This collection aims to provide a window into the Harlem Renaissance by examining the pictures and artwork curated in the collection. Students will have the opportunity to explore the images at the start of the unit on the Harlem Renaissance in their American Literature class to introduce the time period and give students an opportunity to put themselves in the moments that were captured.

Students will re-examine the collection after they have read poems and other literature from Harlem Renaissance writers that include:

• Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
• I, Too by Langston Hughes
• Theme for English B by Langston Hughes
• If We must Die by Claude McKay
• America by Claude McKay
• To a Dark Girl by Gwendolyn Bennett
• Heritage by Gwendolyn Bennet

On the second viewing students will connect one of the poems with an image from the collection that they feel relates to the author’s message in the poem. Students will explain how the image they selected relates to the author’s message from the poem they selected.

Essential Questions:

1. How do author’s and artists create a clear message for the reader/viewer?
2. How do people use art (music, movies, paintings, literature, photographs) to promote social change?
3. How do the themes of the Harlem Renaissance relate to current events? 

Learning Targets (SWBAT):

1. Analyze art and literature to explain an author’s message using evidence to support claims.
2. Compare the poems with the images to explain how the author and the artist depict themes related to the Harlem Renaissance.

Standards:

CC.1.3.11-12.A: Determine and analyze the relationship between two or more themes or central ideas of a text, including the development and interaction of the themes; provide an objective summary of the text.

CC.1.3.11-12.B: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences and conclusions based on and related to an author’s implicit and explicit assumptions and beliefs.

CC.1.3.11-12.D :Evaluate how an author’s point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

CC.1.4.11-12.A: Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately.

CC.1.5.11-12.: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g. visually, quantitative, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

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