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Lesson 2

We will work in our research teams to continue reading, analyzing, and evaluating a common seed text from the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts. We will evaluate the text’s perspective, credibility, and relevance. We will compare our text-based observations and evaluations and synthesize and extend our understanding by posing new text-dependent inquiry questions.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I build an understanding of my pathway topic?

  • Can I work productively with my research team to locate, evaluate the usefulness of, and select relevant, accurate, and credible sources when conducting research?

  • Can I write a concise, objective summary of the text?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “The Real Birth of American Democracy,” Joseph Stromberg, The Smithsonian, September 20, 2011
    • “To Understand How Religion Shapes America, Look to Its Early Days,” Tom Gjelten, National Public Radio, June 28, 2017

Optional

  • Unit Reader
    • “American Culture: Traditions and Customs of the United States,” Kim Ann Zimmermann, LiveScience, 2017
    • Excerpt from “America’s Changing Religious Identity,” Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox, Public Religion Research Institute, 2017
    • “Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama,” 2013, Barack Obama, Public Domain, 2013
    • “Race, American Identity and the Census,” William H. Frey, The Brookings Institution, May 24, 2017
    • “World War I Changed America and Transformed Its Role in International Relations,” Meredith Hindley, Public Domain, 2017
  • Digital Access
    • Excerpts from “Immigration & Civics: What Every American Should Know,” The Aspen Institute, The Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program, 2018
    • “Most Americans Express Positive Views of Country’s Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity,” Hannah Fingerhut, Pew Research Center, June 14, 2018
    • “The American Road Trip Tradition,” Farah Al Qasimi and Liana Aghajanian, The New York Times, November 2, 2019
    • “The Cost of War for the U.S. Taxpayer since 9/11 Is Actually Three Times the Pentagon’s Estimate,” Jack Moore, Newsweek, November 8, 2017
    • “The Way North,” Damien Cave and Todd Heisler, The New York Times, May 17, 2014

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will review our norms and plan in order to succeed on the Culminating Task.

Review the norms for your research team. Discuss how you are going to keep track of your notes and ideas for your presentation (e.g., a shared Google drive, notecards, a shared folder).

Make sure you communicate with your instructor which note-taking-system you and your team will utilize.

Remember, you can find your pathway, pathway texts, and pathway inquiry questions in the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts.

Activity 2: Discuss

We will discuss the text we read for homework.

With your teammates, discuss the common text you read. Respond to the following questions:

  1. What are the author’s central ideas in this text?

  2. What details support those ideas?

  3. How does this text help my understanding of what it means to be an American?

Activity 3: Read

We will read and analyze a second common seed text for our pathway.

Step 1

With your group, choose a second common seed text. Individually, read, analyze, and evaluate the text. Use the Evaluating Ideas Tool to help you analyze the text.

This tool supports and guides a process for evaluating a text, and it focuses on the author’s purpose, perspective, and credibility. It can help you think about and analyze relationships among details in the text, how those details suggest the author’s motivation for writing the text, and how the author views the topic. Make sure you reference the text.

Use one of the following guiding questions on the tool. Each member might use a different question:

  1. What are the author’s central ideas or views?

  2. How do the author’s language choices indicate his or her perspective?

  3. What does the author of the text leave uncertain or unstated? Why?

After reading, think about the question below:

  1. How does this text help my understanding of what it means to be an American?

Step 2

Using your Evaluating Ideas Tool, discuss your analysis of the text with your team.

Activity 4: Read

We will determine a text’s credibility and form a claim about a text. We will write a new inquiry question based on the text.

Step 1

To begin assessing sources, read section 2 of the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide: Collecting and Analyzing Sources.

Choose guiding questions to help you analyze one of the two seed texts your team has read with regard to its credibility.

Step 2

As a team discuss the following questions after having analyzed the text:

  1. How do we know this text is credible?

  2. How do we know it provides accurate, factual, and honest information?

Step 3

With the help of the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, form a claim about the text with respect to the following guiding question:

  1. What does this text say about what it means to be an American?

Step 4

Use the following questions to help you evaluate your claim:

  1. Is the claim clearly stated?

  2. Does the claim communicate your opinion or conclusion about the text?

  3. Is the claim based on evidence that you gathered from the text?

  4. Is the claim able to be supported by evidence?

If you answered no to any of the questions, think about how you might revise your claim.

Step 5

Based on your textual analysis, what new inquiry questions emerge for you with respect to your pathway topic?

Activity 5: Discuss

We will reflect on this lesson’s activities.

To reflect on this lesson’s learnings, use the following questions:

  1. What did I learn during this lesson that is important for our team’s research?

  2. What overarching claims can I make about my topic based on my research? Or, how is the research connected?

  3. How well did I support my claims with textual evidence?

  4. How might we use this text in our presentation?

  5. What new inquiry questions emerged for us during this lesson?

  6. How did I contribute to my group during this lesson? Be specific.

Activity 6: Discuss

We will evaluate our group’s effectiveness.

Revisit your group’s norms and rate your group from one to four on a Likert scale by responding to the following statement:

We followed all of our group norms, which made our time effective (strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree).

Then, respond to the following question:

  1. What do we need to continue doing or start doing to be an effective research team?