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Lesson 2

We will participate in our final jigsaw discussion, focusing on the details explored in our expert groups in the previous lesson. We will read the Epilogue and then analyze the ideas presented by Wilkerson about the long-term impact of the Great Migration on individuals, families, and regions of the United States while synthesizing our understanding of the time period and the lives of Wilkerson’s three focus figures. Finally, we will consider how Wilkerson’s choices about sources, organization, and structure impact our understanding of this complex time in history.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I use connections among details, elements, and effects to make logical deductions about Wilkerson’s perspective, purpose, and meaning in The Warmth of Other Suns?

  • Can I revisit, refine, and revise my understanding, knowledge, and work based on discussions with others and feedback and review by myself and others?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson, Vintage Books, 2010

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will engage in the final jigsaw discussion with our home groups, using and completing the Jigsaw Note-Taking Tool.

Step 1

Each expert (A, B, and C) shares their learning about their assigned focus figures (Ida, George, or Robert) with their groups, using the guiding questions on the Jigsaw Note-Taking Tool to guide the content shared.

  1. Life Prior to Migration: What do you learn about each person’s life prior to their departure from the South? What questions do you have?

  2. Push-and-Pull Factors Influencing the Decision to Leave: What do you learn about the push-and-pull factors influencing each person’s decision? What questions do you have?

  3. Immediate Impacts of Migration: What do you learn about the immediate impact of each person’s migration and about their life away from the South? What questions do you have?

  4. Long-Term Impacts of Migration: What do you learn about the long-term impact of each person’s migration? What questions do you have?

As you share, remember that you might not have content to share for all of the guiding questions during every jigsaw discussion.

As the other experts share, take notes on your Jigsaw Note-Taking Tool and ask questions to help support your understanding of each assigned person.

Step 2

After all experts have taught their home groups about their assigned focus figures, discuss the following question:

  1. How does Wilkerson’s organizational structure help our understanding of the Great Migration over the course of the text?

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will explore the final section of Wilkerson’s text in more detail.

Step 1

Choose a partner from your group. Work with a partner and choose one guiding question to respond to on your Evaluating Ideas Tool:

  1. What are Wilkerson's major claims about the long-term effects of the Great Migration on individuals, families, and regions of the United States?

  2. What are Wilkerson's responses to the rhetorical questions she poses on page 528?

  3. How does she support and develop her positions?

  4. How does she address counterclaims?

  5. What is the impact of Wilkerson's language in this section of the text?

Step 2

In your Vocabulary Journal, write the following word and definition:

  • synthesize: the process of creating a complete and original understanding by pulling together relevant and related background knowledge, connections and inferences across a text or across multiple texts

    • Example: In a synthesis, we combine parts to form a new, cohesive idea.

Discuss the following question with a partner:

  1. What do you think you do when you synthesize?

Step 3

With your partner, use the following sentence structure to create your own sentence to synthesize your understanding about Ida, George, or Robert:

"In their own lives, whatever individual success each migrant found was in part a function of how he or she adapted to the New World and made peace, or not, with the Old." (Wilkerson, p. 531).

Discuss the following question with a partner:

  1. How does the original sentence reflect a synthesis?

Activity 3: Read

We will review some key vocabulary from the epilogue, focusing on important concepts and challenging words, paying attention to their use and meaning in the context in which Wilkerson presents them. We will write down important terms in our Vocabulary Journals so we can refer back to them later in the unit.

Working as a whole class, review the Vocabulary List for the Epilogue. Locate the words as they are used in the text, referencing the provided page number, and consider the following questions for each term:

  1. What does the context suggest Wilkerson means when using the word? What is its connotation, and how does that compare with a dictionary definition?

  2. Why are this word and its meaning important in Wilkerson’s discussion and ideas in this part of the text?

  3. How might I use this word in my own thinking, speaking, and writing?

Write down each key word, with your notes about its meaning and importance, in your Vocabulary Journal.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will deconstruct and analyze mentor sentences from The Warmth of Other Suns, focusing on the structure, style, grammar, and punctuation used by Wilkerson to convey her tone and create mood. We will then use her sentences as models, applying our understanding of the concepts we study and adding to our writing repertoire by mimicking her structure, style, grammar, and punctuation.

Step 1

Work through the following steps for each mentor sentence in Mentor Sentence Handout 6. Follow your teacher’s directions regarding grouping, materials, and which mentor sentences you will analyze.

Step 2

Read the sentence aloud. Unpack any unfamiliar vocabulary using your vocabulary strategies. Then, determine what the sentence is saying, and paraphrase the sentence to convey its meaning based on your initial understanding.

Step 3

Deconstruct the whole into parts. Split the sentence up into parts as directed by your teacher; sometimes your teacher will give you the parts, and sometimes you will have to split the sentence on your own. Complete the following for each part:

  • Determine the parts of speech and function.

  • Note other observations about the part, such as examples of effective diction or changes in verb tense or point of view.

Step 4

Follow along as your teacher reviews the relevant grammatical terms and concepts of specific phrases and clauses, punctuation, syntax, mood, and tone.

Step 5

Analyze the concepts. Review, discuss, and revise your deconstruction notes. Then, respond to the following questions:

  1. Which parts make up the main clause? The main clause is the main subject and predicate that expresses the central idea of the sentence. Write down the sentence, underlining the main clause.

  2. How do the other parts of the sentence (e.g., phrases, clauses, modifiers) enhance the main clause?

  3. How could you restructure this sentence so that it relays the same message to the reader? What is the impact of the different structures on your understanding?

  4. What revisions need to be made to your initial paraphrasing now that you have increased your understanding of the sentence?

Step 6

Analyze mood, tone, and meaning. Discuss the following questions:

  1. What mood does Wilkerson create in this sentence? How does she create it?

  2. What tone is conveyed by Wilkerson in this sentence? How is that tone conveyed?

  3. What does this sentence contribute to Wilkerson’s ideas in the book? How does it expand our understanding of the Great Migration?

Step 7

Follow your teacher’s directions about choosing one or two mentor sentences to mimic. Use your deconstruction analysis of your chosen sentences to write your own, mimicking what the author does in terms of structure, style, grammar, and punctuation. The specific content of your sentences is your choice. Be prepared to share your sentences with your peers.

Activity 5: Read

We will continue to track Wilkerson’s structure and sources in part 5 and the epilogue using the Structure Note-Taking Tool.

Continue working with your partner and respond to Part 5 of your Structure Note-Taking Tool. Use your quick-writes from the end of the previous lesson as well as your Jigsaw Note-Taking Tool notes to help you respond to the guiding questions on the tool. Also, work to label the thread for each section; you might have to create some new labels if none of the previous ones fit.

Establishing Understanding

  1. What knowledge do I gain from this section of the text? (Include page numbers for each note.)

  2. What questions do I still have after reading this section of the text?

Deepening Understanding

  1. How does the organization of the ideas and information in this section of the text enhance my understanding?

  2. What stylistic elements stand out in this section of the text? How does the style enhance my understanding?

  3. What do the organization and style convey about the point of view and purpose of this section of text?

Respond to your focus figure’s text-specific questions on your Part 5 Question Set.

Activity 6: Read

For homework, continue to complete the Structure Note-Taking Tool for part 5 and the epilogue.

For homework, continue to complete the Structure Note-Taking Tool for Part 5 and the epilogue. Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.