1. Module 3: Travis & Beneatha
1.1. Objective: Students will identify either Travis's or Beneatha's wants, obstacles, and their actions in response to those obstacles in order to analyze and understand their chosen character. Students will use text details to summarize their understanding of one character's key want, obstacle, and reaction from the scene they analyzed.
1.1.1. Assignments: Students will analyze Travis and Beneatha’s reactions to the conflict created by the setting.
1.1.2. Students analyze either Travis or Beneatha regarding Want/Obstacle/Action in preparation for writing about that character.
1.1.3. Using their charts, students write about a character's want, obstacle, and response to explore how setting shapes character development.
1.1.3.1. Discussion: What is one thing that your character (Travis or Beneatha) wants right now? What obstacle gets in his or her way, and how does he or she react?
1.1.3.1.1. Assessment: Students will demonstrate understanding of wants, obstacles, and actions, and how these elements interact.
2. Module 4: Whats the motivation?
2.1. Objective: Students will select one character and analyze moments in Act 1 that reveal what the character wants and how the character acts when an obstacle gets in the way. Then, they will synthesize this analysis into a description of this character.
2.1.1. Assignments: Students discuss what the obstacle is and what characters could do with the money.
2.1.2. Students review what characters seem to want in Act I so they'll be ready to choose a character to follow particularly closely for the rest of the play.
2.1.2.1. Discussion: Students review what characters seem to want in Act I so they'll be ready to choose a character to follow particularly closely for the rest of the play.
2.1.2.2. What do the characters want in Act I? If you use quotes, write what motivation you think each shows. If you refer back to part of the text you read earlier, briefly describe what was happening at that part of the play. (Use Chart for reference)
2.1.2.2.1. Assessment: Students analyze how Mama's and Walter's wants are in conflict in this scene.
3. Module 5: The Big Purchase
3.1. Objective: Students will use a Want/Obstacle/Action chart to analyze a character's reaction to Mama's big purchase. Students will use details from the text to explain a character's reaction to Mama's big purchase.
3.1.1. Assignments: Students read aloud the scene in which Mama announces her big purchase in order to analyze how their characters respond in terms of Want/Obstacle/Action.
3.1.1.1. Discussion: Students get in character groups to share their best evidence about the characters’ responses to Mama’s house purchase.
3.1.1.2. In character group, students will share their best evidence:
3.1.1.3. What do you think is your character’s main response to the news?
3.1.1.4. Which passage in the text made you think so, and why?
3.1.1.5. Did anyone in your group find a response you didn’t think of or notice? Do you agree or disagree with that?
3.1.1.5.1. Assessment: Students write about their character’s response to the house purchase.
3.1.1.5.2. Describe how your character reacts to the house purchase. Does this reaction surprise you? Why or why not? (If you are following Beneatha, use what you know to imagine how she would respond.)
4. Course Objectives
4.1. 1. Students will act out early lines from A Raisin in the Sun. Then, they will analyze what the set and stage directions reveal about context and characters. They will perform the lines again to apply their understanding to their interpretation of the characters and setting.
4.2. 2. Students will discuss their understanding of a key piece of dialogue from Act I, Scene One, then study an actor's interpretation to refine their previous analysis of this moment in the play. Students will use evidence from the film and the text to demonstrate their understanding of Walter's emotions.
4.3. 3. Students will identify either Travis's or Beneatha's wants, obstacles, and their actions in response to those obstacles in order to analyze and understand their chosen character.
4.3.1. Students will use text details to summarize their understanding of one character's key want, obstacle, and reaction from the scene they analyzed.
5. Module 1: Meet the Family
5.1. Objective: Students will act out early lines from A Raisin in the Sun. Then, they will analyze what the set and stage directions reveal about context and characters. They will perform the lines again to apply their understanding to their interpretation of the characters and setting.
5.1.1. Assignments: Students will read a passage from Scene One out loud for students so that they can understand the format and basic relationships in the play. Students work in small groups, each focused on practicing just one character's lines, in order to develop fluency with the author's syntax. Students perform and then discuss what they can figure out about the family from the spoken lines.
5.1.1.1. Discussion: How are Walter, Ruth, and Travis related? (Walter and Ruth are husband and wife; Travis is their son.)
5.1.1.2. Can you tell where the action is taking place? Inside? Outside? (Inside their home)
5.1.1.3. Who else is mentioned? (Mr. Johnson)
5.1.1.4. What emotions are the characters expressing? Can you figure out why?
5.1.1.4.1. Assessment: Reading assessment to further analyze the context of characters Students will explain how dialogue and stage directions contribute to the meaning of the play's opening scene
6. Module 2: Walter's Eggs
6.1. Objective: Students will discuss their understanding of a key piece of dialogue from Act I, Scene One, then study an actor's interpretation to refine their previous analysis of this moment in the play. Students will use evidence from the film and the text to demonstrate their understanding of Walter's emotions.
6.1.1. Assignments: Students review their answers to a question from the last Module and compare hearing a line read in a film to reading a line aloud in class.
6.1.2. Students watch the film version of this scene so they can consider to what extent the film’s portrayal of the scene varies from the images they created in their heads
6.1.3. Students write about Walter's emotions during Scene 1 Act 1 scene.
6.1.3.1. Discussion: What are two main emotions Walter is conveying during Act I, Scene One, 110 moment? Use details from the script and film to describe how the dialogue, stage directions, and the actor’s voice and body movements show these emotions.
6.1.3.1.1. Assessment:Students will match excerpts from the scene to the descriptions of what the stage directions reveal about Walter’s wants and emotions.