Literature Project | Pre-Reading Activities – 1 The American South

I.1 The American South

Lead-In

Teacher displays poster of Madison Young, the protagonist of Unit 5 in English G21 A4 *1. “What do you remember about her?”

→ main information: she is from Atlanta, Georgia.

Transition

“What do you know about Georgia?” → collect students’ answers

“Georgia is in the South of the USA, which is a region with a culture and traditions that differ quite a lot from the rest of the USA. Let’s have a look at them!”

Practice

Students do a jigsaw puzzle and work in small groups on the topic American South*2:

CORNELSEN English G21 A4, 1st edition,  pp. 103-104

Evaluation

Students take a quiz on the American South in their jigsaw groups. If you want to make it easier for your students, you can let them stay in their expert groups. Then at least one person is in there who knows the answer! You could arrange it as a little contest then (who is the fastest to complete the quiz?).

Possible questions (taken from CORNELSEN English G21 A4 – Resources for teachers, Digital Assistant, Unit 5 Background file)

1. What was Katrina?
2. You can go mountain climbing in this state and the capital begins with N.
3. It’s a children’s book and one of its heroes is a slave. What’s the title, who is the author?
4. This woman showed a lot of courage on a bus. What was her name and where did this take place?
5. This state is named after a famous queen.
6. It’s the home of the most famous drink in the world.
7. A famous musician criticized racism in this state in one of his songs. Who was it and what is the title of the album? Which state does he refer to?
8. Name two famous singers who come from the state with many “e” s in its name.
9. It is a famous type of music which starts with “b”. Where is its birthplace?
10. Who made a song with the name of a big city in its title? What’s the song called?
11. The city takes its name from French immigrants who came from the city of Orléans in France.
12. This is the city in which nine kids were chosen to go to a school where all the other students looked different.
13. 1800 people lost their lives in this disaster.
14. He was governor of this state before he became President of the USA.
15. These famous boats still operate on rivers in Mississippi.
16. This city has a quarter which is famous for its music.
17. The Confederate States chose this city as their capital.
18. Madison Young lives in this state.
19. It’s a state where people fought for their civil rights.
20. The first president of the USA came from this state.

The answers to these questions can be made available upon request 😉

*1 At the beginning of the year, the students were introduced to all the children in the new book: the “book children” spent their summer vacation at the Grand Canyon. See English G21 A4 pp. 8-13.

*2 I used the “Background File” of our English book, but of course you could compile some short texts on the seven southern states from the internet; examples: http://docsouth.unc.edu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States

Photo Credit: A Home on the Mississippi, By Currier and Ives 1871- Digital scan of reprint of original chromolithograph., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7530803