Rethinking English: Culturally Responsive Classrooms - The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate You Give

by Angie Thomas

The Hate You Give CRP .pdf

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She can also still rap if needed. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Meyers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. The Hate U Give is her debut novel.

Curriculum Connections

What do we want students to learn?

OLG1 - Reading Process: Using critical literacy, a variety of reading strategies and, knowledge of form and style, students will analyze, assess and synthesize information and ideas from a variety of texts.

OLG2 - Writing Process: Thinking critically, students will conduct research to develop ideas for writing tasks; they will organize and synthesize information to suit specific forms, purposes and audiences.

OLG3: Oral Communication Thinking critically, students will plan and prepare a variety of oral and/or multimedia texts, using effective communication skills that are organized, and that show evidence of rehearsal and revision.

OLG4: Media and Critical Literacy: By applying critical literacy and key media theory, students will analyze representations and techniques in a variety of media forms and use media techniques to create different media texts for specific audiences and purposes

OLG5: Metacognition: Students will reflect on their English knowledge and skills, and with the support of their teachers, take corrective measures to improve.

Essential Questions

What does a fair and just society look like? To what extent is our society fair or just? Who has access to justice and who is often denied access? What are/might be the long term impacts of injustice on Black people?
How can cognitive dissonance and/or double consciousness contribute to a person’s experience of marginalization? How would/could we describe a “Hinterland”? What impact might living in a Hinterland have on different people? Why might some people be forced or feel the need to “code-switch”? To what extent is code-switching a result of the way some people have to fit into dominant norms and/or ways of being? Is it beneficial or harmful? In what situations/circumstances might code switching be beneficial? How might it be harmful?
In what ways can community be beneficial to one’s mental and emotional well-being?
What is the history of policing or how did policing as a system of serving and protecting come to fruition? Whom do the police serve and protect? Are civilian deaths at the hands of police evidence of a few bad cops? Is there evidence to support the notion that the police system is biased against Black people?
To what extent can the creation of different text be considered activism? How can one’s identity be shaped through activism? Why are Black Liberation Movements, like Black Lives Matter, essential for or essential to the fight for the liberation of marginalized peoples? Why does resistance often carry with it a negative connotation? What are the limits of legal rights? To what extent people might be denied access even when they have a legal right to it? What are minority rights? How and to what extent, can majority rights (democracy) limit the rights of the minority?

Key Quotations

BongBong Books. "Book Blog Feature #15: Quotations from The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas". 20 Mar 2017 https://bongbongbooks.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/book-blog-feature-15-book-quotes-from-the-hate-u-give-by-angie-thomas/.

Trigger Warnings

“The purpose of trigger warnings is not to cause students to avoid traumatic content, but to prepare them for it, and in extreme circumstances to provide alternate modes of learning” Lockhart (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21689725.2016.1232623?journalCode=rfsy20)

Trauma Informed Practice A Coffey 2017.docx.pdf

Potential Tasks

1. Students will participate in a number of assessment for, as and of learning activities. They will respond accurately to general questions about the content, form, voice and style of the novel .

2. Students will write a response in a written form of their choice that Explores the impact of racism in the following poems or in alternate pieces of their choice, “The Rose that Grew from Concrete” by Tupac Shakur and “A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay.

3. Students will create a media text (poster, social media account, web page etc.) that depicts their stance on a social justice issue - for eg. race/racism; police brutality; unequal distribution of social services; gentrification and its impact local communities

Students will create a checklist or the criteria for a media text.
Create an original piece that uses the elements of posters/media texts. The piece may be hand-drawn or computer generated but must be original.
Along with the piece students must present a one page rationale that explains their creative choices.