63 pages • 2 hours read
Ta-Nehisi CoatesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.
ACTIVITY: Documenting the life of Black bodies in America
The purpose of this activity is to look at the ongoing problem of violence against Black bodies in America as a particular tragedy for Black Americans. The students should be presented with a recent case of a Black person who was unjustly killed by police or be encouraged to do their own research (the “Say Their Names” project at www.sayevery.name may be helpful) to find an individual case. They should then focus only on the details of the victim’s life, not their death, noting the ways the media reports on such cases. What details are ignored or downplayed? What were students unable to find that they wanted to know? How does this individual loss reflect the larger problems Coates is describing in Between the World and Me?
Teaching Suggestion: It will be important to foreground some of the issues at hand before students begin this assignment. Instructors should also be sensitive in respecting students’ exposure to images or videos of violence against Black bodies, as it can have a dehumanizing or traumatizing effect.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Letter to My Son
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The Beautiful Struggle
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The Case for Reparations
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The Water Dancer
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We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
Ta-Nehisi Coates