Author, filmmaker, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was also a dialectologist. The dialogue of the characters in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God reveals her fascination with accents and dialects. A short video from the Great American Read series asks viewers to consider how the language the characters use influences the reader's perception of them. Class members then read and annotate an article that asks them to consider their own preconceptions of people based on their language.

Concepts

zora neale hurston, their eyes were watching god, accents, syntax, diction

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Use the lesson to launch a class reading of Zora Neale Hurston's novel
  

Classroom Considerations

• Additional prep time required for teachers to read and annotate the included article
  

Pros

• The lesson plan is thorough and includes rich details

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3 RL.9-10.5 RL.11-12.1 RL.11-12.2 RL.11-12.3