Diversity Lesson Plan

Title: ​The Autobiography of an Ex Colored Man

Author: James Weldon Johnson
Published: 1912

Grade Level: 9-10

Multicultural Theme: Examining social prejudice and discrimination during the era of
Reconstruction and Jim Crow laws, exploring racial and cultural identities, challenging notions
that race defines a person

Materials: ​The Autobiography of an Ex Colored Man, s​ everal magazines, scissors, glue, paper,
notebook paper, pencil

Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual,

graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of
findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Objective: Students will be able to ​identify​ symbolism, motifs, and other elements of literature
by using dialectical journals and creating a “face” collage to visually display their findings with
90% accuracy.

1. Introduce ​The Autobiography of An Ex Colored Man.

2. In small groups, take turns reading the book and take individual notes.
3. In the same groups, discuss the following questions:
a. What are the important themes of the book?
b. In what ways are the narrator’s experiences different when he embraces his
black identity compared to when he ignores it and acts as a white man?
c. According to the narrator, how many personalities does each black person have?
d. What 4 things prove that the black race is not inferior, according to the narrator?
e. Do you think the narrator would have chosen to hide his racial identity in this
day and age? Why or why not?
4. Take a regular piece of notebook paper and divide it into two columns. On the left, write
down passages from the book that you find meaningful. One the right, write down your
thoughts and analysis, making sure to include detailed explanations of any symbolism
you find. Next, take a blank sheet of paper. Go through several magazines, searching
for corresponding images to some of the symbolism you discovered, and cut them out
with scissors. Glue them together on your sheet of paper to create a “face” comprised
of all the symbolism.

Evaluation: The student must provide six or more examples of symbolism and provide a clear,
detailed explanation for each example. The student should have fifteen or more passages
from the book written in the dialectical journal, along with the corresponding responses.
Responses must be thoughtful and should pertain to the lesson objective.