Unit 1: Mouth Full of Blood: Essays and Speeches
Essential Understandings
Writers communicate artistically through words and word choices to impact readers' thinking.
Morrison’s writing reveals a reflection of historical, social, and cultural conditions during a specific time and place.
Reading expands understanding of the world, people, and oneself; deeper understandings are the result of reflecting upon the text, which involves rereading.
Writing is a multi-stage process; writing is an artistic and reflective process.
Overview of Learning
This unit will introduce students to the nature of language and literature and its study. Students read 8 of Toni Morrison’s essays and speeches from her anthology “Mouth Full of Blood.” The series of lessons will involve close attention to the linguistic and literary details and stylistic techniques and how meaning is communicated through words, images, sounds and other stylistic techniques. Students will primarily focus on the 5 main techniques that transcend Morrison’s essays and speeches: metaphor/simile, imagery, allusions, juxtapositions, and symbolism. See more
Global Issues
Power and privilege
Freedom of expression
Otherness and Foreigners
Migrations, Refugees, Immigration
Colonization’s effect on the psyche
Globalism
Injustice
Language as oppression (power structures that exist)
Racialized language
Injustice/Corruption
Illiteracy
Women’s Rights
Statement of Inquiry: Social and political issues influence a writer’s ideas about communication, creativity, and culture.
Content-based
Why and how do we study language and literature?
How do texts offer insights and challenges?
How does language use vary amongst text types and amongst literary forms?
Skills Based
Determine two or more central ideas (global issues or concepts) of a text
Analyze the development of ideas over the course of the text and text sets, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis.
Concept Based
How are Morrison’s beliefs/ cultural values presented as global issues? What techniques does Morrison use to develop her ideas?
How does Morrison convey communication (language) as a racial, political, or social construct? What techniques does Morrison use to develop her ideas?
To what extent is human creative expression in danger? What techniques does Morrison use to develop her ideas?
