Langston Hughes 'Essay Self-Reliance'

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CORNERSTONE OVERVIEW PRIOR KNOWLEDGE (Before the Unit) Students should have experience with creating MLA citations, using basic research skills, and conducting presentations using technology such as PREZI, Google Slide Presentations, or PowerPoint. Students should have familiarity with literary terms such as tone, diction, imagery, figurative language, theme, and mood. Additionally, students should have been exposed to protocols for evaluating art in different mediums, have familiarity with the 5 paragraph structure, and have a working understanding of what constitutes an artist and the different mediums through which artists present their work. PLACEMENT WITHIN THE UNIT Before: Prior to this Cornerstone, students should have completed an examination of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance, and analyzed how the values of the early American pioneers discussed previously to their reading are presented and transformed by Emerson, and in particular, how the individual has a role and responsibility to him/herself and to society. This Cornerstone – The Role of the Black Artist – uses Langston Hughes’ essay as a starting point for students to evaluate the role of the black artist in society, building directly on the values of self-sufficiency, individualism, and responsibility to self and others discussed in their prior readings in …show more content…

You will choose and closely evaluate three pieces of art (paintings, poems, music, etc.) from black artists, using the information in Hughes’s essay as the basis of your evaluation and analysis. First, you must provide an in-depth analysis of the selected art pieces. Then, you should determine whether or not the artists are living up to the roles and responsibilities put forth by Hughes, using textual evidence from his essay to support your evaluation of the

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