Reading Closely for Textual Details Developing Core Proficiencies English Language Arts / Literacy Unit

READING CLOSELY FOR TEXTUAL DETAILS DEVELOPING CORE PROFICIENCIES ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS / LITERACY UNIT

GRADES 11-12

"And I am willing to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government"

OD LL DUCATION www.odelleducation.com OD LL DUCATION Page 1 DEVELOPING CORE PROFICIENCIES SERIES

This unit is part of the Odell Education Literacy The Core Prociencies units have been designed Instruction: Developing Core Prociencies to be used in a variety of ways. They can be program, an integrated set of ELA units spanning taught as short stand-alone units to introduce or grades 6-12. Funded by USNY Regents Research develop key student prociencies. Teachers can Fund, the program is comprised of a series of four also integrate them into larger modules that build units at each grade level that provide direct up to and around these prociencies. Teachers instruction on a set of literacy prociencies at the can also apply the activity sequences and unit heart of the CCSS. materials to di5erent texts and topics. The materials have been intentionally designed for Unit 1: Reading Closely for Textual Details easy adaptation to new texts. Unit 2: Making Evidence-Based Claims Unit 3: Researching to Deepen Understanding Unit materials available at Unit 4: Building Evidence-Based Arguments www.odelleducation.com

READING CLOSELY FOR TEXTUAL DETAILS

Becoming literate involves developing habits and unit takes the invisible process expert readers prociencies associated with many reading have internalized and makes it explicit – to purposes, from reading for pleasure to preparing support teachers and students as they develop for high-stakes business meetings. This unit prociency in reading text closely. develops students’ abilities to read closely for textual details—a prociency essential for a Procient readers can also explain and share the variety of reading purposes and contexts. discoveries they have made through reading and Attending to and analyzing details are essential analyzing a text. Developing evidence-based skills for accessing meaning, allowing texts to explanations is essential for clarifying and inform our understanding and enrich our lives. deepening one’s own understanding as well as the foundation for participation in academic and Rather than simply ask students to read closely, civic life. This unit integrates the development of this unit instructs them in a process for doing so. explanatory communication skills into the close The activities lay out a process for approaching, reading process. Students learn to explain their questioning and analyzing texts that helps readers thinking and link it with textual evidence both in focus on key textual characteristics and ideas. Just discussion and writing. The unit culminates in a as experts in any eld access deep understanding structured text-centered discussion in which by knowing what to look for in their particular students examine discoveries they have made elds, expert readers know the questions to ask of about an important topic, by explaining and texts in order to guide them to deep meaning. comparing their textual analyses with their peers. The framework of questioning presented in this

OD LL DUCATION Page 2 HOW THIS UNIT IS STRUCTURED

The unit activities are organized into ve parts, This organization is designed to strengthen the each associated with short texts. The parts build precision of instruction and assessment, as well as on each other and can each span a range of to give teachers

HOW THIS UNIT MIGHT BE EMBEDDED IN CONTENT-BASED CURRICULUM

The unit is explicitly and intentionally framed as curriculum and instructional plans, and to skills-based instruction. It is critical for students establish content connections that will be to understand that they are developing core meaningful for students. This might involve literacy prociencies that will enrich their connecting the unit to the study of topics or academic and civic lives. The unit and activities eras in social studies, related genres or voices in should be framed for them as such. Nonetheless, literature, or themes and guiding questions. the texts have been chosen, in part, for their rich Whatever the curricular context established by content and cultural signicance. They contain the teacher, the central emphasis of the unit many important historical and contemporary should, however, be on evidence-based, text- ideas and themes. Teachers are encouraged to focused instruction. sequence the unit strategically within their

OD LL DUCATION Page 3 HOW THIS UNIT TEACHES WRITING

Communicating understanding e5ectively is an The writing activities—including the writing essential part of the close reading process. And students complete on the tools—are all very while this unit focuses primarily on reading limited in scope. In most cases students write only prociencies, writing from textual evidence plays one or two sentences and at most a few short an important role in most of the activities. The paragraphs. This in NO way suggests that they are nature of the writing instruction at this stage in limited in importance. The limited scope the Developing Core Prociencies Series is rooted intentionally allows teachers and students to in some core principles. First, strong writing

HOW THIS UNIT TEACHES VOCABULARY

This unit draws on a variety of strategies for The texts and activities also provide many teaching academic and disciplinary vocabulary. opportunities for academic vocabulary The primary strategy is the way critical disciplinary instruction. Many of the activities focus directly on vocabulary and concepts are built into the analyzing the way authors use language and key instruction. Students are taught words like words to develop ideas and achieve specic “analyze,” “perspective,” “questioning,” and purposes. “criteria” through their explicit use in the activities. Students come to understand and use these The sequence of topical texts also builds words as they think about and evaluate their vocabulary knowledge and connections, textual analysis and that of their peers. The supporting both textual comprehension and handouts and tools play a key role in this process. vocabulary acquisition. The texts are formatted By the end of the unit, students will have with integrated tools for vocabulary development. developed deep conceptual knowledge of key Each page includes editable glossaries where vocabulary that they can transfer to a variety of teachers and students can choose various words academic and public contexts. to dene. Some words have been pre-selected and glossed. Teachers may choose to di5erentiate vocabulary support by student.

OD LL DUCATION Page 4 INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORTS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND STUDENTS READING BELOW GRADE LEVEL

This unit is intentionally designed so that all measures. Students are expected to become an students engage directly with a series of texts that “expert” for only one of these texts, providing progress in grade level complexity and activities teachers with an opportunity to di5erentiate as the unit unfolds. Appropriate sca5olding is content (text selection) based on students’ built into the unit design, activity sequence, and reading levels or English language mastery. tools to make instruction comprehensible to students – especially those who are English Short Texts, Focused Reading: Most of the texts Language Learners or are reading well below in the unit are relatively short in length, allowing grade level at the start of the unit – so that they students to focus on individual paragraphs and directly experience the complexity of the texts. sentences as they learn to read closely and derive The unit actively supports these students through meaning. Text-dependent questions included in explicit instruction of skills and strategies, the the instructional notes further focus students’ building of background knowledge, a progression reading to important or more challenging of increasing text complexity, a focus on student- sections of text. developed questions, and instructional strategies associated with modeling, grouping, and graphic Read Alouds and Modeling: At key parts in the organizers. Instruction follows a progression that instruction, teachers read text aloud so that moves from sca5olding and support to students can listen to the cadence and structure independent application. of texts while also following along themselves. By listening to a procient reader, students pick up Among the supports for English Language on natural pauses and pronunciation of words. Learners and below grade-level readers Teachers also model “think alouds,” wherein they integrated into the units are: discuss what they visualize and think as they read. Teachers thus model reading prociently, and also Unit Design and Instructional Sequence: By model using the skills and graphic organizer tools design, students begin learning to “read closely” that help students learn to read closely. Students by rst encountering visual images, which they see the tools and skills modeled before they apply scan for details, and then multi-media texts that them, rst in pairs or small groups, then reinforce the skills of identifying details and independently. making text-based observations from those details. Thus, before they ever encounter print Guiding Question Framework: The units break texts of grade level complexity, students begin to the reading process down into manageable steps develop skills and strategies through visual that are increasingly complex. For example, rather learning experiences. They then learn to transfer than simply asking students to paraphrase what these skills to the reading of more complex texts. they have read, the unit asks students to start by The text sequences in this Reading Closely unit are writing down details they have found in the text also set up as a “staircase of complexity,” so that related to a guiding question like “What words or students move from more accessible texts that phrases stand out to me as I read?” Already help them build background knowledge to more equipped with details they have written down, challenging texts that they analyze for perspective students are then asked to discuss these details. and use of language. The sequence of texts Only after having had these two opportunities to culminates in a nal, three-text set, which interact with the text and peers do students presents students with a range of text complexity, attempt to paraphrase what they have read. based on both quantitative and qualitative

OD LL DUCATION Page 5 INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORTS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND STUDENTS READING BELOW GRADE LEVEL

Graphic Organizers: The unit’s instructional tools Academic Vocabulary: While leaving many provide students with a precise and guided decisions about the teaching of vocabulary to the manner for reading texts closely. These tools help teacher, the unit includes glossaries for each text break down the complex reading processes - and sets up the learning of vocabulary in a text- processes that procient readers automatically based context. More generally, the Guiding use - into clear, visual organizers. The tools, Questions Handout utilizes vocabulary related to including the Questioning Texts and Analyzing reading skills that students can apply while both Details tools, guide students to focus specically reading and discussing texts. Additionally, many on details they identify in the texts. Visually, they of the Guiding Questions direct students to help students understand the relationships identify and think about key words in the texts. among those details and the connections and Teachers of English Language Learners and below observations they make from the text. grade-level readers are encouraged to use additional vocabulary building strategies such as Reading Teams: Students are given chances to Word Walls, whereby students can visually read both in groups and individually. Teachers can reference the meaning of key words in the group students in various ways, sometimes by classroom as they read and discuss texts. reading abilities, sometimes by interests or target text, sometimes heterogeneously to pair less able readers with more advanced readers. By reading in teams, students practice talking about texts in a structured supported context.

SOURCES OF THIS UNIT INSTRUCTION

The instructional ideas contained in this unit are we would like to acknowledge some important presented as our contribution to the national in

OD LL DUCATION Page 6 HOW THIS UNIT ALIGNS WITH CCSS FOR ELA/LITERACY The instructional focus of this unit is on learning As students develop these primary targeted CCSS to read text closely: attending to details, skill sets, they also practice and use related language, and perspective; posing and reading and writing skills from supporting CCSS. responding to text-dependent questions; and Thus, in Part 2, they begin to focus on RI.4 analyzing connections and relationships to (interpret words and phrases as they are used in a deepen understanding. The unit also emphasizes text ) and in Part 3 on RI.9 (analyze how two or informational text, while incorporating literary more texts address similar themes or topics), with nonction and other literary texts. Accordingly, RI.9 formatively assessed in Part 5. the primary alignment of the unit – the targeted CCSS – are RI.1 , RI.2 , and RI.6 (read closely to Students focus on crafting e5ective evidence- determine literal and inferential meaning, determine based writing, working from titles and central ideas and supporting details, and assess paraphrases to summary sentences and author’s point of view – while attending to and explanatory paragraphs. Thus, W.2 (write citing specic textual evidence ). Students develop explanatory texts to convey ideas and information these skills throughout the unit through direct clearly and accurately ) and W.9 (draw evidence instruction and guided practice, and they are from texts to support analysis ) are also introduced assessed continuously through activities, tools, and practiced in the unit, as is W.4 (produce clear and written products. and coherent writing ).

As students develop these primary targeted Finally, because students are expected to read reading skills, they are also practicing, and and analyze a grade-level text somewhat eventually demonstrating, their abilities to independently in Parts 4 and 5, the unit provides engage in text-centered discussions. Thus, SL.1 initial evidence of how well students can meet the (engage eectively in a range of collaborative expectations of RI.10 (read and comprehend discussions, building on others’ ideas and expressing complex texts independently and prociently ). their own clearly and persuasively ) is also an emerging targeted CCSS as the unit progresses, and is directly assessed in the nal, discussion- based activity of Part 5.

OD LL DUCATION Page 7 HOW TO USE THESE MATERIALS

This unit is in the format of a Compressed File . Files are organized so you can easily browse through the materials and nd everything you need to print or e-mail for each day.

The materials are organized into three folders:

UNIT PLAN AND TEXTS TEXTS are formatted with spacing and • Unit Plan margins to support teacher and • Models student annotation . Students should • Texts be encouraged to mark up their texts (electronically or in print) as they search The model questions and tools are meant only to for details. Paragraphs and lines are illustrate the process, NOT to shape textual numbered for referencing in writing analysis. It is essential that both teachers and and discussion. Editable glossaries are students develop questions based on their own provided at the bottom of each page. analysis and class discussion . Teachers are While some words have already been encouraged to develop their own questions in bolded and glossed, teachers are the blank tools to use with students when encouraged to use the editable features modeling the process. for choosing words they wish to focus on or gloss, and to di5erentiate word support for their students.

HANDOUTS TOOLS and CHECKLISTS have been • Guiding Questions Handout created as editable PDF forms . With • Reading Closely Checklist the free version of Adobe Reader, • Text-Centered Discussion Checklist students and teachers are able to type in them and save their work for recording and e-mailing. This allows students and teachers to work either with paper and pencil or electronically according to their strengths and needs. TOOLS It also allows teachers to collect and • Analyzing Details organize student work for evaluation • Questioning Texts and formative assessment.

If you decide to PRINT materials, please note that you can print them at actual size , without enabling the auto-t function. All materials can be printed either in color or in black and white.

OD LL DUCATION Page 8 UNIT OUTLINE

PART 1: UNDERSTANDING CLOSE READING • The teacher presents an overview of the unit, • Students use guiding questions to look discussing the purposes and elements of closely for details in a multi-media text and close reading. write a few sentences explaining • Students are oriented to the idea of attending something they have learned. to details through examining images. • Students use guiding questions to • Students use guiding questions to look independently explore a multi-media closely for details in a text. website.

PART 2: QUESTIONING TEXTS PART 3: ANALYZING DETAILS • The teacher models how to use the • Students listen to and then closely read and Questioning Texts Tool to guide a process analyze a new text. for close reading, and then pairs practice on a text they have read. • The teacher guides and supports students • Students listen to a new text and use the in a comparative discussion of the texts. Questioning Texts Tool to guide their reading. • Students develop a comparative question in • The teacher guides the class through an groups and individually write a paragraph analysis of the text using the Analyzing answering their question. Details Tool. • Students develop their own text-specic • Students independently read texts using a questions with which to analyze the text. guiding question. • Students write 1-3 sentences explaining their analysis of the text and list supporting textual details.

PART 4: EXPLAINING UNDERSTANDING PART 5: DISCUSSING IDEAS • The teacher introduces the nal culminating • The teacher leads students in a re

OD LL DUCATION Page 9 READING CLOSELY GRADES 11-12 UNIT TEXTS AUTHOR DATE PUBLISHER L NOTES Text #1: Civil War (Photos) Library of Congress - William M. Smith ; 1861- U.S. Army Center of NA Photos portraying various scenes from the Civil War. Alexander Gardner 1865 Military History Text #2: The Wound Dresser (Letter ) Small, Maynard & Letters from Whitman describing his observations made in the Walt Whitman 1898 1000L Company hospitals around Washington D.C., 1862-1863. Text #3: The Civil War (Video) Short informational video summarizes the violent battle; uses Ken Burns 1990 PBS NA historical paintings and narrative. Text #4: Interactive Civil War (Website) Website contains multiple resources and media History Channel NA History Channel NA related to the Civil War. Text #5: American Civilization (Essay) Ralph Waldo Essay argues for the liberation of slaves based on both 1862 Atlantic Magazine 1210L Emerson humanitarian and militarily strategic grounds. Text #6: The Emancipation Proclamation (Essay) Dr. James A. Essay provides a rich analysis of Lincoln’s proclamation arguing it 2012 Dalton Daily Citizen 1330L Burran helped the North win the war and eventually liberate the slaves. Text #7: Sullivan Ballou to Sarah Ballou (Letter) Letter details Ballou’s willingness give up all he loves Sullivan Ballou 1861 NA 1250L for the cause of the Union. Text #8: Letter to Franklin Pierce (Letter) Letter describes Davis’ feelings & support for Mississippi’s secession Je8erson Davis 1861 NA 1450L from the Union and the oncoming con:ict with the North. Text #9: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Personal Narrative) 1860- Excerpt of Harriet Jacobs, aka Linda Brent, narrates the decision a Harriet Jacobs New York Tribune 670L 1861 fellow slave makes to risk escape to the North pre-Emancipation. Extended Reading: A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union (Government Doc.)

Journal of the State Declaration establishes Mississippi’s @nancial and political reasons NA 1861 Convention & 1270L Ordinances & Resolutions for seceding from the Union. Extended Reading: The Bonnie Blue Flag (Song) Song describes the South’s resentment towards the North, and Harry Macarthy 1880 NA NA support of States and leaders in the Confederacy. Extended Reading: Emancipation Proclamation (Government Document) Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation declares all slaves free in the rebellious 1862 National Archives 1710L Lincoln states and allows freed slaves to enlist in the Union army. OD LL DUCATION Page 10 PART 1 UNDERSTANDING CLOSE READING “several dead bodies lie near”

Students learn what it means to read a text closely by attending to and OBJECTIVE: analyzing textual details. Students analyze visual-based texts.

ESTIMATED TIME: 3-4 days ACTIVITIES MATERIALS: Texts #1-4 Guiding Questions Handout 1- INTRODUCTION TO UNIT Reading Closely Checklist The teacher presents an overview of the unit, discussing the purposes and elements of close reading. 2- LOOKING CLOSELY FOR DETAILS Students are oriented to the idea of attending to details through examining images. 3- READING CLOSELY FOR DETAILS Students use guiding questions to look closely for details in a text. 4- ATTENDING TO DETAILS IN MULTI-MEDIA Students use guiding questions to look closely for details in a multi-media text and write a few sentences explaining something they have learned. 5- INDEPENDENT READING/RESEARCHING ACTIVITY Students use guiding questions to independently explore a multi-media website.

ALIGNMENT TO CCSS

TARGETED STANDARD(S): RI.11-12.1 RI.11-12.2 RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. RI.11-12.2: Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

SUPPORTING STANDARD(S): RI.11-12.4 RI.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text.

OD LL DUCATION Page 11 ACTIVITY 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNIT

The teacher presents an overview of the unit, discussing the purposes and elements of close reading. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES Introduce the central purpose of the unit – to develop the skills and habits of a close reader: 1) Initially approaching and surveying a text 2) Using questions to examine the text’s topic, information, and structure 3) Questioning further to investigate the text 4) Analyzing key details and language to deepen understanding 5) Explaining what one has come to understand as a reader INTRODUCTORY ANALOGY To introduce the unit and establish a link between questioning, close examination, and deepening understanding, you might use an analogy from another eld that requires careful study and analysis. For example: • Compare the process of “close reading” to the analytical processes used by other experts, such as musicians, scientists, or detectives; • Present a CSI video that demonstrates how a detective asks herself questions when rst approaching a crime scene. Use any of these analogies to illustrate how experts in various elds are able to analyze and understand artistic works, phenomena, places, events or situations because their training focuses them on details that the uninitiated do not typically notice. This training often involves a set of guiding questions that experts ask themselves to direct their attention to key elements of their elds of study. A musician might ask herself, “How do the sounds of the various instruments work together?” A crime scene investigator might ask, “What evidence suggests how the perpetrator came and went from the scene?” These more general questions lead the experts to then ask specic questions directly related to the object of investigation. For example, the general question concerning the perpetrator’s coming and going might lead the investigator to notice a set of muddy footprints. She then might ask, “What are the size and type of the shoes that left these muddy footprints?” Experts ask these questions so that they clearly understand what they are studying and can clearly communicate their understanding to others.

LINK THE ANALOGY TO QUESTIONING SKILLS • Using the introductory analogy as a reference point, explain that e7ective readers also use guiding questions to help them look for evidence in texts. • Introduce the Guiding Questions (GQ) Handout, orienting students to both the structure of the document and the questions in each row, and explaining that these are a general set of guiding questions that can direct their attention to key evidence in texts as they read.

PREVIEW THE TEXTS AND CHECKLISTS • Show students the Text Set Table indicating that there are connections among the texts but do not stipulate what those connections are. • Let them know they will be reading and studying those texts with increasing independence, and will be expected to lead a group discussion about one of the nal three texts. • Introduce the Reading Closely Checklist and the Text-Centered Discussions (TCD) Checklist and

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 2 ACTIVITY 2: LOOKING CLOSELY FOR DETAILS

Students are oriented to the idea of attending to details through examining images. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

TEXTUAL NOTES Introduce students to the set of historical photographs they will study, but provide minimal contextual information, only noting that the photos were taken during the Civil War. If you want digital images, the two photos can be found online, using the links provided in the text set.

(Note: this activity can be done using a printed copy of the visual image(s), a projection in the room, or on computers, allowing students to zoom closer and note specific details.) As a class, brainstorm what students think the visual images show– who, what, where when, etc.

EXAMINE IMAGES IN SMALL GROUPS MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE • Students examine the image(s) in small groups and answer the question “What Guiding Question(s): stands out to me as I examine this image?” 1- What is this text (photo) mainly about? 2- What stands out to me as I first examine this text? • In their groups, students nd several

details that stand out to them, with one

group member serving as a recorder of all Text-specific Question(s): their details. 1- Why are there shadowy lines on the walls? • Groups may consult the GQ Handout for 2- What is the lady holding in her hands? further questions to help them focus on details. NOTE: Throughout the unit Model text-specic questions • Groups discuss what the details suggest to associated with Guiding Questions have been provided in the them and identify any new questions they material. These questions are included to illustrate the process have after examining and discussing the and possibilities; teachers are encouraged to develop their details. own text-specic questions based on their own analysis.

CLASS DISCUSSION & SUMMARIZING ACTIVITY • Lead a discussion on what the groups noticed • Students write a caption that summarizes what about the images and the questions they had they think the image is about and share and • Discuss how these questions are “text-specic” compare their captions/titles, noting the details – questions that: that have led to what they have written. Ω Emerge from looking closely at the image Ω Prompt them to look for more details At this stage, denitive answers do not need to be established for questions students pose. The Ω Lead to a greater understanding of the purpose of the exercise is for students to get a image. sense of how close examination of texts leads to • Students list three details they think are “key” questions which in turn lead to further examination for them in understanding something that is of textual detail, and an ability to communicate going on in one of the images. meaning to others.

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 3 ACTIVITY 3: READING CLOSELY FOR DETAILS

Students use guiding questions to look closely for details in a text.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

TEXTUAL NOTES Text #2 is an excerpt of a collection of letters written by Walt Whitman, who volunteered in military hospitals during the war. His vivid description of hospital scenes provides an interesting starting point for students and it closely relates to the photos they have just studied. The text is short and accessible for most students (1000L), yet uses descriptive language that students can imagine in their minds.

READ TEXT #2 ALOUD • Direct students to the questions listed under “Topic, Information, and Ideas” in the Questioning Texts row of the GQ Handout. • As you read the passage aloud, students think about the question: Ω “What information or ideas does this text present?” • Ask students to record/share their responses to the question, making sure that students refer to the text to support their responses.

INDEPENDENT READING • Before students re-read the passage independently, direct students to the questions listed under “Language” in the Questioning Texts row of the GQ Handout. • Students think about the question: Ω “What words or phrases stand out to me as I read?” • While reading independently, students mark details they notice (electronically or with a pencil/highlighter).

CLASS REVIEW & PARAPHRASING MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE • As a class, students: Guiding Question(s): Ω Compare the details they have noticed 1- What information does the text present? and marked. 2- What is described in detail? 3- What is the author saying about the topic or Ω Discuss what the details suggest to them. theme? Ω Identify any new questions they have after examining and discussing the details. Text-specific Question(s): • Introduce the concept of a “paraphrase,” 1- What details does Whitman provide to and model paraphrasing a sentence from support his observation that the hospital the passage. received "only the worst cases"? (line 4) 2- What does Whitman think about the • Individually, students draft a paraphrase of conditions of the hospitals? one of the details that stood out to them.

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 4 ACTIVITY 4: ATTENDING TO DETAILS IN MULTI-MEDIA

Students use guiding questions to look closely for details in a multi-media text and write a few sentences explaining something they have learned. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

TEXTUAL NOTES

Students will study an 8:27 minute long PBS video entitled “Gettysburg” (see link provided in the text set) that combines historical images and personal accounts (read by re-enactors) to create an overview of a major Civil War battle. The video provides a mixture of imagery and eye-witness accounts rich in details. Links to online sources are provided in the text set.

VIEW THE VIDEO MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING • Students view the video with no additional context provided, SEQUENCE other than what they bring from studying the previous texts. • Students think about a guiding question (i.e. “What Guiding Question(s): information or ideas does this text present?”) as they watch 1-What information does the text the video. present? 2- What do I learn about the topic CLASS DISCUSSION AND RE-VIEW OF VIDEO as I watch and read? • Before re-viewing the video, brie@y discuss students’ initial 3- How do the ideas relate to observations. what I already know? • Use some of students’ observations to craft a specic question about the video to guide the re-view. Alternatively, Text-specific Question(s): additional guiding questions can be used. 1- What information in the video suggests why the Battle of • Students record key details in a two-column notes format. Gettysburg was known as “The Ω Note details sequentially in the rst column of their notes, High Water Mark of the then highlight details they see as important, and explain Rebellion”? (in the second column) why they see those selected details as important.

SMALL GROUPS WRITE ABOUT THE VIDEO • Student small groups discuss the details they • As a class compare what the groups saw, have selected, and their thinking about the including how clearly and accurately they are importance of those details in helping them able to communicate their understanding understand the video. • Re@ect on the “close reading” experience of • Students share their notes and collaboratively watching a video, using the Reading Closely write a few sentences explaining something Checklist to guide the re@ective discussion. they have learned from the video, referring to This re@ective discussion is an opportunity for key details that have led to their students to self-assess their ability to read understanding. closely and identify areas where they can • Volunteers from each group read their improve as a reader over the course of this sentences to the class. unit. OD LL DUCATION Page 1 5 ACTIVITY 5: INDEPENDENT READING/ RESEARCH

Students use guiding questions to independently explore a multi-media website.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES This activity is an optional extension of Part 1 where students can enrich their skills of looking for details with web-based text. It is recommended for students who have access to a computer either as an individual or in groups. Accessing an informational site can not only help students apply close reading skills in the context of Internet research, but also enrich their understanding of the topic and other texts they will encounter in the unit. Students might be expected to develop deeper understanding of a part of the website through close reading and viewing, and to bring details and information they have found back to a small group discussion.

TEXTUAL NOTES MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE A good site to use for this unit is the History Guiding Question(s): Channel’s Interactive Civil War website (see link provided in the text set). This site consists of an interactive tool where 1-What do I learn about the topic as I watch and students can explore various factual aspects read? of the Civil War such as “Who they were,” 2- How do the ideas relate to what I already “How they died,” and “Paying for the war.” know? The site also includes links that cover specific topics more in depth (150 in total) Text-specific Question(s): such as the Battle of Gettysburg, and Robert E. Lee. You can already encourage students 1- What specific details can I bring back to the to make connections between what they group to help them understand more about the observed in the pictures, the Whitman text Civil War? or Gettysburg video.

ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Students’ captions and paraphrases for Texts #1 & 2 can be reviewed to see if they are able to generalize from details, and might provide a pre-assessment of skills before students read and analyze more challenging passages in Parts 2-5. These short, informal writing samples should also be reviewed for evidence that students are able to clearly explain their thinking about the texts they are reading. The re@ective conversation using the Reading Closely Checklist is an opportunity for students to self-assess. Student conversations in small groups, particularly in relation to Text #3 (the video), also can provide rich initial evidence of their emerging thinking, and of the skills related to Text-Centered Discussions that they bring into the unit, since they will be demonstrating those discussion skills in Part 5.

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 6 PART 2 QUESTIONING TEXTS “Emancipation is the demand of civilization”

Students learn to use questions to guide their approach to, reading, and OBJECTIVE: deeper analysis of texts. Students read and analyze informational texts.

ESTIMATED TIME: 3 days ACTIVITIES MATERIALS: Texts #1-5 1- HOW SKILLFUL READERS APPROACH TEXTS Questioning Texts 5PPM Analyzing Details The teacher models how to use the Questioning Texts 5PPM to 5PPM guide a process for close reading, and then pairs practice on a text Reading Closely Checklist they have read. Guiding Questions Handout 2- APPROACHING A NEW TEXT Students listen to a new text and use the Questioning Texts 5PPM to guide their reading. 3- ANALYZING TEXT WITH TEXT-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS The teacher guides the class through an analysis of the text using the Analyzing Details 5PPM. 4- POSING TEXT-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS Students develop their own text-specic questions with which to analyze the text. 5- INDEPENDENT WRITING ACTIVITY Students write 1-3 sentences explaining their analysis of the text and list supporting textual details. ALIGNMENT TO CCSS

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 7 ACTIVITY 1: HOW SKILLFUL READERS APPROACH TEXTS

The teacher models how to use the Questioning Texts 5PPM to guide a process for close reading, and then pairs practice on a text they have read.

QUESTIONING TEXTS 500- The QUESTIONING TEXTS 500- supports students in a process for close reading. The UPPM prompts students to record and organize basic information about a text and to focus on their reading purposes. It provides a place for recording guiding questions to help them read closely for details and text- specific questions they have come to in their reading.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

MODEL THE 500- 500- PRACTICE IN PAIRS Begin by modeling the Questioning • Student pairs continue examining Text #2 with Texts 5PPM, using Text #2: the Questioning Text 5PPM. • Think-aloud and talk through what you record • Have student pairs use a dierent guiding in each Approaching the Text box. question as a lens for examination and come up • Select one or two questions to focus on from with related text-specic questions. the Guiding Questions Handout. • The key skill to work on is having students • Re-read through the text, searching for details frame a good, text-specic question that related to your guiding question. Model emerges after students have used the guiding marking and annotating the text. question to identify important information in the text. • Frame a new, text-specic question that the guiding question draws out of the passage.

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 8 ACTIVITY 2: APPROACHING A NEW TEXT

Students listen to a new text and use the Questioning Texts 5PPM to guide their reading.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES INTRODUCE AND READ TEXT #5 ALOUD Text #5 is a related but more challenging text. Provide minimal context about the passage before students encounter it. First have them listen to a reading of the text, asking them to concentrate on the author’s message, tone, and use of language. TEXTUAL NOTES

The text is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a famous American poet, essayist and abolitionist known for his contribution to Transcendentalism. In his essay “American Civilization,” originally published in the "Atlantic Magazine", Emerson argues for the outright emancipation of slaves in the rebellious states, basing it both on virtue and military strategy. Due to its longer sentences and word choices this selection will prove more difficult than the Whitman text (1210L). It also presents a structured argument which invokes religious tones as well as US history.

STUDENTS USE THE QUESTIONING TEXTS 500- • Students independently complete a Questioning Texts 5PPM – but do not yet record a text- specific question in the last row. • Provide the guiding questions students will use, or have them select questions from the handout • Emphasize questions related to language use and meaning, having students pay attention to and highlight words and phrases that are critical for understanding the passage and may also be less familiar to them. • Focus on academic vocabulary – and its relationship to textual meaning. MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE READ TEXT #5 IN PAIRS Guiding Question(s): • Students look for details related to their guiding question. 1- What words or phrases are • Students work in pairs to come up with text-specic repeated? questions to put in the final row of theQuestioning 2- What ideas stand out to me as I Texts 5PPM. read? • Students share their text-specic questions with the class, 3- What do the author's words discussing and rening them as a class. cause me to see or feel?

OD LL DUCATION Page 1 9 ACTIVITY 3: ANALYZING TEXT WITH TEXT-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

The teacher guides the class through an analysis of the text using the Analyzing Details 5PPM.

ANALYZING DETAILS 500- The ANALYZING DETAILS 500- BMTPTVQQPSUT students in a process for close reading. The UPPM begins with a place to record their self-generated (or teacher-provided) text-specific question that they have come to through a guiding question. The UPPM prompts students to re-read the text marking and annotating details related to their question. Students then review their details and select those most relevant to their question. Students then analyze and make connections among those details to answer their question and deepen their understanding.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

MODEL THE 500- TEXTUAL NOTES • Guide the class through the UPPM identifyingyour Have the students re-read Emerson's reading purpose and using a text-specific question essay, paying particular attention to that emerged from class discussion. TheUPPM can the last two paragraphs' distinct also be used with guiding questionsor with text- voices and appeals. specific questions you provide to students.

• Read and annotate the text actively, marking, highlighting, or @agging details that are related to MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING the reading purpose and question. SEQUENCE • Review the details you have marked, looking for Guiding Question(s): “key” details, words, and phrases that relate to your

reading purpose and question, and that convey or 1- What words and phrases are often support a central idea. repeated? • Record 3 of these key details/phrases from the text 2- How does the author's language in the “Selecting Details” section of the UPPM, show his or her perspective? indicating the source/location in the “reference” section. Text-specific Question(s): • Analyze each detail and record your thinking. • Connect the details by writing a sentence based on 1- What metaphors does Emerson your analysis. use in paragraph 7 and what effect do they have on his argument? • Have students all fill in their own UPPM with the 2- How does Emerson’s tone change information developed as a class. This allows from paragraphs 4 to 5? What words students to get a feel for using the UPPM andprovides signify such a change? them with analysis and models in theirpersonal notebooks.

OD LL DUCATION Page 20 ACTIVITY 4: POSING TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS

Students develop their own text-specic questions with which to analyze the text.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

STUDENTS USE THE ANALYZING DETAILS 500- • Students begin by confirming or revising their text-specific question at the bottom of the Questioning Texts 5PPM for Text #5. (This might be done in small groups.) Ω Some questions may be literal –sca7old students’ e7orts to pose a question that causes them to re-examine textual details and discover something new about the text. • Students transfer their question to the Analyzing Details 5PPM. • Students annotate their texts by highlighting/marking all the details they feel are relevant to their question. • Students select three details to analyze, copying them and referencing them in their UPPM. • Students analyze the details, recording their thinking. • Students connect the details, writing a sentence or two explaining their thinking. • Students share their findings in a group discussion, using their UPPMT to guide theirconversations, and reflect as a group on their process of reading closely, using the Reading Closely Checklist as a framework for reflection.

MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE Guiding Question(s):

1- Who is the intended audience of the text? 2- What do I learn about the topic as I read?

Text-specific Question(s):

1- What specific words and phrases in the text reveal who Emerson is speaking to and trying to persuade? 2- What details in the text seem to most support an argument?

OD LL DUCATION Page 21 ACTIVITY 5: INDEPENDENT WRITING

Students write 1-3 sentences explaining their analysis of the text and list supporting textual details.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES In Part 4 of the unit, students will be developing and practicing the skills of writing a detail-based explanation of a text they have read. In this activity, introduce the idea of what a text-based explanation entails, possibly modeling one for Text #2. Ask students to work from their Analyzing Details 5PPM completed in Activity 4 and to write several clear, coherent, and complete sentences that explain something from their analysis of Text #5, making sure to reference key details they have identified. Connect this writing activity to skills students have been working on with their earlier paraphrasing activities.

ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES

At the end of Part 2, students will have: The primary focus of evaluation at this stage should • Completed a Questioning Texts 5PPM for be on student ability to use questioning to focus Text #2 their annotation and selection of details. Examine student Questioning Texts 5PPM to evaluate the • Completed a Questioning Texts 5PPM for formation of their text-specific questions and their Text #5 relationship to the guiding questions. Examine their • Annotated their texts to highlight details annotated texts and Analyzing Details 5PPM to relatedto their text questioning evaluate the relevance of their selected details and • Completed an Analyzing Texts 5PPM for their recorded thinking and connections. Evaluate Text #5 both as a class and independently the UPPMT for evidence of students’ reading and • Written an explanation of their analysis of the thinking; examine the short written explanations for text, including supporting details their developing writing skills, paying attention to use of evidence and to word choice, punctuation, • Engaged in group and class discussions and grammar.

OD LL DUCATION Page 2 2 PART 3 ANALYZING DETAILS "an important new dimension to the Civil War"

Students learn to analyze textual detail as a key to discovering meaning. OBJECTIVE: Students read, analyze, and compare texts.

ESTIMATED TIME: 3 days ACTIVITIES MATERIALS: Texts #1-6 Questioning Texts 5PPM 1- ANALYZING TEXTUAL DETAIL Analyzing Details 5PPM Students listen to and then closely read and analyze a new text. Reading Closely Checklist 2- ANALYZING DETAILS ACROSS TEXTS Guiding Questions Handout The teacher guides and supports students in a comparative discussion of the texts. 3- EXPLAINING AND COMPARING TEXTS Student groups develop a comparative question and individually write a paragraph using their question. 4- INDEPENDENT READING ACTIVITY Students independently read texts using a guiding question. ALIGNMENT TO CCSS

TARGETED STANDARD(S): RI.11-12.1 RI.11-12.2 RI.11-12.6 RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. RI.11-12.2: Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. RI.11-12.6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. SUPPORTING STANDARD(S): RI.11-12.4 RI.11-12.9 RI.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text. RI.11-12.9: Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features. OD LL DUCATION Page 2 3 ACTIVITY 1: ANALYZING TEXTUAL DETAIL

Students listen to and then closely read and analyze a new text. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES INTRODUCE AND READ TEXTUAL NOTES TEXT #6 ALOUD Students now engage a new text that Text #6, “The Emancipation Proclamation,” is an essay presents a di7erent point of view on the written by Dr. James A. Burran that provides a topic. As before, students listen to the text compelling analysis of the famous pronouncement with no initial context provided other than drafted by Lincoln in late 1862. The text presents what they have already learned from their students the opportunity to analyze an academic text study of previous, related texts. from the perspective of an historian, complete with strong claims, multiple perspectives, background INDEPENDENT READING evidence, and complex sentence structures (1330L). • Students complete the first parts of the Because the essay has many layers, students will have Questioning Texts 5PPM, selecting the chance to analyze how Burran uses transitions and Guiding Questions that relate to the connectors, develops and introduces evidence, and author’s perspective. uses specific techniques like posing a question or contrasting details to advance a claim. Class discussion • Students read the text using their might initially focus on the first three paragraphs, Guiding Questions to focus them on which include a thesis statement and background relevant details they can question information on slavery in the United States. further.

CLASS DISCUSSION MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE • Lead a discussion of the text focusing on diLcult sections and key academic vocabulary. Guiding Question(s):

• Students should draw on details they 1-What information/ideas are presented at the found related to their Guiding beginning of the text? Questions in discussion. 2- Why has the author structured the sentences and • Have students develop text-specic paragraphs this way? questions about key details that 3- What is the author saying about the topic or theme? emerge in discussion.

RE-READING TO ANALYZE DETAILS Text-specific Question(s): • Students work in groups to hone text-specic questions. 1- How does the second sentence in paragraph 1 help organize the rest of the essay? • Students use their question to analyze 2- What purpose does paragraph 2 serve? the text with the Analyzing Details 3- What does the author's use of the word "materially" 5PPM. in line 62 suggest about his perspective of the topic? CLASS DISCUSSION • Discuss the connections students have made in a nal class discussion of Text #6.

OD LL DUCATION Page 2 4 ACTIVITY 2: ANALYZING DETAILS ACROSS TEXTS The teacher guides and supports students in a comparative discussion of the texts. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

CLASS DISCUSSION TEXTUAL NOTES • Students use their notes andUPPMT The two essays provide an interesting comparison in from texts #5 and #6 to discuss how point of view, purpose, and perspective on the each author’s use of language abolition of slavery. Emerson, one of the foremost reflects his or her perspectiveon the abolitionists, concentrates his call for abolition based subject. on what is essentially the “right” thing to do for the • Ask students to present evidence from “human race,” although he does use strategic the text to support their assertions, and reasoning to help persuade his audience as well. to connect their comments to the ideas Burran, on the other hand, is writing 150 years after that others have shared. the Civil War with the perspective of an historian who • Have students take notes and annotate analyzes the basis and eventual consequences of the their text during the conversation, Proclamation, specifically how it was efficacious to capturing what peers say, how their the North in winning the war. Both perspective and ideas are changing, or connections/ voice offer two points of comparison for these texts. di7erences between texts.

MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE

Guiding Question(s): 1- What do the author's words cause me to see or feel? 2- Who is the intended audience of the text?

Text-specific Question(s): 1- Both Emerson and Burran rely on historical narrative to move their essays forward. What specific details do both include in their narratives and how do they differ from one another? 2- Emerson calls for a “courage which dares commit itself to a principle” to abolish slavery, while Burran writes that Lincoln ended slavery to “cripple the Confederate cause by confiscating its human property.” How does the language both authors use reflects their respective points of view on the topic?

ACTIVITY 3: EXPLAINING AND COMPARING TEXTS Student groups develop a comparative question and individually write a paragraph using their question. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS • Students work in groups using their analyses of • Support student groups as they develop their Texts #5 and #6 to come up with a comparative questions. question. OD LL DUCATION Page 2 5 ACTIVITY 3: EXPLAINING AND COMPARING TEXTS (CONT’D) INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES WRITING COMPARATIVE ANALYSES • Students draw from their notes, UPPMT, Ω Organizing their information to clearly and annotated texts, and sentences from earlier logically express their ideas activities to construct a paragraph answering Ω Developing the topic with appropriate their comparative question. Paragraphs should supporting details include: Ω Linking sentences with appropriate Ω The comparative question transitional words and phrases to clarify Ω 1-2 sentences explaining their analysis of relationships and establish coherence Text #5 and key supporting details Ω Using precise language and an academic Ω 1-2 sentences explaining their analysis of (formal) style of writing. Text #6 and key supporting details • In small groups, students read and peer-review Ω 1-2 sentences explaining a connection they their comparative paragraphs have made between the two texts that Ω Prior to submission, an optional revision may answers their comparative question be asked of the students based on peer • Students construct the paragraph by: feedback. Ω Introducing the topic, in this case the • Students submit paragraphs and their comparison made between the texts supporting materials.

ACTIVITY 4: INDEPENDENT READING

Students independently read texts using a guiding question. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES This reading, which sets up Parts 4 and 5 of the unit, can be done as homework or in class, with more or less sca7olding depending on how students have been doing in previous reading experiences. On their own, students read Texts # 7, 8, & 9 - topic-related texts all written in a similar genre/mode, using Guiding Questions to set up a Questioning Texts 5PPM. At this point, students do not need to study any of the three texts, rather simply be familiar with them, so they can prepare themselves for analyzing one of the texts through close reading in Part 4 and for leading a comparative discussion in Part 5.

ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES

In Part 3, students will have: Use these work samples to both assess how the class • Completed a Questioning Texts 5PPM fortext is doing overall in the skills of close reading, #6 individually and in groups questioning, analyzing details, comparing, and explaining, and to help determine which of the three • Completed an Analyzing Texts 5PPM basedon texts students might be assigned to read and their own text-specific questions analyze for Parts 4 and 5 of the unit. Thus, their • Taken part in a group discussion about paragraphs potentially serve both as formative and connections between texts #5 and #6 diagnostic assessment. As before, student • Written a paragraph explaining their analysis of discussions provide opportunities to “listen in” and Texts #5 and #6 and making connections informally assess their speaking and listening skills, between them. in anticipation of Part 5. OD LL DUCATION Page 2 6 PART 4 EXPLAINING UNDERSTANDING “lay down all my joys in this life”

Students learn how to summarize and explain what they have learned from their reading, OBJECTIVE: questioning, and analysis of texts. Students read and analyze three related texts.

ESTIMATED TIME: 3 days ACTIVITIES MATERIALS: Texts #1-9 1- INTRODUCTION TO CULMINATING ACTIVITY Questioning Texts 5PPM The teacher introduces the nal culminating text-centered writing Analyzing Details 5PPM and comparative discussion. Guiding Questions Handout 2- READING AND DISCUSSING RELATED TEXTS Students listen to three related texts and discuss them as a class. 3- QUESTIONING AND ANALYZING TEXTS INDEPENDENTLY Students select (or are assigned) one of the texts to discuss with a small group and then analyze independently. 4- INDEPENDENT WRITING ACTIVITY Students use their analysis to independently write a detail-based explanation of one of the texts. ALIGNMENT TO CCSS

SUPPORTING STANDARD(S): RI.11-12.10 RI.11-12.4 W.11-12.2 W.11-12.9 RI.11-12.10: By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the highend of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently. RI.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text. W.11-12.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. W.11-12.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. OD LL DUCATION Page 2 7 ACTIVITY 1: INTRODUCTION TO CULMINATING ACTIVITY The teacher introduces the nal culminating text-centered writing and comparative discussion.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES The nal two parts (4 and 5) of the unit are a two-stage culminating activity in which students rst analyze and write about one of three related texts, then lead a comparative discussion about the three texts. In the rst stage, students are introduced to the texts and choose one to read closely with a small, “expert” group. Building on their collaborative close reading, students independently analyze and write about their text. In the second stage of the culminating activity, students return to their small groups to discuss their writing and draft a question that compares their text to the other texts in the unit. Students then “jigsaw” to a new group and use their analysis, writing, and comparative question to facilitate and participate in a structured text-centered discussion with students who have analyzed the other two texts.

The culminating text-centered discussions could be given in an “academic panel” format. In this format, student groups have their discussions in front of the class (and invited community members) to simulate real-world and college panel discussions. See the description at the end of Part 5 for more details.

ACTIVITY 2: READING AND DISCUSSING RELATED TEXTS

Students listen to three related texts and discuss them as a class.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES • Read aloud the texts #7, #8, and #9. Alternatively, strong readers can be asked to read aloud. • Lead a discussion of the students’ rst impressions of the texts, using the Guiding Questions to help facilitate discussion.

TEXTUAL NOTES

The three texts are all personal narratives written by individuals who experienced the Civil War conflict, though in different ways. Sullivan Ballou (1250L) writes of his willingness to sacrifice everything he loves to help preserve the Union, while Jefferson Davis’ (1450L) letter gives a glimpse at his remorse of the necessity to secede from the United States. Finally, Harriet Jacobs gives an account of the difficult choices slaves faced during life before the Emancipation Proclamation. The three pieces all coincide well with the texts in Parts 1-3, offering differing literary styles, points of view, as well as varying degrees of difficulty.

OD LL DUCATION Page 2 8 ACTIVITY 2: READING AND DISCUSSING RELATED TEXTS (CONT’D) INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

TEXTUAL NOTES

------Sullivan Ballou to Sarah Ballou: ------In the first narrative, Union soldier Sullivan Ballou, an attorney from Rhode Island, writes an emotional and coherent letter to his wife stating his determination to fight to keep the “American Civilization” intact, i.e. maintain the Union. The final two paragraphs continue to use strong metaphors and similes to detail Ballou’s intense feelings for his family.

------Letter to Franklin Pierce: ------In the second text, Jefferson Davis, the soon to be President of the Confederate States, writes a letter to ex-President Franklin Pierce explaining the reasons for Mississippi’s secession from the Union. In the first three paragraphs, Davis expresses the difficulty of leaving the Union for which his “Father bled” and contemplates the pre-war relations between North and South, hinting at slavery through subtle language. The language he uses also points to an internal conflict as he fears the prospect of war, yet will respond to the call to duty.

------"Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl": ------Wanting to inform Northerners of the harsh realities of slavery in the South, Jacobs’ account of her experiences offers a critical perspective from a slave around the time of the Civil War. The selected excerpt narrates a conversation between “Ben” (Jacobs concealed the real identity of the characters) who has just fought with his master and has made the difficult decision to flee to the North where “poverty and hardships with freedom” are preferable to slavery. The dialogue provides a departure from the informative texts the students have been reading and is very accessible to students (670L); however, it depicts some of the wrenching decisions slaves went through before the Emancipation Proclamation.

OD LL DUCATION Page 2 9 ACTIVITY 3: QUESTIONING AND ANALYZING TEXTS INDEPENDENTLY

Students select (or are assigned) one of the texts to discuss with a small group and then analyze independently.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES Students may be assigned a text based on their reading comprehension levels, interests, or developing skills (as demonstrated earlier in the unit), or they may be allowed to choose a text following their initial reading and small group discussion of the three. Either way, each student will be responsible for doing a close reading, questioning, analysis, and summary of one of the three related texts.

SMALL GROUP CLOSE READING USING THE QUESTIONING TEXTS 500- • Small “expert” groups read one of the texts collaboratively using the Questioning Texts 5PPM. • Each group member fills in his/her own Questioning Texts 5PPM for their assigned text, andeach develops a separate text-specific question through their discussion.

INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS USING THE ANALYZING DETAILS 500- • Students independently complete an Analyzing Texts 5PPM using a text-specific question (his/her own or one from another group member). • Students might optionally return to their expert groups to discuss their analysis.

MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE Guiding Question(s):

1- What is the author's relationship to the topic or themes? 2- What do the author's words cause me to see or feel? 3- What do I learn about the topic as I read? 4- How is the text organized?

Text-specific Question(s):

------Sullivan Ballou to Sarah Ballou: ------1- What feelings do the images in Ballou’s opening lines evoke? 2- In paragraph 2, Ballou talks about a debt. What details in the text hint at who Ballou is talking about? 3- In line 11, Ballou talks about his love for Sarah. How do these feelings compare to the ones he has for the "Union"? 4- What words and phrases help identify the tone of voice in paragraphs 3 and 4?

OD LL DUCATION Page 30 ACTIVITY 3: QUESTIONING AND ANALYZING TEXTS INDEPENDENTLY (CONT’D)

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

MODEL TEXT QUESTIONING SEQUENCE

Guiding Question(s):

1- What is the author's relationship to the topic or themes? 2- What do the author's words cause me to see or feel? 3- What do I learn about the topic as I read? 4- How is the text organized?

Text-specific Question(s):

------Letter to Franklin Pierce: ------1- What does the phrase “closes my connection with the United States" signal in line 4? 2- What significance does his father’s blood have for Davis’ “troublous time"? 3- How does the way Davis phrases the lines 7 and 8 - "Those who have driven her to this alternative..." - reveal his perspective on the conflict?

------"Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl": ------1- What does Jacobs' description of her mistress’ accusation tell us about her situation? 2- What impact does the use of the word "yolk" in line 23 have on the passage? Where else does Jacobs use metaphor to help describe the situation of the slave? 3- Benjamin says he is going "to the North" in line 20. What textual details provide the reader an understanding of what the North represented to Benjamin?

OD LL DUCATION Page 31 ACTIVITY 4: INDEPENDENT WRITING

Students use their analysis to independently write a detail-based explanation of one of the texts.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES This nal activity of Part 4 serves both as a more formal assessment of each student’s demonstration of the skills focused on in the unit, and as a foundation for their planning in Part 5, where they will lead a discussion comparing their text to others read in the unit. Students will submit this writing exercise as part of their assessment in Part 5.

Students write a multi-paragraph explanation, using textual evidence that explains: Ω A central idea of the text and how it is developed across it Ω What the central idea demonstrates about the author’s perspective on the topic Ω What they have come to understand about the topic from the text.

ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The multi-paragraph explanations students draft in Part 4 should be reviewed closely as evidence of their close reading skills (and, to a lesser extent, as a formative assessment of their explanatory writing skills). At this point, students should be able to:

• Describe accurately central ideas of a text • Explain observations about the author’s perspective • Identify something they have learned from their reading that is clearly text-related • Reference details related to each of these writing purposes.

Students who can do so are ready to lead discussions in Part 5. Students who have not yet been able to read and explain their understanding of their text successfully may need additional support before moving on to Part 5.

OD LL DUCATION Page 3 2 PART 5 DISCUSSING IDEAS “Civil war has only horror for me”

Students learn the characteristics of an e7ective text-based discussion and OBJECTIVE: demonstrate skills in leading and participating in one.

ESTIMATED TIME: 3 days ACTIVITIES MATERIALS: Texts #1-9 1- UNDERSTANDING TEXT-CENTERED DISCUSSIONS Questioning Texts 5PPM The teacher leads students in a re@ective conversation about Analyzing Details 5PPM productive, text-centered discussions. TCD Checklist 2- IDENTIFYING AND ORGANIZING IDEAS Students discuss their analysis in groups and independently prepare for leading a text-centered discussion by crafting a comparative text-dependent question. 3- LEADING A TEXT-CENTERED DISCUSSION Students lead and participate in text-centered discussions with other students who have analyzed di7erent texts.

ALIGNMENT TO CCSS

TARGETED STANDARD(S): SL.11-12.1 SL.11-12.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on- one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

SUPPORTING STANDARD(S): RI.11-12.10 W.11-12.2 W.11-12.4 W.11-12.9 RI.11-12.10: By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the highend of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently. W.11-12.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. W.11-12.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. W.11-12.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

OD LL DUCATION Page 3 3 ACTIVITY 1: UNDERSTANDING TEXT-CENTERED DISCUSSIONS

The teacher leads students in a re@ective conversation about productive, text-centered discussions. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES Throughout the unit, students have informally discussions as examples of when they practiced the skills and behaviors used in text- demonstrated – or didn't demonstrate – the centered discussions without formal instruction criteria. related to Speaking and Listening CCSS SL.1. • Students ll out the checklist, indicating which Now present students with the TCD Checklist, a skills they have demonstrated in small-group framework that outlines those skills. and class activities, noting specic examples in • Read through the Checklist asking students to the “Comments” section. re@ect on their performance for each criterion in • Students identify skills/behaviors they want to the small group discussions throughout the work on in this last part of the unit, as they unit. prepare for and participate in their culminating • Have students refer to specic moments (or text-centered discussions. evidence) from previous small group ACTIVITY 2: IDENTIFYING AND ORGANIZING IDEAS

Students discuss their text explanations in groups and independently prepare for leading a text-centered discussion by crafting a comparative text-dependent question. INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES Students prepare for their culminating demonstration of the unit where they will explain a central idea of their text, identify something they have learned from reading their text (in the context of the other texts of the unit), and pose a comparative text-dependent question to facilitate a text-based discussion. The key to this activity is that each student is encouraged to come up with an individual insight or observation that has sprung from reading and studying texts throughout the unit. For some students, this could be a more literal discovery or comparison, for others an inference supported by the texts, and for others still, an evidence-based claim. Students’ discoveries need to be text-based and connected to a text-dependent question, but do not need to be too carefully structured around a particular theme, idea, or detail. EXPERT GROUP DISCUSSIONS DEVELOP A COMPARITIVE QUESTION • Students review each other’s explanations in INDEPENDENTLY text-based expert groups for accuracy and use • Students independently develop a text- of details and compare the observations/ dependent question that is based in their text discoveries they have made about their but connects it to other texts. common text. • This question will be used to set up discussion • Students discuss their text in relationship to when they join a new group in Activity 3. texts #5 & #6, and to the other texts of the unit. • Depending on student ability, teachers might • Use the Text-Centered Discussion Checklist to choose to model a comparative question and/or help guide their discussion. work individually with some students to help them develop their own. OD LL DUCATION Page 3 4 ACTIVITY 3: LEADING A TEXT-CENTERED DISCUSSION

Students lead and participate in a text-centered discussion with two other students who have analyzed di7erent texts.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES In this activity, students “jigsaw” to groups of three (or alternately six depending on class size) so that each of the nal three texts is represented in the group by at least one text “expert”. In the discussion, each student (or student pair): • Shares their explanations of a central idea of the text: Ω Pointing out key details to the other students in their group Ω Explaining their analysis of the author’s perspective Ω Pointing out key words that indicate the author’s perspective • Once each student has shared his/her analysis, they each take turns posing their comparative question and facilitating the discussion. As they facilitate, they should: Ω Ask the other participants to reference the texts in their comments Ω Share the understanding that has emerged for them, connecting it to and deepening it with comments from the others Ω Direct the group to re-read key portions of the texts to support discussion • Finally, each triad group summarizes its discussion for the class, sharing questions, observations, and key textual details that they have identied and discussed.

OPTIONAL CLASS PRESENTATION OF LEARNING

One way to make the nal small group discussions lead to more of a real-world and college-level task is to use them as preparation for a class presentation of learning. In this exercise, students would develop a presentation to other teachers, community members and parents to share what they have learned about the topic, drawing on their analysis and elding questions from the audience. This approach simulates the types of experiences students will have in college by requiring them to experience a public speaking scenario. Inviting real observers into your classroom will lead to an increase in the depth of student preparation in Parts 4 and 5. It also enhances the focus students give to their text-centered discussion skills as well as work on their formal presentation skills.

OD LL DUCATION Page 3 5 ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The culminating assessment activity of the unit involves participating in and leading a text-centered discussion, through which students can demonstrate both their developing skills of close reading, analysis, and questioning as well as their emerging discussion skills. As such, the activity provides both summative assessment for learning within the unit and pre-/formative assessment to inform instruction in future units. To capture evidence, listen in on group conversations and have students self and peer assess using the TCD Checklist. If more formal evidence is needed, students can compile an optional collection of evidence that includes a re@ective narrative (see below), or you can record video of student conversations and review them later.

OPTIONAL – COLLECTION OF EVIDENCE

To extend assessment within this nal activity, students could compile a collection of evidence that re@ects what they have learned in the unit. The collection could include a: • written explanation of their final focus text with the UPPMT that have informed and supported that analysis • comparative text-dependent question for their discussion group, and some re@ection about what happened when the group discussed their question • self-assessment of skills they have demonstrated as close readers and as group members, using the Reading Closely and TCD Checklists to identify and explain their strengths as well as areas they intend to focus on in further work • personal narrative in which they “tell the story” of what they have experienced, discovered, and learned within the unit, including a re@ective summary of their reading experience for one or more of the texts The student collection of evidence can be used for evaluation of learning in the unit, but will probably be most valuable as a formative assessment to help the teacher, and student, know what to work on in future units.

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