Post-Show Classroom Activity
Invite students to contemplate the significance of King’s seeds, and consider their own personal legacy as they reflect on King Hedley II.
As always, please note that some steps of the activity may be condensed, eliminated, or extended based on the needs of your classroom.
Planting Seeds
Activity Preparation
- Supplies
- Writing supplies
- Set-Up
- This activity includes discussion in small groups or pairs, followed by a whole-class share-out. Set up the room to help facilitate these conversations.
- It may be helpful to brush up on the plot of Seven Guitars, which includes a lot of family history of King Hedley II’s family.
This activity will take approximately 40 minutes.
Learning Sequence
- Ask students to recall when King’s plot of seeds was mentioned in King Hedley II. Guide them to identify broader metaphorical meanings, including but not limited to: (~10 minutes)
- Having a plot of one’s own is significant to Black Americans (“Despite the chains of slavery, the binds of the sharecropping system, and the instability of landownership in the Jim Crow South, the Black man has been able to establish a relationship with the soil of a nation that has been strengthened by his toil and irrigated by his blood.” – Ladrica Menson-Furr)
- There is a parallel between the seeds and King’s desire to be a father. Tonya is pregnant, which means his dream is possible, but there are many barriers to this possibility, just as there are barriers to the thriving of the seeds.
- King seeks to have abundance of his own when other systems fail to provide support.
- Have students write out their answers to the following questions: (~10 minutes)
- What do you want to contribute to the world? (What might be your seeds?)
- How will you protect your ability to carry out those contributions? (What will serve as your barbed wire?)
- What are some potential barriers to accomplishing this?(What might trample or uproot your seeds?)
- Invite students to share their responses in pairs or small groups and then as a class, and compare and contrast their aspirations and setbacks with the characters in King Hedley II. (~15 minutes)
- Name for students that King’s demise is the culmination of challenge and hardship that he and his family have suffered for generations. As needed, refer to the plot of Seven Guitars to share some of the origins of King’s family more deeply. Invite students to reflect, either in writing or through discussion, on what might grow for the characters of King Hedley II, even after King’s death. (~5 minutes)
- This activity aligns with the following standards:
- Illinois Arts Learning Standards
- Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
- Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
- Anchor Standard 8: Construct meaningful interpretations of artistic work.
- Common Core State Standards
- CCSS.ELA.RL.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
- CCSS.ELA.RI1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
- CCSS.ELA.W10 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 tasks, purposes, and audiences.
- Illinois Arts Learning Standards