We, Too, Sing America

IN PREPARATION

For this activity, students will need the reproducible handouts entitled We, Too, Sing America, copies of the synopsis,and the audio selections from Porgy and Bess. For the take-home activity, students will each need a letter-size foam sheet with holes punched in each corner. You will also need short strings of yarn to “sew” the quilt panels together.

 

CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS

English / Language Arts, Poetry, African American Culture and History, Visual Arts, Humanities

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • To deepen students’ familiarity with Porgy and Bess’s themes and imagery
  • To develop students’ close reading and literary analysis skills
  • To help students understand Porgy and Bess within the context of early 20th-century literature and art
  • To consider how an opera can be interpreted as a historical document, reflecting the social, political, and artistic movements of its day

 

COMMON CORE STANDARDS

This activity directly supports the following ELA-Literacy Common Core Strands:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8-12.11
Interpret, analyze, and evaluate narratives, poetry, and drama artistically and ethically by making connections to: other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, personal events, and situations.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.9
Demonstrate knowledge of 18th-, 19th- and early 20th-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.11
Create a presentation, art work, or text in response to a literary work with a commentary that identifies connections and explains divergences from the original.

 

TRIGGER WARNING:
The painting by Aaron Douglas in this exercise includes imagery that references a hanging.