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Lesson 5

We will analyze the timeline of the text, learn and apply key terms related to the structure of a text, and complete a close study of the representation of the key person in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas in the timeline within a text?

  • Can I recognize and interpret language and sentence structures to deepen my understanding of key persons in a text?

  • Can I use a variety of strategies (e.g., context clues, word study, and vocabulary resources) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, phrases, and figurative expressions?

Texts

Core

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

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write – Discuss

We will write down the order of the year, key persons, and topics in each chapter and analyze the effect of the timeline.

Examine the text features on the first page of each chapter. In order to visualize the timeline of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, create a chart for each chapter and a column for the year, topics, and key persons in your Learning Log.

See the first entry below:

Chapter: 1 Year: 1951, Persons: H.L., Topics: her exam

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Answer the following guiding questions about the structure of the book to focus your learning:

  1. What do you notice about the timeline? What patterns stand out?

  2. What is the effect of the timeline? What purpose does it serve?

  3. How do the chapters relate to each other? How are they connected?

Share your ideas with your group members and pick one idea to share with the class. During the classroom discussion, add and modify your notes as you deepen your learning.

Update the chart as you read subsequent chapters in the book.

Activity 2: Discuss – Write

We will review terms related to the structure of the text in order to label the opening chapters of the book.

Step 1

In your groups, discuss the terms under “Structure” in the third column of the Author CraftNote-Taking Tool. Think of examples of types of text that commonly use each structure.

Examine the chart you created in Activity 1, label the chapters with the term that best fits each chapter. Above the chart, add any labels that best fit the book as a whole.

Step 2

In a whole-class discussion, discuss the labels you used. Add at least two entries about structure to the Evidence and Analysis column of your Author CraftNote-Taking Tool for Chapters 1-4.

Activity 3: Discuss – Read – Write

We examine how George Gey is represented in the text by using a visual diagram.

Discuss the terms in the Representation of Key Persons section in Column 3 of the Author CraftNote-Taking Tool with your group. Discuss the figure George Gey, answering each of the guiding questions on the tool. Be sure to provide evidence from the text to support your answer.

Add at least one entry to the Evidence and Analysis column regarding Gey’s representation in the book.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write

We will synthesize our notes to deepen our understanding of the central ideas of the text.

Review the four issues you previously identified and discuss how they have been developed in the opening four chapters. Work with your group to craft a summary statement for each issue in the Central Ideas column for Chapters 1-4.

Be prepared to share your summary statements in a class discussion.

Activity 5: Read – Write – Discuss

We will review some key vocabulary from chapters 2–4 that is content-specific or challenging. We will pay attention to word use and meaning in the text’s context. We will write down important terms in our Vocabulary Journal, so that we can refer to them later in the unit.

Step 1

Review the Vocabulary List from Chapters 2-4 of the text. In your group, assign each member a set of words from the list to define. Individually, 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. What strategy did you use to determine the meaning (context, morphology, reference resource)?

  3. How is its meaning important to the text?

You might use the Vocabulary in ContextTool to assist you.

Step 2

Discuss your assigned words with your group.

Write down each group member’s words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal.

Activity 6: Read – Write

For homework, we will read chapters 5–6 in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for homework.

For homework, read and annotate Chapters 5 and 6 in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Respond to the following questions in your Learning Log, citing evidence from the text to support your answers.

Chapter 5

  1. What more do you learn about Henrietta in this chapter?

Chapter 6

  1. What do you learn about Rebecca Skloot in this chapter?

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