Aaron Douglas
Into Bondage 1936
Oil on canvas, 153.4 x 153.7 cm
In the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art,Washington DC,USA Museum Purchase and Partial Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. The Evans - Tibbs Collection

Sites and topics to be covered

A. History/Overview

• Harlem 1900-1940

• The Harlem Renaissance and The Flowering of Creativity

• Circle Association's Web Links (some broken links)

• Harlem Renaissance: A Brief Introduction by Paul Reuben

• Harlem Renaissance (from PBS's The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow)

• Primary sources from the Library of Congress (LOC)

• The Harlem Renaissance Multimedia Resource (A+++)

B. Art/Music/Writing

• Perspectives in American Literature

• A brief guide to the Harlem Renaissance

• Drop me off in Harlem (Kennedy Center)

• Artists from Eyecon Art

• PAL: list of writers

• LOC on Robert Blackburn

C. Political or Social Impact

• Harlem Renaissance Multimedia Resource: Political Issues

• Harlem Renaissance (PBS site)

• The Social Contributions of the Harlem Renaissance (focus on the narrative)

• The Harlem Renaissance and Leftism by Matthew Henry

Poets of the Harlem Renaissance

• Bennett, Gwendolyn
• Bontemps, Arna
• Cullen, Countee
• Dunbar, Paul Laurence
• Grimke, Angelina Weld
• Hughes, Langston
• Johnson, Helene
• Johnson, James Weldon
• McKay, Claude
• Spencer, Anne
• Toomer, Jean

If you cannot find a poem you like from the site given, try a general Internet search.

(Source: poets.org/Academy of American Poets and others)

Grading:

40 points/Brochure (handed in)
10 points/Works Cited

Total: 50 points

Rubric

We are in the lab for 2 days. Disruptions to others will result in points reduction for you. Stay focused and busy.

Rationale for this lesson

—Time magazine's article How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century (December 18, 2006) says that "kids are global citizens now, even in small town America, and they must learn to act that way." There is a debate about how to accomplish this goal in schools, but certainly, it is important to help students gain a wider perspective of human history and culture. This assignment helps you understand an important part of American culture, your culture, in ways you may not have considered before. This assignment is intended to help you expand your view of human experience, a quality of thought you will need in order to be truly a global citizen. This assignment also meets a number of state standards for language arts.

Task

You are a historical tour guide: For this Web Quest, you will be visiting a number of web sites to learn about the Harlem Renaissance so that you can create a brochure for tourists. As a tour guide, you must be an expert on this cultural period in history, so research and read carefully. You will also be writing a reflection.

What is graded?

• Your brochure  
• Your works cited page

Staple your works cited page to your rubric and paper clip your brochure to those.

See the rubric.

Process

1. Create your brochure document/template and save it.
2. Conduct your research, taking notes in a separate Word document.
3. Find the list of sites to the left. This list includes a description of what you will find there. You need to present information in your brochure from each of the three topic areas in the list to the left (A, B, and C).
4. In addition, you will learn about a poet from the Harlem Renaissance.  A mini-biography of this poet should go on your brochure, including a photograph. Write your own mini bio. It should be about 40-50 words.
5. See the directions below for how to set up your brochure.
6. Create a works cited page. The sites you visited must be cited in a separate document. See  how to cite for direction on citing a web page.