Unit Introduction
What do we do with a variation?
a poem by James Berry
Note: "Variation" can mean a change or difference or a different or distinct form or version of something.
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What do we do with a difference?
Do we stand and discuss its oddity or do we ignore it? Do we shut our eyes to it or poke it with a stick? Do we clobber it to death? Do we move it around in rage and enlist the rage of others? Do we will it to go away? Do we look at it in awe or purely in wonderment? Do we work for it to disapper? Do we pass it stealthily or change route away from it? Do we will it to become like ourselves? What do we do with a difference? Do we communicate to it, let application acknowledge it for barriers to fall down? |
Listen to James Berry read his poem "What do we do with a variation"
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Pre-Reading
Building Background Knowledge Before Reading the Novel The Day of Tears by Julius Lester
Click on the Prezi Mrs. Poleske created to learn more about the "peculiar institution" of slavery in America, the practice of kidnapping, breeding, buying, and selling human beings who came from or whose ancestors came from Africa. If the links in the Prezi do not work, click on the links on the slide below instead.
Note: In an attempt to make the practice of slavery sound less reprehensible, Southerners called slavery a "peculiar institution".
Note: In an attempt to make the practice of slavery sound less reprehensible, Southerners called slavery a "peculiar institution".
Seeing Past the Illusion of Race
Today we are going to examine our own understanding about race. According to Webster's Dictionary, race is "a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits." Is this an accurate definition? Perhaps it was before scientists mapped the human genome. A genome is the complete set of genes present in each of our cells. It is those genes that determine the traits we inherit from our parents.
Just how different are we as human beings? Reflect on your own understanding of race by completing the What is race? Anticipation Guide linked below.
What is race? Anticipation Guide
After completing your Anticipation Guide, explore the resources below to find out if your responses were correct. Each resource is numbered.
Just how different are we as human beings? Reflect on your own understanding of race by completing the What is race? Anticipation Guide linked below.
What is race? Anticipation Guide
After completing your Anticipation Guide, explore the resources below to find out if your responses were correct. Each resource is numbered.
1) Watch a clip from the film "Power of Illusion" beginning at 7:55 - 13:10. What did you learn?
2) Read the article "The Race Theory" liked below. What did you learn?
3) Read the article "Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race." What did you learn?
4) Read the article "“What Is Your Race?" by Courtland Milloy. What did you learn?
5) Watch Franchesca Ramsey explain the origin of the word "Caucasian" in her MTV video about the word.
Talking About Race & Racism in America
The three videos that follow will help us frame our classroom conversations about race. Each speaker has his own point to make about the cost people of color continue to pay for racial inequality and racial injustice. Listen carefully to each man, Eric Deggans, Ta-Nehisi Coates and James A. White, as they seek to make us more culturally and socially aware.
How to Talk About Race by Eric Deggans
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After viewing the film, discuss the answers to the following questions with your teammates.
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When Every Word Doesn't Belong to Everyone by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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After viewing the film, discuss the answers to the following questions with your teammates.
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The Little Problem I Had Renting a House by James A. White
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After viewing the film, discuss the answers to the following questions with your teammates.
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The Structure of the Julius Lester's Day of Tears
Authors think long and hard about how they want to structure or organize their writing. In structuring their novels authors consider their audience, purpose, along with the content itself. Julius Lester chose to tell his story using four main structures including organizing chapters by setting and chronologically. He also uses a combination of dialogue that is structured like the script of a play, internal monologues, and interludes that take readers out of the time the novel is set in and into the future.
Read through the slide show below to learn more.
Read through the slide show below to learn more.
During & After Reading
Learning from the Julius Lester novel, Day of Tears
Reading & Writing Learning Tasks
During and after our reading of DAY OF TEARS, you will be asked to complete the following performance tasks presented below. These performance tasks will assess your learning of literary text-related concepts.
Task 1: Identifying MOOD (Chapter 1)
Click on the link below to access the learning task related to mood.
docs.google.com/document/d/1UmJ2wC4ZebglI-Oe1En_b5icBNGJUY9X26xAlPMNhLw/edit?usp=sharing
Task 2: Identifying and Explaining IRONY (Chapters 3 & 4)
Click on the link below to access the learning task related to irony.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Ia_kbpDPzEQ9Ruvzrprl7evH2Ayb5YbfkJAiuZ4Ksc/edit?usp=sharing
Task 3: Making Inferences Challenge (COMING SOON!)
Task 4: Recognizing the Power of DIALOGUE (Chapters 10 & 11)
Task 5: Comparing Two Texts on the Story of Jeffrey and Dorcas
Task 7: Informational Writing: Comparing and Contrasting Two Characters from Day of Tears
Task 1: Identifying MOOD (Chapter 1)
Click on the link below to access the learning task related to mood.
docs.google.com/document/d/1UmJ2wC4ZebglI-Oe1En_b5icBNGJUY9X26xAlPMNhLw/edit?usp=sharing
Task 2: Identifying and Explaining IRONY (Chapters 3 & 4)
Click on the link below to access the learning task related to irony.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Ia_kbpDPzEQ9Ruvzrprl7evH2Ayb5YbfkJAiuZ4Ksc/edit?usp=sharing
Task 3: Making Inferences Challenge (COMING SOON!)
Task 4: Recognizing the Power of DIALOGUE (Chapters 10 & 11)
- You will receive this in the form of a handout, though you may also access this assessment here should you need it for some reason: The Function of Dialogue in Fiction
Task 5: Comparing Two Texts on the Story of Jeffrey and Dorcas
- You will receive a handout of a portion of text from journalist Mortimer Thomson's story of Jeffrey and Dorcas, two of Pierce Butler's slaves
- Link to ReadWorks text below (Note: There are two serious errors in this text. First, the folks at ReadWorks attribute this text to Price Butler. We think they meant to say Pierce Butler. Second, the author was Mortimer Thomson. You've disappointed us, ReadWorks!)
- Before reading the excerpt from Thomson's piece, prepare a highlighter to use in the identification of clues about whether Thomson's treatment of Jeffrey and Dorcas in his text is SUBJECTIVE or OBJECTIVE. What's the difference? SUBJECTIVE texts include the author's BIAS as he or she freely shares his or her OPINION about the subject (topic or person) being studied. OBJECTIVE texts stick closely to the facts. They do not betray a bias on the part of the author, as readers cannot detect the author's opinion about his or her subject.
- You will also receive a handout asking you to compare Thomson's informational text (non-fiction) to Julius Lester's fictional account of Jeffrey and Dorcas in his novel Day of Tears
Task 7: Informational Writing: Comparing and Contrasting Two Characters from Day of Tears
- Click on the Doc link here to get started: Day of Tears Character Compare-Contrast Essay
- For specific guidance on how to complete this learning task step-by-step, view the slide show below.
End-of-the-Unit Assessment
Comparing the poems "Middle Passage" by Robert Hayden &
"On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley
Your Assessment Task: Now that you have written a comparison of two characters from the same text (Day of Tears Compare-Contrast Essay) and a comparison of two texts on the same topic (The story of Jeffrey and Dorcas), you will apply what you have learned to a comparison of the following poems. Read each poem and visit the links associated with each poem and using the Google Doc linked below complete your comparison.
Poem 1: Middle Passage by Robert Hayden
Click on the links below to read Robert Hayden's epic poem "The Middle Passage." You can also listen to Hayden recite his poem by clicking on the play arrow next to the title. I highly recommend doing so as Hayden's deep, rich voice takes on the tone of the various characters who narrate the story about the ghastly Middle Passage. If you want to learn more about the meaning behind the poem I recommend listening the podcast "Poetry Off the Shelf" as they interpret and explain the story behind the poem.
"Middle Passage" Poetry Links
Related Images
Click on the links below to read Robert Hayden's epic poem "The Middle Passage." You can also listen to Hayden recite his poem by clicking on the play arrow next to the title. I highly recommend doing so as Hayden's deep, rich voice takes on the tone of the various characters who narrate the story about the ghastly Middle Passage. If you want to learn more about the meaning behind the poem I recommend listening the podcast "Poetry Off the Shelf" as they interpret and explain the story behind the poem.
"Middle Passage" Poetry Links
- Text: Robert Hayden's poem "Middle Passage
- Audio: Robert Hayden reciting "Middle Passage" (Length 10:45)
- Podcast: Off the Shelf (Length 23:41)
Related Images
Poem 2: On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley
Click on the links below to read Phillis Wheatley's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America," a poem diametrically opposed to Hayden's poem. Take a few minutes to read the background on Phillis Wheatley as well.
"On Being Brought from Africa to America" Poetry Links:
Related Image
Click on the links below to read Phillis Wheatley's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America," a poem diametrically opposed to Hayden's poem. Take a few minutes to read the background on Phillis Wheatley as well.
"On Being Brought from Africa to America" Poetry Links:
- Text: On Being Brought from Africa to America
- Background Reading: Phillis Wheatley 1753 - 1784
Related Image
MLK Day
"I Have A Dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. 2 We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. 2 We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"