Paideia High School/Langston Hughes

"Mother to Son" and "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes is a Paideia Unit Plan. These guidelines address teachers for the purpose of guiding instruction. See Paideia Learning Plan for the student's point of view.

Column One

Column One teaching and learning should make up about 10% to 15% of the total scheduled instructional time. It is didactic in nature and uses teacher lectures, text books or other didactic instructional materials, and questioning appropriate to this mode of education. Teaching in this mode encompasses of three facets: Exoridium, Interpretation, and Erudition.

Exordium

Oral Presentation

Read each poem aloud to the class, then present the written works.

Written Presentation

• "Mother to Son" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177397

"Theme for English B" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177397

Interpretation

Interpretation of Sentences

Start here. Emphasize the importance of the sentence as a basic unit of meaning. Point out to students that poems frequently don't have a one sentence per line structure--poets break things up to create emphasis and shape on the page. To begin understanding the poem on its most literal level, however, we must begin by identifying the sentences.

Interpretation of <Words and Terms> or <Elements>

In textual interpretation, the teacher didactically presents the author's key terms in the stage of Interpretation of Words and Terms. In addition, the teacher anticipates unfamiliar general vocabulary. These words and terms are given didactically, either orally or in writing, or both, but the task of interpreting is a Column Two skill of learning that the teacher must coach. Consequently, the purpose of this Column One stage is merely to point out key terms and potentially unfamiliar terms. The student must learn how to interpret. Again, this planning can be adapted to other kinds of works.

Interpretation of Key Terms

The key terms are those few words or phrases the author uses in unique, special, or important ways.. In the Column Two stage, students are coached both to find these key terms and to "unlock" them on their own. This skill is essential to analytical reading. In this Column One stage, however, the teacher points out a list of such terms. Students should understand that this listing is not necessarily exhaustive. In addition, the teacher provides students with a handful of these terms worked out in detail for consideration; it should consist of about three to five terms.

• <First Term>
• <Second Term>
• <Etc.>

General Vocabulary

The teacher may anticipate general unfamiliar vocabulary and point out the more difficult words either orally or in writing or both. However, defining words using context, a dictionary, or a knowlegable friend or adult (including the teacher) is a Column Two skill that must be coached. Teachers must help students build good habits of knowing the meanings of words. Dictionaries, in both electronic and book form must be available, and students must be taught how to use them. They must also be taught how to ask for definitions--a perfectly acceptible life skill commonly used by demanding readers!

• <First Word>
• <Second Word>
• <Etc.>

Note: If the teacher points out words in anticipation of their potential difficulty, this should be done in context by giving citations or electronically highlighting the words.

Interpretation of Passages

At the level of passages, the full trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) come into play. First, a teacher should choose one or two of the author's most important arguments for a demonstration of how to use logic as a key to interpreting a text. Next, the teacher should select several passages to demonstrate how they conform (or not) to rhetorical, poetical, and sylistic rules. These rules, of course, must be didactically taught as prerequisites to interpretation of texts.

• <Argument>: <demonstration of both the grammar of the sentences comprising premeses and of the concluding proposition along with the logic of the argument followed by an explanation of how the arguments help to unravel the author's meaning>
• <Passage Illustrating Rhetorical Rules>: <demonstration of the rhetorical rules and their value in the success of the author's purpose>
• <Passage Illustrating Poetical Rules>: <demonstration of the poetical rules and their value in the success of the author's purpose>
• <Passage Illustration Stylistic Rules>: <demonstration of the stylistic rules and their value in the success of the author's purpose>

Erudition

An excellent summary biography: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/langston-hughes

<Note that these categories are presented alphabetically for ease of organization>

Anthropological References

• <information relevant to anthropological issues and discoveries--include citations--delete if not used>

Antiquarian References

• <information about references to things no longer commonly understood because of their situation in ages past--include citations--delete if not used>

Archaeological References

• <information about details related to archaeological discoveries--include citations--delete if not used>

Biographical References

• <information about the author--always include>
• <information about other textual references to important people--include citations--delete if not used>

Cultural References

• <information and links to cultural references--include citations--delete if not used>

Ethical References

• <information and links to ethical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Geographical References

• <links to relevant maps--delete if not used>
• <information relevant to geographical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Historical References

• <information and links to historical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Mathematical References

• <information and links to mathematical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Political References

• <information and links to political references--include citations--delete if not used>

Religious References

• <information and links to religious references--include citations--delete if not used>

Scientific References

• <information and links to scientific references--include citations--delete if not used>

Column Two

Column Two teaching consists of coaching. This mode of instruction aims at helping students to form habitual skills in the language, scientific, and fine arts. Thus, a teacher must correct students as they practice listening, speaking, reading, writing, observing with the senses unaided, observing with the aid of scientific apparatus, measuring, estimating, calculating, and exercising dexterity in the musical and visual arts. Each of these arts in turn rely upon the aquisition of fine and gross motor, imagination, and memory skills. These rules for developing Paideia Unit Plans address teachers. For their counterpart written for students, see Paideia Learning Plan.

Column Two learning comprises 65% to 75% of scheduled learning time. It's chief charactaristic is student activity. Students must be practicing some skill or skills while the teacher corrects him or her. While athletic coaching is an obvious example of this type of instruction, debate coaching, directing a drama, art instruction, and piano lessons also represent coaching. In order to coach well, a teacher must have a repertoire of activities carefully designed to exercised desired skills. Additionally, the teacher must have a clear idea of how to correct the skills as students practice them to ensure their habitual formation.

Activities

Prerequisite Activities

Fine & Gross Motor Skills

<delete if not used>

Sensory Imagination Skills

<delete if not used>

Mnuemonic Skills

<consider this category for every unit>

Language Arts

Listening Skills

• <links to additional quality recordings--include citations--delete if not used>
• <information relevant to listening for grammatical, logical, rhetorical, poetical, and stylistic elements of the work--include citations--delete if not used>

Speaking Skills

• <imitation of quality oral readings--should be a part of every unit>
• <recitations from memory--should be some part of every unit>
• <oral presentations of written work--should be a part of most units>
• <class discussions--should be a part of every unit>
• <recitation of the rules of reading from Adler's and Van Doren's How to Read a Book or similar rules>

Reading Skills

• <read hard-copy with a pencil in hand--always!>
• <marking up a text both with a pencil and electronically>
• <inspectional reading notes as taught in Adler's and Van Doren's How to Read a Book>
• <analytical reading notes as taught in the same work>

Writing Skills

• <Choose phrases from text and express them in different ways>
• <Reconstruct a previously disarranged passage from the text>
• <Compose verses or lines in imitation of the author>
• <Change a passage or poem of one kind into another kind>
• <Imitate a passage>
• <Write a composition imitating the author>
• <Translate sentences or passages into Latin or another language>

Column Three

Seminar Question Writing Guidelines

The following table serves to guide teachers in understanding the types of questions that guide good seminars and how to write them. Good seminars follow the general structure given by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren in their classic How to Read a Book published by Simon & Schuster in 1972. Column one gives the four main questions that a demanding reader should ask of any book. These questions guide the types of questions and the purpose of each type used in good seminars. The last column serves to illustrate questions that might be asked of The Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address, or Hamlet. This table could be easily adapted for any work of fine art like a painting or a musical score.

From How to Read a Book Adler & Van Doren (1972)	Question Type	Purpose of Question Type	Sample Seminar Questions Answers to Be Supported from the Text
What is the book (work) about as a whole?	Opening	Identify main ideas	What is the most important word or phrase in the Gettysburg Address? Which title to you prefer: Revolutionary War? War of Independence? or War of Succession? How would you state the plot of Hamlet in one to three sentences?
What is being said in detail and how?	Analytical	Root out main ideas, assertions, and arguments	What is the most important point Lincoln makes in the Gettysburg Address? Is the assertion "All men are created equal" self-evident? If so, why? If not, how could you rewrite it so that it is? What evidence is there that Hamlet overheard Polonius talking to the King? What evidence that he did not? What do you think?
Is the book (work) true, in whole or part?	Evaluative	Make and support judgments	Why does Lincoln say that those gathered cannot hallow the ground? Is he right? Are life, liberty, and happiness really rights? Why? Why not? How does Hamlet succeed in creating an experience in audience members about the meaning of life? Of action? Of inaction?
What of it?	Closing	Relate judgments about ideas to one's own life	Do you think the Gettysburg address has helped preserve the nation to the present day? What do the words of the Declaration of Independence teach you? Have they changed you? How? Which character in Hamlet do you identify most with? Least with? Why?

Specific Seminars

<Include written plans of actual seminars that have been conducted here.>