Richard Wright
Lesson plans for Black Boy and other works

|Biography and background| |Black Boy| |"The Man who was Almost a Man| |Native Son| |Poetry| |Related Links|

Biography & Background

Richard Wright
The author's biography at Wikipedia.

Living with Jim Crow
Part of a unit on the history of desegregation in the U.S., these lessons deal with Uncle Tom's Children and "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow."

Suggestions for Pairing Contemporary Music and Canonical Literature
A list of songs that were inspired by reading literature. Organized by the last name of the author (e.g. Chinua Achebe, William Butler Yeats), the list includes song title, performer, year of release, and more. The list includes 5 titles inspired by Native Son and one inspired by Black Boy.

Black Boy

Black Boy
Prompts for writing and discussion.

Black Boy
Reading strategies to support the book, including an anticipation guide and a fishbowl discussion.

Richard Wright: Black Boy
This extensive crosscurricular Teacher's Guide includes questions for research and writing.

Vocabulary for Black Boy
Words organized by chapters and presented in context with definitions. Click on a word for pronunciation, examples of recent use, more.

"The Man who was Almost a Man"

Understanding Literature
Scroll down on the page to find questions and writing ideas for Richard Wright's "The Man Who Was Almost a Man."

Native Son

Native Son
Thirty questions for analysis.

Poetry

Modern American Poetry: Richard Wright
Biography and timeline, criticism, photos, bibliography, and online poetry.

Related Links

"The Fight"
Text of Wright's story and introductory vocabulary words.

Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller
Summary and background, prereading and comprehension questions, vocabulary, suggestions for use in literature circles, reader responde and writing topics, ESL and interdisciplinary strategies. Access to this 7-page teacher guide requires Adobe Reader or compatible application.