Making the Wright Connection

The video is a forecast of some exciting things for the Richard Wright institute in July. Share with K-12 teachers.

Jerry Ward

Maryemma Graham

Dr. Maryemma Graham did an amazing job as our instructor on Margaret Walker. Dr. Graham, a Professor of English at the University of Kansas, has been a wonderful inspiration for me. Her prolific knowledge of Margaret Walker and her actually experiences with her just blew me away.

Some of her publications include:

How I Wrote Jubilee and Other Essays on Life and Literature by Margaret Walker (1990); Conversations with Ralph Ellison (1995); On Being Female, Black and Free: Essays by Margaret Walker, 1932-1992 (1997); Teaching African American Literature: Theory and Practice (1998). Fields Watered With Blood: Critical Essays on Margaret Walker (2001), Conversations with Margaret Walker (2002), The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker (work in progress).

Check out these following sites that she is affiliated with:

The Project on the History of Black Writing - She is the co-founder.
Langston Hughes National Poetry Project - She is the director.

Digital Storytelling

Teaching our students to enjoy reading works by Welty, Wright, Williams, and Walker can be a very challenging feat. However, we can find amazing and creative ways to encourage our children to become readers and writers beyond the classroom. I have been really intrigued by digital storytelling. The University of Houston has a wonderful site to teach educators about digital story telling. Try it out in your classroom.

Creating Essays Using Margaret's Poetry

Having students chose one of Margaret's poems and write a literary analysis essay is a great way to incorporate her works in the classroom. I found an essay on Margaret Walker on the Modern American Poetry website. You may find this essay helpful to use in the classroom.

The Margaret Walker Research Center

Located on the campus of Jackson State University, the Margaret Walker Research Center "houses" records of the past to preserve the African-American culture. The center has an oral history collection database available online. Welcoming records, personal papers, and other important items related to African-American culture, the center also has items belonging to Margaret Walker. We were very privileged to have the opportunity to view Margaret's first journal, given to her by her father, documents written and typed by her, one of her favorite hats, and her typewriter. Dr. Harrison provided us with a tour of the amazing facility. Ironically, Maurine was able to discover that her field trip to Jackson State University with her students has been documented and added to the archives of the Margaret Walker Research Center. The pictures were taken at the center.

David Walker

Teaching Jubilee in the classroom can also incorporate history as well. After discussing Walker's poetry and realizing that she often refers to real people in her writings, I decided to look up David Walker. Aunt Sally goes to a secret meeting at Rising Glory Baptist Church and describes her interaction with the papers being discussed and her knowledge of David Walker. After doing much research, I learned some interesting things about David Walker. Born in North Carolina, David Walker used his pamphlet, "Appeal," to cause slaves to revolt against their master. A true abolitionist, David use his pamphlet to deliver his message throughout the south.

Teaching David Walker in the secondary classroom maybe somewhat difficult. Using this teacher resource can help you in teaching the history behind David Walker.

*Each link leads to different information on David Walker.

Here are a list of other resources:

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931t.html
• http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/abolitn/walkerhp.html
• http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3237

MPB Education Express

While visiting Mississippi Public Broadcasting website, I discovered online resources for teachers. There are several resources available for educators. I also discovered Education Express, a great resource teachers can use to assist in planning their daily lessons. Since we are nearing the last few months of school, I thought you would greatly benefit from a little assist to help you! Check it out! Let me know what you think!

I'd Love to Hear...

During discussion Saturday, I mentioned plays being used as entry points for reluctant readers. My Book Talk column for the previous week talked about that very thing. I am not an educator and wrote the piece from my own experience, but would love feed back from teachers. I would like to know if this is a practical idea or do I need to go back and rethink the article. The article is passed rescission though. Please leave a comment here or click the words Book Talk and leave one there. ~ Maggie

Pic Disposable Cameras!

Now through Feb. 16, 2009 people can view the photographic art of Eudora Welty at the Museum of the City of New York! The exhibit is titled Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the Early 1930s and includes her pics taken while living in the city. Afterwards the exhibit will be packed up and shipped back to Mississippi for a showing at the Welty House.

Dr. Prenshaw shared an article she found in The New York Times promoting the exhibit titled "Portraits Taken by a Writer as a Young Woman (in Hard Times)" by Karen Rosenberg.

As a fun classroom assignment, purchase disposable cameras in bulk and let students document a week in their lives for an end-of-the-year exhibit. Teachers may want to lead them by showing Eudora Welty's work and introducing a theme before they start clicking such as My Mississippi or A Day in the Life. How about giving them black and white Kodaks for a back-in-the-day feel? ~Maggie

Copyright information - [Untitled. Front Stoops], 1935-1936 Modern gelatin silver print from the original negative (c) Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection - Mississippi Department of Archives and History. ~ Maggie

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Here are a list of resources to discuss Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the classroom.

1. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway
2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Original Trailer
3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Study Guide
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Lesson Plan

Letter Writing Lesson

I think you all will love this video!!! The descendants of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington write to their ancestors on the eve of the inauguration of America's first black president. I think it can be used if students are given an activity to write to a fictional character or real individual. ~Shelia Bonner

Richard Wright Trip On Teacher Tube

Here is the video from our trip. It has been posted on TeacherTube. TeacherTube is a great resource for teachers to use in the classroom. You can sign up for a free account. Enjoy!

Eudora Welty Meeting January 10, 2009

On January 10, 2009, we concluded our intense discussion on Eudora Welty. It was fun to discuss our thoughts and turn to experts on Eudora Welty. How could I tell we were in the presence of intellectuals? No one stormed out when we referred to the "N" word. Everyone shared their personal and professional experience with handling personal connections to stories. There was even assignments brainstormed on how to handle personal connections, which cause unwanted outbursts in the classroom.

For me, I was concerned with Eudora's usage of the "N" word. I am proud to say that my colleagues explained the paramount meaning Eudora was trying to convey. Her ability to use it in Why I Live at the P.O. further exploits the type of family being depicted during the setting of the short story. Her decision not to use it in A Worn Path is to emphasize more of the journey of life, rather than the time. I was just amazed at how we could have a discussion on race at such a time of racial sensitivity.

After we watched the movie, which Maggie has already posted, race became a big part of the discussion. However, one of the teachers pointed out that in the tale the race of the lady, whom Phoenix asked to tie her shoe, is not mentioned. We are only assuming the lady's race and assume that the movie adaptation is correct. This point lead to a discussion that we must teach our students to rely on the text and not on the movie adaptation.

This list includes other ways to teach Eudora Welty's text.

• Discuss the baggage associated with using race-related words, like "black" and "white."
• Before beginning a text, which can have a negative impact on the discussion, a teacher should emphasize the power of words.
• Focus on the sense of family and compare the types of family Eudora tends to write about.
• Look at A Worn Path, remove the aspects of "having a purpose from the story. Have students rewrite the story by creating a parable.
• Emphasize the historical background of each text before teaching a specific text.
• Identify a character in one of the text, like the nurse in A Worn Path. Using the character sketch created by the author, have students create a new story from that character's point of view.

2009 Presidential Inauguration Lesson Plans

Thanks goes out to Shelia Bonner for finding these lesson plans and sharing them with our 4Ws group.

The resource website states, "On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Teachers across the country can bring this historic event to life in their classrooms using a wide array of free resources and technologies. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) have jointly developed a series of general instructional activities to give teachers lesson ideas to help their students understand the historic significance of this presidential inauguration."

Lesson plans cover grades K-12 and are broken into three sections: Learning History, Making History, and Living History.

Teaching A Worn Path & Why I Live at the PO

Reading the first paragraph of A Worn Path I was completely curious to know why Welty chose to describe the woman as a Negro, instead of using the N word. She used the N word twice in Why I Live at the P.O. Having the best opportunity ever to use the word, what do you think her reasoning is to use Negro instead of the most damaging and crude word possible to describe a human being?

This thought about her usage of the N word prompted me to think of how I could incorporate these two stories into an essay assignment for students. I would have my students create a critical analysis on the depiction of African Americans in these two short stories. I think it would be interesting to read what the students discover.

NewTube Your Classroom!

YouTube is everywhere. Kids watch diet colas spurt into the air after adding one, little candy Mentos. Coworkers sit mesmerized through a ton of pass-along e-mails such as this Christmas favorite. Sheri, our Natchez videographer, is working on placing her work on Teacher Tube for the classroom. Even I—the book person—sat through an hour long lecture on my laptop instead of buying The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Streaming video is the future, and I am pleased to present a website that provides this service. Films on Demand is a sub-group of the Meridian Films Media Group that provide films on VHS, DVD, DVD and 3-year streaming , or 3-year streaming. It is expensive, $149.95, but the cost includes public performance rights. The librarian or media specialist can pay through the library’s budget, and provide one with a laptop and display monitor. All a teacher needs is a blank wall or screen and the willingness to teach.

On this website I found: Africa to America to Paris: The Migration of Black Writers (53min) that includes Richard Wright for 12th graders or college freshmen, Tennessee Williams and the American South (45min) for grades 11 & 12, and Eudora Welty’s A Worn Path (32min) for grades 9 & 10. An interview with Miss Welty by Beth Henley concludes the short film. ~ Maggie

Note: The photograph is a still from the film. Notice the details like the sunken Natchez Trace, her lack of coat, and the umbrella skeleton. ~ Maggie

Before She was Famous

During Dr. Prenshaw’s presentation she mentioned limericks Miss Welty wrote for a friend traveling from Jackson to Chicago then on to New Jersey. That friend was Frank Lyell and she did this little fun exercise for him in 1933. She surprised him with a limerick for each stop such as the one below for Winona, MS.

There was an old girl of Winona
Who lived in a pongee Kimono-
When the Lion’s Club came thru
She politely withdrew,
That delicate gal of Winona.

Here’s an opportunity to teach limericks to a class of youngsters. One could introduce Miss Welty’s work found in Early Escapes, edited by Patti Carr Black (133), and then assign them the task of writing one from a plethora of Mississippi towns.

If anyone sponsors a yearbook or school newspaper club, Early Escapes might again come in handy. Editor Black writes, “…Eudora contributed poetry, short fiction and nonfiction pieces, and pen-and-ink drawings to The Quadruplane, the school annual, and the school paper, Jackson Hi-Life. Her first work published in The Quadruplane appeared in 1922, her freshman year.” (12) The book is filled with everything Black mentions, and if used as an example, might inspire the next great Mississippi writer.

You can read my Book Talk written for this book here and a review by Tracy Carr (pdf 26) for the Mississippi Libraries here.

Websites for Educators on Eudora Welty

Here is a list of websites available to continue using works of Eudora Welty in the classroom. Obtained from the American Collection website, these websites have actually been reviewed by other teachers throughout the country. Feel free to give your feedback about the information and how helpful it was for you to implement in the classroom. Please remember that the Internet is forever changing, so some of the links may not work. Try Google to obtain the latest hyperlink for the mentioned sites.

NCTE Ideas - Joseph Campbell, Cinderella, and Eudora Welty: Using the Journal of a Hero to Explore "A Worn Path" http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/TETYC/0342-dec06/TE0342Creative
(The Website requires a username and password)

The American Short Story: A Selective Chronology - http://titan.iwu.edu/~jplath/sschron.html

Documenting the American South - http://docsouth.unc.edu/classroom/

Eudora Welty - http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0337/authors/eudora.welty.html

Eudora Welty - http://www.hmco.com/college/english/heath/syllabuild/iguide/welty.html

Eudora Welty Newsletter - http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwewn/

"Why I Live at the P.O." -
http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html

A Conversation with Tim Gautreaux - http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/factfict/gautreau/tgautr.htm

Eudora: How a Southern writer came to lend her name to a computer program - http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypreface.html

The Idea of the South http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97dec/south.htm

Thumbnail Book Review: One Writer's Beginning - http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~jmcd/book/revs/owrb.html

Thumbnail Book Review: The Ponder Heart - http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~jmcd/book/revs/ponh.html

Library Card, Anyone?

While reading Cassandra's booklist, "Other Resources on Richard Wright," it dawned on me. I forgot about the children's picture book, Richard Wright and the Library Card, by William Miller and illustrated by Gregory Christie.

As you can guess, the title is taken from our 4Ws selection, Black Boy. Readers are given snapshots of our hero and his many ways to discover the written word as he ages. The story then fast-forwards to the fateful day Wright asks a coworker if he might borrow his library card. The exchange between a nervous Wright and nosy librarian makes for great copy. The acrylic and colored pencil illustrations of a stereotypical librarian, complete with hair bun and cat eye glasses, cracks me up.

Published in 1997, the dedication page reads, "For my son Julian, books are the road to the promised land."

As a teacher's resource, obviously, this book targets an elementary school audience. It has too many words for a group of toddlers or kindergarten class, but readers may entertain by glossing over the words with a paraphrased version.

Other ideas include celebrating Richard Wright's birthday and library card sign-up-month in September. Reading the book aloud to a group of six-year-old kids before awarding them with a personal library card, will surely be a program hit.

Can you think of another way to share this book with young readers? If so, please leave a comment below and I will add it to this post. ~ Maggie

Other Resources On Richard Wright

Fabre, Michel. The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright. Translated by Isabel Barzun. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1973.

Gates, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and K.A. Appian, eds. Richard Wright, Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad, 1993.

Kinnamon, Keneth, and Michel Fabre. Conversations with Richard Wright. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.

Rowley, Hazel. Richard Wright: The Life and Times. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001.

Urban, Joan. Richard Wright: Author. New York: Chelsea House, 1989.

Walker, Margaret. Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius. New York: Amistad, 1988.

Webb, Constance. Richard Wright, A Biography. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1968.