Unity
Tuesday
Ms. Fagan's Black History Month Lessons
"Even as the inspiring words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech rang out from the Lincoln Memorial during the historic March on Washington in August of 1963, racial relations in the segregated South were marked by continued violence and inequality. On September 15, a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama–a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured; outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans." - History Channel
This week we will be reading excerpts from W.E.B. Dubois's poetry and other great African American poets. Dubois is a famous African American Poet who wrote poems that consists of freedom and hope.
Alliteration
Metaphors & Similies
Idiom
Metaphor Definition: word or phrase that is used to make a comparison between two people, things, animals, or places WITHOUT USING Like or As.
Alliteration Definition: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of closely connected words.
Definition: a group of words that mean something completely different than if they were defined by themselves.
Birmingham Bombing of 1963
Simile Definition: a word or phrase that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things USING Like or As.
Personification
Hyperbole
Personification Definition: Personification gives human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, gestures and speech, often by way of a metaphors
4. My dog Coal likes to talk back to me.
A. Alliteration
B. Assonance
C. Personification
D. Idiom
17. He's as cool as a cucumber.
A. Idiom
B. Onomatopoeia
C. Alliteration
D. Metaphor
18. Which answer is an example of Onomatopoeia?
A. Sing
B. Bang
C. Talk
D. Laugh
19. Life is like a box of chocolates.
A. Simile
B. Metaphor
C. Alliteration
D. Personification
Answer Key
Hyperbole Definition: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
16. POW! BANG! POP! KAPOW! Are all examples of what?
A. Alliteration
B. Personification
C. Metaphor
D. Onomatopoeia
5. It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!
A. Metaphor
B. Hyperbole
C. Simile
D. Personification
20. Love is a battlefield.
A. Simile
B. Personification
C. Metaphor
D. Idiom
Test
2. Tim tucked Tucker the turtle into his three foot tiny turtle tank.
A. Assonance
B. Personification
C. Alliteration
D. Hyperbole
6. You are my sunshine.
A. Metaphor
B. Simile
C. Idiom
D. Allusion
3. Her dog is as big as a house.
A. Alliteration
B. Personification
C. Metaphor
D. Simile
7. Her smile rivaled the Mona Lisa's.
A. Metaphor
B. Allusion
C. Assonance
D. Idiom
1. What is a simile?
A. A word that takes the place of another word
B. Words that are compared to each other using like or as
C. Words that are compared to each other without using like or as
14. What is the definition of Alliteration?
A. The vowel sound is repeated
B. The consonant sound is repeated
C. The quiet sound is repeated
D. The constant sound is repeated
8. It's raining cats and dogs.
A. Idiom
B. Metaphor
C. Personification
D. Simile
9. The tree danced in the wind.
A. Metaphor
B. Personification
C. Simile
D. Idiom
15. What is the word for a non-human object taking on human qualities, actions, or behaviors?
A. Personification
B. Alliteration
C. Idiom
D. Assonance
13. Big Bufurd's beignets beat Bertha's baked brownies big time.
A. Alliteration
B. Assonance
C. Allusion
D. Metaphor
10. When pigs fly!
A. Idiom
B. Metaphor
C. Assonance
D. Personification
12. The water was as cold as ice
A. Simile
B. Metaphor
C. Alliteration
D. Onomatopoeia
11. She was lying so much I thought her nose would grow!
A. Allusion
B. Personification
C. Idiom
D. Metaphor
TPCASTT
Allusion
Onomatopoeia
Allusion Definition: is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.
Onomatopoeia Definition: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.
Famous African Americans
TPCASTT stands for
T: Title
P: Paraphrase
C: Connotation
A: Attitude
S: Shift
T: Title (Again)
T: Theme
16th Street Baptist Church
Civil Rights Songs
Title
Consider the title of the poem. Answer this question:
What do you think the poem is going to be about just from reading the title?
Paraphrase
Translate the poem line by line into your own words:
Example:
Langston Hughes "I, Too Sing, America"
Langston Hughes "What Happens to a Dream Deferred?"
Langston Hughes "Cross"
Example:
From Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"
"But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage,
Can seldom see through his bars of rage,
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied,
So he opens his throat to sing."
Connotation
Look for figurative language, imagery, and sound elements
Slavery Songs
Example:
Langston Hughes' "Dreams"
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Attitude/Tone
What is the attitude or tone the speaker has for or about their subject?
Text To Text
How is this text similar to other things I’ve read?
How is this different from other books I’ve read?
Have I read about something like this before?
Text To Self
What does this remind me of in my life?
What is this similar to in my life?
What were my feelings when I read this?
Theme
Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise"
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
1. Write in your own words what the poem is about.
2. Write in your own words what the poet is saying about the subject.
Text To World
How is this text similar to things that happen in the real world?
How is this different from things that happen in the real world?
How did that part relate to the world around me?
Title (Again)
Look at the title again. Do you see any differences now that you've read/analyzed the poem?
Shifts
Civil Rights Images
Are there any changes in the speaker's attitude/tone?
CROSS
My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder were I'm going to die,
Being neither white nor black?
Claude McKay, 1889 - 1948
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.