Lesson Plan - The Secrets of Their Success

Engage and Connect

Ask students to respond to this prompt: If you could start a business, what would it be? Why? What challenges do you think you might experience? How might you deal with them? Have students write responses or record videos with a platform like Flipgrid. Invite them to share and discuss responses.

Preview Vocabulary

Use the online Skill Builder Words to Know to preteach the domain-specific terms asset, cosmetology, entrepreneur, federal, food insecurity, heir, legacy, nonprofit, segregation, and War of 1812. You might have students rate their knowledge of each term using a four-point scale: 1—I’ve never heard of it; 2—I’ve heard it but am not sure what it means; 3—I think I know what it means; 4—I could explain it to someone else. Ask students to read all the definitions and write sentences for two terms they feel less confident about. Then have students refer to the Skill Builder as they read.

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently or in pairs. As students read, direct them to underline or highlight the most important two or three details about each entrepreneur. Guide students to focus on these details as they write summaries using the Skill Builder Summarizing Stories.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.

• Why do you think the author begins the article with a question? (Author’s Craft)
The author might have begun with a question to make readers interested in finding out the answer and to draw them into the article. By naming four seemingly unrelated items in a rhetorical question, Lisa M. Herrington also introduces the key product that each entrepreneur became known for.

• What is the central idea of the section about Annie Turnbo Malone? (Central Ideas)
The central idea is that Annie Turnbo Malone was a haircare pioneer who used her hair and beauty products business and cosmetology schools to achieve success and create opportunities for tens of thousands of women around the world.

• What evidence supports the idea that Malone “dedicated herself to education” and “never forgot where she came from”? (Text Evidence)
Malone showed her dedication to education by creating Poro College, a cosmetology school for Black women that expanded to 32 locations by the 1950s. She also donated some of her wealth to Howard University’s medical school. She remembered where she came from by providing money for an orphanage to help other youth growing up without parents.

• How did John Merrick’s barbershops help lead to his insurance career? (Analyzing Events)
Merrick’s barbershops led to his insurance career because he listened to his clients talk about their lives and challenges as he cut their hair. He realized that one reason many Black people in Durham, North Carolina, experienced financial issues was that they didn’t have access to life insurance. Merrick used his businesses to help build “a strong and prosperous Black community,” in the words of his great-great-granddaughter Blake Hill-Saya.

• What does Chris Williams mean when he says his great-grandmother Lucille B. Smith “was never defined by other people’s expectations of her”? (Making Meaning)
Williams probably means that Smith didn’t let other people’s expectations of women and Black Americans in the 1900s limit what she could achieve. After Smith experienced success with her instant hot-roll mix for a church fundraiser, she went on to become one of Texas’s first black businesswomen. Despite growing up in a time of segregation, Malone had her food served at the White House and she worked as a magazine editor. Smith also defied expectations by funding a college program for food preparation.

• How did the War of 1812 affect Frank McWorter’s business? (Cause and Effect)
The War of 1812 helped McWorter’s business because he manufactured and sold saltpeter, a main ingredient of gunpowder. The war increased demand for gunpowder, so he was able to sell more saltpeter. Two years after the war ended, McWorter had earned enough profits to buy his wife’s freedom from her enslaver. Eventually, he would buy his own freedom and that of 14 additional family members. The profits also enabled McWorter to buy 160 acres of land from the federal government and become the first Black American to establish a town, New Philadelphia, in Illinois.

• How do the illustrations support the article? What do you notice about their backgrounds? (Visual Literacy)
The illustrations support the article by showing what each of the four entrepreneurs looked like. Each background features products that the business leaders were known for— hair and beauty products and a college for Malone, life insurance documents for Merrick, hot rolls and mixes for Smith, and a map of a community for McWorter. The illustrations also support the article by prominently featuring the color purple with accents of green, which helps the four stories feel connected. Finally, each of the entrepreneurs has an expression that shows determination to persevere against obstacles.

• Choose a quote from the article. What question do you think the interviewer might have asked to get that response? What are two other questions you would ask the person? (Making Inferences)
Responses will vary.

Cite Text Evidence

Guide students to complete the Skill Spotlight activity at the end of the article. Help them cite specific details. As a class, discuss whether students chose the same or different details and evaluate which pieces of evidence are strongest.

Write Objective Summaries

Use the Skill Builder Summarizing Stories to help students summarize each section. After reading a model for Annie Turnbo Malone, students will write three summaries. You might have partners compare summaries and collaborate to integrate their ideas in a second version.

Assess Comprehension

Assign the 10-question Know the News quiz, available in PDF and interactive forms. You can also use Quiz Wizard to assess comprehension of this article and three others from the issue.