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Lesson 6

We will read “A Quilt of a Country” by Anna Quindlen to consider a more modern understanding of what it means to be an American. We will determine the gist of the passage and analyze parts of the text that create the author’s main claim.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I determine the meaning of words and phrases in “A Quilt of a Country”?

  • Can I understand how Anna Quindlen uses figurative language to construct an argument?

Texts

Core

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

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read

We will connect the title of the article to the rest of the article.

Step 1

Add the following terms to your Vocabulary Journal:

  • improbable

  • mongrel

  • notion

  • pluralistic

  • WASP

  • ghettos

  • fault lines

As you read the article, see if you can determine their meaning from context.

Before reading, deconstruct the metaphor of the title by answering these questions with a partner or small group:

  1. What does “quilt of a country” mean?

  2. Based on the title, what do you think Quindlen’s argument will be about?

Step 2

Read the article. As you read, annotate the text for what you understand and what you find confusing. Respond to the following questions:

  1. What is the gist of the article?

  2. How does the title connect to the rest of the article?

Pay attention to the date the article was published, September 26, 2001, and respond to the following questions:

  1. What do you notice about the date?

  2. What happened on September 11, 2001?

  3. Now that you have read the article, what does knowing the date help you understand about the article?

Activity 2: Read – Write

We will analyze the contrasting language in the text.

Pay attention as your teacher models the first detail on the Attending to Details Tool.

“That’s because it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.”

Work in groups to attend to three more details on your Attending to Details Tool. Use the guiding question: How and to what effect does Quindlen use contrasting language in her essay?

  1. “This is a nation founded on a conundrum, what Mario Cuomo has characterized as ‘community added to individualism.’”

  2. “What is the point of this splintered whole?”

  3. “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.”

Activity 3: Discuss

We will discuss what it means to be an American.

Having read “A Quilt of a Country”several times, what do you now think about what it means to be an American? Share your thoughts on the Central Question with a partner.