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Lesson 4

How might you avoid failures of kindness in your life? We will examine a speech by noted author George Saunders, “Advice to Graduates,” using a question set to determine its meaning and the ways it frames that meaning through a personal story. We will then write a short personal narrative about regrets we have in our lives so far and how a regret might also become a guiding compass, like the virtues of kindness and empathy as presented in Saunders’s speech.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I describe personal connections to “Advice to Graduates” in a narrative response?

  • Can I evaluate characteristics and structural elements of George Saunders’s “Advice to Graduates,” such as clear thesis, effective supporting evidence, pertinent examples, commentary, summary, and conclusion?

  • Can I evaluate characteristics and structural elements of George Saunders’s “Advice to Graduates,” such as the relationship between organizational design and Saunders’s purpose?

  • Can I evaluate Saunders’s purpose, audience, and message within his graduation speech?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “Advice to Graduates,” George Saunders, The New York Times Company, 2005

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will prepare to examine George Saunders’s “Advice To Graduates” speech by reviewing and analyzing a question set for that text.

Step 1

We will read and discuss the life advice presented in a graduation speech as we think about the following question:

  1. How might you avoid failures of kindness in your life?

We will examine George Saunders’s "Advice to Graduates" using a question set to initially question the text, analyze and evaluate it, and extend our reading of the speech. As a class, begin by reviewing the questions for “Advice to Graduates” on the Section 1 Question Set for this text, some of which you considered when you read the speech for homework:

  1. Knowing that this speech is titled "Advice to Graduates" and that it was delivered at the Syracuse University graduation ceremony in 2013, what do you anticipate the speech will generally be about?

  2. In the first three paragraphs of the speech, what do you notice about how Saunders introduces his speech, himself, and his topic?

  3. What initial question does Saunders use to frame his speech?

  4. What examples from Saunders’s experiences does he suggest he does not really regret?

  5. How does Saunders’s use of self-deprecating humor make these examples—and his message in general—more intriguing for his audience?

  6. What are the details of the personal story Saunders uses to exemplify and express the central message of his speech?

  7. How does Saunders’s story lead to his personal claim about what he regrets most in his life and his advice to "try to be kinder"?

  8. What claims and explanations does Saunders present in response to his million-dollar question: "What’s our problem? Why aren’t we kinder?"

Step 2

For questions selected by your teacher as examples, follow Steps 1-4 from the Responding to Questions Handout to annotate the questions, discuss what type of question they are, and identify what kinds of details they might cause you to look for in your reading or rereading of the speech.

Activity 2: Discuss

We will discuss our homework reading with a partner and compare our responses to the first two questions of the question set.

Step 1

Join with a discussion partner to discuss your initial responses to the opening section of George Sauners’s speech, which you read for homework. Compare your responses to the first two questions from the question set for this text:

  1. Knowing that this speech is titled "Advice to Graduates" and that it was delivered at the Syracuse University graduation ceremony in 2013, what do you anticipate the speech will generally be about?

  2. In the first three paragraphs of the speech, what do you notice about how Saunders introduces his speech, himself, and his topic?

For Question 2, compare the Attending to Details Tool you completed for homework with that of your partner. Note whether the details you identified and the observations you made are similar. Discuss why.

Step 2

Return to the Responding to Questions Handout and the Responding to Questions Checklist. Use the questions in the checklist to review and evaluate your responses to the two questions you considered for homework.

From your responses, select one example that you think best exemplifies the qualities of a thoughtful and complete response, as suggested by the questions.

Step 3

In a class discussion guided by these two questions, share examples of thoughtful and complete responses, explaining how and why you think those responses exemplify the qualities of a thoughtful and complete response.

Note and discuss the range of responses in the class to these text-specific questions. Why might the responses to the same questions vary and still be considered thoughtful and complete?

Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write

We will use an Analyzing Relationships Tool as we read and examine the personal story that Saunders uses to frame the central message of his speech.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher reviews and models the organization of the Analyzing Relationships Tool, which you can use to support your close reading and development of thoughtful responses to text-specific questions.

The Analyzing Relationships Tool supports and guides a process for identifying and analyzing how an author uses details in a text to create literary effects like mood or tone. You can use this tool to analyze how the author’s choices contribute to effects the text has on you as a reader and the meaning you find in the text. Using this tool usually begins with a guiding or text-specific question related to a literary element or device (e.g., setting, characterization, irony, figurative language). The tool can be used with both literary and informational texts, whenever you are analyzing the relationships among textual details.

Step 2

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 often a question related to the writer’s techniques and use of elements and devices to create an effect or suggest an idea or theme.

  2. As you read the text, pay attention to details (words, phrases, sentences) that relate to the guiding question. Depending on how long the section of text is, you might find several examples. Write down the details that most strongly support the guiding question in the Attend to Details row.

  3. Think about and write down how the details you selected in reference to the guiding question are related in the Analyze Relationships row. What patterns, contrasts, or meaning are emerging for you? You might see connections, patterns, sharp contrasts, or the author’s use of literary devices emerging. Keep the guiding question in mind.

  4. Explain how those details work together to create an effect or suggest meaning for you as a reader, after you have identified the details and identified how they fit together or relate to one another. You might comment on how the details shed light on an idea, tone, mood, or other literary effect.

Step 3

With your reading partner from the previous activity, use an Analyzing Relationships Tool to closely read the middle paragraphs of Saunders’s speech, in which he tells a personal story about something he does regret. Consider these text-specific questions from the question set as you read and develop a response with support from the tool:

  1. What are the details of the personal story Saunders uses to exemplify and express the central message of his speech?

  2. How does Saunders’s story lead up to his personal claim about what he regrets most in his life and his advice to "try to be kinder"?

Frame your response in the final section of the tool as an observation that you can share with another student reading pair.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write

We will join a reading team to compare our responses on our Analyzing Relationships Tools, then read and analyze the remaining sections of the speech, in response to other questions from the question set for “Advice To Graduates.”

Step 1

With your reading partner from the previous activities, join with another pair to form a four-person discussion team.

Begin your discussion by sharing and comparing the observations you made at the bottom of your Analyzing Relationships Tools in response to Questions 6 and 7 from the question set.

Considering the questions on the Responding to Questions Checklist, discuss the ways in which your written observations represent thoughtful and complete responses to the two questions and careful reading of the evidence in the text.

Step 2

Consider the next group of questions from the question set as you prepare to finish reading the speech. Discuss what type of question each is and what kinds of details it might cause you to look for.

  1. What claims and explanations does Saunders present in response to his million-dollar question: “What’s our problem? Why aren’t we kinder?"

  2. What advice does Saunders present about how we might "become more loving, more open, less selfish, more present, less delusional, etc., etc."? Which of his suggestions seems best to you personally?

  3. How does Saunders explain and support his claim that "accomplishment is unreliable"?

  4. How do Saunders’s thoughts about succeeding connect and compare to the ideas about success presented by Bessie Allan Stanley in the quotation you examined in Lesson 1?

On your own, read the rest of the speech, noting where details related to each of the questions might be found and the general message that you think Saunders is communicating.

As a team, and using key words in the questions, skim the rest of the speech to find the paragraphs where those key words appear. Annotate the text by writing the number of the question next to the relevant section of the speech.

Assign one question for close reading to each of the four members of your team.

Step 3

Using a new Analyzing Relationships Tool, individually reread your section of the speech closely, noting and analyzing key details that relate to your assigned question. Write an observation you can make in response to the questions at the bottom of the tool.

In the order of the questions (and the paragraphs from the text), share your observations with the other members of your team.

Develop a short, text-based summary of what your team thinks Saunders is saying about kindness, accomplishment, and succeeding, as well as how they play out in a life well-lived.

Step 4

As a class, share and compare what the reading teams concluded and summarized about Saunders’s "Advice to Graduates."

Activity 5: Discuss

In our reading teams, we will consider what it means to engage in a successful, text-based academic discussion. We will assess how we did during the previous discussions and set goals for Future discussions.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher presents and discusses ideas from the Academic Discussion Reference Guide. Pay particular attention to the Discussion Norms chart near the end of the reference guide.

Using the Discussion Checklist that follows this chart, individually rate how you did as a participant in team and class discussions during this lesson, based on the expectations described in the Discussion Norms chart.

Identify one norm that you think was a strength for you in these discussions: something you can build on in the future.

Identify one norm which you feel you should and can improve, based on the description of the expectations.

Record your thinking about a strength and an area for improvement in your Learning Log. Write a personal goal for future academic discussions that identifies an area you want to build or improve on and, specifically, what you hope to do.

Step 2

In the four-person reading teams you just worked with, discuss the ways in which you have (or have not) exemplified the characteristics and processes of a successful academic discussion. Share the self-assessments and goals you set for future discussions.

Use the Discussions Checklist to assess your team’s work and then to consider ways to improve future academic discussions.

Activity 6: Read – Write

Individually, we will do a close reading of key paragraphs in Saunders’s “Advice To Graduates,” consider the final questions from the question set, and write a short personal narrative in response to the speech. We will consider whether Saunders’s advice might be a compass for us personally as we undertake our journey in life.

Step 1

On your own, respond to Question 12 from the question set by re-examining two key paragraphs from the speech:

  1. What do you notice—in terms of ideas and how they are expressed—when you closely read two key paragraphs from the speech that begin with "So, quick, end-of-speech advice" and end with "Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly"?

Annotate or make a list of ideas or sentences that stand out to you in these key paragraphs. Then select one sentence that seems particularly interesting or meaningful to you. Copy that sentence into your Mentor Sentence Journal.

As you continue to read the texts in this unit, use your Mentor Sentence Journal to identify sentences that stand out to you as interesting or that represent a strong example of a particular concept you have learned. You can use these sentences to build a writer’s toolbox, wherein you have a number of techniques at your disposal to use when writing.

Write a short explanation about why you find the sentence to be meaningful or interesting. Then, using the sentence’s structure and language as a pattern, write your own statement about kindness, ambition, or a "luminous part of you" that you might want to develop in your life.

Step 2

In response to the lead question and the following questions, write a short personal narrative that discusses a regret you might have from your own life, how your experience relates to Saunders’s ideas, and how your experience and Saunders’s ideas might shape you in the future.

Lead question: How might you avoid failures of kindness in your life?

  1. After reading and examining Saunders’s speech, what are your thoughts about the virtues of kindness and empathy that he discusses? About the contrasting characteristics of selfishness and ambition?

  2. What does Saunders ultimately suggest about what it means to live a life worth living?

  3. What regret might you already have in your own life? How might the personal story of that regret guide you as you frame your own advice to yourself?

  4. In what ways might Saunders’s advice serve (or not serve) as a compass for you as you undertake your journey in the world?