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Lesson 2

We will begin planning and drafting our Culminating Task essays.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I recognize points of connection among texts, textual elements, and perspectives to make logical, objective comparisons?

  • Can I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of texts and topics, support claims, and develop ideas?

  • Can I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis?

  • Can I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed explanations in my essay?

  • Can I use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, and evidence to support and elaborate on coherent and logical explanations?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will share and discuss our initial thinking regarding how we will respond to the Culminating Task.

With your small group, share your ideas from the previous lesson to help make decisions about your essay’s focus.

Activity 2: Write

We will draft our controlling idea.

Read over your answers to the guiding questions in the previous activity. Look for patterns and connections in the claims you have written about your topic. What do they add up to? Think about how they might lead you to a central claim that responds to the following question:

  1. How does the use of primary and secondary sources affect modern storytelling?

Express your controlling idea about your topic in one to two sentences that can be used to direct and organize your essay. This will be your essay’s controlling idea, an expression of the understanding you have developed by examining your topic.

Read over your answers to the guiding questions in the previous activity again. Rewrite them into supporting claims for your controlling idea. Then, put them in an order that might make sense to help you explain, support, and make a case for your analysis of the topic. This list can become a preliminary plan or outline for your essay.

Activity 3: Write

We will identify and organize supporting evidence.

Now that you have the basic outline of your essay and the central and supporting claims, you will identify and organize your evidence using the Organizing Evidence Tool.

For this section, you will write the central claim in the Central Claim or Thesis row and your supporting claims in the following rows.

After writing your central claim and supporting claims, identify the evidence you will use for each supporting claim. In addition to writing the evidence, you will analyze the evidence to explain how it supports the supporting claim.

Add additional rows or evidence as needed for each supporting claim.

Activity 4: Write

For homework, we will draft the body of our essays.

For homework, draft your body paragraphs. Use what you completed on the Organizing Evidence Tool to write your body paragraphs. Refer to the Organization Reference Guide as needed.

Review your Vocabulary Journal. Identify significant words that you would like to use in your response to the Culminating Task and use them in your draft.

Review your Mentor Sentence Journal. Select techniques that you plan to use when writing your response to the Culminating Task and use them in your draft.