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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

What did they say? Dialect in The Color Purple

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=790

A lesson plan for grade 11 English Language Arts

Provider: IRA/NCTE


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Teachers expose students to a variety of dialects from around the United States in this lesson that evaluates Alice Walker’s use of dialect in The Color Purple. Students evaluate sound bites from people of different racial, geographic, age, and educational backgrounds. After a lesson on dialects, students apply thier understanding to the reading of the novel by maintaining a double–entry journal, where they record passages and responses to the use of dialect. Lesson provides links to resources on teaching dialect.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 11

  • Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by using a variety of media to research and explain insights into language and culture.
    • Objective 2.02: Examine and explain how culture influences language through projects such as:
      - showing the evolution of forms of communication in the United States (e.g., the Pony Express, telegraph, telephone, fax, e-mail).
      - tracing the development of technology in a particular area such as audio or video recordings, radio, television, and film.
      - demonstrating proficiency in accessing and sending information electronically, using conventions appropriate to the audience.
  • Goal 5: The learner will interpret and evaluate representative texts to deepen understanding of literature of the United States.
    • Objective 5.02: Analyze the relationships among United States authors and their works by:
      - making and supporting valid responses about the text through references to other works and authors.
      -comparing texts to show similarities or differences in themes, characters, or ideas.