ELA / 10th Grade / Unit 5: Sanity & Madness in A Streetcar Named Desire & Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Students engage in comparative textual analysis, exploring the concepts of sanity, truth, and power, through their reading of two iconic plays by Tennessee Williams and August Wilson.
ELA
Unit 5
10th Grade
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In Unit 5, students will examine the concept of madness and sanity and their relationship to reality and fantasy while also exploring the price of conformity and nonconformity. During this unit, students will dissect Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, engaging in a comparative analysis of the two plays and how they approach the concept of madness and sanity and use conflict and plot to develop themes and characters in their plays.
This unit starts with a close reading/watching of Catron’s TED Talk "A better way to talk about love" and provides students the opportunity to begin to unpack the idea of madness while also examining how an author uses evidence and claims to develop an argument. In the remainder of the first arc of the unit, students read a variety of supplemental texts to further explore madness and its relation to sanity. Texts include "Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson, "Landlady" by P.K. Page, and "Gaslight Stories: The Madwoman in the Attic" by Sarah Wise. At the end of Arc 1, students will engage in a Socratic seminar and write an insight piece, putting various authors and texts into conversation with each other and reaching a new conclusion.
The second and third arcs of the unit contain a study of A Streetcar Named Desire, a play about the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who leaves her privileged background to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister Stella and brother-in-law, Stanley, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a play about blues singer Ma Rainey and her experiences recording in a music studio in Chicago in 1927. While reading these plays, students will track each character’s desires including how they pursue them and ultimately how their desires impact their overall development. Additionally, both texts are ripe with tension, and thus students will analyze the conflicts in each and how both playwrights use conflict to deliberately propel the action in a play and convey complex ideas.
In the fourth and final arc of the unit, students will prepare for the unit performance task which asks students to craft a review of either the 2020 film adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom or the 1951 film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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Play: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (New Directions)
Book: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom‎ by August Wilson (‎ Plume; Reissue edition)
Poem: “Much Madness is divinest Sense - (620)” by Emily Dickinson (Poetry Foundation)
Poem: “Landlady” by P.K. Page
Video: “A Better Way to Talk about Love” by Mandy Len Catron (TED)
Article: “Gaslight Stories: The Madwoman in the Attic” by Sarah Wise (Psychology Today)
Excerpt: Jane Eyre Volume 3, Chapter 1 by Charlotte Brontë
Article: “First Night at the Theatre” by Brooks Atkinson (The New York Times) (Originally published December 4, 1947)
Article: “Lower Depths, Southern Style” by Wolcott Gibbs (The New Yorker) (December 13, 1947 Issue)
Movie: A Streetcar Named Desire (Directed by Elia Kazan)
Article: “‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ Review: All the Blues That’s Fit to Sing” by A.O. Scott (The New York Times)
Movie: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Directed by George C. Wolfe)
Article: “Literary Theory: "The Madwoman in the Attic" (1979)” by Susan Gubar and Sandra M. Gilbert (The Narratologist)
Painting: Poker Night (from a Streetcar Named Desire) by Thomas Hart Benton (Whitney Museum of American Art)
This assessment accompanies Unit 5 and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.
Download Free Response Question
Download Performance Task
The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units
Thematic
Skills
In order to successfully teach this unit, you must be intellectually prepared at the highest level, which means reading and analyzing all unit texts before launching the unit and understanding the major themes the authors communicate through their texts. By the time your students finish reading this text, they should be able to articulate and explain the major themes the authors communicate through their texts related to the following thematic topics as they uncover them organically through reading, writing, and discourse. While there is no one correct thematic statement for each major topic discussed in the unit texts, there are accurate (evidence-based) and inaccurate (non-evidence-based) interpretations of what the authors are arguing. Below are some exemplar thematic statements.
Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text
callous destitute divested effeminate gallantry highbrow imagery incongruous prodigiously raffish reproving reverberated sinister spectral transitory vivacity
ambiguity archetype diction monologue motif setting symbolism syntax
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 5, view our 10th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.
Introduction
Analyze how Catron develops her argument about love and madness using logical reasoning and supporting evidence.
LO 1.3B RL.9-10.4
Close Reading
Analyze how Emily Dickinson uses diction and structure to convey ideas about madness.
LO 1.3B RL.9-10.4 RL.9-10.5
Explain the madwoman in the attic archetype/literary trope.
Apply the madwoman archetype to a close reading and analysis of an excerpt of Jane Eyre.
LO 1.2A RI.9-10.1
Analyze how the speaker in K.P Page’s poem portrays the landlady as a complex character.
LO 1.3A RI.9-10.3
Socratic Seminar
Formulate and share unique arguments about madness and sanity.
Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a Socratic seminar.
LO 1.4B LO 5.1A LO 5.1B SL.9-10.1
Writing
Craft an insight piece about your selected research topic, placing the ideas found in various sources and their authors in conversation with one another.
LO 1.4B LO 4.1B W.9-10.9
Analyze how Williams establishes setting and characterization in the opening of A Streetcar Named Desire.
LO 1.3A RL.9-10.3
Analyze how diction and syntax create character in Blanche’s monologue in Scene 1.
Analyze the complex relationship between Blanche and Stanley and how it develops over the course of the scene.
LO 1.3B RL.9-10.3
Analyze how Williams uses tension in the poker scene to further develop his characters and create social commentary.
LO 1.3B RL.9-10.2
Compare and contrast Stella and Blanche’s perceptions of reality in relation to the violence of the poker night.
Analyze how Blanche’s relationship with men functions in the text and what it reveals about her character and the overall meaning of the work.
LO 1.3B RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3
Analyze how the motifs of light and drinking function in Scene 8 and what they reveal about Blanche’s character and tragic flaw.
Analyze and interpret the ambiguity in Scene 10.
Analyze Williams’ key moments in the final scene including how Williams used them to create meaning in the text.
Formulate and share unique arguments about A Streetcar Named Desire.
Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a summative Socratic seminar.
LO 1.3A LO 1.3B LO 2.3A LO 2.3B LO 2.3C LO 2.3D LO 5.1A LO 5.1B RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3 RL.9-10.4 SL.9-10.1
Assessment: Free Response
Analyze how Williams OR Wilson uses literary techniques to reveal the impact that desire has on each character’s development and the overall meaning of the work.
LO 1.3A LO 1.3B LO 2.3A LO 2.3B LO 2.3C LO 2.3D RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3 RL.9-10.4 W.9-10.2 W.9-10.9
Analyze how Elia Kazan’s cinematic and directorial choices in the 1951 film version of A Streetcar Named Desire contribute to meaning.
Evaluate how Elia Kazan interprets Teneesee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire in his 1951 film of the same title.
Analyze how Wilson establishes characterization and conflict in the opening of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Analyze Levee’s monologue including the emotional and psychological impact his past has on him and how it informs his interactions with other characters.
Assessment: Performance Task
Analyze how Wolfe’s cinematic and directorial choices in the 2020 film version of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom contribute to meaning; evaluate how Wolfe interprets August Wilson’s’ Ma Rainey’s Block Bottom in her 2020 film of the same title.
Examine key moments in the final scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom including how Wilson used them to create meaning in the text.
Formulate and share unique arguments about Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Assessment: Performance Task – 4 days
Complete the performance task to show mastery of unit content and standards.
LO 2.2A LO 2.2B LO 2.2C LO 2.2E LO 2.4A LO 2.4B LO 2.4C LO 3.3A RL.9-10.5 W.9-10.3 W.9-10.4
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The content standards covered in this unit
RI.9-10.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RI.9-10.3 — Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
RL.9-10.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL.9-10.2 — Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.9-10.3 — Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
RL.9-10.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
RL.9-10.5 — Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
SL.9-10.1 — Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9—10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
W.9-10.2 — Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
W.9-10.3 — Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
W.9-10.4 — Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.9-10.9 — Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
RI.9-10.2 — Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
W.9-10.1 — Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W.9-10.10 — Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
LO 1.2A — Analyze the development of an argument, evaluating its central claim(s), the soundness of the reasoning, and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
LO 1.3A — Analyze how literary elements interact to develop the central ideas of a work of literature.
LO 1.3B — Analyze how the writer's use of stylistic elements contributes to a work of literature's effects and meaning.
LO 1.4B — Synthesize ideas from multiple texts and explain how the texts may convey different perspectives on a common theme or idea.
LO 2.2A — Assert a precise central claim.
LO 2.2B — Develop a line of sound reasoning and choose an organizing structure to convey that reasoning to the reader.
LO 2.2C — Support a claim by selecting and incorporating evidence that is relevant, sufficient, and convincing.
LO 2.2E — Use carefully selected language, syntax, and stylistic and persuasive elements to strengthen an argument.
LO 2.3A — Assert a precise central claim that establishes the relationship between a work's features and overall meaning.
LO 2.3B — Organize ideas and evidence to effectively develop and support a thesis.
LO 2.3C — Select and incorporate relevant and compelling evidence to support a thesis.
LO 2.3D — Use an appropriate style and carefully selected language to strengthen an analysis.
LO 2.4A — Establish a narrative point of view.
LO 2.4B — Use a variety of techniques to advance plot, theme, and the evolution of character(s).
LO 2.4C — Use carefully selected language to help the reader imagine or share the experience conveyed in the narrative.
LO 3.3A — Compose or revise language to ensure sentences are grammatically correct and that their internal structures provide clarity.
LO 4.1B — Gather, evaluate, and synthesize evidence from multiple authoritative sources (e.g., print, digital, multimedia) to address the research question or problem.
LO 5.1A — Extend the conversation around an idea, topic, or text by formulating questions and recognizing the claims and perspectives of others.
LO 5.1B — Cite relevant evidence and evaluate the evidence presented by others.
Unit 4
Home, Grief, and Storytelling in Men We Reaped
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