Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman; Venn Diagrams
Ashley Luedtke
- Disciplinary Literacy Skill: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text. (RL.9-10.4) (DOK 1,2,3)
- Critical Literacy Skill(s): Interrogating multiple viewpoints
- Instructional Resources Needed:
Step by Step Instructions
- I will first give students a Venn diagram that focuses on Hughes I Too, Sing America and Whitman’s I Hear America Singing.
- I will assign students to groups of four to work on this activity. As they are analyzing, it will be helpful to talk about their ideas with their peers.
- Using close reading skills, they will compare and contrast the ideas of the poems and how they relate to each other.
- Whitman was a White Male author living in the 1800’s and wrote his poems based on the pride he had in America.
- Hughes was a Black Male author living in the early 1900’s and wrote his poem based on his own pride and how black people were treated in America.
- Students will then analyze the pieces from a modern lens and how they could change if the poems were written in modern times.
- Students will notice ideas that are on either Hughes’ side of the diagram or Whitman’s side of the diagram and underline them if they could apply to a current modern lense for both authors.
About the author
name: Ashley Luedtke
institution: Major: English Education
I’m from Norwalk, Iowa but I moved four separate times before I started Middle School at Norwalk. I’ve always enjoyed English classes, and I want to instill appreciation into any students that I might have in the future. When I was in high school, I was often the one that my friends would go to when they needed help with their essays, and it just felt normal to go into teaching after that. I’ve had 8 dogs in my lifetime, with many more hopefully to come.
