Americans
to settle in Harlem.
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Place the Harlem Renaissance within the national and global
context.
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Describe the culture of everyday life in Harlem.
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Identify individuals significant to the Harlem Renaissance
and describe their contributions to it.
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Experience a variety of artistic expressions of the period.
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Apply knowledge of Harlem Renaissance to current developments
in their local communities.
Time Required
Two weeks
Recommended Grade Level
Grades 9 - 12
Curriculum Fit
This unit is suitable for both an English and U. S. History class.
Resources Used
Lesson #1: Everyday
Life in Harlem
Goal: Students will be able
to describe the culture of everyday life in Harlem.
Procedure:
-
The teacher will engage the class by asking
the students to consider a series of questions while visualizing a typical
scene in a local neighborhood. Describe this street scene.
Who is in the picture? What are the people doing? Why are they here?
What buildings, forms of transportation, signs, other objects can you see
in the picture?
What sounds might you hear?
-
After surfacing these impressions, the teacher will suggest that many of
these same aspects of everyday life can be identified in the culture of
neighborhoods at any era.
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Using five photographs of Harlem which are linked below, students
will complete a "quickwrite" describing the activities portrayed
in the photographs. Teacher will invite students to share their quickwrites
.
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In order to look at Harlem in greater depth, students will move into their
work groups where each group will be assigned two Life
Histories from the Federal Writers Project about Harlem culture during
the 20s and 30s. The students will select their readings from the
following list and access their entries by typing the title
in the search box of the Life Histories home page.
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The Whites Invade Harlem
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Harlem Rent Parties
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Harlem Beauty Shops
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Harlem Swing Club
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Amateur Night at the Apollo
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Street Cries and Criers
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Al Thayer
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"Slick" Reynolds
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Bernice
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Harlem Riot
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Harlem Conjure Man
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Life in Harlem Markets
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Eddie's Bar
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Domestic Workers' Union
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Afternoon in a Pushcart Peddlers' Colony
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City Street
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Each group will identify cultural characteristics found in their
assigned readings by charting the following:
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Occupations
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Issues/concerns
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Leisure Activities
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Vivid Images
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Surprising Descriptions
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Loaded Words
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Students will post their information culled from the readings on
the corresponding sheets posted around the room.
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In the subsequent class discussion, the students will add to
their overall impression of Harlem during the 20s and 30s by studying the
posted lists. The teacher will elicit further response from the students
regarding how the bias or prejudice of the informant may have influenced
the recollection or the data.
-
As culmination for the lesson, students will return to their "quickwrites"
and flesh out their impression of Harlem with new information and reflections
on the culture of Harlem at this period.
Evaluation and Extension:
Students will be given a rubric for evaluation of the
content of their "quickwrites" and of their participation in a group
discussion.
E-mail:
Sister Margaret Kennedy mkenn@hnhs.pvt.k12.ca.us
Nancy Barrett
danbarr@pacbell.net
July 22, 1999
# 2 PERSONALITIES OF HARLEM
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Provide students with copy of Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." In
working groups, students will read the poem and make a list of the various
people and places mentioned in the poem . As a class, surface any prior
knowledge about these people and places. Each group will be assigned
a personality and place to research. Using the Van Vechten and Gottleib
collections, students will find as many photographs as possible of the
person assigned to their group. Then students will do independent
biographical research on their personality and select the photograph
which they feel most clearly captures the identity and influence of this
person. With information and selected photograph each group designs
a power point presentation to share with the class focusing on an artistic
sample of the person's talent.
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