Lesson 2

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • 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
  • “Stoop Sitting,” excerpt from The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo, HarperCollins Publishers, 2018

• • “If They Should Come for Us,” Fatimah Asghar, Poetry, March 2017
  • “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
  • “Pen Pals,” Christy Chan, Snap Judgement, National Public Radio, 2017
  • “‘Where I’m From’: A Crowdsourced Poem That Collects Your Memories of Home,” Casey Noenickx, Kwame Alexander, and Rachel Martin, National Public Radio, August 28, 2019

Materials

Tools

• Vocabulary Journal

Reference Guides

• Tone Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Community: Section 3 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Community: Section 3 Question Set

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Listen – Discuss – Write

We will examine the origins of the word community and its morpheme, “Com.”

Step 1

The term community has a rich evolutionary history, beginning with the word communis, which is Latin for common, public, general, or shared by all or many. Communis evolved into communitatem, also Latin for community, society, fellowship, or courtesy. Communitatem then evolved into comunite, French for community, commonness, or everybody. Comunite evolved into community, the word we know today.

All versions of the word begin with the morpheme, "com," meaning together or with.

Working with a partner, add the words below and other words you know that begin with the morpheme "com" to your Vocabulary Journal:

• community

• commingle

• committee

• complete

• combust

• compliment

• combat

Step 2

Look each word up in a dictionary. These definitions are the denotation—the literal meaning of the word. Add the word denotation and its definition to your Vocabulary Journal.

Now, with your partner, describe the feeling each word invokes. That is the connotation, the idea or feeling a word causes in addition to the literal meaning. Add the word connotation and its definition to your Vocabulary Journal.

Understanding connotation and denotation helps writers choose the perfect word: by knowing what feeling a word invokes, a writer can create feeling in their writing. Sort your words into two columns: positive connotations and negative connotations.

Step 3

When finished, respond to the following question in your Learning Log:

1. What is the connotation of the word community for you? Explain your answer using personal anecdotal or textual evidence.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will review our notes taken and the impressions we gained from the texts read earlier in the unit.

Step 1

With a partner, choose five texts from this unit. Review your notes from these texts. With a partner, review the central argument of each text and your general impression of the author’s arguments.

Discuss the following questions (these questions are also included in the Section 3 Question Set):

1. Does this piece present a positive portrayal of a community or a negative portrayal of a community?

2. What words create a more positive or negative connotation?

Defend your assertions with textual evidence, as appropriate.

Step 2

WIth your partner, discuss each text and sort them into two categories: overall positive tone and overall negative tone.

Respond to the following question:

1. What makes the tone of each text positive or negative?

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will collect textual evidence that supports the positive or negative connotations that we established.

Individually, select two texts that you identified as having an overall positive connotation and two texts you identified as having a negative connotation.

Respond to the following questions in your Learning Log:

1. How did these authors describe their communities?

2. What inferences about these communities are you able to make based on the tone of the text? Cite evidence from the texts to support your conclusions.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will analyze the relationship between tone and meaning in a text.

Choose one of the texts you read in this unit. Using the Tone Reference Guide, determine the overall tone of the text. Write the tone at the top of the text and include several words or phrases to explain how and why you arrived at that conclusion.

With a highlighter or colored pen or pencil, identify the words and phrases that create the author’s tone. Think about diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax (you can label these after highlighting).

Then be prepared to discuss your responses to the following questions during discussion:

1. Does the tone ever shift? Look for places where the tone shifts, and annotate what the shift is. What is the impact of the shift in tone on the reader?

2. Consider the text as a whole. What is the author’s purpose? Why do you think they wrote this piece?

3. Consider the impact tone has on meaning. Do you feel the author adopted a suitable tone for effectively conveying their message? Support your determination with evidence from the text.

Pair up with someone who chose the same text as you and share your responses and annotations, looking at the similarities and differences among your ideas.

Activity 5: Write

We will reflect on our understanding of community as a word, community as it is represented in text, and community as a place.

Step 1

Reflect on the word community and respond to the following question in your Learning Log:

1. Does the word community have a positive or negative connotation for you? Use specific examples from texts and your own experiences as support.

Step 2

In your Learning Log, write about community in a way that has a positive tone. Use words and phrases to describe or explain community in a way that invokes a positive feeling in a reader.

Now write about community in a way that has a negative tone. Use words and phrases in a way that invokes a negative feeling in a reader.

Use your annotations from the previous activity to help you choose words and phrases that convey your tone.