Lesson 8

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “‘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

• • Excerpt from “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Robert D. Putnam, National Endowment for Democracy and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995
  • “The End of Solitude,” William Deresiewicz, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Used with permission from the author., 2009

Materials

Tools

• Working with Mentor Sentences Tool

Editable Google Docs

• Working with Mentor Sentences Tool

Activity 1: Write

We will write about communities we belong to in order to practice applying new techniques.

Think about a community of which you are a member. Write a paragraph detailing that community:

1. How would you define your community?

2. How are you a member?

3. Who are the other members?

4. What is your responsibility to one another?

5. What does your community value?

Review your paragraph when finished, adding any remaining information you wish to convey.

Activity 2: Read – Write

We will reread a section of “Bowling Alone,” annotating for certain grammatical elements.

Return to Robert Putnam’s "Bowling Alone," specifically the section titled "Whatever Happened to Civic Engagement?"

Reread this section and underline or highlight the following:

• sentences using parentheses

• sentences with personal pronouns

• words or phrases that are repeated

Activity 3: Listen – Write – Discuss

We will examine Putnam’s use of parentheses to determine its meaning and possible impact on sentences.

Look at where you highlighted parentheses.

Parentheses are used to set off ideas that are not necessarily part of the sentence and that can be removed without disrupting the meaning of the sentence. There are many situations in which one might use parentheses:

• clarification

• explanation

• translation

• humorous aside

• talking to the reader

For each of the examples you found in the section, indicate what you feel Putnam was trying to achieve, using the above list as options.

Share your findings with a partner and discuss which function Putnam employs most often and why.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will practice integrating parentheses into our earlier writing.

Return to the paragraph you wrote about your community.

In which sentences could you add information in the form of clarification, explanation, translation (if you wrote in another language), a humorous aside, or a note to your reader?

Identify at least one sentence to which you can make this addition.

Activity 5: Read – Listen – Discuss

We will analyze the usage of personal pronouns in “Bowling Alone.”

Examine how often Putnam uses various forms of personal and collective pronouns such as I, me, you, we, us, our.

The personal pronoun indicates whether the author is included in the subject matter.

Discuss your responses to the following questions with a partner:

1. Why is it important that Putnam include himself in his argument?

2. Why is it important to use personal collective pronouns when discussing civic engagement? What is the relationship between the two ideas?

Activity 6: Read – Write

We will revise our paragraphs to integrate personal collective pronouns.

Return to your paragraph about community. Consider how the integration of personal collective pronouns may impact your writing.

First, review what you wrote to determine where, if at all, you have already used personal collective pronouns. If you did, why did you? What impact does that have?

If you did not include any personal collective pronouns, consider where you might be able to do so and revise your writing.

When finished, reflect on the relationship between personal collective pronouns and community: When sharing information about your community with outsiders, should personal pronouns be used, or is the theoretical space between you and your reader necessary?

Activity 7: Read – Listen – Write

We will examine the diction (word choice) utilized by Putnam and attempt to characterize it as a whole.

Step 1

Review the words and phrases you found that were repeated or emphasized.

Diction refers to an author’s choice of words and their connotations. Consider the following questions:

1. What words does the author choose?

2. Consider the author’s word choice compared to another.

3. Why did the author choose that particular word? What are the connotations of that word choice?

4. What effect do these words have on your mood as a reader? What do they indicate about the author’s tone?

To examine diction, consider looking at the following aspects of word choice:

• Words can be monosyllabic (one syllable in length) or polysyllabic (more than one syllable). The higher the number of polysyllabic words, the more difficult the content.

• Words can be mainly colloquial (slang), informal (conversational), formal (literary), or old-fashioned.

• Words can be mainly denotative (containing an exact meaning) or connotative (containing suggested meaning)

• Words can be concrete (specific) or abstract (general or conceptual).

• Words can be euphonious (pleasant sounding) or cacophonous (harsh sounding).

Step 2

With this information in mind, characterize the diction in "Bowling Alone." Use several words or phrases to justify your characterization. You might use words from the above descriptions or use a word of your own.

Step 3

Review your own writing and characterize your own diction.

Submit your writing and your notes about your diction to your teacher.

Activity 8: Write

We will add authorial strategies that we might want to use on our Culminating Task to our writer’s toolbox.

Step 1

Think about all of the texts read in this section. Review your classwork and annotations for each text and respond to the following questions:

1. Which author wrote most effectively about community?

2. What does the author do to make their piece effective? Consider stylistic choices like form, vocabulary, tone, diction, sentence structure, and any literary devices (e.g., simile, metaphor, imagery), as well as rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos.

Step 2

Make a list of techniques used by authors in this section that are interesting to you and respond to the following question:

1. What would you like to try in your own writing for the Culminating Task?