Poetry of the 1920’s
Grade Level/Time Frame: 4th grade/40 minutes
Objectives: As a result of this lesson, students will be able to interpret some poetry from
the 1920’s. Students will have been exposed to various poets (Langston Hughes, Claude
McKay) and will be able to write their own poems about the Harlem Renaissance using
those poems as examples.
Standards:
16.A.2c Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic
documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources.
18.A.2 Explain ways in which language, stories, folk tales, music, media and artistic
creations serve as expressions of culture.
18.B.2a Describe interactions of individuals, groups and institutions in situations drawn
from the local community (e.g., local response to state and national reforms).
Materials:
Poem handout (I Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes) found at:
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C07010E7A
Poem handout (The White House by Claude McKay) found at:
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C07050874
lined paper
pencils
Set:
“As we already know, the Harlem Renaissance was a significant movement in the 1920’s.
Many African-American poets and authors contributed to this movement. We are going
to study some poetry by two famous African-American authors today: Langston Hughes
and Claude McKay. We are going to look in detail at their poems because they can help
us see how some people who lived during the 1920’s viewed life and society.”
Procedures:
1. Activate prior knowledge about the Harlem Renaissance through a discussion. Review
what students have already learned and what they know from experience.
2. Handout both poems to the class.
3. Do a choral reading of the Langston Hughes poem and have a discussion about
unfamiliar words and the meaning of the poem. Think about the message the poem is
sending to the reader.
4. Repeat procedure 2 for the Claude McKay poem. There is a lot of good vocabulary in
this poem to work with.
5. Based on these two poems and what the students have already learned about the
1920’s, have them write their own poem about the 1920’s.
6. Ask students to use lined paper, title their poems, and have at least 8 lines in their
poems. Inform students that they will be graded on spelling as well for this assignment.
7. The teacher will check the poems and approve them for performance on the following
day.
Closing: “Great work today on your poems. Please turn them in or see me when you
have finished so that I can look over them. We will be performing our poems for the
class as soon as everyone has finished. I think it will be exciting to see what creative
ways we have all come up with to talk about the Harlem Renaissance. Please finish these
tonight if you have not already finished.”
Assessment:
1. Students will be informally assessed by observation during group discussion and their
contributions to the lesson.
2. Students will be formally assessed on their written poem following the rubric below:
3
2
1
Mechanics
0-1 spelling
2-4 spelling
5 or more spelling
mistakes
mistakes
mistakes
Length
Contains at least 8
Contains 6-7 lines
Contains 5 or fewer
lines
lines
Content
Clearly relevant to
Somewhat relevant
Not related to the
the Harlem
to the Harlem
Harlem Renaissance
Renaissance
Renaissance
3. Students will be formally assessed on their reading of the poem based on if they
presented it or not. All students who read their poem will receive full credit on
participation.
Accommodations: For students who have difficulty thinking of a topic, provide some
ideas for them to work with. For example, ask them the following questions: “What do
you think about the Harlem Renaissance? What do you want people to know about it?
Are there some words about this movement that you can rhyme together?” These and
other similar questions may spark some ideas.