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Horseheads Central School District
11th Grade United States History
and Government
Project Title: Harlem Renaissance
The project that I developed this
year for “TDHAH” was a webquest and pamphlet for the Harlem
Renaissance. The idea behind the project was to generate interest,
enthusiasm and understanding of the time period in American History.
As an American History teacher, I find students remember flappers
and prohibition of the 1920s, but ask them about Langston Hughes or
the Cotton Club and I get blank stares. Al Capone yes, Jacob
Lawrence no. This project was geared toward familiarizing students
with the names, culture and art/writing of Harlem, NY in the 1920s
and even how their work inspired other famous people, like Picasso.
The
Components:
Fill in the Blank on Harlem Renaissance from
Wikipedia
Experience the Harlem Renaissance
Read and React to Langston Hughes
“Let America Be America Again”
Listen to Duke Ellington and Write a Reaction, Compare to Today’s
Music
Compare and Contrast 1920s
Artwork: Harlem Renaissance (Ramare Beardon)
compared to Picasso,
Kandinsky, Matisse.
Brochure on the Harlem Renaissance
Definition
Poetry by Hughes
Two Artwork Pieces
Biography (Marcus Garvey, Hughes,
Jacob Lawrence etc)
News Story of Major Event in 1920s
(Cotton Club, Speakeasies, Babe Ruth, Lindbergh Flight etc)
Harlem Renaissance Worksheet (picture and
write-up, students answer related questions)
The Process:
Day 1
Today I introduced the project to
my American History class. Students were excited for the opportunity
to use the computers and that it was a relatively simple project.
I introduced the project as a
research, look, listen and reflect assignment. I wanted students to
go further than reading an excerpt online about the Harlem
Renaissance. I reviewed the assignment with the students and
explained that we would be using the Earthwalk Laptops, working on
page two (experience the Harlem Renaissance) together and that the
fourth page would be assigned as homework. The entire project would
be due the following Monday.
I allowed the class about
25minutes to log-on to the computers and begin the first page of
introductory information on the Harlem Renaissance. After this time,
I had the class turn their attention to the board at the front of
class and we read through Langston Hughes “Let America Be
America”. We discussed the different groups of people, and what he
might be referring to with the title and his stanzas. I allowed
about 5 minutes for students to reflect and write a response to the
poem. Then we listened to selections from Duke Ellington “Mood
Indigo” and “It Don’t Mean A Thing”. Some students bopped along with
the beat, some giggled at the fashion, many just sat and stared. I
was nervous at the reaction I would get in the written portion of
their project, but many students got the ideas I wanted to hit on.
That it is different from today’s music standards, there is a full
band – not electronically produced, the singer is also musically
talented with instruments – unlike today’s vocally synthesized
music. I was surprised to find that many liked what they heard,
though they may have written that because they thought that it what
I wanted them to write. Of course, we next listened to Louis
Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World”, always a crowd pleaser, but
again, got some giggles with Louis’ facial expressions as he sang.
The last part we worked on as a group was the comparison of the
artwork from the Harlem Renaissance to other 1920s artists. First we
looked at Ramare Beardon paintings and other Harlem Renaissance work
and then looked at selected pieces from Pablo Picasso, Matisse and
Kandinsky. Again I was pleased to find that students were seeing a
connection between the artists. I wanted students to correlate the
colors and shapes that predominated the Harlem Renaissance art and
see it reflected in the more well-known artist work like Picasso.
This led to a discussion generated by the students of how artists
are inspired by other artists and what may have been going on at the
time for the artists to make their figures so boxy and as one
student described, “misshapen”.
There was about 10minutes left in class so I reviewed
with students some of the ideas from the Harlem Renaissance and had
them state how it related to the modern day (one part of the
webquest was for students to identify three modern black artists who
were influenced by the Harlem Renaissance, one being Spike Lee).
Then I demonstrated who to get on Microsoft Publisher to create a
brochure, and also showed how to fold paper to create a brochure,
reminding students it did not have to be done on the computer.
Homework that evening was the fourth page of the project packet, a
worksheet on the Harlem Renaissance.
Day
2
After the Do Now, we once again reviewed the major ideas
from the Harlem Renaissance. For those absent, the project was
distributed and briefly explained. Most students were ready to begin
the brochure part of the project and began immediately. Others
needed a little bit more direction in how to begin and what to
include. About 20minutes in to the project, I again stopped the
class and asked for their attention to the board at the front of the
room and reviewed the components of page two –poem, music and art.
Those who finished with this part the day before could go back to
work. I left the artwork up so the students could flip back and
forth themselves to compare.
The class was pretty quiet for
most of the day. They worked on the project, raised their hands when
they needed help or turned to a neighbor. They seemed to be pretty
interested in the topics and finding artwork. Many students spent
awhile finding a poem, some because they wanted to know what it
meant and identify with it in some way, but most wanted to find a
short one!
This was our final full class day
for the project. I reminded the class the projects were due on
Friday, the following day and that though there would be time in
class to work on the projects it would not be enough time to finish.
Finishing the project was assigned as homework.
Day 3
After the Do Now, students grabbed
an Earthwalk Laptop or continued working on their project by hand.
Many had already finished and turned them in immediately. We worked
on the projects for about 15-20minutes. Before collecting the class
projects, I had students go through and check off the four
components of the assignment: page 1 webquest, page 2 Experience the
Harlem Renaissance, page 3 which is the brochure (did they include a
definition, poem, artwork, biography, news story?) and page 4 the
Harlem Renaissance worksheet which had been checked off for homework
the previous day. I went around to the students and collected their
projects, once I had all the completed ones, we reviewed the key
ideas, what was the Harlem Renaissance, how did it change society?
And what could we surmise from the paintings/art from the
Renaissance about what was going on?
Reflection
I did this project twice this
year. Our schedule works out that American History is taught each
semester, in the fall and spring. The fall project went very well.
Students really got into the project and even requested we play some
of the music at the beginning of class the whole week. In the
spring, the students were still interested but more focused on task
completion, whereas the fall students wanted to discuss everything
and analyze the music and poems. I think the fall project went
really well despite it being the first run-through. One thing I have
found is to be careful with webquests, especially Wikipedia. I
though integrating Wikipedia would be great for the students to
understand how to use it properly, instead of relying on the website
for all their research, use it as a jumping off point. That part of
the plan worked, students found that Wikipedia was not a “Mecca” of
information; they had to look at other websites and use their
textbooks to complete the project. However, in the spring I relied
on the idea that the article on Wikipedia would be the same and when
students went to complete the webquest fill in the blank portion I
had a lot of hands in the air “Where is this?” “I don’t see this
heading.” I did not think that Wikipedia was an ever-changing source
and that the information on the site may be edited, deleted or added
on to. Thus, it required some quick thinking to recover and still
have the students know what I wanted to understand. Two parts were
missing from the Wikipedia entry, one on two black organizations
initiated by W.E.B. Dubois and two causes for the end to the Harlem
Renaissance. To combat this obstacle, I had students Google W.E.B.
Dubois and find a site that would explain two organizations he was
involved in. Many students chose the Wikipedia site to research him
and I found the two organizations were listed in the introduction.
The end of the Harlem Renaissance was harder to find, so I had
students look at the dates of the Harlem Renaissance and note when
it ended, 1930s, and speculate as to what was happening in the 1930s
that would affect the spirit and development of the movement. Many
students immediately went to the Depression. I was glad so many
could instantly make that connection. For those that hadn’t thought
of it, I quickly had students identify what they knew about the
Depression and why that would end a cultural movement like the
Harlem Renaissance.
For the spring, the rest of the
project went smoothly.
One of the things that I liked
about this project was how students were engaged in the research.
The webquest fill in the blank was easy so students were excited
that it was an easy 100 for that part, with the poem especially I
found students very interested in what Hughes had to say and they
had a lot of good ideas about his motives for “Let America Be
America” and pointed out connections to different groups and seemed
to admire how he was talking about discrimination of everyone, not
just black Americans. I liked to see the good and bad reactions of
students when they were listening to the music of the Harlem
Renaissance. It was also fun to see what artwork the students
selected for the brochure, some got really into it and spent awhile
debating between two or more paintings to include, the same for the
selection of the poem. I also liked seeing the different ways
students chose to present the information in their brochure.
Students seemed to take real ownership in their project, and it was
great to hear them talking to their neighbors about what art they
chose and what this poem was talking about!
As I prepare material for next
year, I know I will be making changes to the Harlem Renaissance
project. I want to keep the project as it is, but I will look for a
different website for the basic information on the Harlem
Renaissance to be sure of its longevity. I would also like to have
all the information compact on one website; that way absent students
need only follow the website and directions to catch up, rather than
me have the artwork and music on my computer. As well, I had a
problem with one student who plagiarized a lot of the information
for the brochure from various websites. When I confronted him, he
said he didn’t know he couldn’t. Aside from the fact that it is
never acceptable to plagiarize and is stated in their assignment
books, it did encourage me to make sure on every project I put in
the clause that plagiarism is not allowed and consequences will be
given for those who do.
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