The Harlem Renaissance Lesson Plan: Creating Interactive Presentations and Non-Fiction Comics was submitted by Allisyn Levy. This one is intended for grade levels 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. If you are looking for the Harlem Renaissance Lesson Plan for 5th grade, elementary and high school, this information is for you.
In this Harlem Renaissance Lesson Plan, students will use BrainPOP resources to research, evaluate, and synthesize information about the Harlem Renaissance from some different resources. They will also work in groups to demonstrate an understanding of the Harlem Renaissance by making an interactive presentation that teaches their friends. In addition, students will also create an individual non-fiction comic to demonstrate an understanding of the effects of the Harlem Renaissance on African Americans.
Here are the lesson plan common core state standards alignments for 5th to 12th:
- Grade: 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4
Hand out information, findings, and additional evidence, delivering a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
- Grade: 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.5
Use some digital media such as textual, audio, graphical, visual, and interactive elements in presentations to support understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
- Grade: 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.6
Adapt speech to some different kinds of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
- Grade: 05
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.4
Making a report on a topic or text or presenting an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using correct facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes. Do not forget to speak clearly at an understandable pace.
- Grade: 05
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.5
You can include multimedia components such as graphics and sound and visual displays in presentations when it is fine to support the development of main ideas or themes.
- Grade: 05
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.6
Adapt speech to some different kinds of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and situation.
- Grade: 06
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.4
Give the students claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to show the main ideas or themes, use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
- Grade: 06
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.5
Use multimedia components such as graphics, images, music, sound and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.
- Grade: 06
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.6
Adapt speech to some different types of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
- Grade: 07
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.4
Give claims and findings, stressing on points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples, use appropriate eye contact, good volume, and clear pronunciation.
- Grade: 07
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.5
You can include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and show the important points.
- Grade: 07
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.6
Adapt speech to some different kinds of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
- Grade: 08
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.4
Give claims and findings, stressing on important points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and selected details, use appropriate eye contact, fine volume, and clear pronunciation.
- Grade: 08
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.5
Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations in order to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.
- Grade: 08
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.6
Adapt speech to some different kinds of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
- Grade: 09, 10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.4
Give information, findings, and additional evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners are able to follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
- Grade: 09, 10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.5
Use of digital media such as textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements in presentations to add understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
- Grade: 09, 10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.6
Adapt speech to some different kinds of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate
- Grade: 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.7
Hold both short and more sustained research projects to answer a question, including a self-generated question or fix a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when it is fine; synthesize some sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
- Grade: 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.8
Gather all relevant information from some authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; rate the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
- Grade: 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to give the support to an analysis, reflection, and research.
- Grade: 05
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.7
Hold short research projects that use some sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
- Grade: 05
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.8
Think about some relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and work that has been done, and provide a list of sources.
- Grade: 05
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to give a support to an analysis, reflection, and research.
- Grade: 06
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.7
Hold short research projects to answer a question, drawing on some sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.
- Grade: 06
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.8
Gather relevant information from some print and digital sources; rate the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while preventing plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.
- Grade: 06
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to give support to an analysis, reflection, and research.
- Grade: 07
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.7
Make short research projects to answer a question, drawing on some sources and generating additional related, focused questions for research and investigation in the future.
- Grade: 07
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.8
Gather relevant information from some print and digital sources, by using search terms effectively; rate the credibility and accuracy of every source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while preventing plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
- Grade: 07
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to give support to an analysis, reflection, and research.
- Grade: 08
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.7
Make a short research project to answer a question, a self-generated question included, drawing on some sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
- Grade: 08
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.8
Gather relevant information from some print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; rate the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while preventing plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
- Grade: 08
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to give support to analysis, reflection, and research.
- Grade: 09, 10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.7
Make both short and more sustained research projects to answer a question, including a self-generated question or fix a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
- Grade: 09, 10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.8
Gather relevant information from some authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; rate the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, preventing plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
- Grade: 09, 10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to give support to analysis, reflection, and research.
There are some materials that you need to gather before giving the lesson to the students, those include:
- Computers with the good internet access
- Map of the New York City
- Paper and markers
- Collection of books on Harlem Renaissance
- Interactive whiteboard and or projector
- Photocopies of BrainPOP Activity Pages for every student
- Photocopies of BrainPOP Related Reading comic for every student
You can use some vocabularies include in the lesson, such as:
- Harlem
- Renaissance
- The Great Migration
- Urban
- Rural
- W.E.B Du Bois
- Double Consciousness
- New Negro Movement
- Racial integration
Before taking the Harlem Renaissance for 5th grade, you will have to prepare something. The images and sound clips of art, music, and poetry from the Harlem Renaissance should be collected to share with the students. All of them should be played and studied for the rest of the unit. You can invite the students to bring in materials as well. You can preview the Harlem Renaissance movie of the BrainPOP and plan out where to pause the whole thing for discussions. New York City can be hung to refer to throughout the lesson.
After making preparation, it is time for you to know the procedure of the lesson.
- The first thing that you have to do is to write the Harlem Renaissance on the board. Students can be invited to share what they know about Harlem Renaissance. Depending on their knowledge, you might have a plan to share the related reading comic with the students, or save it for later.
- If the students have some background knowledge, you can take the review of the BrainPOP to see what students already know.
- Then, give them the vocabulary and Venn Diagram pages to take notes during the movie section.
- Once the vocabulary and Venn Diagram are handed out, you can start playing the movie by using the Zoom and Closed Caption features.
- If students are already familiar with some things, pause on the letter of Tim in the early movie and have them do a quick write to answer the letter. 2 minutes is usually enough for this and come back to it later.
- Continue to pause the movie to insert some discussion, questions, and note-taking. Allow the students to know that you will be watching it a second time.
- Make groups for students and divide them into four, consisting of Migration, Literature, Music, and Politics. It can be done by randomly or by interest. Students will be taking something on the BrainPOP Venn Diagram page only on the assigned topic of the group during the second viewing of the movie.
- Students need to take notes for themselves individually as they watch it for the second time. Then, they have to get together with their groups to compare what they took before and come up with a way to teach the rest of the class about their category. The main purpose is to highlight the most important concepts and key words for their friends.
- After students have had time making preparation, they should use the interactive whiteboard and type right into the Activity Page as visual aid for the rest of the class to take notes. Students in every group are able to decide roles for presenters and typists.
- When all the groups are done presenting, the class should have notes for every category of the Venn Diagram. Feel free to try the quiz again if you want, allowing the students to refer to their notes.
- As a separate task, you might want to see the Related Reading comic as inspiration, and invite the students to make their own non-fiction comics so that they are able to teach the others about the Harlem Renaissance. This activity could turn into a great long-term research project.
- For homework or as an additional activity, students need to complete the first Activity page. you can use the interactive typing feature to model or invite students to share the answers by typing directly into the page in order to go over the student answers and have them correct or revise their work. The same thing can be done with the Vocabulary page before, during, or after viewing the movie.
- Enjoy your time listening to music, poetry, and reading it from the time period with your students.
For those who are including the Harlem Renaissance in a broader study of African-American history, you can use the Timeline of BrainPOP as the starter, and then make your own version to hang in your classroom. Aside from that, students are able to research some important events and make their own poster in order to show it for every event, managed in chronological order.
