Lesson 3

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, Crown Publishing Group, 2010

Materials

Tools

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Author Craft Note-Taking Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

• Vocabulary in Context Tool

Reference Guides

• Assessing Sources Reference Guide
• Literacy Toolbox Reference Guide
• Style Reference Guide
• Tone Reference Guide

Question Sets

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Author Craft Note-Taking Tool

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Section 1 Question Set

• Vocabulary Journal

• Vocabulary in Context Tool

Activity 1: Listen – Read – Write – Discuss

We will examine “Deborah’s Voice” at the sentence-level to further our study of the introduction of key persons in the text.

Listen and follow along as your teacher or one of your peers reads aloud "Deborah’s Voice."

Now, review your homework annotations for the prologue. Individually, highlight one sentence you previously identified from the prologue and choose one sentence from “Deborah’s Voice” that you think is important to understand the subject. Write the sentence from “Deborah’s Voice” down in your Learning Log. Then, respond to the following questions:

1. What do you notice about the differences in word choice in each sentence? What stands out?

2. What do you notice about the differences in sentence structure in each sentence? What stands out?

3. What do you notice about the differences in the narrators’ attitudes in each sentence? What stands out?

4. What is the overall effect of these two voices? What purpose do they serve?

After you finish, share one of your sentences and responses with your group. Pick one sentence and response to share with the class.

Activity 2: Listen – Write – Discuss

We use the Author Craft Note-Taking Tool to refine our thinking about the beginning of the book.

Review your Learning Log and the notes you have taken so far. Highlight at least four sentences and analyses you think are important in understanding how Rebecca Skloot introduces key persons and issues in the text.

Listen as your teacher walks you through the Author CraftNote-Taking Tool. You will use the tool to refine your annotations and notes from your Learning Log. When you annotate the text and take notes in your Learning Log, you are establishing understanding by gaining knowledge and asking questions about the text. In your Author CraftNote-Taking Tool, you will deepen your understanding by analyzing the effect of the techniques and the development of the central issues of the text.

Copy the sentences you highlighted onto the evidence cell in the first row of the table. Summarize your analysis of the text in the second cell, referring to the Framing Questions above to focus your response. In the last cell, recall the four issues that were introduced in "A Few Words about This Book." In your groups, discuss which of those issues were introduced so far and write a short summary of what you learned in the epigraph, prologue, and “Deborah’s Voice.”

Activity 3: Discuss – Read

We will complete a close analysis of paragraphs in chapter 1 to examine how the author introduces a key person.

Step 1

Discuss the following questions in your group:

1. What is a primary source?

2. What are the purposes of using primary sources in a text?

Be prepared to discuss these answers with the class.

Step 2

Split the following sections among your group: the opening paragraph, the paragraph beginning "Hopkins was one of… " (p. 15), the excerpt from Henrietta’s chart on page 16, and the final two paragraphs. Use the following guiding questions to focus your analysis:

1. What do you notice about the writer’s choice of words? What stands out?

2. What do you notice about the sentence? What stands out?

3. What do you notice about the punctuation of the text? What do you notice about the writer’s attitude toward the subject? Toward the reader?

4. What important details about the topics or important persons are included?

When finished, share your answers with your group and pick one answer to share with the class. During the class discussion, add to and refine your notes as you deepen your understanding of the text.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write

We will review some key vocabulary from the prologue and chapter 1 that is content-specific or challenging. We will pay attention to word use and meaning in the text’s context. We will also write down important terms in our Learning Logs, so that we can refer back to them later in the unit.

For this activity, you will use a Vocabulary Journal, which you will maintain for the entire unit. You might use the Vocabulary in Context Tool for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate.

Working as a whole group, review the vocabulary listed from the prologue and Chapter 1 of the text. Locate the words as they are used in the text, using the provided page number, and consider the following questions for each:

1. What is the meaning of this word?

2. How is its meaning important to the text?

3. What strategy did you use to determine its meaning (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource)?

Write down these words, with notes about their meaning and the vocabulary strategy you used, in your Vocabulary Journal.

Activity 5: Read – Write

For homework, we will read chapter 2 from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

For homework, read and annotate Chapter 2 in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Respond to the following question in your Learning Log, citing evidence from the text to support your answer:

1. What important details do you learn about Henrietta’s childhood in this chapter?

Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.