Emmalea Couch

Harlem Renaissance Lesson Plan – Emmalea Couch June 25, 2009

link: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=252 (Read, Write, Think)

This lesson explores the Harlem Renaissance by exploring jazz music, poetry, and art. It engages students analytical skills, requiring them to make connections between these three art forms. It enables student creativity, because one of the final products they produce is a museum exhibit, for which they have choice and which will involve artistic production. And it fosters cooperation skills, because much of the work is done in groups.

I like that the lesson involves a lot of interactive activities. Students get to see art, hear music, read poetry. And if the school has good technology resources, these activities can be done as a group using an LCD monitor, so it will not feel like a lecture lesson to the students, but rather like an engaging day at an interactive museum.

Using this lesson in my classroom I would make a few modifications. For one thing, this lesson is designed to take five 50 minute sessions. I think that is too much. I would require that some of this group work be done outside of class. Most schools I know of now have block schedules, so I think I might begin this unit right before beginning a good Harlem Renaissance novel. I would spend one day on it at the beginning of the unit, doing all the interactive activities. Then I would give the time of the unit (probably two weeks), to the students to work on their group projects outside of class, assigning limited homework during that time. I would finish the unit with a “Day at the Museum” to present what they have done.

Also, since I liked DED-journals so much, I think I would incorporate that into this lesson. I would have DED template pages set up for students, and ask that they fill them out at they hear and see the art I present to them.

Finally, I really liked this website in general because the lesson plans are very thorough. They give perfect instructions to teachers, right down to what materials to have gathered when and what days to reserve a computer lab or monitor for the classroom.