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Lesson 1

We will identify, justify, and analyze the best evidence from Part 1 of the novel to support a claim.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I recognize and interpret relationships among key details and ideas (characters and setting)?

  • Can I determine what aspects of the text lead me to the conclusion that I drew?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “‘El Jefe’ Portrait of a Dictator,” Bill Leonard, CBS News, 1961
  • Tradebook
    • In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010

Materials

Tools

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Write

We will choose a guiding question from the section 1 diagnostic and its corresponding claim, add it in our Learning Logs, and support it with evidence.

Your teacher will assign you one of the following guiding questions from the Section 1 Diagnostic and the corresponding claim:

  • Guiding Question 1: What was life like for people under the reign of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic?

Claim 1: Life for citizens of the Dominican Republic under the reign of Rafael Trujillo was brutal.

  • Guiding Question 2: How did their age, gender, and socioeconomic status affect their experience?

Claim 2: Age, gender, and financial status create great divides among people in In the Time of the Butterflies.

Write your assigned guiding question in the Guiding Question section of your Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

Write the corresponding claim in the Form a Claim section of your Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

Activity 2: Discuss – Read – Write

We will find evidence from each chapter to support our claims.

Step 1

Form a small group with students who chose the same claim as you.

Discuss the model claim in your small group, and respond to the following question:

  1. What does the claim mean, and how does it answer the guiding question?

Step 2

Individually, skim through the first four chapters and annotate details that best support your chosen claim.

Step 3

Discuss the details that you annotated in your small group.

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will select the strongest key details for our claims.

In your small group, select at least three key details that best support your claim.

Write down those details with appropriate parenthetical citations on your Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

Activity 4: Write

We will analyze key details regarding our chosen guiding question and claim.

For each detail selected, write one or two sentences to explain how the detail connects to your guiding question and supports the claim.

Activity 5: Write

We will explain connections among key details and how they work together.

Write one to two sentences that explain how the details work together to answer your chosen guiding question and to support the claim.

Activity 6: Discuss – Write

We will share our details and analyses with our classmates.

Step 1

Each group will share its details, analyses, and connections.

Step 2

After all groups have shared, as a class, rank all of the groups’ analyses and connections from strongest to weakest.

Discuss your rankings.

Step 3

Individually respond to the following question in your Learning Log:

  1. What did I learn about supporting a claim?