Jump at 'de Sun! Let's become Zoraheads!

Learning Resource Type

Lesson Plan

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

11

Overview

Students will learn about Zora Neale Hurston at the beginning of a unit on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Using the essay "How it Feels to be Colored Me," students will discuss the use of metaphors in correlation to Hurston's life. Students will also construct a poem using metaphors about their own lives. 

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 11

ELA21.11.R2

Read and comprehend a variety of literary texts to develop a literal and figurative understanding as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation.

UP:ELA21.11.R2

Vocabulary

  • Literary texts
  • Literal understanding
  • Figurative understanding
  • Text
  • Purpose
  • Situation

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Necessary skills to read and comprehend a variety of literary texts.
  • Strategies to analyze literary text to develop a literal and figurative understanding.
  • Literary texts have different intended meanings depending on the genre, purpose, and situation.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Read and comprehend a variety of literary texts.
  • Develop literal and figurative understanding of literary texts appropriate to the text, purpose, and situation.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Literary texts can be understood on both a literal and figurative level.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 11

ELA21.11.R3

Utilize active listening skills in formal and informal conversations, following predetermined norms.

UP:ELA21.11.R3

Vocabulary

  • Active listening
  • Formal conversations
  • Informal conversations
  • Predetermined norms

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Active listening skills.
  • Strategies to identify formal and informal settings.
  • Engage in formal and informal conversations.
  • Predetermined norms for formal and informal discussions.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Demonstrate active listening skills during formal and informal discussions.
  • Practice predetermined norms for formal and informal discussions.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Conversations and discussions follow predetermined norms which help us actively listen and gain understanding.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 11

ELA21.11.4

Analyze how an author uses characterization, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view to create and convey meaning.

UP:ELA21.11.4

Vocabulary

  • Analyze
  • Characterization
  • Figurative language
  • Literary elements
  • Point of view
  • Create
  • Convey

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Authors choose to write from a particular point of view and use specific literary elements and vocabulary words to convey their intended meaning.
  • Methods to analyze characterization, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify characterization, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view in a variety of texts.
  • Analyze how characterization, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view creates and conveys meaning in a variety of texts.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Authors select particular literary elements and devices to create and convey meaning within their written work.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 11

ELA21.11.6

Analyze a text’s explicit and implicit meanings to make inferences about its theme and determine the author’s purpose.

UP:ELA21.11.6

Vocabulary

  • Analyze
  • Explicit
  • Implicit
  • Inferences
  • Theme
  • Author's purpose

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Strategies to comprehend explicit and implicit text meaning.
  • Inference skills.
  • Methods to identify the theme and purpose of a text.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Making inferences about the theme and purpose of a text by analyzing a text's explicit and implicit meanings.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Text often has an explicitly stated meaning and an implied meaning.
  • They can combine their explicit and implicit understanding to infer the theme and the author's purpose for writing the text.

Primary Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

analyze metaphors in "How it Feels to be Colored Me"

discuss biographical details of Zora Neale Hurston's life in comparison to her essay

compare metaphors in "How it Feels to be Colored Me" to those in their own metaphor poems

construct a metaphor poem

share poems with classmates 

Procedures/Activities

 

1. In the previous class period, students should have been given brown paper grocery bags. Your local grocery store will most likely donate these. The students will decorate the front of the bag in regard to what their peers see them as on the outside. They cannot put pictures or their name on the front of the bag. Inside the bag, the students will bring five to seven items that will serve as metaphors for who they truly are on the inside. An example of this would be a graduation cap to serve as a metaphor for education. These items will be brought to class in the brown bag, and the students will participate in a secret show and tell. The items will be returned to them; they will not be held in the classroom. Teachers might want to set guidelines for what can and cannot be in the students' bags. Car keys, wallets, pictures, and cell phones are usually not good ideas. 

2. Students will receive the Hurston timeline handout on their way into the classroom and will place their bags in a line at the front of the classroom. Independently, students will take about fifteen minutes to read over the timeline. While reading, students will highlight facts they believe to be interesting or significant. 

3. After the students finish reading the timeline, students will conduct a turn and talk with a student nearest to them. These pairs or small groups should discuss their findings from their reading of the timeline.  Which events highlighted were similar? Which events were different?  Why did you find these events significant or interesting?

4. Students will then participate in a whole class discussion about the timeline. This will lead to the teacher presenting the PowerPoint on the life of Zora Neale Hurston. This PowerPoint will serve as an introduction to Hurston. While the teacher lectures, students should be taking notes about Hurston.

5. After the students have been introduced to Hurston, they receive the "How it Feels to be Colored Me" essay. This essay is Hurston's response to her life. She uses multiple metaphors to describe various aspects of her life. The teacher will read the essay aloud for the first read. Then, the students will read the essay to themselves paying attention to and highlighting the metaphors that are used. Students should receive about ten to fifteen minutes for this. 

6. Students will then go to the front of the classroom and grab a bag that is not their own. They will take the contents out of the bag, and place them in front of them on the floor or table. 

6. After students have taken out the contents, the teacher will present the example "Me in metaphors" poem. This can be the one attached or one the teacher has written to provide as an example. The students will then write their own "Me in metaphors" poem. The teacher should explain to the students that the first line in each stanza is a metaphor, while the second line is an explanation. The students will write their own poems using the items in the bag they brought. After the students have been given time to accomplish this, one person will share. Then, the class will guess who has their bag. The person that has their bag will then share their bag, and the class will guess again.  This will continue until everyone has shared. 

 

Assessment Strategies

Formative assessment will occur during classroom discussion. 

Writing assessment through students' poems. 

Speaking and listening skills were assessed through poem presentations. 

Intervention

For students that may need extra assistance, provide the poem template ahead of time so that they may work on it before class. 

Total Duration

Greater than 120 Minutes

Background/Preparation

Students should be able to identify metaphors.

Teachers may want to write their own "Me in metaphors" poem. Click here for an example, but students enjoy reading about their own teachers. 

Teachers will need to review the timeline for biographical information about Zora Neale Hurston that will be discussed by students and in a PowerPoint for the lecture. Further information about Zora Neale Hurston can be found in Wrapped in Rainbows by Valerie Boyd.

Materials and Resources

Students will need writing tools, the Hurston timeline handout, highlighters, a "How it feels to be colored me" handout, brown paper grocery bags, and art supplies.

Technology Resources Needed

computer with Internet access, digital projector

PowerPoint: Zora Neale Hurston

Approved Date

2023-12-13

Owner (Author)

lambert1832
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