• This lesson would work best if assigned directly after Quey & Ness's chapters.
  

• Start by simply having a brief conversation of the novel up to this point. What happened between the two sisters, Effia and Esi? Who are their immediate descendants? In what ways have their children been affected by their mother's respective pasts? Discuss.
  
• Ask your students to open the following document and go over instructions with them. In this assignment, your students are going to read the poems "Pretty" by Alan Chazaro and "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley and discuss how each poem reflects the traits of each of the two characters.
• When you've gone over the assignment, give your students time to work.
• When your students are done, spend a bit of time going over each of the poems. How did your students interpret each of them? In what ways did the poem parallel the traits or experiences of Quey and Ness? Discuss.
  

lesson 1

On Being Brought from Africa to America

by Phillis Wheatley

lesson 2

When Puffy says, and we won’ t stop, 'cause we can’ t stop

by Rasheed Copeland

• If your students are not familiar with the concept of “figurative language,” go through the introductory lesson.
• Read “When Puffy says, and we won’t stop, ’cause we can’t stop.” by Rasheed Copeland. Then simply ask your students what they thought of the poem and what particular images stood out.
  
• Ask your students how the poem relates to the structure of Homegoing, with each chapter focusing on a different descendant. Briefly discuss.
• Have your students open the following document and go over the instructions with them. In this assignment, the students will have to identify the figurative language in the poem, choose one example from the text that they feel best encapsulates the meaning of the work as a whole, and create a visual of that particular image to reinforce the message of the poem AND tie in with the text of Homegoing.
  
• Give your students time to work on the assignment.
  
• When your students are done, have them share their images with the rest of the class. Try to encourage the class to discuss the visuals as a group before each creator reveals their "artistic intentions" behind it.
  

• When your students have finished the novel, ask them to discuss the last two chapters. How did the novel conclude? What were the final character arcs for the last two characters, Marcus and Marjorie? Did they have "satisfying resolutions"?
• Project the following poem ("Marjorie's Poem") on the board and read it aloud. As your students are listening, ask them to pay attention to how it reflects Marjorie's (even Marcus's) growth over the course of the novel.

• Split the Castle open,
  
• find me, find you.
  
• We, two, felt sand,
  
• wind, air.
  
• One felt whip. Whipped,
  
• Once shipped.
  
• We, two, black.
  
• Me, you.
  
• One grew from
  
• cocoa's soil, birthed from nut,
  
• skin uncut, still bleeding.
  
• We two, wade.
  
• The waters seem different
  
• but are same.
  
• Our same. Sister skin.
  
• Who knew? Not me. Not you
  

• Once you've read through the poem, ask your students to discuss how the poem works on a level beyond the scope of the novel. What does the poem reveal about our identities? Our relationships with our past? Briefly discuss.
• Have your students open the following document and go over the instructions for them. In this assignment, your students are going to examine the poem more closely and - on their own - find another poem by another writer whose message is similar in sentiment or theme. When you've gone over the directions, give your students time to work.
• When your students are done, have them share the poems they found with the rest of the class. Then have the class - without assistance from the student who found it - come to a determination as to how the found poem reflect's Marjorie's poem.
  

lesson 3

Marjorie's Poem

by Yaa Gyasi