Alice Walker
Lesson plans and teaching ideas

|Biography and Background| |The Color Purple| |Other Writing|

Biography and Background

Alice Walker
Biography at Wikipedia.

Brainy Quote: Alice Walker
A collection of quotations from the author.

The Color Purple

The Color Purple,
Five ideas for letters students might write in conjunction with reading the novel.

What Did They Say? Dialect in The Color Purple
"This lesson encourages appreciation of dialects by exploring their meaning and origins and inviting students to experience a variety of dialects in a large-group setting. It then fosters further interaction with the text using written reflections in double-entry journals and peer-to-peer discussions in literature circles."

Other Writing

Alice Walker, "Everyday Use"
Six analysis questions for discussion/writing. This document requires MS-Word for access.

"Everyday Use"
Scroll down for an insightful analysis of the story.

"The Flowers" by Alice Walker
Text of the story.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Exploring and Creating Folk Art from Everyday Items
This lesson plan begins with an article from the New York Times about Howard Finster, a Georgia folk artist. Students then create original artwork and design personalized creative spaces in the spirit of Finster's Paradise Gardens. When I read this lesson, it made me think of "Everyday Use," though the idea certainly could go with other stories, too.

Teaching Plot Structure through Short Stories
Students analyze plot structure using the stories "Jack and the Beanstalk," "The Flowers," and "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier.