LESSON PLAN (African American Language) Theme: AAL, Here, There, and Everywhere: How African American Language

is not simply a Home Language Common Core State Standards: 3rd Grade ELA: RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from non-literal meanings.
W.3.4With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 13 above.) W.3.5With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 13 up to and including grade 3 on page 29.) W.3.6With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others. W.3.7Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic. W.3.8Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

Objectives: I want children to understand that it is appropriate to speak AAL in familiar contexts. I want children to understand that AAL is not simply a home language but a language that is used widely throughout the Black community. Sub- objectives: I want children to understand that AAL is used in varying contexts (beyond the home) throughout the Black community to include churches, barbers, professional spaces, and other places where African American frequent often. Sub-objectives: I want children to understand that AAL is used widely among preachers, teachers, politicians, and many other professional African American individuals. Rationale:

Children must come to an understanding that AAL is not simply a home language but a language that is spoken widely throughout the Black community and used among many professional African Americans to include politicians, preachers, teachers, barbers, etc (Boutte & Hill, 2006). When children come to this understanding, they will develop a sense of pride in the language (Holmes, 2012), which will aid them in understanding their intellectual capacities as bilingual and multilingual individuals and help them to understand their professional possibilities without denying their true identities as speakers of African American Language (Boutte & Johnson, 2012; Smitherman, 1999). Teachers must also help children/ speakers of African American Language to foster these understandings as they teach them the language of power (Delpit, 2002 ). When teachers demonstrate an appreciation for and acknowledge the linguistic abilities children bring to the classroom (Brice-Heath, ), they can easily help children understand the power of code-switching and code-meshing (Wheeler, 2008) when appropriate. Teachers must also help children/speakers of African American to overturn dominant/master narratives about African American Language as it has been carefully and traditionally taught that AAL is simply broken English, bad English, or slang (Rickford & Rickford,2000 ). When teachers become brave enough to embrace AAL and other English Language variations, teachers will begin to see schools truly become equitable spaces for all learners (Boutte, 2008). Classroom Resources (see separate documents): Teacher-Generated Activity on Where do people speak AAL?/ Who speaks AAL? Videos on the use of AAL in churches, barbershops, African-centered schools, music studios, political campaigns, etc. How Obama uses AAL Activity (Alim & Smitherman, 2012) Powerpoints/Games/Activities Stories in AAL (Be Boy Buzz, bell hooks)

Procedures: 1. The teacher will engage students in a discussion about where speakers of AAL are able to speak AAL. Students will be given varying contexts and will say whether it is appropriate to speak AAL is these spaces. Students will use the thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach to demonstrate where and where shouldnt AAL be spoken. 2. The teacher will introduce students to famous speakers of AAL to include Jessie Jackson, Maya Angelou, Barack Obama, and Robert Ford, and other preachers, politicians, etc. Students will listen to videos of these famous individuals as they speak the language. 3. Students will have an opportunity to interview relatives and professional individuals who speak AAL. During the interviews, students will be able to

share what they have learned about AAL while also gaining perspectives on AAL from the aforementioned individuals. Students will specifically find out what members of these communities remembered about about the Ebonics Debates in the 90s and how such debates may have informed their perspectives about the language. I will assist students in developing initial questions regarding the Ebonics Debates, etc. Student will then be responsible for developing other questions in order to seek out responses to determine how the debates informed current perspectives about AAL. 4. Student will construct a book based on their interviews and share their books with the class during student presentation time. 5. Students will also engage in morning read-aloud that highlights book in AAL and authors who write books in AAL. (See aforementioned books). Students will also use books as examples to produce their own books based on their interviews. 6. Students will also be able to identify states where AAL is spoken. Professional Resources: Boutte, G. S. (2008). Teaching students who speak African American Language. In M.E. Brisk (Ed.) Language, Culture, and Community in Teacher Education. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hudley, A. C. & Mallinson, C. (2011). Understanding English language variation in U.S. Schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press Smitherman-Donaldson G. (1994). Black talk: Words and phrases from the hood to the Amen corner. Boston : Houghton Mifflin. Smitherman, G. (1999).. Talkin that talk: African American language and culture. New York: Routledge.