Harlem Renaissance Preview

I first gave this assignment at the end of the class period, telling the students that they would begin work on it the next day. There wasn�t much time for discussion before the bell rang and the students left the room. During the passing period, I walked out to the hall to find my students gathered, excitedly telling their friends about the project on their cell phones!

The core idea of this project can be adapted to many units in both history and literature.

This is an authentic assessment project for the Harlem Renaissance that achieves the following:

� Students read and analyze many selections of literature and become acquainted with the authors

� Students view much of the art of the Harlem Renaissance and become familiar with the artists

� Students listen to many of the music selections and know the performers

� Students appreciate the history of the movement and its significance

� Students make personal connections to the literature, art and music.

This project takes what could be many unwieldy elements and blends them into a smooth whole. The project replicates a real-life activity that students engage in on their home computers on a daily basis. They truly do enjoy this activity and achieve its goals. The project takes about one week. Students may work on it in groups or individually.

In order to replicate this project, you must have the following:

� A wide variety of art, music, poetry, and short stories from the Harlem Renaissance. These are available from the Internet and your local library.
� Classroom computers are best, but the projects may also be done on poster board or butcher paper.

This unit contains the following:

� Material list (including specific possible titles and artists)
� Student instruction sheet
� Procedure with rationale
� Assessment�an easy-to-use rubric
� An example of a finished project to show students as a sample

Because you will received electronic versions of these documents, it will
be easy for you to alter them for your students, available resources, and time constraints.


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