2022 Post #14 -- A Dream Deferred

 by Nate Harris

I recently taught a lesson to my sophomores that centered around Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” as it relates to Loraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, as well as their own lives. The connection between the poem and the drama was noted to students before we read the drama (for those unfamiliar, the title of the play is drawn from the opening line of the poem), but this particular lesson took place shortly after we completed the play. After rereading the poem together and reviewing and discussing exactly what may happen to a dream deferred, students watched the following commercial and were asked to individually determine the story that they think is being depicted.

The lesson then shifted focus to various aspects of the historical context that surrounds Hansberry’s work, including the women’s rights and civil rights movements, other aspects of post-world war US, and the life of the author herself. We then circled back to “Harlem”, and after quickly sharing their responses about the commercial with each other, I encouraged students to volunteer and share with the entire class. After fielding several responses, I shared with the students that the woman featured in the above Nike advertisement is Sanya Richards-Ross, who achieved her dream of winning an Olympic gold member after coming up short in two previous attempts.

I then closed out the lesson by sharing about a time in my life when I had a dream deferred when I was a high school student, and how I had determined to not let that particular dream dry up like a raisin in the sun. I then had my students write about a time in their life when they had a dream deferred, but instead of being discouraged, they determined to make the experience educational and motivational. Just before they left for the day, I asked them to remember the story of Sanya Richards-Ross, as well as their own personal example of perseverance, so that they may always be encouraged by what can happen when a dream is deferred.

Further Reading:

Nate Harris is a high school English teacher at Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown, PA