1. EQ: How does background and time period influence a writers work?
I will be able to analyze the motivations and effects of unjust actions of the 1930’s
Bell Ringer: Think of a time where you and an adult misunderstood each other or came into conflict because you were from different generations. How did the adults world and upbringings affect their point of view? How did your world affect your point of view?

2. Bell Ringer:
You are to share your responses with your shoulder partner –
Student A – share your story with Student B
Student B – you are to ask at least 2 clarifying questions
Ex. How did you feel when…….?
Why did you …….
Why do you think the other person……
Then you switch!
Just how our perspectives are shaped by their own experiences and the world around them, so are authors influenced by the world around them – which comes through their writing,
Example – Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird

3. Vocabulary Generation Upbringing Era Pardon Defendant Intermarriage
Pertness
Segregation
Jim Crow Law
Southern Belle
Lynching
Great Depression

4. Era Envelope: Putting To Kill a Mockingbird in Context
One student distribute the handouts in the envelope, one to each student in your group of 6.
Each student reads his or her text – or examines the visual – and answers the text-dependent questions in the corresponding box on the handout.
After 3-5 minutes, pass your handout to the person on your left.
Repeat this process until each student has read all six handouts.

5. How would you characterize, or describe, Harper Lee?
Handout
Text-Dependent Questions 1
How would you characterize, or describe, Harper Lee?
Provide 3 examples from the text to support your response. 2
What seems to be the purpose of Jim Crow Laws?
Which of the sample laws provided stands out to you the most? Why? 3
Based on the picture and quotations provided, how would you describe the “ideal” southern girl?
How is the ideal Southern woman similar to expectations for girls and women today?
How is the ideal Southern woman different from expectations for girls and women today? 4
What is lynching?
What is the “strange fruit” described in the poem? How do you know?
What effect does the description of the “strange fruit” in the poem have on you? Why? 5
What information presented in the text explains why the Great Depression was such a worldwide catastrophe? What do the photos suggest about what life was like for Americans during the GD? What do the text and photos suggest about the emotions Americans faced each day during the GD? 6
What inferences can you make about life in the 1930’s based on these photos?
Which photo do you find most interesting? Why?

6. Exit ticket
What is 1 adjective that describes life in the 1930’s? Place on post-it and put on door on your way out.

7. Scottsboro: An American Experience
This was a case that Harper Lee felt strongly about. She decided to write about it.
You will see/listen to the account of the Scottsboro trial.
You will answer the questions on your sheet.
You will discuss your answers
You will then REFLECT on what you have learned today and respond to:
If you grew up in a world similar to Harper Lee’s, why might you be motivated to write a novel about your experience? {EXIT ticket}

8. Scottsboro Viewing/Listening Guide
Excerpt
Text Dependent Questions 1
What is the crime that has been committed?
Do you think the 9 boys are guilty? Why or why not?
Transcript
What did the girls have to gain by accusing the black men of rape?
What disadvantages were the 9 boys facing?
How did the time period contribute to the trouble that arose? 2
How did the actions of society shape the individuals involved in the Scottsboro trial?

9. Summary of trial
The first trial only lasted three days, and none of the defendants were given good legal representation. All of them were found guilty and sentenced to death except for thirteenyear- old Roy Wright, who was sentenced to life in prison. The Communist Party took up the cause of the Scottsboro. Boys and hired Samuel Leibowitz to defend them. Leibowitz worked hard on their defense, and when they were granted a second trial before Judge James Horton, he presented evidence to show Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were lying (including a confession from Ruby Bates herself); however, the court still found the boys guilty. Leibowitz convinced the judge to give them a third trial (the judge was beginning to have some doubts about the girls’ story), and yet they were still found guilty. Leibowitz continued to work on the boys’ behalf, even getting the Supreme Court to overturn the verdicts due to the fact that Alabama had purposely excluded blacks from the jury. Four of the boys (the thirteen year-olds, the blind boy, and the one with syphilis) were set free in 1937, after six years in prison, and four other boys were released between 1943 and Haywood Patterson finally escaped prison in 1948.

10. Exit Ticket
If you grew up in a world similar to Harper Lee’s, why might you be motivated to write a novel about your experience? What would you say?
If I grew up in a world similar to Harper Lee’s, I might be motivated to write a novel about my experience because it made me feel ____________________.
I would want people to realize _____________________.
I think the most important part of life in the 1930s to share with people is ________ because ______.
The most important thing I would want people to understand is ______________________________________________.

11. Exit Ticket
If you grew up in a world similar to Harper Lee’s, why might you be motivated to write a novel about your experience?