READING STRATEGY: As readers, it’s important for us to make connections with what we read. When we do, we understand more. This reading strategy involves you connecting to and with the text at a few levels including: text-to-self; text-to-text; and text-to-world. In these next assignments, you’ll practice each of those types of connections.
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Throughout this unit, you have seen that the realities of many African American lives included institutionalized racism. For example, people created race-based rules like the one that only “white” men can drive the garbage truck. In Wilson’s introduction, he tells the audience that this play takes place before the “hot winds of change” of the 1960s and Civil Rights would blow. Throughout time, protests depend on language (in for the form of chants) and songs to convey messages. At the turn of the 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois, another African American scholar and writer, wrote a poem in response to a popular patriotic song you know: “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” In his version, he advocates civil disobedience through alternate words as he emphasizes the injustice they face. |
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Pre-reading questions: Think back to the image of the flag hidden behind the barbed wire. It might symbolize the way that “fences” keep people out -- away from achieving the American Dream (of prosperity and equality). 1. To what extent was “the American Dream” or true “freedom” kept away from African Americans during the time period of the play? 2. Unpack the question and, in your own words, describe the American Dream and the freedoms available to the Maxson family. Find evidence from characters’ dialogue and/or stage directions to support your answer. Use page numbers for all quotations. Your response should be 3-5 sentences. Assignment: Read and compare the poem by W.E.B. Du Bois with the original lyrics. Make a copy of this Google chart as a tool for comparison. Then, paste the table into your daily assignment sheet. Here is an already filled in comparison chart for your reference. Open the lyrics to the original song, found here. W.E.B. Du Bois’ poem can be found here. Click here for more information about the original song. Follow-up Questions: After completing the chart, answer the following questions:
Write your answers on your assignment sheet. |
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Post-reading questions: Now, connect your thoughts to more current events: To what extent is the United States a land of liberty (and freedom) for everyone? What do you think? To what extent is that level of freedom kept from groups of people today? Reference something in the news today or from this week that you feel supports your perspective on how much freedom people have and how much they should have. Write your answers on your assignment sheet. |
NEXT: Lesson 2 Writing
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