Learn It Part 1
Tip Box
When performing a research task, it is important to do the following:
- Read carefully and take notes about details you find related to the research topic.
- Categorize the details you find based on what they say about the topic.
When completing research, it is important to read the text more than once; this is true when you are reading a factual article, opinion piece, short nonfiction, or even viewing a visual representation. This ensures that you will identify important details and do a thorough job of researching.
First, read for the main idea or message of the text. Then, return to the text to find and record evidence that supports this main idea, provides information about the topic, or cites an expert opinion on the issue.
Read the short story "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis by Richard Wright." It’s a story about a bullying incident Wright experienced as a child. It was originally part of his autobiography, Black Boy, published in 1944.
- Begin: Scroll down to section 12 and begin with, “Hunger stole upon me so slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant.”
- End: The story ends in section 17 with the last sentence – “On my way back I kept my stick poised for instant use, but there was not a single boy in sight. That night I won the right to the streets of Memphis.”
After you have finished reading the full story, re-read the excerpt below to record key details about the topic of bullying. As you read, carefully take notes in your notebook or on a separate piece of paper about the following:
- Details that relate to the topic of bullying.
- Ideas and concepts that are focused on or repeated.
- Author’s purpose in telling this story – What did he want you to know about his experience?
- How the author addresses this purpose throughout the text. How does he build the conflict? What does he tell you along the way?
- Connections between different parts of the story. Why did he include what he included? How do details add to his message about the experience?
Read – Excerpt 1
Black Boy, Part One, Southern Night Opens a new window
Scroll down to section end of 13, and begins with, “My mother finally went to work as a cook and left me and my brother alone in the flat each day with a loaf of bread and a pot of tea.”
Read the entire paragraph, ending with the sentence, “Whenever we asked why father had left, she would tell us that we were too young to know.”
How does the author characterize his childhood?
What evidence from the passage best demonstrates the author’s characterization of his childhood?
