LESSON 18 TEACHER’S GUIDE
The Life of Langston Hughes
by Elizabeth Jaffe
Fountas-Pinnell Level P
Biography
Selection Summary
This biography tells the life story of one of the great American poets
of the twentieth century, Langston Hughes. The detailed narrative
focuses on key events in Hughes’ career, from his childhood interest
in writing to his success as a poet and teacher.
Number of Words: 1,003
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and
Print Features
• Biography
• Organized chronologically
• Third-person factual narrative
• Hughes’ childhood and early interest in poetry
• Influence of Harlem on Hughes’ life and work
• Hughes’ travels to Africa and international fame
• Expressing feelings through writing is at the core of the writing process.
• Writing about one’s heritage is often an important theme for writers.
• Racial prejudice had a profound impact on Hughes’s life and work.
• Figurative language (books were his only friends)
• Exclamations to convey interest and excitement (His career as a writer had begun!)
• Dashes to set off information (he was named class poet — again!)
• Mix of simple, compound, and complex sentences
• Words used in a series (He visited the Soviet Union, Japan, and Haiti…)
• Place names (United States, Canada, Harlem, Africa, Mississippi River)
• Names of people essential to events (Mary Langston, John Mercer, Vachel Lindsay)
• Understanding of words dependent on context clues (“Harlem’s Poet”)
• Some challenging, multisyllabic words (excellent, universities, opportunity)
• Many black and white, historical photographs closely linked to text
• Map to extend understanding of content
• Table of Contents
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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The Life of Langston Hughes
by Elizabeth Jaffe
Build Background
Help children use their knowledge of poetry to understand this biography. Build interest
by asking questions such as the following: What do you like about poetry? Have you ever
written a poem? What was it about? Read the title and author and talk about the cover
photograph. Tell children that this book is a biography because it tells about the life of a
real person.
Introduce the Text
Guide children through the text, noting important ideas and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so that they can read the text successfully. Here are some
suggestions:
Pages 2–3: Explain that this book tells about the life of a famous American poet
named Langston Hughes.
Suggested language: On page 2 you can see a Table of Contents which lists the
names and page numbers of the different sections of this book. Look at the stamp
on page 3. What does it tell you about Langston Hughes?
Page 6: Draw attention to the section heading and the photo of his grandmother.
When he was young, Hughes lived with his grandmother. She wouldn’t let him play
outside so books became his only friends. Do you think that books can be friends?
Why or why not?
Pages 10–11: Point to the section heading and the caption and explain where
Harlem is. In Harlem, Hughes listened to a lot of jazz music. His poems sounded
like jazz. How can poems sound like music?
Pages 12–13: Explain that after leaving New York city, Hughes traveled to West
Africa. Let’s trace his route from New York to West Africa on the map. During
his travels, Hughes wrote poems and articles and tried to get them published in
magazines in the United States.
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to find out how Langston
Hughes became a world-famous poet.
Expand Your Vocabulary
blues – popular music with
elements of African-American
folk music, p. 13
earthquake – a shaking of a
portion of the earth, p. 5
jazz – American music marked by
lively rhythms p. 11
heritage – one’s background, p. 6
published – printed, p. 13
congressman – a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives,
p. 6
Grade 2
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Read
Have children read The Life of Langston Hughes silently while you listen to individual
children read. Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind children to use the Analyze/Evaluate Strategy
they feel about the book as they read and why.
and to tell how
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite children to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: What event in Langston Hughes’ life did you enjoy reading about
the most? Why?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Langston Hughes began writing
poetry as a young boy.
• Writers connect with the world
around them through their
writing.
• The author’s attitude towards her
subject is that Hughes deserved
his status as a world famous
writer and poet.
• Langston Hughes wrote and
traveled all over the world.
• Langston Hughes wrote many
famous poems.
• One way of expressing your
pride in your heritage is to write
about it.
• Langston Hughes taught poetry
at universities.
• Historical photographs help
readers better understand events
that took place long ago.
• A table of contents makes it
easier to find information.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite children to choose a passage from the text to read aloud in small groups.
Encourage them to group words into phrases that reflect the meaning of the text.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the children’s reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind children to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind children that longer words are sometimes formed
from shorter, familiar words. For example, the word congressman on page 6 is a
compound word that combines the words congress and man. Understanding the
meaning of the shorter words in a compound can help with the meaning of the longer
word. Repeat with the words newspapers (p. 6); earthquake (p. 5).
Grade 2
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 18.9.
Responding
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Understanding Characters
Remind children that they can use details in
a book to help them learn more about a person in a book. Model the skill, using a “Think
Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
To learn more about Langston Hughes, I’m going to pay close attention
to the details I read in this book. On page 7, I noticed an important detail
– he started writing poems for his school magazine. This detail helps me
understand that he loved poetry as a child.
Practice the Skill
Have children find another detail in the book that tells them something important about
Langston Hughes as a young person.
Writing Prompt: Thinking About the Text
Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think about the text they are reading, they think about how the author presents the
information and what words and pictures the author uses.
Assessment Prompts
• What does the word career mean in this sentence on page 7: His career as a writer had
begun!
• What is the author’s purpose for writing this book?
Grade 2
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English Language Development
Reading Support Have children talk with a partner about the chronology of events in
Hughes’ life before sharing that timeline of events with the group.
Cultural Support Explain that Harlem is a part of New York City where many important
African-American writers and musicians lived in the early 20th century.
Oral Language Development
Check children’s comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their
English proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: Who is this book about?
Speaker 1: Why did Langston Hughes
love to read so much as a child?
Speaker 1: Why was traveling
all over the world important to
Langston Hughes?
Speaker 2: Langston Hughes
Speaker 2: He was lonely.
Speaker 1: What did Langston Hughes
do?
Speaker 2: He could meet new
people and share his poetry with
them.
Speaker 1: How did listening to jazz
music affect the poems he wrote?
Speaker 2: wrote poetry
Speaker 2: The poems sounded like jazz.
Lesson 18
Think About It
Responding
TARGET SKILL
1. WhydidLangstonHugheswanttogotocollege?
People How would you describe people in
this book? Copy the chart. Write the names
of people from the book. Describe something
about each person. List a detail from the
story that supports your description.
Description
Langston
Hughes
?
hard-working did not give
?
up writing
poetry
?
The Life of Langston
Hughes
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
Understanding
Character
BLACKLINE MASTER 18.9
Date
Name
He wanted to become a writer.
2. LangstonHughesmovedaroundalotwhenhewas
young.Whateffectdoyouthinkithadonhim?
Detail
Possible response: He learned about different places and
people.
3. HowwouldyoudescribeLangstonHughes?
Write About It
Text to World Write a descriptive
paragraph about a trip. Include where you
went, who you went with, and what you
saw.
Possible response: He was talented, determined, and proud
of who he was.
Making Connections Langston Hughes used poetry to express his feelings. How do you like to express your feelings?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Read directions to children.
15
Think About It
11
Grade 2, Unit 4: Heroes and Helpers
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Name
Date
The Life of Langston Hughes
Thinking About the Text
Think about the question below. Then write a paragraph to answer it.
This book is full of photos from long ago. How did these pictures help you
understand more about the life of Langston Hughes and the world he lived
in? Use details from the book in your answer.
Grade 2
6
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Lesson 18
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 18.9
Date
Think About It
The Life of Langston
Hughes
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. Why did Langston Hughes want to go to college?
2. Langston Hughes moved around a lot when he was
young. What effect do you think it had on him?
3. How would you describe Langston Hughes?
Making Connections Langston Hughes used poetry to
express his feelings. How do you like to express your feelings?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 2
7
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Student
Lesson 18
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 18.13
The Life of Langston
Hughes • LEVEL P
page
7
The Life of Langston
Hughes
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
When Langston’s grandmother died, Langston
moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to live with his
mother again. He felt accepted at his new school.
Langston began to write poems for the school
magazine. In eighth grade, he was chosen to be
class poet. His career as a writer had begun!
8
In 1919, when he was 17, Langston spent the
summer with his father in Mexico. More and
more, he wrote poetry to express his feelings. He
wrote whenever he could.
Back in Cleveland, Langston was an excellent
student, an actor, a writer, and he played sports
too.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/94 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 2
Behavior
Error
0
0
1
8
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
Word told
T
cat
cat

Error
1413629
Behavior
1
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