Freedom

Whether you decide to include this module in Year 9 or as part of the Year 10 curriculum will decide on the time taken on the previous three modules. The anchor text is Zora Neale Hurston stunning novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Some of the themes are mature – the text deals frankly with domestic violence as well sex and relationships – and some teachers may be hesitant about reading a text which is written mainly in African American vernacular. It is, however, well worth the effort. One of the motivations for including this text in our curriculum is the fact that many of our schools teach Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men in Year 9. While this continues to be a fine novel, it can be difficult for -some students (and some teachers) to read about the isolation and abuse experienced by women and black people in a novel written by a white man. The fact that Hurston’s novel is not only an exceptional work of fiction but is both about the experience of a black woman and written by a black woman make it a compelling candidate to include in the English curriculum.

Alongside this, lead author James Hibbet has collected an excting range of satellite texts. Students will read the work of other important figures of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Paul Lawrence Dunbar as well as other writers who have used English either to argue for or as an expression of freedom. There are extracts from writers as diverse as Ta-Nehis Coates, WE Du Bois, Maya Angelou and Alice Walker.