This syllabus depends upon the students having already read August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Piano Lesson. It is a good idea to assign them together. They are short and fairly easy to read as they are both dramas, keeping exposition at the barest minimum. At the same time the plays are assigned it is a good idea to provide them with the opportunity to do some research on their own. On the following pages is a list of potential research questions related to both the plays which will aid in their understanding of the historical background necessary to appreciate many of the levels on which these plays work.

The syllabus which follows the research questions is for the teacher's eyes only. The questions are meant as a guide for discussion in that particular week. You may want to abbreviate your discussion if you don't have 4 weeks to devote to a text, but I stress that giving less time can result in not delving deep enough into discussion to impact the students and can, in some cases, create more problems than it was meant to solve.

Depending on the level of your students you may want to avoid parts of this discussion; although the texts are generally grade-level friendly (after about 7th grade) it is entirely at your discretion the kinds of subjects you feel your students can handle in a mature fashion.