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Lesson 16

We will reflect on the lessons about community in “Mother Tongue,” Hillbilly Elegy, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” and The Fire Next Time, evaluating which author makes the most compelling argument about his or her community by writing well-developed multiparagraph analyses.

Lesson Goals

Reading and Knowledge

  • Gather and Organize Evidence: How well do I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of texts and topics, support claims, and develop ideas?
  • Analyze Perspectives: How well do I analyze how an author’s perspective influences the position, purpose, and ideas of a text?
  • Determine Meaning and Purpose: How well do I use connections among details, elements, and effects to make logical deductions about an author’s perspective, purpose, and meaning in texts?
  • Evaluate Effects: How well do I evaluate the effects of literary devices and rhetoric in texts?

Writing

  • Form Claims: How well do I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis? How well do I evaluate the relevance and credibility of information, ideas, evidence, and reasoning presented in texts?
  • Organize Ideas: How well do I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed narratives, explanations, and arguments?
  • Use Conventions to Produce Clear Writings: How well do I apply correct and effective syntax, usage, mechanics, and spelling to communicate ideas and achieve intended purposes?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • Chapter 4, excerpt from Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance, HarperCollins Publishers, 2016
    • “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” excerpt from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Aunt Lute Books. Reproduced with permission from the estate of Gloria Anzaldúa., 1987
    • “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan, Threepenny Review, Reprinted by permission from Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency., 1990
  • Digital Access
    • “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” excerpt from The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, 1962

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write

We will reflect on the texts we have read in this section in order to determine the main message or lesson of each.

Step 1

Review your notes from this section, particularly those for each text. For each of the texts we studied ("Mother Tongue," Hillbilly Elegy, The Fire Next Time, and "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"), identify the message the author was attempting to convey about his or her community.

Step 2

Review your Vocabulary Journal. Identify a significant word or words that you would like to use in your response to the Section Diagnostic.

Activity 2: Read – Write – Discuss

We will each write a paragraph in which we synthesize our understanding of each text’s message.

Review the messages or lessons you wrote down in the previous activity.

Compose a paragraph for each text that identifies the author and text, briefly summarizes the text, and identifies and explains the message or lesson.

Meet with a partner to share and revise your ideas as needed.

Activity 3: Discuss – Write

We will determine how effective each author is in presenting a lesson or message in his or her writing.

Step 1

Providing a message or lesson in a piece of writing is fairly straightforward; the more difficult task is to convince your reader of that message or lesson and to be effective in your communication. Considering this fact and its relation to the texts you read in this section, discuss the following questions with your partner:

  1. How effective is each author in communicating his or her message?

  2. What made each message convincing? What did the author do to convince the reader? Consider each author’s writing style and use of supporting evidence.

  3. Which author was most effective in communicating his or her message?

Step 2

Individually, compose a paragraph that includes your responses to these questions.

Activity 4: Write

We will complete our Section Diagnostics by adding our own beliefs about which argument we found personally valuable and well-supported.

Discussions of community are inherently personal, as you have seen in the texts from this section. As practice for the Culminating Task, in which you will write about a community of your own, you previously reflected on each text and determined which stylistic strategies you might adapt to use in your own writing.

With that in mind, write a paragraph in which you explain which lesson or message from the texts was the most valuable and well-supported.

When writing your paragraph, be sure to do the following:

  • Clearly identify the text you have chosen.

  • Explain why the lesson or message you selected was particularly meaningful for you.

  • Explain how the author communicates the value or his or her community.

  • Identify the support used by the author and how you might use similar support in your own writing.

  • Analyze the author’s diction and use of language.

Activity 5: Write – Discuss

We will reflect on our work on the Section Diagnostic and assess how prepared we are for the Culminating Task.

Step 1

Choose at least three of the questions below and respond to them in your Learning Log:

  1. How well did you take necessary action to prepare for the task?

  2. What went well for you during the completion of this task?

  3. What did you struggle with during the completion of this task? How did you push through that struggle?

  4. How well did you actively focus your attention during this independent task?

  5. How well did you develop and use an effective and efficient process to maintain workflow during this task?

  6. What would you do differently during the next Section Diagnostic?

Review your Culminating Task Progress Tracker. Think about all you have learned and done during this section of the unit. Evaluate your skills and knowledge to determine how prepared you are for the Culminating Task.

  • Add or refine any skills and content knowledge required for the Culminating Task.

  • Evaluate how well you are mastering skills and knowledge required for the Culminating Task.

Step 2

Review the Central Question of the unit:

What does it mean to belong to a community?

Use the following questions to guide a discussion with a partner or small group:

  1. What new knowledge do you have in relation to the Central Question?

  2. What are you still curious about in relation to the Central Question?

  3. What is the relationship between the question and the texts you have read so far? How do the texts shed light on the question? How does the question help you understand the texts?

  4. How has your response to the question evolved, deepened, or changed?

In your Learning Log, write your response to Question 3. You will return to this response in later lessons to examine how your understanding of the Central Question has evolved.