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Lesson 10

We will determine Anna Quindlen’s central ideas and trace how they are developed throughout the text through her use of contrasting language. We will complete the Evaluating Ideas Tool in pairs or small groups.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I evaluate the effects of literary and rhetorical devices in “A Quilt of a Country”?

  • Can I determine the central ideas of “A Quilt of a Country” and analyze how they are developed?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “A Quilt of a Country,” Anna Quindlen, Newsweek, 2001

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write

We will respond to the following question: how does the author’s use of contrasting language help her create her central claims?

Step 1

What do you notice happening in the following quotes?

  • “Out of many, one. That amid all the failures is something spectacularly successful”

  • “When enormous tragedy, as it so often does, demands a time of reflection on enormous blessings”

  • “What Mario Cuomo has characterized as ‘community added to individualism’”

  • “What is the point of this splintered whole?”

  • “Once these disparate parts were held together by a common enemy”

Take notes on your Analyzing Relationships Tool as your teacher models how to use the tool.

Analyze the following two details:

  • “Out of many, one. That is the ideal. The reality is often quite different, a great national striving consisting frequently of failure.”

  • “One of the things that it stands for is this vexing notion that a great nation can consist entirely of refugees from other nations, that people of different, even warring religions and cultures can live, if not side by side, then on either side of the country’s Chester Avenues.”

Step 2

With a partner or in small groups, use the Analyzing Relationships Tool to analyze the following details with contrasting language:

  • “Many of the oft-told stories of the most pluralistic nation on earth are stories not of tolerance, but of bigotry”

  • “That amid all the failures is something spectacularly successful.”

  • “When enormous tragedy, as it so often does, demands a time of reflection on enormous blessings”

  • “What Mario Cuomo has characterized as ‘community added to individualism’”

  • “What is the point of this splintered whole?”

  • “Once these disparate parts were held together by a common enemy”

Activity 2: Discuss – Write

We will discuss Quindlen’s central claims about America and revisit our Central Question in relation to Quindlen’s text.

Share your analyses from the previous activity with another group or the whole group. Then, discuss the following questions:

  1. Considering the entire piece, what are Quindlen’s central claims about America?

  2. How does the use of contrasting language help develop or help support her claims?

  3. What does this article tell us about our Central Question: What does it mean to be an American?

Activity 3: Write

We will close out by responding to the Central Question.

Think about the Central Question:

What does it mean to be an American?

Draft a short response to the question, considering all that you have digested from Quindlen’s essay. Share your response with your group.