Language discovering the power to influence tone, mood, style, voice, and

meaning

Standard: Reading Informational Text: 7,8,9 Writing: 1 (Writing Argument)To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions of standard English. At the same time, they must come to appreciate that language is as at least as much a matter of craft as of rules and be able to choose words, syntax, and punctuation to express themselves and achieve particular functions and rhetorical effects. (CCSS, 51)

Featured Skill: Understanding that a reader must use a variety of sources to uncover multiple perspectives on a topic and determine the influence of bias on the audience.Understanding and creating argument writing.

Grade Level: 11

Featured Text Theme and/or Essential Question

Primary Text: NAFTA Preamble “Politics and the English Language”Secondary Text: Articles that reveal multiple viewpoints

on the effectiveness of NAFTA

How does language influence our thoughts?

How can language be used to influence an audience?

Process Activity Instructional Steps

Inst

ruct

ion Modeling

and explaining

the featured grammar

skill

1. Background: Students should, in grades 6-8, learn how to analyze a case where authors present information that conflicts or contradicts each other (RI.6-8.9). In grade 6 students will begin to compare and contrast author’s depiction of events. In grade 7 students will analyze how authors make use of different evidence or different interpretation of facts. Students should be writing increasingly complex arguments as they move from grade 6 through grade 12.

2. In this particular lesson, the teacher will not model the featured skill. Students will engage in a close reading of the NAFTA Preamble. For students to become well acquainted with the text, multiple opportunities to read the selection will be necessary. You may want to use the close reading table tent to provide a visual reminder or cue for students.

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Process Activity Instructional Steps

Prac

tice

in C

onte

xt Reading text and

identifying deliberate use of the featured

skill.

Reading 1: Student reading3. Independently, students will read and annotate the NAFTA

Preamble. Reading 2: Teacher or fluent reader reading4. Teachers may want to read the excerpted section aloud while

being careful not to deliver the speech. Students need to hear all the words pronounced correctly; delivery includes deliberate choices that could begin to rob students of the opportunity to make meaning based on the word choice, word order, and punctuation. Students will want to translate the text. As students gain understanding, they will want to make adjustments to the translation. Help students understand that translation is different from a summary.

Reading 3: Answering questions to engage in the text5. Students will read the NAFTA Preamble a third time. If students

are unable to question the text at this point, they may need questions to guide them through the selection.

6. Students will continue to annotate the preamble and answer questions. (See handout) The questions are intended to promote understanding/comprehension; however, these are not questions that are all necessarily ‘right there’ types of questions. The questions all require students to return to the text and potentially locate additional information to increase understanding.

Analyzing and Evaluating : Rereading to discover7. Students will use the second set of questions to direct their

attention to specific elements of the text. Students will engage in reading an article about NAFTA to determine whether or not the goals set forth in the preamble have been met. Students need to be placed in five groups. In this activity the students should not be made aware that each group has a different article. The articles have been strategically chosen to represent a variety of interpretations of NAFTA.

8. Students will use the NAFTA handout to determine to what degree the article read provides evidence of the goals in the preamble. Students will locate evidence in the article to defend decisions.

9. Include movement for students by creating three corners: met, not met, and no evidence to support. Have students move to an area based on the evidence in the text. Students should start to realize they did not have the same evidence and may not have interpreted the evidence similarly. Allow time for student to debrief and understand analyzing a body of evidence is critical.

10. Students will read “Politics and the English Language” considering what does it say and how does he say it.

11. Students will return to the preamble and article locating language that may be “political speech” and determine how the Language Page 2

Process Activity Instructional Steps

Appl

icatio

nin

Writ

ing

Writing text and

applying the

featured grammar skill in a

deliberate way

Writing: Use the features skill(s)12. Use the skills in a meaningful way. Evaluate the use of the skill

in other works.13. Students will, based on the multiple encounters with the focus

skill, determine the usage.14. Students will choose one of the writing options available.

Exte

nsio

ns a

nd In

terv

entio

ns

Additional Resources

For extension: (Students could be provided options for extension activities) Students can use the Preamble to the Constitution to engage in

a comparison/contrast of the use of language between the two preambles.

Students can create a user’s guide based on the content “Politics and the English Language” and evaluate contemporary speeches, news article, or briefs based on their guide.

Students can choose a political topic and locate a variety of sources that represent multiple perspectives on the topic. Using the information from “Politics and the English Language” and the information gained from sourcing the articles, the student will create a summary of the issues and potential areas of bias. Students will need to include the areas of concern that may remain unresolved.

For Intervention and support: Teachers should review the questions for the excerpt carefully.

The questions are intended to help the students attend to the reading for comprehension. The use of the questions should be determined by the students in the room. If students are able to read and comprehend without questions that direct them line by line, then these supports can be taken away. Always remember that the purpose of the questions is to promote close reading of the selection; the removal of the direct questions should not remove the opportunity to read carefully and closely. The questions should only be reduced or removed once students are equipped with the annotating and close reading skills necessary to question the text naturally. (See the attached handout).

To support students, students should be encouraged to work collaboratively. The first reading should be done by students independently—we want students to have the opportunity to try to find some elements first. Reading aloud is an opportunity for a second reading and to hear all the words pronounced correctly. As students become more intimate with the selection, working collaboratively allows them to build on the ideas of others and negotiate the meaning of particular elements.

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Process Activity Instructional Steps

Potential Confusion

Students tend not to realize that sources may be biased in the representation of information.

Students may not know the purpose of a preamble.

Teacher Notes

Answer keys are not provided. The lessons are intended to create opportunities for students to rely on the text to gain independence in reading complex texts. In this instructional model, the only wrong answers are those that are not well supported or engage in fallacious reasoning.

It is best for teachers to engage in conversations and make instructional decisions with a PLT about this lesson, its content, and student outcomes.

You may have noticed that providing background information is not part of the beginning of the lesson. Within the Language Lessons, students will need to rely upon the words and punctuation to create meaning without the assistance of the teacher or other background building activities prior to the learning experience. As students progress through the activities, they will need information and build the background that we typically provide up front. When students enter the world of college and career, they will need to be equipped with the necessary skills to determine context, question a text, determine the information they will need to know to increase understanding, and know where to locate that information.

Additional Resources

to Consider

NAFTA Articles:http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/1023/Food-safety-From-Mexican-farm-to-Costco-to-your-plate

http://www.cfr.org/economics/naftas-economic-impact/p15790

http://americaneconomicalert.org/view_art.asp?Prod_ID=715

http://www.coha.org/the-failures-of-nafta/

http://www.wright.edu/~tdung/Walmart_in_mexico.html

http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/archives/2004/july/nafta-decade-success

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Text: Preamble Step One: Read the excerpt to yourself and annotate the text.Read the excerpt to yourself. Make note of words, phrases, and punctuation that intrigue you in some way.

Look for irregularities, similarities, contradictions, patterns and unknowns.

Irregularity: I find it peculiar the way the author used this word.Similarity: I am seeing a pattern here: in words, phrasing, or ideas. (Diction and Syntax)Contradictions: I think the author’s ideas may contradict each other.Patterns: I find that a construction is repeated or ideas are repeated.Unknowns: I don’t know what that means. Or I don’t know what that means in this context.

Step Two: In this step your teacher or a classmate will read aloud.Listen carefully to the words being read. If you read a word incorrectly, you may want to make note of that change. Translate each line of the preamble. As you learn more, you will want to adjust your translation. Remember that translating is different from summarizing.

Look for irregularities, similarities, contradictions, patterns and unknowns.

Step Three: In this step, you will be asked to read carefully the NAFTA Preamble. These questions are designed to promote understanding.

1. Who serves as the antecedent for “their” throughout the preamble?

2. What does the word harmonious mean?3. What does catalyst mean?4. What is international cooperation?5. What does distortion mean?6. What does multilateral and bilateral mean?

7. What are intellectual property rights?8. What does the word preceding mean?9. What does safeguard mean?10. What does sustainable mean?11. What does enforcement mean?12. What are basic worker’s rights?

Step Four: Read the Preamble closely to answer these questions1. Work with a group to agree upon a translation of each section.2. How does the use of the word “harmonious” contribute the development of meaning?3. What are “instruments of cooperation”4. Look for repetition of ideas. Consider why these ideas may be replicated.5. Look for statements that require an increase or a decrease. How does the negative or positive

approach to the statement contribute to meaning?After Reading the NAFTA Article

6. Use the preamble and evidence sheet to collect evidence that each area is met, not met, or no evidence is available.

After Reading “Politics and the English Language”7. Evaluate the Preamble for “Political Speech.” Provide an explanation that clearly articulates how

that element has been manipulated through language choice. Consider both diction and syntax.8. Evaluate the NAFTA article for “Political Speech.” Provide an explanation that clearly articulates

how the element has been manipulated through language choice. Consider both diction and syntax.

9. Use the sourcing guide to learn more about the article. Describe how the information about the source informs your interpretation of the information provided. Cite specific evidence from the text to support your analysis.

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Step Five: WritingOption 1: After examining the body of evidence from all five articles, create a claim. Be sure to follow the guidelines of argument writing.Option 2: Choose a topic of choice that allows for multiple viewpoints. Research those perspectives and write two short pieces: each being biased one way or the other. Be sure to follow the guidelines of argument writing.Option 3: Create a visual argument that provides a balanced view of NAFTA.

North American Free Trade Agreement

PREAMBLE

The Government of Canada, the Government of the United Mexican States and the Government of the United States of America, resolved to:

1. STRENGTHEN the special bonds of friendship and cooperation among their nations;

2. CONTRIBUTE to the harmonious development and expansion of world trade and provide a catalyst to broader international

cooperation;

3. CREATE an expanded and secure market for the goods and services produced in their territories;

4. REDUCE distortions to trade;

5. ESTABLISH clear and mutually advantageous rules governing their trade;

6. ENSURE a predictable commercial framework for business planning and investment;

7. BUILD on their respective rights and obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and other multilateral and

bilateral instruments of cooperation;

8. ENHANCE the competitiveness of their firms in global markets;

9. FOSTER creativity and innovation, and promote trade in goods and services that are the subject of intellectual property rights;

10. CREATE new employment opportunities and improve working conditions and living standards in their respective territories;

11. UNDERTAKE each of the preceding in a manner consistent with environmental protection and conservation;

12. PRESERVE their flexibility to safeguard the public welfare;

13. PROMOTE sustainable development;

14. STRENGTHEN the development and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations; and

15. PROTECT, enhance and enforce basic workers' rights;

16. HAVE AGREED as follows:

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NAFTA PreambleDirections: After reading the article, determine whether the article contains evidence that indicates whether or not each element of the NAFTA Preamble has been met or not met. If the article contains information that supports the element being met or not met, provide the textual support in the box next to the element. Some of the elements may not be addressed. If the element is not addressed, you may leave it blank.

Elements from the Preamble: Each box contains an element from the preamble. Consider each element as you read the article.

Met/

Not Met

Textual Support: Include specific evidence from the text that will support that the element is met or that it has not been met

STRENGTHEN the special bonds of friendship and cooperation among their nations;

CONTRIBUTE to the harmonious development and expansion of world trade and provide a catalyst to broader international cooperation;

CREATE an expanded and secure market for the goods and services produced in theirterritories;

REDUCE distortions to trade;

ESTABLISH clear and mutually advantageous rules governing their trade;

ENSURE a predictable commercial framework for business planning and investment;

BUILD on their respective rights and obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and other multilateral and bilateral instruments of cooperation;

ENHANCE the competitiveness of their firms in global markets;

FOSTER creativity and innovation, and promote trade in goods and services that are the subject of intellectual property rights;

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CREATE new employment opportunities and improve working conditions and livingstandards in their respective territories;

UNDERTAKE each of the preceding in a manner consistent with environmental protection and conservation;

PRESERVE their flexibility to safeguard the public welfare;

PROMOTE sustainable development;

STRENGTHEN the development and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations;

PROTECT, enhance and enforce basic workers' rights;

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“Politics and the English Language”

George Orwell

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called PACIFICATION. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called TRANSFER OF POPULATION or RECTIFICATION OF FRONTIERS. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called ELIMINATION OF UNRELIABLE ELEMENTS. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them. Consider for instance some comfortable English professor defending Russian totalitarianism. He cannot say outright, "I believe in killing off your opponents when you can get good results by doing so." Probably, therefore, he will say something like this:

While freely conceding that the Soviet régime exhibits certain features which the humanitarian may be inclined to deplore, we must, I think, agree that a certain curtailment of the right to political opposition is an unavoidable concomitant of transitional periods, and that the rigors which the Russian people have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement.

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What does it say?

How does the author say it?

The inflated style is itself a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics." All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should expect to find–this is a guess which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify–that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years as a result of dictatorship.

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better. The debased language that I have been discussing is in some ways very convenient. Phrases like A NOT UNJUSTIFIABLE ASSUMPTION, LEAVES MUCH TO BE DESIRED, WOULD SERVE NO GOOD PURPOSE, A CONSIDERATION WHICH WE SHOULD DO WELL TO BEAR IN MIND, are a continuous temptation, a packet of aspirins always at one's elbow. Look back through this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against. By this morning's post I have received a pamphlet dealing with conditions in Germany. The author tells me that he "felt impelled" to write it. I open it at random, and here is almost the first sentence that I see: "[The Allies] have an opportunity not only of achieving a radical transformation of Germany's social and political structure in such a way as to avoid a nationalistic reaction in Germany itself, but at the same time of laying the foundations of a cooperative and unified Europe." You see, he "feels impelled" to write–feels, presumably, that he has something new to say–and yet his words, like cavalry horses answering the bugle, group themselves automatically into the familiar dreary pattern. This invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases (LAY THE FOUNDATIONS, ACHIEVE A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION) can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anesthetizes a portion of one's brain.

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I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced an argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words and constructions. So far as the general tone or spirit of a language goes, this may be true, but it is not true in detail. Silly words and expressions have often disappeared, not through any evolutionary process but owing to the conscious action of a minority. Two recent examples were EXPLORE EVERY AVENUE and LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED, which were killed by the jeers of a few journalists. There is a long list of fly-blown metaphors which could similarly be got rid of if enough people would interest themselves in the job; and it should also be possible to laugh the NOT 'UN-' formation out of existence, [Note, below] to reduce the amount of Latin and Greek in the average sentence, to drive out foreign phrases and strayed scientific words, and, in general, to make pretentiousness unfashionable. But all these are minor points. The defense of the English language implies more than this, and perhaps it is best to start by saying what it does NOT imply.

[Note: One can cure oneself of the NOT 'UN-' formation by memorizing this sentence: A NOT UNBLACK DOG WAS CHASING A NOT UNSMALL RABBIT ACROSS A NOT UNGREEN FIELD. (Author's footnote.)]

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To begin with, it has nothing to do with archaism, with the salvaging of obsolete words and turns of speech, or with the setting-up of a "standard-English" which must never be departed from. On the contrary, it is especially concerned with the scrapping of every word or idiom which has outworn its usefulness. It has nothing to do with correct grammar and syntax, which are of no importance so long as one makes one's meaning clear, or with the avoidance of Americanisms, or with having what is called a "good prose style." On the other hand it is not concerned with fake simplicity and the attempt to make written English colloquial. Nor does it even imply in every case preferring the Saxon word to the Latin one, though it does imply using the fewest and shortest words that will cover one's meaning. What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about. In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender them. When you think of a concrete object, you think wordlessly, and then, if you want to describe the thing you have been visualizing, you probably hunt about till you find the exact words that seem to fit it. When you think of something abstract you are more inclined to use words from the start, and unless you make a conscious effort to prevent it, the existing dialect will come rushing in and do the job for you, at the expense of blurring or even changing your meaning. Probably it is better to put off using words as long as possible and get one's meaning as clear as one can through pictures or sensations. Afterwards one can choose–not simply ACCEPT–the phrases that will best cover the meaning, and then switch round and decide what impressions one's words are likely to make on another person. This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally. But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.

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These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable. One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in these five specimens at the beginning of this article.

I have not here been considering the literary use of language, but merely language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought. Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don't know what Fascism is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities as this, but one ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language-and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists–is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase–some JACKBOOT, ACHILLES' HEEL, HOTBED, MELTING POT, ACID TEST, VERITABLE INFERNO or other lump of verbal refuse–into the dustbin where it belongs.

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Analyzing & Constructing Meaning of Historical Documents

Identify the Document Who wrote the document? What do you know about the author(s)? When was the document written?

Analyze the Document What is the author’s purpose? What is the author’s motivation? How reliable is the source? (consider the author’s knowledge &

proximity to the events at the time it was written) What clues help to determine the author’s bias? Is the document authentic and/or is it believable?

Determine the Historical Context What is the audience for whom the document was created? What is the setting/backdrop within which it was created?

Identify the Vital Theme & Narrative of the Document What can be learned from the document?

Indicate the Relationship to Other Documents How is this document related to other primary and secondary sources?

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