Section 2: Overview

Choosing a Pathway

We will work in research teams to establish our understanding of a specific subtopic and generate a set of questions that are related to what it might mean to be an American. To begin our investigation, our team will read, analyze, and evaluate common seed texts. From this common base, we will begin to use the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide to help our teams read, analyze, and evaluate additional pathway texts.

• Lesson 1:

  We will select our research teams, decide a pathway to research, preview the culminating writing task prompt, develop our initial inquiry questions, and plan for our research. We will also closely read a seed text for our pathway from the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts.

• 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 3:

  We will continue conducting research with our research team by searching for and analyzing texts for our pathway topic. This will help us prepare for the upcoming Socratic Seminar for the Section Diagnostic.

• Lesson 4:

  We will participate in Socratic Seminars with our research team members to prepare for the whole-class Socratic Seminar in the Section Diagnostic.

• Lesson 5:

  We will engage in a Socratic Seminar and write short, personal reflections about the seminar and our participation in the seminar.

• Lesson 6:

  We will review the teacher’s feedback on our Section Diagnostic and will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

• Lesson 7:

  We will share the understanding we have gained through our independent reading and continue reading our texts.