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Lesson 4

We will compare the word choice in Friday Night Lights and “Unchecked, Unchallenged and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?” to see how each author uses language to express their perspectives. We will return to reading Friday Night Lights and the analysis of race and socioeconomic status and their impact on high school athletes and the players. We will begin by using what we learned about tone and perspective in the previous lesson to compare how two authors use tone for the same purpose. We will then proceed to read Chapter 6 in Friday Night Lights.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I recognize points of connection among Friday Night Lights and "Unchecked, Unchallenged, and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?” to make logical, objective comparisons?
  • Can I make connections among details and elements to make logical deductions about an author's perspective in Friday Night Lights and "Unchecked, Unchallenged, and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?”

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

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger, Da Capo Press, 1990
  • Unit Reader
    • “Unchecked, Unchallenged and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?,” Ivey DeJesus, PA Media Group LLC, 2014

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write

We will use the information we gathered from our analysis of Friday Night Lights and “Unchecked, Unchallenged And Unabashed: Is Racism In High School Sports Being Tolerated?” to compare how two authors use words and phrases to create a tone that exhibits their respective perspectives.

Step 1

Create a simple T-chart in your Learning Log. Label the left column Friday Night Lights and the right column "Unchecked, Unchallenged and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?"

Using the notes you took in the previous lesson about how DeJesus and Bissinger use words and phrases to create a tone in their writing, identify words and phrases each author uses to develop a tone.

Step 2

Once you have identified five to seven words or phrases each author uses, make a claim about each author’s development of tone in their texts. Use the words or phrases you identified in your claims.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will continue reading Friday Night Lights and analyzing Bissinger’s writing for how he approaches race and high school athletics.

Read and annotate Part 1 of Chapter 6.

Discuss the following text-dependent questions from the Section 2 Question Set in small groups or as a class:

  1. On page 120, the author describes Ivory Christian after making a tackle "as if he were walking down the runway at the Miss America contest… but careful not to show too wide a smile because he had, after all, a reputation for self-restraint to keep up." Why does the author describe Ivory in this way?

  2. Why does Ivory not take the SAT or ACT? Why do you think he is preventing himself from succeeding? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

  3. Does the fact that Ivory attended a segregated school prior to sixth grade impact his outlook on football? Why do you think that? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

  4. Reread Paragraph 2 on page 121. How does Bissinger use the town to discuss race in this paragraph?

  5. On page 122, Bissinger spends a few paragraphs explaining Ivory’s isolation. Why does he explain this trait in such detail?

  6. Bissinger says, "But Ivory’s metamorphosis was total…." What does Bissinger mean? Why is this important?

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will determine the meaning of key words from part 1 of chapter 6.

Determine the meaning of the following words from Part 1 of Chapter 6:

  • ambivalence

  • indoctrinated

  • exhortations

  • vestige

You might use a 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.

Write down the words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning.

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

We will interact with the words we defined to cement our understanding of their meaning.

Work with a partner or group to respond to the vocabulary exercises, as directed by your teacher.

Activity 5: Read

For homework, we will finish reading chapter 6 of Friday Night Lights.

Finish reading Chapter 6 for homework.

Write down new or interesting words in your Vocabulary Journal.

Write down sentences that stand out to you as interesting or that represent a strong example of a particular concept you have learned in your Mentor Sentence Journal.