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Lesson 6

We will examine each pathway choice, determine our individual pathway, and begin preparing for the Section 1 Diagnostic.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of texts?

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of texts?

  • Can I evaluate the relevance and credibility of information, ideas, evidence, and reasoning presented in texts?

  • Can I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “What Should I Do after High School?,” Together by St. Jude, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2020

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read

Read, respond to, and discuss “What Should I Do After High School?”

Step 1

Locate the article "What Should I Do after High School?" from the Together site by St. Jude.Read through the document.

Summarize each of the following sections in your Learning Log:

  • People who can help

  • Four-year college or university

  • Community college

  • Trade school

  • Military

  • Going directly to work

  • Gap year

  • Job corps

  • Programs for people with disabilities

Then, discuss the following question with a partner:

  1. How does this article refine my thinking about postsecondary options, especially in light of the previously read articles?

Step 2

Identify the most preferable pathway option, and detail why the pathway option is the most supportive of your prospective life goals. Identify the least preferable pathway option, and detail why the pathway option is the least preferable to you based on your prospective life goals.

With a partner, discuss your top pathway choice and your second choice.

Respond to the following questions with your partner:

  1. How can I prepare for life after high school?

  2. Specifically, how might my top pathway choices inspire growth, happiness, and stability and support my overall life goals?

Consider your pathway choice carefully as all work and research completed for the remaining unit will be focused on your pathway choice.

Activity 2: Read

We will begin our research by selecting our pathway and reading a text in that pathway.

Step 1

Read the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist.

Respond to the following question and discuss your choice with a partner:

  1. Which pathway are you considering for the Section 1 Diagnostic?

Step 2

Now examine the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts. Choose one source in your selected pathway from the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts.

Read and annotate the text, using the guiding questions in the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts handout to guide your annotations.

Step 3

Identify at least two terms per text that you do not know. If you know all terms in the texts, choose terms you are least familiar with. Use your strategies to determine the definitions of these terms and write them down in your Vocabulary Journal. Remember, you will be incorporating relevant terms from your Vocabulary Journal in your response to the Section 1 Diagnostic.

Consider the Vocabulary in Context Tool for words that you do not know the definitions of but can decipher from context in the surrounding language as you read. Through your own reading and research, you should develop a strategy for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases when there is contextual information present.

Activity 3: Write

You will use a Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool to practice answering one of the Section Diagnostic questions.

Step 1

Review the assessment prompt on the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist. You will use a Forming Evidence Based Claims Tool to practice responding to either Question 1 or Question 2, using evidence from your pathway text to support your answer.

  1. What postsecondary pathway is the best for me?

  2. How will my postsecondary pathway help me achieve my life goals?

Step 2

The Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool supports and guides a process for developing a claim from textual evidence; it can also help you explain how an existing claim is derived from, and supported by, evidence. Using the tool begins with a guiding question that calls for you to reach a conclusion and communicate a claim, which might be factual, analytical, comparative, or evaluative in nature. It helps you select the key details related to the question, explain how the details connect to your question and to other details, and through that analysis, move to a conclusion. The conclusion that you draw is the basis for your claim, which you try to communicate as clearly and directly as you can.

Step 3

Use the tool in the following way:

  1. Write down the guiding question in the space provided at the top. You might be assigned the guiding question by your teacher, it might come from a question set, or you might think of your own question. This question can help you focus your reading, or it might give your reading a specific purpose. It is likely to be a question that asks you to draw a conclusion that is factual, analytical, comparative, or evaluative in nature.

  2. As you read the text, pay attention to details that relate to the guiding question. Depending on how long the section of text is, you might find several examples. You can use the Attend to Details row to write down the details that most strongly relate to the guiding question. This helps you narrow down the most supportable or most relevant details that connect to the question. Do not forget to include page numbers. You might have to come back later to get exact quotes or more clarity.

  3. In the Analyze the Details row, show your thinking. Doing so can help you ensure there is a clear connection among the details you identified, your analysis, and the guiding question.

  4. In the third row, Explain Connections, show your thinking about how the details connect to each other. Do the facts and information, taken together, lead to a conclusion? Are they details from a narrative that help you analyze a character? Are they indicators of an author’s perspective that you intend to support or refute?

  5. In the final row, form and express a claim. Look back over the tool and consider the guiding question, the details, and how they connect to each other. The conclusion you have drawn based on your analysis of the details in the previous rows should become your claim. Communicate that claim in a clear, direct sentence.

Step 4

Once you have generated an evidence-based claim (or examined an existing claim), you can use the tool to explain its derivation and support to others. To do this, begin at the bottom of the tool and work upward: present the claim, explain the analysis and evidence that led to it, and cite the key details that support it.

Step 5

To review and revise your claim, read it and ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Is the claim clearly stated?

  2. Does the claim communicate your opinion or conclusion about your character?

  3. Is the claim based on evidence that you gathered from the text?

  4. Is the claim supported by evidence?

If you answered "no" to any of the questions, think about how you might revise your claim.

Activity 4: Write

We will close out this lesson.

Respond to the questions below with a partner:

  1. Based on what you read, why do you think your chosen pathway is right for you?

  2. After reading, do you need to select a different pathway? Why or why not?

  3. Is there a different pathway that is not mentioned here that will help you achieve your life goals? If so, what is it and how will it help you achieve your goals?

Activity 5: Read

For homework, we will read and annotate the remaining texts in our pathway.

For homework, read and annotate the remaining texts in your pathway, using the guiding questions in the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts handout to guide your annotations.

In the next lesson, you will be responding to all three questions on the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist, using evidence from multiple texts to support your responses.