Kentucky Reading and Writing RL.11-12.9

ELAGrades 11–12Reading Literature

The Standard

Demonstrate knowledge of various time periods to analyze how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.

Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students place two works in their historical moment and find a question both writers address. They compare each writer's answer using passages and accurate details about life at the time.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can explain how the speaker in Hughes's “I, Too” expects a place at the table, while the speaker in McKay's “America” expresses both attachment and anger. They cite lines from both poems and connect those choices to racial exclusion in the 1920s.
Common Misconceptions: Students may call both poems hopeful because both address America, missing McKay's anger and Hughes's defiance. Some list facts about segregation without showing how a line in either poem supports their claim.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Compare how “I, Too” and “America” portray belonging. Cite one line from each and explain how segregation in the 1920s helps account for a difference.

Lesson moves

Give pairs printed copies of “I, Too” and “America” plus fact cards on Jim Crow laws and Harlem's arts scene; annotate lines linked to each card.
Ask students: How does each speaker respond to exclusion, and which line best shows the difference?
Play evidence sort: groups match four lines from the poems to claims about anger, hope, defiance, or attachment, then defend one match.
Show the 1925 Survey Graphic Harlem issue cover; ask how its celebration of Black art changes their reading of each poem.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to RL.11-12.9, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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