Thank You Ma’am Teaching Activities
Teaching Activities Resources for Teachers
75 teaching activities resources for teachers in the Thank You Ma’am Teaching Activities collection.
75 teaching activities resources for teachers in the Thank You Ma’am Teaching Activities collection.
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am is a Pearson Notebook resource in the Teaching Activities collection, selected for grades 7 and organized by English Language Arts, Grades 7, Pearson Notebook.
Found poem from Thank You, M’am
Students build a found poem from the language of the story. The technique maps onto bookworm reflection on what mattered in the encounter.
The Apology Letter: Roger writes Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones (writing assessment)
Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools
Students write as Roger, 20 years after the encounter, composing a thank-you and apology letter to Mrs. Jones. Letter quality determines empathy (bronze/silver/gold/platinum)…
The Bradbury Parallel: apology letter from the children who locked Margot in the closet (All Summer in a Day)
Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools
Companion to the Roger apology letter. Students write as one of the children from Bradbury's All Summer in a Day, apologizing to Margot for locking her in the closet during the one hour of sunshine on Venus…
CommonLit: Thank You Ma’am full module (text + guided reading + assessment + paired texts)
CommonLit
Free with educator account. Full text with guided reading questions, assessment questions, discussion questions, paired text recommendations, parent guide. Text tools include dictionary, read-aloud, translator, highlighter…
Varsity Tutors: Thank You M’am exemplar lesson (7th grade, text-dependent questions, evidentiary writing)
Varsity Tutors / englishteacher.org
Designed as exemplar lesson for 7th grade. Includes text-dependent questions with evidence-based answers, academic vocabulary, culminating writing task with writing prompt and structure, model response, and additional learning activities…
Study.com: Thank You Ma’am lesson plan (theme identification + thank-you note writing)
Study.com / Kristen (Ed.D.)
Post-reading lesson. Opens with discussion about whether stealing is ever acceptable. Students identify theme/central idea and write a thank-you note to one of the characters. Aligned to CCSS RL.9-10.2 (determine theme, analyze development). Free preview…
Hey Natayle: 5-day Thank You M’am unit (story elements, S.T.E.A.L., conflict analysis)
Natayle / Hey Natayle
5-day unit for 6th graders. Day 1: character analysis with S.T.E.A.L. method (Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others, Actions, Looks) and Character Carousel group activity. Day 2: internal/external conflict analysis. Day 3-5: theme, empathy, second chances…
Mondays Made Easy: 3 engaging activities (symbolism graphic organizer, Hughes biography, paired poems)
Mondays Made Easy
Three activities: (1) Symbolism graphic organizer where students locate and interpret symbols in the story with pre-reading informational handout defining symbolism. (2) Hughes biography activity tracing formative years and literary influences…
Presto Plans: Roger writes Mrs. Jones 10 years later (creative writing letter assignment)
Krista Mahan / Presto Plans
Full pedagogical walkthrough: pre-reading discussion questions (second chances, power of kindness, It takes a village proverb), during-reading comprehension stops, post-reading discussion…
TPT: Thank You M’am literary analysis essay (introductory paragraph builder)
Teachers Pay Teachers seller
One-day lesson plan with six deep-thinking questions (answer key included) and optional writing activity: step-by-step construction of a powerful introductory paragraph for a literary analysis essay. PDF and Google Drive formats…
Lovin Lit: full 2-week Thank You M’am unit (pre/during/post reading, Hughes paired passages, theme comparison)
Lovin Lit
Full unit with Common-Core-aligned worksheets, Hughes poem and Hughes memoir paired passages, theme comparison work, vocabulary exercises, comprehension questions, discussion prompts, creative writing tasks. Focus on characterization, theme, plot structure…
Hot Seating: interrogate Mrs. Jones or Roger in character
Dorothy Heathcote tradition / Drama Resource (David Farmer)
One student or teacher sits in role as a character and answers questions from the class. For Thank You M’am: teacher-as-Mrs-Jones answers why she brought Roger home instead of calling the police…
Conscience Alley: should Roger take the money from Mrs. Jones’s purse?
Drama Teachers UK / Neelands tradition
Class forms two lines. A student walks between them as Roger at the moment Mrs. Jones leaves her purse unattended on the daybed. One side whispers reasons to take the money; the other side whispers reasons not to. The walker decides at the end…
Freeze Frame / Tableau: key moments from the story frozen and analyzed
Heathcote/Neelands tradition
Students create physical still images of key story moments: the purse-snatch, Mrs. Jones holding Roger by his shirt, Roger washing his face at the sink, the moment Mrs. Jones gives Roger the money…
Mantle of the Expert: students as Harlem community journalists investigating the purse-snatch
Dorothy Heathcote / Gavin Bolton (1995, Drama for Learning, Heinemann)
Heathcote’s approach: students are cast as a team of experts with a commission from a fictional client. For Thank You M’am: students are journalists for the Amsterdam News (Harlem’s Black newspaper…
Role on the Wall: visual character mapping for Roger and Mrs. Jones
HFL Education / Heathcote tradition
Draw an outline of the character on a large sheet. Outside the outline: what others see (actions, speech, appearance). Inside: what the character feels, thinks, fears, wants. For Roger: outside shows the attempted theft, the blue jeans, the dirty face…
Library of Congress: Teaching with Primary Sources (Langston Hughes materials)
Library of Congress
LOC teacher guides with primary-source images and audio related to Hughes. Includes photographs, manuscripts, and audio recordings. For the campaign: these become discoverable artifacts in the fictional 1958 Harlem…
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Harlem photographs collection
New York Public Library / Schomburg Center
Digital collection of Harlem photographs. The campaign page already uses a ca. 1946 photograph of West 125th Street from this collection. For bookwormburrows: these photographs are the visual substrate of the dimension…
Hughes House at 20 East 127th Street (NYC Landmark, NRHP listed 1982)
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LP-1135, designated 1981)
Official landmark designation report. Hughes occupied the top floor of this 1869 Italianate brownstone as a workroom from 1947 to 1967. The Harpers purchased the house in 1947; Hughes moved in with them…
NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project: Langston Hughes Residence
NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project / Amanda Davis
Detailed entry on Hughes at 20 East 127th Street with notes on the Emerson and Ethel Harper household, the birth-year correction (1901 not 1902 per 2018 research), interior photographs, and references to Rampersad biography vol. II…
Newsela: Langston Hughes biographical articles (lexile-leveled)
Newsela
Lexile-leveled biographical articles for differentiated reading. Same content adjusted to multiple reading levels (typically 5 levels from 3rd grade through 12th). For mixed Grade 7 reading levels. Requires school subscription for full access…
CommonLit: Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
CommonLit
CommonLit module with full text, guided reading questions, discussion questions. Direct paired-poem resource for Thank You M’am: Mrs. Jones as the mother-figure delivering hard-earned wisdom to a young person…
Harlem (A Dream Deferred) by Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes (from Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951)
The poem that names the campaign’s setting. What happens to a dream deferred? In the campaign: this poem is the dimension’s thematic ground. Roger’s dream of blue suede shoes is a deferred dream. Mrs…
StoryboardThat: The Treasure of Lemon Brown by Walter Dean Myers (lesson plan)
StoryboardThat
Visual storyboarding lesson for the commonly paired Myers story. Useful for scaffolding paired-reading week…
Kaylor 2017: Dungeons and Dragons and Literacy (Master’s thesis, UNI)
Stefanie L. B. Kaylor
Qualitative study examining how TTRPG play develops literacy skills and reading interests in teenagers. Finds that non-traditional texts used in TRPGs (magazines, graphic novels…
ResearchGate 2025: Effects of Playing TTRPGs on Academic Literacy of Secondary Students (literature review)
ResearchGate / multiple authors
April 2025 literature review. Three themes: (1) conceptual framework from play theory, developmental psychology, and literacy research; (2) empirical evidence on reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing skills, narrative competence…
NGLC: How Tabletop RPGs Teach SEL and Improve Academics for Kids
Adam (Kentucky Educators for RPGs) / NGLC
Cites Kade Wells (South Dakota middle school ELA teacher) whose students doubled NWEA MAP growth using D&D as entire instructional framework. Cites foundry10/Game to Grow white paper on TTRPGs and social-emotional learning…
NGLC: Polyhedral Pedagogy (Adam’s McFarland book 2025)
Adam / NGLC / McFarland Publishers
Profile of Sterling Harris at Western High School Louisville (JCPS). Peer-reviewed book: Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom: Infusing Gameplay into K-12 Instruction (McFarland, 2025). Free article; book is paid.
TTRPGkids: scholarly resources bibliography for educational tabletop RPGs
TTRPGkids
Curated bibliography of academic sources. Includes: Bowman & Standiford 2015 (Educational LARP in middle school, International Journal of Role-playing); Boysen et al. 2022 and 2023 (playful learning designs in teacher education…
Heathcote & Bolton 1995: Drama for Learning (Mantle of the Expert, Heinemann)
Dorothy Heathcote & Gavin Bolton
The foundational text for Mantle of the Expert. Students study curriculum as if they were a group of experts with a commission from a fictional client. Directly parallel to bookwormburrows’ structure where the DM gives bookworms a purpose in the dimension…
20 East 127th Street: Langston Hughes House (Langston Hughes Place)
I, Too, Arts Collective / NYC Tourism
Hughes lived on the top floor from 1947 to 1967 with the Emerson and Ethel Harper family. Wrote Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and I Wonder as I Wander here. NYC Landmark 1981, NRHP 1982. Now home to I, Too…
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Arthur Schomburg Center, 515 Malcolm X Blvd)
New York Public Library
Hughes’s ashes are interred beneath a medallion in the floor outside the auditorium named for him. The center holds his papers and is the major archival resource for Harlem Renaissance research…
Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard): Harlem’s heartbeat (Hughes, Juke Box Love Song)
Wikipedia / NYC geography
Hughes described Lenox Avenue’s traffic as Harlem’s heartbeat in Juke Box Love Song. Runs from Central Park North (110th) to 147th Street. Mount Morris Park Historic District from 119th to 123rd…
Gothamist: Langston Hughes Lives On In Harlem (walking tour overview)
Gothamist
Overview of Hughes sites: the brownstone, the Schomburg Center ashes, the block renaming to Langston Hughes Place. Quotes Hughes: I would rather have a kitchenette in Harlem than a mansion in Westchester…
ELA Learning Experiences (19 modular Engage/Explore/Extend activities)
Facing History & Ourselves
19 modular learning experiences using head/heart/conscience analytical posture. Each follows Engage/Explore/Extend structure. Insertable into any literature unit. The Mrs. Jones/Roger encounter rewards exactly this posture. Free with educator account…
Coming of Age ELA Unit Planning Toolkit (voices and choices analysis)
Facing History & Ourselves
Designed around coming-of-age literature. Strategies for teaching setting as moral/social force, perspective-taking activities, voices and choices analysis. Mrs. Jones choosing to feed Roger rather than call police is a textbook voices-and-choices exemplar…
Strategies for Addressing Racist and Dehumanizing Language in Literature
Facing History & Ourselves
Practical guidance for handling dialect and period-appropriate but now-offensive vocabulary. Relevant because Hughes 1958 story uses period dialect and the broader Harlem 1958 historical record includes period use of the word Negro. Free.
How Historical Empathy Helps Students Understand the World Today
Facing History & Ourselves
Defines historical empathy as understanding people in the past by contextualizing their actions. This is exactly the cognitive move the fictional / historical 1958 Harlem dual layer asks students to make. Free.
Discovering a Passion for Poetry with Langston Hughes (Literary Graffiti tool)
ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)
Students analyze Hughes poems in sociohistorical context then create their own poem on a current issue using the Literary Graffiti interactive tool. Develops literary-historical contextualization, voice, and written composition…
A Harlem Renaissance Retrospective: Connecting Art, Music, Dance, and Poetry
ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)
Students conduct internet research, use interactive Venn diagram tool, build a museum exhibit on a Harlem Renaissance artist. Develops research, synthesis, cross-disciplinary connection…
Varying Views of America (Whitman / Hughes / Angelou comparison)
ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)
Students compare Whitman I Hear America Singing, Hughes I Too Sing America, and Angelou On the Pulse of Morning. Tone, point of view, perspective-taking. Strong scaffold for hot-seating Mrs. Jones vs Roger. Free.
Portrait of Langston Hughes (primary-source photograph strategy)
ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)
Uses Carl Van Vechten 1936 LOC photograph as primary source for figurative-language and biographical study. Good establishing shot for the fictional Harlem layer. Free.
Drafts of Langston Hughes Ballad of Booker T. (revision process primary source)
ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)
Five typewritten drafts (LOC mcc.024) showing Hughes revision process. Develops the revision strand. Ontario 2023: strand C (Composition). In the fictional 1958 Harlem: bookworms visiting Hughes workroom at 20 East 127th might find these drafts on the desk…
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (A Walk Through Harlem series, PBS LearningMedia)
PBS LearningMedia
Hughes biographical clip plus full reading of his first published poem (1922). Develops figurative-language and connotative-meaning standards. Free with educator account.
Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance (C-SPAN Classroom, Schomburg Center)
C-SPAN Classroom
Schomburg Center Director Howard Dodson interview footage. Downloadable graphic organizer. Free.
Blues, Poetry, and the Harlem Renaissance (TeachRock, KWL chart)
TeachRock
Connects Hughes poems (I Too, Negro Speaks of Rivers, Homesick Blues, Harlem) with Blues lyrics. KWL chart handout. Develops media literacy and the place-based Harlem-as-cultural-context strand. Free.
Langston Hughes (Voices and Visions documentary, Annenberg Learner)
Annenberg Learner
Full documentary with James Baldwin and biographer Arnold Rampersad. Gold-standard background video for teacher prep. Free streaming.
Restorative Justice in School: An Overview (Cult of Pedagogy)
Jennifer Gonzalez / Cult of Pedagogy
Practitioner overview of RJ in schools. Comments thread recommends Touching Spirit Bear (Mikaelsen) as narrative RJ parallel. Same logic applies to Thank You M’am: Mrs. Jones substitutes relationship-building for police involvement, community accountability…
Examples of Restorative Justice (Colorado School Safety Resource Center, PDF)
Colorado CDPS
Concrete classroom scenarios usable as parallel readings to Thank You M’am. Free PDF.
UNC K-12 Database: Thank You M’am kindness-and-choice role-play lesson (PDF)
University of North Carolina K-12 Database
Scripted ethical role-plays (Student A asks Student B to copy on a test; Student C must decide whether to tell teacher) plus alternate-ending creative writing. Direct alignment with the campaign diceless/role-play model…
Harlem Renaissance (National Gallery of Art, Uncovering America)
National Gallery of Art
Covers Aaron Douglas, Winold Reiss, Alain Locke The New Negro (1925), Harlem Community Art Center. Strong on visual-arts vocabulary for the dream-layer where art populates the streets. Free.
A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance (NMAAHC, Smithsonian)
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Authoritative overview. Cites Alain Locke Enter the New Negro, Survey Graphic 6 (March 1925) p. 634, formulating the Harlem Renaissance as a spiritual Coming of Age. Useful as canonical period self-description for the fictional 1958 Harlem. Free.
The Poet’s Voice: Langston Hughes and You (NEH / EDSITEment)
National Endowment for the Humanities / EDSITEment
Five-journal-entry sequence built around Negro Speaks of Rivers, Mother to Son, and others. Defines and develops voice. Notes Hughes 1958 collaboration with Henry Red Allen band, a useful 1958 anchor for the campaign. Free.
Teach This Poem: Theme for English B by Langston Hughes (poets.org)
Academy of American Poets / Dr. Madeleine Fuchs Holzer
Free lesson plan by Academy Educator in Residence. Theme for English B is the poem where Hughes speaker walks from Columbia down through Harlem, the same geography the campaign bookworms traverse. Free.
Teach This Poem: As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes (poets.org, with Ellington audio)
Academy of American Poets
Includes Duke Ellington/Johnny Hodges audio integration of Weary Blues. Develops listening and cross-media analysis. In the fictional 1958 Harlem: bookworms might hear this music from a window on Lenox Avenue. Free.
The Harlem Renaissance lesson plan (PBS NewsHour Classroom, found poem activity)
PBS NewsHour Classroom / Daniella K. Garran
Includes Found poem activity and Lasting Legacy essay assignment. The Found poem technique maps onto the campaign: bookworms collecting words and phrases from the dimension to compose a poem is a natural in-game activity. Free.
Curry, Izola Ware (Stanford King Institute encyclopedia entry)
Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford
Authoritative scholarly entry. Izola Ware Curry stabbed King at Blumstein’s Department Store (230 West 125th Street) on September 20 1958 with a 7-inch steel letter opener. More than two hours of surgery at Harlem Hospital…
How an Assassination Attempt Affirmed MLK’s Faith in Nonviolence (History.com)
History.com / A&E
Long-form retrospective. Identifies operating surgeons Drs. Emil A. Naclerio and John W. V. Cordice. Confirms Blumstein’s at 230 West 125th, the letter opener, and King’s nonviolent response statements of September 30 and October 24 1958. Free.
Thank You M’am 1976 short film record (NMAAHC, Smithsonian, object 2017.55.45.1a)
National Museum of African American History and Culture
16mm Eric Jones / Rosetta LeNoire dramatization, transferred from DC Public Library. The canonical short film of the story with NMAAHC provenance. Free record; film availability varies.
WLIB station history (1190 kHz, Hotel Theresa, Hal Jackson, The House That Jack Built)
Wikipedia (citing FCC and Inner City Broadcasting records)
In 1958 WLIB broadcast from the Harlem Radio Center in the Hotel Theresa with pioneering Black DJ Hal Jackson on staff. Jackson anchored The House That Jack Built. Daytime-only. In the campaign: WLIB is the radio station playing in Mrs. Jones’s room. Free.
WWRL station history (1600 kHz, competing Black AM station)
Wikipedia
The competing Black AM station serving Harlem in 1958. WLIB and WWRL were the two AM radios most likely playing in any Harlem boarding-house room. Free.
Apollo Theater history (R&B revue format introduced 1955 by Tommy Dr. Jive Smalls)
Apollo Theater Foundation
In 1955 DJ Tommy Dr. Jive Smalls brought the R&B Revue concept to Apollo manager Bobby Schiffman. By September 1958 the house was three years into this format with as many as a dozen vocal acts on one bill…
Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection (Smithsonian NMAH Archives Center)
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Sixteen boxes including 5x8 cards kept by Frank Schiffman on every act 1946-1976. Documents Chuck Berry March 13 1958 appearance. The specific week-of-September-20-1958 booking is retrievable from this collection by in-person researchers. Free essay…
Cook, Gremo & Morgan 2017: We’re Just Playing (Simulation & Gaming, modified TTRPG in middle-school ELA)
Mike P. Cook, Matthew Gremo, Ryan Morgan
Qualitative study of 36 middle-school ELA students using a Pathfinder-modified TTRPG paired with Connell The Most Dangerous Game. Found textually grounded gaming decisions, meaningful collaboration, narrative learning through character…
Sayers 2011: Mantle of the Expert as Community of Practice (English in Education)
Ruth Sayers
Frames Mantle of the Expert as Wenger-style Community of Practice. Directly relevant to the campaign students as literary detectives in Hughes Harlem frame. English in Education 45(1) 20-35. DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-8845.2010.01084.x. Paid journal; abstract free.
Salter & Moulthrop 2021: Twining (Amherst College Press, open access)
Anastasia Salter & Stuart Moulthrop
Peer-reviewed monograph on Twine as critical, creative, and pedagogical medium. Chapters on classroom integration of branching interactive fiction. DOI: 10.3998/mpub.12255695. Free open access.
Kirilloff 2021: Interactive Fiction in the Humanities Classroom (Programming Historian, Twine)
Gabi Kirilloff
Open-access peer-reviewed lesson. Surveys prior pedagogical literature on Twine in teaching (Jeremiah McCall on history-classroom Twine, Jonathan Kotchian on composition and reader response). DOI: 10.46430/phen0095. Free.
Cawthon, Dawson & Ihorn 2011: Activating Student Engagement Through Drama-Based Instruction (ERIC)
Stephanie W. Cawthon, Katie Dawson, Shari Ihorn
Drama for Schools model increases authentic engagement among middle-school students. ERIC: EJ985619. Journal for Learning through the Arts. Free PDF.
Anderson & Loughlin: Process Drama Pedagogy for the Literacy Programme (ERIC EJ1139685)
Anderson & Loughlin
Exploratory study showing process drama expanded students text-user, meaning-maker, and text-analyst practices. Pedagogies: An International Journal. ERIC: EJ1139685. Free abstract.
Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: Language, 2023 (official PDF)
Ontario Ministry of Education
Canonical strand reference. 2023 document orders strands as A (Literacy Connections and Applications), B (Foundations of Language), C (Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts), D (Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts)…
TVO Learn Grade 7 Language (Ontario-certified teacher-curated activities)
TVO Learn / Ontario public broadcaster
Learning activities, vocabulary lists, videos, articles, podcasts aligned to 2023 Ontario curriculum. Free.
TVO Learn Grade 8 Language
TVO Learn / Ontario public broadcaster
Grade 8 page explicitly states students are encouraged to explore issues related to personal identity and community concerns as they interact with increasingly complex and challenging texts. Direct fit with campaign identity/empathy themes. Free.
Thank You Ma'am — Interactive Campaign Page
Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools
Student-facing interactive campaign built on the Langston Hughes 1958 short story. Set in Harlem, September 20-21, 1958. Part of the BookwormBurrows tabletop educational system. Includes period media, historical research, and dimensional-travel game mechanics.
Thank You Ma'am — Interactive Campaign Experience
Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools
Student-facing interactive campaign page for the Langston Hughes short story Thank You Ma'am. Set in 1958 Harlem on September 20-21. Includes period media (music, newsreel, photographs, front pages), historical context, and the full campaign framework…