Lessons/Worksheets for Harlem Renaissance Short Stories:

These Common-Core aligned FREE Harlem Renaissance lessons/worksheets stimulate students to probe Harlem Renaissance fiction carefully and critically and to link the authors’ powerful insights to their own lives. All the stories foster empathy.

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Harlem Renaissance Short Stories Lesson I

Worksheet for “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston

In this two-part FREE Harlem Renaissance lesson students explore the domestic power politics in Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” via two worksheets that stimulate them to investigate the psychological motivations that drive an abusive husband in his interactions with a docile, hard-working wife who supports him.  The worksheet also helps students navigate the story’s challenging dialect and track its plot development.

STUDENT PORTAL – “Sweat”

COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET WITH THIS LESSON:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Harlem Renaissance Short Stories Lesson II

Worksheet for “John Redding Goes to Sea” by Zora Neale Hurston

This FREE Harlem Renaissance worksheet stimulates students to investigate the forces that propel and impede the main character’s aspirations, identify and explicate the story’s moving figurative language. and compare and contrast the attitudes, ambitions and world views of the central characters.

STUDENT PORTAL – “John Redding Goes to Sea

COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET WITH THIS LESSON:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Harlem Renaissance Short Stories Lesson III

Worksheet for Jean Toomer’s “Fern” from Cane

This Harlem Renaissance worksheet helps students explore the theme of alienation resulting from mixed-race ancestry in Jean Toomer’s short story “Fern,”  explicate the poetic language in the story, and link the author’s insights into human nature to their own lives.

STUDENT PORTAL – “Fern” 

COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET WITH THIS LESSON:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

MORE LESSONS COMING SOON!

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