If all of the elements of this lesson plan are employed, students will develop the following powers, skills, and understanding:
- 1
Students will be able to explore the distinguishing characteristics of a ballad, and write one of their own.
- 2
Students will use the poem to explore living conditions, particularly in New York, during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
- 3
Students will consider how Hughes' biography relates to his poetic work.
- 4
Students will consider the relationship between Hughes's poem and ongoing structures of race, power, and injustice.
