Lesson 5: A Raisin in the Sun, Act I, Scene 1, Part 1

In the previous lesson, students traced how housing systems made obtaining the American Dream more expensive and more fragile for Black families. Today, students step into Hansberry’s play itself and see how she prepares readers for those same tensions before the characters even begin speaking.

Turn-and-Talk

Say these Directions: Today, you are opening A Raisin in the Sun and looking at how Hansberry sets up the family’s world from the very first pages. Take a moment to think about the following prompt, turn to a partner and share one prediction you made from the dedication. Partner A, share first. Partner B, listen for one word or phrase that connects to dreams, family, or struggle. Then switch.

• Ask: Based on the dedication, “To Mama: in gratitude for the dream,” what do you predict might matter in this play?

  • I predict family will matter a lot in this play because Hansberry starts by thanking her mother for a dream. That makes me think dreams in this play are passed down through family and may come with sacrifice.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: You will now study one key word from the dedication so you can read Hansberry’s opening pages with more precision.

Morphology & Vocabulary

Target word: gratitude

Say these Directions: When readers open a play, even one short dedication can hold a big clue. Today, you are going to unlock the word gratitude by studying its parts, and then you are going to connect that meaning back to why Hansberry begins the play this way. Begin by reading the following dedication sentence:

Display and read aloud the dedication.

Target Sentence:

To Mama: in gratitude for the dream

• Say: When I see gratitude, I stop because it feels like a keyword in the dedication. I know the root grat connects to thankfulness, and the suffix -itude means “a state or condition,” so gratitude literally means “a state of thankfulness.” That helps me understand that Hansberry is not just saying thanks quickly; she is naming a deep feeling connected to a dream.

• Say: If I look at ingrate, the prefix in- changes the meaning, so an ingrate is someone who is not thankful.

• Say: Learn gratitude through its word family:

  • grat- grateful, gratitude, gratify, congratulate, ingrate

  • -itude is a state or condition of

Say these Directions: In your Personal Dictionary, write gratitude. Underline grat and circle -itude. On the next line, write ingrate and circle in- and underline grat.

• Ask: If grat means thankful and -itude means a state of being, what does gratitude literally mean?

  • Gratitude literally means a state of thankfulness.

Cognate Connection:

• Say: Gratitude is a cognate: a word that looks and means something similar across languages because they share the same Latin root gratus (pleasing, thankful). Spanish speakers may recognize gratitud; French speakers may recognize gratitude; Portuguese speakers may recognize gratidão.

• Ask: Does gratitude look or sound like a word in a language you know? How does that connection help you remember what it means?

• Ask: What does the prefix in- do to the meaning of ingrate?

  • The prefix in- changes the meaning to “not,” so an ingrate is someone who is not thankful.

Verify Meaning: Prompt students to use a dictionary or other reference material to confirm the meaning.

Say these Directions: Check your definition using a dictionary or other reference material. Compare what you find to the meaning you predicted based on the morphemes (word parts). Does the dictionary definition match your inference? If not, revise your definition and note what was different.

Erase/Hide: Stop displaying the word.

• Say: Write the word gratitude from memory in your Personal Dictionary.

Sound-Spelling:

• Say: Before writing, let’s say the word aloud, one syllable at a time: “grat / i / tude.” The middle syllable is a short “i” and the final syllable “-tude” is spelled t-u-d-e. Connecting the spelling to the suffix -itude (state or condition of) can help you recognize this pattern in other words.

Check: Display the word again.

• Say: Circle the suffix, underline the root, and label each part.

• Ask: Which part of the word helped you remember how to spell it?

  • The root grat helped me because I kept thinking about words like grateful and congratulate.

• Ask: In the dedication, who is Hansberry expressing gratitude toward, and why might that be significant? How is “gratitude” different from simply saying “thanks”?

  • Hansberry is expressing gratitude toward her mother. That matters because it suggests the play may be connected to family, sacrifice, and a dream that came from the generation before her.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Now that you have unlocked the dedication, you are ready to see how Hansberry uses the structure of a play and the opening stage directions to build meaning before dialogue begins.

Part A: Reading the Opening of a Play (RL.7.5) (15 minutes)

Have students read the act/scene overview and the opening stage directions through the end of the initial description of the apartment. Partners should pause after each chunk to discuss what the structure reveals.

Teach: Genre Study: Reading a Play

Say: Review these concepts and features of drama:

act: a major division of a play

scene: a smaller section within an act

cast: the list of characters

dialogue: the words characters speak

stage directions: the playwright’s notes about setting, movement, and tone

Teach: Genre Study Modeling

• Say: When you read a play, you do not have to wait for dialogue to start before you can make meaning. You can read the act and scene titles, the setting information, and the stage directions because those choices can tell you what the playwright wants you to notice first. In this play, Hansberry gives us the time, place, and condition of the apartment before anyone speaks. That structure helps us enter the family’s world already knowing something about the world in which they are living.

Say these Directions: Read the act and scene overview first. Then read the opening stage directions. As you read, underline details that show how Hansberry wants readers to picture the Younger home before the action begins. Ask yourself and your partner: Why do you think Hansberry shows us this before anyone speaks?

• Ask: In the opening description of the living room, what details show both care and wear? What details show that the family once cared deeply for this apartment? What details show wear, crowding, or pressure?

  • Hansberry shows care when she says the room was once arranged with care, love, taste, and pride. She shows wear when she describes tired furniture, a worn carpet, and a couch pattern almost hidden under covers and doilies.

• Ask: How does the opening structure of the play help introduce a central idea before any dialogue begins?

• Hansberry starts with the dedication, the dream-deferred epigraph, and then the detailed stage directions. That structure suggests a central idea about dreams under pressure because the family’s apartment feels crowded, worn, and full of limits even before the characters speak.

Part B: Sketch, Infer, Predict (RL.7.2, RL.7.3) (15 minutes)

Students will use the stage directions into a sketch of the Younger home, and use that visual evidence to make a grounded prediction about the play. Students sketch first and then write. Remind them that the sketch is not an art task; it is a thinking tool based on evidence. In the next lesson, they will test these predictions by reading the family’s first spoken interactions.

Quick Write

Teach: From Stage Directions to Prediction

• Say: When I sketch the room, I am not drawing just to copy details. If I label the single window and the small kitchen area, I can ask what those details suggest about how the family lives. Then I connect those details to the dedication and the dream-deferred epigraph to make a prediction that is more than a guess. A strong prediction sounds like: “This play may explore how a family holds onto dignity and dreams in a space that feels too small for them.”

Say these Directions: On journal paper, sketch the Younger apartment using the opening stage directions. Label at least four details directly from the text. Then use your sketch to write a short paragraph answering the prompt.

• Ask: What details did you include in your sketch?

  • In my sketch, I included the following details: couch covered with crocheted doilies, worn carpet partly hidden by moved furniture, small kitchen area attached to the living room, one small window with limited natural light, left door to Mama and Beneatha’s bedroom, right room used as Walter and Ruth’s bedroom.

Display the following writing model if needed for support and guidance:

The stage directions show that the Younger family lives in a cramped and worn apartment, but they also show that the family has tried to care for it with pride. Hansberry describes furniture that is tired from being used by too many people for too many years, and she says the room has only one small window for both spaces. This suggests the family does not have enough room, privacy, or comfort. At the same time, the dedication, “To Mama: in gratitude for the dream,” makes me think dreams and family love will still matter in this play. The epigraph’s question about a dream deferred adds pressure, because it suggests those dreams may be blocked or delayed. Based on these details, I predict a central idea of the play will be that families try to protect their dreams and dignity even when life conditions and larger systems make that difficult.

• Ask: Look at your sketch of the set. Using details from the stage directions, explain what the setting tells you about the Younger family’s life. What do you predict will be a central idea of this play, and what evidence from the dedication or stage directions supports that prediction?

  • The setting tells me the Younger family has to squeeze a lot of life into a small space. The room is described as tired, and the family has only one small window and furniture that has been used too much for too many years. That suggests money is tight and the apartment does not meet the family’s needs. I predict a central idea of the play will be that dreams can survive even in hard conditions, but they are under pressure. Hansberry’s dedication shows gratitude for a dream, and the epigraph asks what happens when a dream is deferred, so those opening pages make dreams feel important and threatened at the same time.

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Students complete one final writing task to predict themes from the play.

Quick Write

Say these Directions: Using details from your sketch and the opening pages, predict one central theme or idea of the play. Support your prediction with evidence from the dedication or stage directions.

• Ask: Which opening text feature most shaped your prediction about the play? Explain using at least two specific details.

  • The stage directions shaped my prediction the most because they made the family’s pressure feel real right away. Hansberry says the furniture is tired from too many people using it for too many years, and she says the family only gets natural light from one small window. Those details made me predict that the play will focus on dreams that feel bigger than the space the family has. The dedication and epigraph support that idea, but the apartment description made it concrete.

Instruct students to read A Raisin in the Sun from Ruth’s first line, beginning with “Come on now, boy” (p. 25), to the stage direction “His sister Beneatha enters” (top of p. 35).

As students read, ask them to think about what they observe about Walter, Ruth, and Travis as a family. Then they should answer the following in their Journal:

• Based on the dialogue and actions in this section, what makes a group of people a family? Use at least two details from the text in your response.

  • A family is a group of people connected by responsibility, history, and care, even when they argue. The Youngers fit that definition so far because Ruth wakes Travis up, makes breakfast, and worries about money for him, and Walter gives Travis extra money because he wants his son to have more than he had. They are tense with each other, but they still act like people whose lives are tied together.