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Lesson 3

We will continue reading Friday Night Lights and focus on the theme of fandom. The second chapter will provide us with insight into the community and its feelings about the football team. We will analyze how the author views this relationship and how he chooses to portray this in the text. We will analyze a specific quote from the text and determine how this quote is representative of the author’s perspective.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of texts by reading Friday Night Lights with the class and participating in a class discussion?

  • Can I identify the claims, reasoning, and evidence Bissinger uses and develop an explanation of his specific perspective about the citizens of Odessa?

  • Can I analyze how Bissinger’s perspective influences the position, purpose, and ideas of a text?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger, Da Capo Press, 1990

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

As a whole class, we will discuss the homework reading. This will lead us into the reading of chapter 2 and analysis of the citizens’ fandom toward the permian football team.

At the end of Chapter 1, Bissinger states, "In just about a week the team would be officially unveiled to the public. And from that moment on, it would become the property of those so desperately devoted to it."

Discuss this quotation, using the following questions from the Section 1 Question Set:

  1. What notes or thoughts did you write down in your Learning Log about this quote?

  2. What is the author suggesting by writing this quote?

  3. What are the key words in this quote?

  4. What feelings are imparted on the players based on the citizens’ emotions?

  5. How does this fit into our original definition of the word fandom?

Activity 2: Discuss

As a class, we will read and study a specific quote from Friday Night Lights to analyze how Bissinger uses word choice to present his perspective to the reader. We will identify the words that Bissinger uses to impart his perspective and how that helps the reader understand his meaning.

Individually, read the following quote from Chapter 1 of Friday Night Lights:

"It made for a unique kind of schizophrenia, the highs of the boom years like a drug-induced euphoria followed by the lows of the bust and the realization that everything you had made during the boom had just been lost, followed again by the euphoria of the boom years, followed again by the depression of another bust, followed by another boom and yet another bust, followed by a special prayer to the Lord, which eventually showed up on bumper stickers of pick-ups in the eighties…"

Discuss this quote as a whole class by answering the following questions:

  1. Why does Bissinger continue to repeat the words boom and bust in this passage from the text? What impact does it have on the meaning and the reader?

  2. What key words does the author use to express the highs of a boom?

  3. What key words express the lows of a bust?

  4. Based on the repetition of the booms and busts, what do you surmise the author thinks about the people of Odessa and their belief in oil?

Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write

We will continue to read the text, moving into chapter 2, and focusing on the concept of fandom.

Begin reading and annotating Chapter 2 through the break on page 47.

As a class, discuss the following text-dependent questions, from the Section 1 Question Set:

  1. Through the first page of Chapter 2, how does Bissinger portray the fans of Permian? What words, phrases, or sentences does he use? Do you see this as a positive or negative description? Why?

  2. Why does Bissinger make the statement about political parties on page 42, Paragraph 3? What is his perspective on the political leanings of Odessa? How do you know?

  3. Look at this quote from page 43: "Mojo football, it helps you survive all this sand, the wind, the heat. I wouldn’t live any other place." Make some inferences from this quote.

  4. What does the idea that selling real estate in Odessa is a "herculean task" say about the city?

  5. How does Ross Perot’s analysis of Odessa and Permian football appear to a nonresident of Odessa? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

  6. Bissinger describes players that play hurt. The people in the book describe this as the character of the city and the team. How else can this be interpreted? How does Bissinger interpret it? How do you know?

Write down key takeaways from the discussion in your Learning Log.

Activity 4: Write

We will complete an exit ticket response to a question to demonstrate our understanding of the reading.

Respond to the following question in your Learning Log to check your understanding.

"There is nothing to replace it. It’s an integral part of what made the community strong. You take it away and it’s almost like you strip the identity of the people."

  1. How does the quotation fit into our definition of fandom?

Activity 5: Read – Write

We will finish reading chapter 2 for homework.

For homework, finish reading and annotating Chapter 2.

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