Women’s History Month Short Stories Female Authors English Middle & High School

Honor Women’s History Month with your students with this inspiring short story activity by female author, Gwendolyn Brooks. This is a great activity to complete on International Women's Day. This 3-day activity is intended for middle and/or high school English/ELA students. In her story, Brooks does a remarkable job of capturing the emotional world of her characters so that readers gain a deeper awareness of how the subtle undertones of racism impact the lives of her two black characters, a husband Paul, and his wife, Maud Martha. Seeing the world through their lenses, your students will gain a deeper understanding of what it was like to live as a black couple in America during the 1950s. This story provides a meaningful opportunity in your classroom to teach empathy and will inspire powerful classroom discussions about feeling isolated in society due to the way that one looks. Your students will connect with the characters because of the social isolation that the two characters feel along with their longing to fit in.  

DIGITAL & PRINTABLE

This activity includes a digital version, compatible with Google Classroom, and a printable packet. A detailed teacher key is also included to support you with teaching each of the daily activities. 

ACTIVITIES & PACING: 

DAY 1: Students complete several pre-reading activities to learn about author, Gwendolyn Brooks and the historical time she was writing in. Students conduct research to explore the life of Gwendolyn Brooks and watch an inspiring video clip with discussion questions about her accomplishments and life’s work as a novelist and poet. Afterward, students complete an activity where they analyze three photos from the 1950s and determine what these photos reveal about the culture of America. This activity is meant to provide students with insight into the discriminatory culture of the Jim Crow Era. Students also complete an activity that provides them with awareness regarding how to discuss the racism that will be present in the story. This activity ensures students are being sensitive to the language they use when talking about race. Lastly, students complete a vocabulary activity to familiarize themselves with challenging vocabulary words from the story. This step will support students with comprehension of the reading. 

Day 2: On the second day, students begin the close reading and annotations activity. Gwendolyn Brooks' story, “We’re the Only Colored People Here” is broken up into sections within a table. In the left-hand column, students read a section of the story and in the right-hand column, students answer literary analysis questions about that section. The literary analysis questions strengthen your students' ability to analyze a text for deeper meaning as well as practice critical thinking skills. Students are also asked to refer to specific scenes from the text to support their answers. After completing each section, engage your students in both small groups and whole class discussions. These literary analysis questions will inspire meaningful conversations about identity and race and your students will be provided with the opportunity to explore these topics in an empowering way.

Day 3: On the third and final day of this activity, your students will answer post-reading discussion questions where they are asked to reflect on their thoughts about the story (they will have a lot to share!) and determine the author’s purpose in writing her story. Students make connections to our world by determining how Gwendolyn Brooks’ story is still relevant to high school English classrooms over 70 years after the story was written. During classroom discussion, you will find that your students make really interesting connections between the story and their own lives.  

INCLUDED WITH THIS PURCHASE:

• Pre-reading Activity: Gwendolyn Brooks Author Search and Study Activity 
• Pre-reading Activity: Video clip with discussion questions photo analysis activity 
• Pre-reading Activity: Vocabulary activity 
• Close Reading: “We’re the Only Colored People Here” close reading activity with literary analysis questions 
• Post-reading Discussion Questions and paragraph response 
• Grading rubric 
• Teacher Key 
• Digital Google Doc. version of the assignment 
• Printable packet version  

MESSAGE FROM ON-THE-GO ENGLISH TEACHER:

I created this lesson because after reading Gwendolyn Brook’s story, I was deeply moved by the way she was able to take her readers into the experience of being black during a time when discrimination was normalized in America. This story provides our students with a new perspective on the challenges that this type of dynamic created internally for people who lived through it. History provides us with facts and statistics about how discrimination impacted society, but Gwendolyn Brooks provides us with the emotional turmoil that her characters experienced as a result of living in a racist society, and because of this perspective; our students are better able to understand how this impacted black communities in the 1900s. “We’re the Only Colored People Here” elicits empathy from our students as they critically think about how the dynamic of a discriminatory society would impact not only the lives of black Americans in the 1950s but also the lives of black Americans who still experience racism today.

Want more resources to celebrate Women's History Month?

➡️Make sure to check out my Women’s History Month Research Poster Project. Students practice research skills and demonstrate their creativity by designing a digital or physical poster to represent the inspiring women in our world. This is a 3-day project for middle and high school English/ELA and Social Studies/History students. 

➡️ This collaborative project, Women’s History Month Project: Create a Daily Class Slideshow, provides students the opportunity to become experts on the accomplishments of inspiring women from both past and present. Students collectively create a class slideshow to honor Women's History Month for the entire month of March.

➡️ Teach this poem activity (to mature high school students). During this activity, students analyze a poem female author, Pat Parker, and engage critically with issues related to gender, sexuality, and societal norms by exploring Pat Parker's poem, "My Lover is a Woman". This poem provides representation for LGBTQ+ experiences, allowing our students to see themselves reflected in the literature they study.