Writer’s Workshop Unit of Study 7th grade Unit Two: Literary Argumentation Essay

This Writing Workshop is taught in conjunction with the Reading Workshop as a Thematic Unit. Teachers will teach the Priority Standards for Unit Two in both Reading and Writing Workshop using fiction, nonfiction and media texts which connect through the theme of AGAINST ALL ODDS.

This Writing Workshop Unit presents literary analysis as a form of argument. Students will learn how to “sort and sift” through textual evidence in order to develop a claim (thesis) that is unique to their own reading of a text, and to logically explain how the text supports their claim. They will learn how to use direct quotes, paraphrased examples, and the author’s decisions as evidence to support their claim.

The ultimate goal of this Writing Workshop is for students to produce a well-written essay on theme, and in particular, on the theme of “Against All Odds” as illustrated in “new” texts similar to those read during the quarter. To reach this goal, students need to be able to determine the theme(s) in a literary text by first considering the plot/conflicts, character development, and author’s message. To that end, teachers will engage students in Writing Workshop Lessons that teach these elements of literary analysis and ask students to make evidence-based claims about them in writing.

Instructional Sequencing, Scaffolding, and Pacing (for BOTH Reading and Writing Workshop Days):Daily pacing of the unit’s sessions is based on a 55 minute class period. Individual teacher pacing will change based on duration of the class period, student population, familiarity with content, process and/or instructional practices.

Instruction scaffolds through a four-tiered process: 1. Teaching Point (Mini-Lesson/I do): Teacher models the strategy, process, skill, or habit of mind

using a mentor text2. Active Engagement (We do): Students rehears the writing, thinking, and/or critical reading or

viewing just modeled by the teacher.3. Independent Practice (You do): Students complete a mini-task independently or in small

collaborative groups. During independent practice, the teacher confers with individuals or small groups to assess student performance to differentiate the lesson and task.

4. Share: Students share to read, examine, analyze and/or reflect on the range of responses created by other students. Sharing also enable students to self-monitor effective strategy use. The teacher may also share an exemplar to reinforce or enhance the session’s teaching points and student enactment.

Student OutcomesThe literary essay unit is designed to provide students with the vital opportunity of seeing themselves as capable thinkers and decision-makers in the following ways:

Students become more flexible in their writing and thinking as they engage with the text(s) and create claims that can be supported with evidence from the text(s).

They develop a repertoire of strategies for analyzing character development, author’s purpose, craft, and thematic development within and across texts and/or genres.

They practice a variety of writing methods that establish a line of reasoning. They engage with quality, grade-level texts that increase in complexity. They investigate the ways other writers write about complex ideas, synthesize the ideas of others

in order to confirm or disconfirm their theories, and create an argumentative essay.

Unit Two Pre-Assessment/Coldwrite

Directions for Teachers: One class period to read the story, “Scout’s Honor” by Avi One class period to write the essay.

Directions for Students:

Day One/Class Period One:

Read the short story, “Scout’s Honor,” by Avi. As you read, think about the themes in this story. Theme is what the writer wants to convey about life through the literary work. The theme is the ‘big idea’ that expresses what the work is actually about. It’s the life lesson that the character(s) learns through his struggles and conflicts.

Day Two/Class Period Two:

Write an essay, 2-3 paragraphs in length about one of the themes in the short story, “Scout’s Honor,” by Avi. What is one of the life lessons that the character learned in this story? What are the details and examples in the story that show us this?

Your writing will be evaluated on how well you write an essay that: introduces clearly the claim to be proven focuses on the claim throughout the body of the paper presents the claim in an effective, logical structure with appropriate transition words uses evidence from the text to support/prove your claim uses spelling, capitalization and punctuation correctly

Unit Two Post-Assessment/Performance Task (2-4 days):

Students will read a new piece of fiction and/or nonfiction that illustrates the theme of “Against All Odds.” They will take notes and use evidence from the text (s) to write a literary analysis/argument essay.

PLEASE NOTE: THE LITERATURE SELECTIONS FOR THESE LESSONS ARE SUGGESTIONS ONLY. TEACHERS MAY USE SELECTIONS THEY HAVE CHOSEN FOR THE “AGAINST ALL ODDS” UNIT IN PLACE OF THESE TEXTS AND ARE ENCOURAGED TO SHARE GOOD EXAMPLES OF OTHER TEXTS WITH EACH OTHER.

SESSSION ONE:

In this session, students need to be introduced to the concepts of claim, evidence and reasoning as it applies to literary analysis. They need to be taught that a claim is a stance or position, a conclusion the reader/writer has come to and wants other people to think about. They need to understand that writing about a poem or short story or novel is writing an argument because they are making a claim- “Tom Sawyer is a clever boy…” and supporting that claim --“because….”-- with reasons and evidence from the text.

Teaching Point: Literary essayists closely read and analyze texts in order to make evidence-based claims in writing.

Teacher Mini-Lesson: Explain to the students that they will be practicing the skill of making evidence-based claims by

reading closely, analyzing, and then writing about the texts in the Against All Odds Unit during Reading and Writing Workshop.

Review or introduce “claim” – A claim is a position or stance, a conclusion you have come to and you want others to think about. Pick a subject that is familiar to students, such as “school lunches,” and ask them to brainstorm some claim statements they might make about the subject. List their claims on the board. Tell them that a claim, unlike an opinion, must be “supported by specific reasons and evidence you can point to” and use their brainstorming list as a reference.

Show the video of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong to Me” song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw and model making a claim about theme supported by evidence in the video. See graphic organizer. (handout)

Active Engagement: Hand out the lyrics to “You Belong to Me”; individually or in pairs/groups, have students

brainstorm possible themes from the lyrics and record the evidence (examples from the song lyrics) in the graphic organizer.

Have students use their charts to write in their writer’s notebooks about one of the themes from the lyrics. Remind them to use lines from the song. Lower level students might need a model:

I think one of the life lessons in this song, “You Belong To Me” by Taylor Swift is that sometimes our true love is standing right in front of us and we don’t even see him or her. For example, the girl in the song sings the lines “if you could see that I'm the one who understands you/Been here all along, so why can't you see?” She wants the boy to know that she has always been there for him and always loved him, but he doesn’t see her that way. Even though she hangs out with him every day and spends all her time with him, the boy doesn’t realize that she could be his true love.

****Interestingly, the video shows the girl changing her looks to get the boy, but the song lyrics do not suggest that she ever gets him to fall for her. This could be a great comparison/contrast “teachable moment” as part of your discussion!

Independent Practice: Direct students to take out their independent reading or selected text and their readers’

notebooks. Ask them to brainstorm three-four claims that they can make about a theme in their text –

conclusions they have come to thus far in their reading- and put these in their notebooks.

Share: Ask a few students to share their claims about theme. Ask them for the evidence from the book (independent reading or selected text) to support their claims.

Homework/Extension: Have students complete a graphic organizer for their independent reading that shows the evidence to support their claims

Making a Claim…Finding the Evidence

Claims about themes in “You Belong to Me”

Evidence from the video

Evidence from the lyrics Elaboration/explanation of how this supports ideas or argument claim

The theme is “Relationships don’t always work out the way a person wants them to work out.”

The girl in the video wants the boy to be her boy-friend but he is in love with a cheerleader.

The girl in the video wants a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship with the boy but he only wants to be friends with her.

The theme is “Some people think they have to change who they are to be loved by someone else.** “

**in the video the girl changes her looks and then the boy notices her

**not in the lyrics The girl in the video is tomboyish and wears simple clothes, but when she puts on makeup and a short skirt so she looks like the cheerleaders, the boy notices her.

You belong to MeBy Taylor Swift

You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upsetShe's going off about something that you said'Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do

I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday nightI'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't likeAnd she'll never know your story like I do

But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirtsShe's Cheer Captain and I'm on the bleachersDreaming about the day when you wake up and findThat what you're looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands youBeen here all along, so why can't you see?You, you belong with me, you belong with me

Walking the streets with you and your worn-out jeansI can't help thinking this is how it ought to beLaughing on a park bench, thinking to myselfHey, isn't this easy?

And you've got a smile that could light up this whole townI haven't seen it in a while since she brought you downYou say you're fine, I know you better than thatHey, what ya doing with a girl like that?

She wears high heels, I wear sneakersShe's Cheer Captain and I'm on the bleachers

Dreaming about the day when you wake up and findThat what you're looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands youBeen here all along, so why can't you see?You belong with me

Standing by and waiting at your back doorAll this time how could you not know?Baby, you belong with me, you belong with me

Oh, I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the nightI'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're 'bout to cryAnd I know your favorite songs and you tell me 'bout your dreamsThink I know where you belong, think I know it's with me

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you?Been here all along, so why can't you see?You belong with me

Standing by and waiting at your back doorAll this time, how could you not know?Baby, you belong with me, you belong with me

You belong with meHave you ever thought just maybeYou belong with me?You belong with me

SESSION TWO: Repeat SESSION ONE lesson using poetry to help students continue to make claims based on evidence in the text.

Teaching Point: Literary essayists closely read and analyze texts in order to make evidence-based claims in writing.

Teacher Mini-Lesson: Explain that today we will be practicing the same skill of making evidence-based claims about a

text that we did with the song video and lyrics, but this time we will be looking at poetry. Remind them that just like songs have themes (for example, relationships don’t always work out

the way we want them to), so do poems. The theme of a poem is the poet’s message to the readers.

Read aloud the poem “This Morning” and model making claims about possible themes in this poem. Annotate the poem, showing the students how you look at the words that are repeated, the figurative language, and the imagery to help you determine the themes in this poem. Complete the graphic organizer.

Active Engagement: Hand out the second poem by Tupac Shakur, “A Rose that Grew From the Concrete.” In pairs or

groups, have students annotate and brainstorm possible claims about themes in this poem, filling in the graphic organizer.

Have students use their charts to write about the poem in their writer’s notebook. Remind them to use evidence /lines from the poem to support their claims. You can share this model from the Lucille Clifton poem you looked at together if you wish:

The message in the poem, “This Morning,” by Lucille Clifton, is that people should accept themselves and be proud of who they are. For example, the lines “a bright jungle girl shining ” shows that the speaker is proud of who she is because the words “bright” and “shining” are complimentary. When she says, "All day long, I have been a black bell ringing,” the speaker is describing how she is like a bell that rings out because she is not afraid to speak her mind. She says “I survive, I survive” because she is strong and able to face any challenges in her day because of her self-confidence.

Independent Practice: Give students three poems to choose from. (Handout has three suggested poems) Ask them to repeat the steps we have done together: Read and annotate, make claims about

possible themes, and write about the theme in their writer’s notebook

Share: Ask a few students to share their writing about the poem they have chosen.

NOTE: If you want to extend this lesson on poetry and theme, there’s a Prezi lesson on the Tupac Shakur poem at :http://prezi.com/gp5mauuhmdkt/soapstone/ using the Advanced Placement SOAPTSTONE technique.

A Rose that Grew From the Concrete

by Tupac Shakur

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.

Lucille Clifton

This Morning

this morning this morning i met myself coming in

a bright jungle girl shining quick as a snake a tall tree girl a me girl i met myself this morning coming in

and all day i have been a black bell ringing i survive survive!

Making a Claim…Finding the Evidence

Claims about themes in “This Morning” by Lucille Clifton

Evidence: lines or paraphrase

Elaboration/explanation of how this supports ideas or argument claim

The theme is “Accept yourself and be proud.”

“a bright jungle girl shining”

i have been a black bell ringing i survive survive!

Bright and shining are words that show how proud the narrator is of herself.

The narrator describes herself as a black bell ringing to compare herself to a black bell that is black like her and rings out for everyone to hear.

“I survive” means she can survive anything as long as she is herself.

Claims about themes in “A Rose that Grew from the Concrete” by Tupac Shakur.

Evidence: lines or paraphrase

Elaboration/explanation of how this supports ideas or argument claim

Poems for Independent Practic

Dream Variationsby Langston Hughes

To fling my arms wideIn some place of the sun,To whirl and to danceTill the white day is done.Then rest at cool eveningBeneath a tall treeWhile night comes on gently, Dark like me—That is my dream!

To fling my arms wideIn the face of the sun,Dance! Whirl! Whirl!Till the quick day is done.Rest at pale evening . . .A tall, slim tree . . .Night coming tenderly Black like me.

Sympathy

I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first bud opes, And the faint perfume from its chalice steals-- I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would be on the bough a-swing; And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars And they pulse again with a keener sting-- I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,-- When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,

But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings-- I know why the caged bird sings!

Paul Laurence Dunbar

If

If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you;If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too:If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same:.If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginnings,And never breathe a word about your loss:If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,If all men count with you, but none too much:If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll.I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

SESSION THREE: This is the first of two sessions related to re-reading a text to collect evidence. These two sessions should follow Reading Workshop Day (s) when students have read a short story or are reading a novel related to the theme of “Against All Odds,” and have been taught lessons about PLOT/CONFLICT and how significant moments or events in a story or novel help us understand the themes of the text. Having read the story during Reading Workshop, students will now re-read the story to collect evidence to support their claims about possible themes in the story that come from understanding plot/conflict.

NOTE: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-themes Here’s a middle school lesson from the TEACHING CHANNEL that teaches students to create new themes…we watched this last year during our District PLT.

Teaching Point: Literary essayists read and re-read to find examples from the text that serve as evidence for their claims. Sometimes, after re-reading, literary essayists may change their claims based on the further evidence they identify and connect.

Teacher Mini-Lesson: Talk to the students about the short story they read for their pre-assessment, “Scout’s Honor,” by

Avi. Ask them what they wrote about-what were the life lessons (themes) in this story and how they decided on these themes. Explain that one of the life lessons you thought this story was about was that “there are different definitions for the term “tough,” but that this theme seemed rather general to you, and you wanted to go back and look for evidence in the short story that would help you make your claim/thesis more specific.

Give the students the handout “Collecting Evidence” and explain that there are many kinds of evidence to collect in a story when we are looking for the themes, and that one kind of evidence comes from the plot development. When we look at the conflict in a story and the significant events (rising action, etc.) in the story, then we can determine what the life lesson is in the text.

Active Engagement: Show students your handout “Collecting Evidence” and explain how you re-read “Scout’s Honor”

to determine the conflicts and the significant story moments and filled in the graphic organizer. Explain how you were then able to come up with a more specific claim about the story.

Independent Practice: Using the story they read for Reading Workshop, or their novel, have students collect evidence

about plot that shows the conflict and the significant events. If they are keeping a double entry journal on their novels, this would be the time to work on these entries by finding examples of significant events and conflict and recording these in their journals/writer’s notebook. **Note: students will probably need another day to work on collecting evidence from their stories or novels.

Share: Ask a few students to share the evidence they are finding about the themes in their texts.

Collecting Evidence

Text Title: ____________________________________________________________________________

Claim/Thesis: “There are different definitions for the term “tough,”

Conflict: Man Vs. Himself: Wanting to be tough/not thinking he is tough enough Man Vs. Man: Wanting to be tougher than his two friends

EvidenceQuote or paraphrase

Page number

Elaboration/explanation of how this evidence supports ideas or argument

“Back in 1946, when I was 9, I worried that I wasn’t tough enough.”

1 The narrator doesn’t believe he’s tough.

“One of the reasons for my wanting to be tougher was feeling that Horse was a lot tougher than I was, and that Max was a little tougher.”

The narrator thinks his two best friends are tougher than he is

Significant Events/Moments in the Story : Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution

EvidenceQuote or paraphrase

Page number

Elaboration/explanation of how this evidence supports ideas or argument

The narrator has to go on an overnight camping trip in order to move up in rank in the Boy Scouts.

The narrator thinks if he goes on an overnight camping trip, he will prove to himself that he is tough.

The narrator asks his friends to go with him on the camping trip.

The narrator believes if he shows his friends how good he is at camping, he will be tougher than they are.

When they get to the bridge, the boys are afraid to go over it, but the narrator, even though he is terrified, leads the way.

The narrator is being braver (tougher) than his friends in this part of the story even though he is still afraid inside.

They make it to the “woods” but it starts to rain and they are cold and wet and starving. The narrator tells his friends, let’s go home.

The narrator feels like he has failed miserably at being tough.

Max and Horse tell the narrator that he was the toughest of the three because he told the truth about wanting to go home.

The narrator realizes that being honest about how you feel makes you “tough”

Theme: What do these conflicts and major events in the story tell us about being tough?

Even though the narrator doesn’t think he is tough, he really is because he keeps going even when he wants to quit at the beginning of the story, and this makes him a leader to the other boys.

At the end, the narrator is brave enough to admit that he wants to go home when his friends will not, and this makes his the toughest of the three.

Being tough doesn’t always mean being bigger and stronger; sometimes, being tough means being honest and staying true to yourself.

Collecting Evidence

Text Title: ____________________________________________________________________________

Claim/Thesis:

Conflict:

EvidenceQuote or paraphrase

Page number

Elaboration/explanation of how this evidence supports ideas or argument

Significant Events/Moments in the Story : Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution

EvidenceQuote or paraphrase

Page number

Elaboration/explanation of how this evidence supports ideas or argument

SESSION FOUR: COLLECTING EVIDENCE (See Session Three)

SESSION FIVE: In this session, students will use the evidence they have collected during Sessions Three and Four to write a short paper using the AP model for literary analysis. Students will need to be guided through the process of creating an outline and then writing the paper.

Teaching Point: Literary essayists create argumentative paragraphs by outlining their ideas using topic sentences, concrete details, and commentary.

Teacher Mini-Lesson: Explain that today students are going to learn a method of writing about literature that is used by

AP students in the 12th grade (that should make them feel smart!) and that the first step is to outline their evidence so that they have a plan for writing.

Give them the outline and teach the terms on the sheet: topic sentence, concrete detail, and commentary. (See additional handout)

Model for them using the Avi materials collected during Session Three:

TOPIC SENTENCE/CLAIM/THESIS: In the short story, “Scout’s Honor,” the narrator learns that being tough doesn’t always mean being bigger and stronger; sometimes, being tough means being honest and staying true to yourself.

CONCRETE DETAIL (paraphrased example from the plot): The first time he realizes he is tougher than he thinks he is occurs when he and his friends have to cross a bridge and they are all scared.

COMMENTARY: The narrator is the one who leads the way.

COMMENTARY: He is afraid, but he is tough because he is the first to cross the bridge.

CONCRETE DETAIL (second paraphrased example from the plot): The second time the narrator realizes he is tough even though he isn’t as big or as strong as his friends is when he tells his friends he wants to go home.

COMMENTARY: The narrator tells his friends the truth, and his friends tell him that he is tougher than they are because he is not afraid to tell the truth.

CONCLUDING SENTENCE: By being honest and staying true to himself, the narrator discovers that he really is tougher than he thinks.

Active Engagement: Give the students a blank outline and have them work with a partner or independently to fill it out

using the evidence they collected for their text (either the short story or the novel they read) during Session Four. (They may need additional guidance from you on this part).

Independent Practice: If time allows, ask students to take their outlines and write their paragraphs from their outlines.

Students should find that they once they fill out the outline, they have basically written their paper! If time does not allow for students to complete the paragraph during this session, ask them to do

it for homework or use 10-15 minutes of the next day to have them write the paragraph in their notebooks. DO NOT ASK STUDENTS TO WRITE A POLISHED FINAL DRAFT; THIS IS A

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO SEE HOW THEY ARE DOING AS THEY PROGRESS THROUGH THE WRITER’S WORKSHOP.

Share: Ask several students to share the evidence they are putting on their outlines.

Writing in Response to a Text

Terms:

Paragraph: Topic Sentence + Concrete Details + Commentary

Topic Sentence: Sentence which tells what the paragraph is going to be about/topic/claim

Concrete Detail: a paraphrased example from the story, a fact, a quote from the source

Commentary: Opinion/comments made by the writer to elaborate, explain, expand on the

concrete detail and the topic sentence of the paragraph. The commentary is always

about the concrete detail presented in the previous sentence.

Example:

Topic Sentence: In the poem “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes, the speaker is a

mother who is urging her son not to give up on life. The poem begins with “Well, son, I’ll

tell you:/Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” The mother is telling her son that her life, her

climb up the “ladder of life,” has been difficult. She says it “aint been no crystal stair,” meaning

she hasn’t been climbing a beautiful staircase made of shining gems; she’s had a rough climb.

The mother then tells her son, “So boy, don’t you turn back./Don’t you set down on the steps.”

She is encouraging her son to keep going, to keep climbing his ladder of life. The mother doesn’t

want her son to give up, or “set down on the steps.”

Your turn:

Topic Sentence: ________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Concrete Detail: ________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Concrete Detail: ________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: __________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

SESSION SIX: This session should follow a Reading Workshop Day when students have been taught that one can discover the themes in a story by thinking about the MAIN CHARACTER. Having read the story during Reading Workshop, students will now re-read the story to collect evidence to support their claims about possible themes in the story that come from understanding CHARACTER.

Teaching Point: Literary essayists closely read and analyze texts in order to make evidence-based claims in writing.

Teacher Mini-Lesson: Remind students of the lessons they have completed on finding themes in stories by examining

conflicts and significant moments. Tell them that today they are going to work on finding evidence in the text about the main character that helps them support their claims about the themes in a literary text.

Display the story chart handout and explain: “Whenever I read fiction, I look for what the character is like and what the character does to solve a problem.” Discuss how to find out what a character is like: what he says, what he does, what the author/others say about him. Then say “I think about what the character does to solve the problem, then ask myself, What did the character learn? What else does the author say about people or life? This helps me figure out the story’s main idea or theme.

Summarize a familiar story and complete the story chart handout as part of your mini-lesson.

Active Engagement: Have students pair up and choose a favorite or familiar character from a story they’ve both read.

Have them fill out the graphic organizer and identify the character’s traits, problems and actions. Then have them answer the questions and identify possible themes in the story.

Independent Practice: Have students create a graphic organizer in their Writer’s Notebook and use their independent

novel/class novel to fill it out. Have students write a paragraph about one of the themes in their independent novel/class novel

based on the work they did on the main character.

Example paragraph:

“Never be afraid to start over” is an important life lesson that the main character Esperanza learns in the book Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan. A rich girl living like a queen, Esperanza is her father’s pride and glory. She is used to having people take care of her. She is waited on hand and foot by her Papa’s servants. When her Papa is killed by bandits, however, Esperanza has to learn how to fend for herself. She must rely on her own hard work and effort to survive. She perseveres, and is eventually able to have a new life of happiness and success.

Share: Call on students to share their paragraphs on theme.

Character and Theme

Main Character

Appearance:

Traits and feelings:

Dialogue:

Character’s Problem(s) and Actions

THEME

What does the character learn? What else does the author say about people or life? What is the story’s theme(s)?

SESSION SEVEN: This is the first of two sessions** in which students will continue practicing the skill of making evidence-based claims about a text by reading closely a nonfiction article and gathering evidence to support their argument/claims.

**Reading and taking notes from the Reader’s Digest Article and then writing about the article will probably take two days

Teaching Point: Literary essayists closely read and analyze texts in order to make evidence-based claims in writing.

Teacher Mini-Lesson: Explain that today they are going to practice making evidence-based claims about themes in

nonfiction in the same way that they have done so with song, poetry, and short stories /novels. Tell them you are going to read a nonfiction article to them about a man who survived a terrible attack, and then they are going to re-read the story, make a claim about the lessons learned by the main character, and support their claim about the theme in their writer’s notebook.

Read the Reader’s Digest Story to them. Brainstorm with the students ways to write the claim about the themes in this article.

Possible themes:

One of the themes in this article is “surviving the unthinkable,” for that is what Joshua Miele has done.

“Against the odds” is a major theme in the story of Joshua Miele’s life

Active Engagement: Handout the graphic organizer and have students write the theme they created in the first box. In pairs or groups, have the students re-read the article and take notes on the significant

moments (quotes or paraphrased information) that illustrate their theme. When they are finished, discuss with them whether they need to change their claim based on

their re-reading. Do they have a clearer idea or more specific theme? If so, then they will need to change their claim. Help them “polish” their claims.

http://www.rd.com/true-stories/inspiring/joshua-miele-inspiration-from-an-unthinkable-crime/3/

Independent Practice: Have students take their notes and write about this story in their Writer’s Notebook. Ask them to

use the same format as they used when writing about the short story: Topic Sentence/Concrete Detail/Commentary/Commentary. (Give them the outline to complete if you think they need this scaffolding).

Share: Ask several students to share their notes from their graphic organizer.

Finding the Evidence

Claims about themes in “Joshua Miele: Inspiration from an Unthinkable Crime”

Evidence: lines or paraphrase

Elaboration/explanation of how this supports ideas or argument claim

Bright and shining are words that show how proud the narrator is of herself.

The narrator describes herself as a black bell ringing to compare herself to a black bell that is black like her and rings out for everyone to hear.

“I survive” means she can survive anything as long as she is herself.

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SESSIONS 9-12: In these last four-five sessions, students will create a final literary argumentation essay by participating in the writing process:

Reading/re-reading a story to collect evidence and identify a claim Completing an outline Writing a rough draft Peer editing Writing a final draft

Students should be allowed to choose a story or nonfiction article (or both, if you think your students can do a synthesis essay) that illustrates the theme of “Against the Odds.” They may use their independent reading selection, something they read last year/last grading period; a new story that they find (in their textbooks, perhaps, or online) and/or a nonfiction article that they find (in their textbooks or online).

SESSION 9: Reading/re-reading to Collect Evidence and identify a claim (Use handouts from previous writing workshops)

SESSION 10: Complete an Outline using the AP model: Topic / Concrete Detail Commentary/Commentary

Note: Sessions 9 and 10 may be able to be combined depending on your students

SESSION 11: Teach Effective Introductions and Conclusions for Literary Argumentation Essays: hook, leaving the reader with something to think about, etc. **Be sure they know to include the title and author of their stories/articles in their introduction

SESSION 12: Rough Draft

SESSION 13: Peer Editing (optional)

SESSION 14: Final Draft