Lesson 1

Lesson Goals

Texts

Optional

• • “An Ancient Voice,” Lucas Lored, Texas Highways, 2020
  • “Mind No Mind,” Jia Tolentino, Poetry Magazine, 2016
  • “Necessary Failure,” Tarfia Faizullah, Oxford American, 2014
  • “The Education of Mi Hijita,” John Phillip Santos, Texas Monthly, 2012
  • “The Work You Do, the Person You Are,” Toni Morrison, The New Yorker, 2017

Materials

Tools

• Analyzing Relationships Tool

• What Does It Mean to Live a Life Well-Lived?: Section 2 Task Directions Handout

• What Does It Mean to Live a Life Well-Lived?: Seminar Texts Handout

• Summarizing Text Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

Reference Guides

• Academic Discussion Reference Guide
• Annotating and Note-Taking Reference Guide

Question Sets

• What Does It Mean to Live a Life Well-Lived?: Section 2 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Analyzing Relationships Tool

• What Does It Mean to Live a Life Well-Lived?: Section 2 Question Set

• Summarizing Text Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Discuss

We will preview the seminar discussion process by reviewing a set of directions that our team will follow and a set of guiding questions we will use to examine and discuss the essay we read.

Step 1

You will join a seminar discussion team as assigned by our teacher, based on the personal essay you read for this lesson.

After joining your discussion team, introduce yourself and begin discussing the essay you read, considering these guiding questions:

1. Why were you initially interested in this essay as one you wanted to read and discuss? What about its key words or summary drew you to it?

2. What are your first impressions of the essay, the perspective of its author, and the central ideas it seems to be about?

Step 2

As a class, review what you will be doing as a seminar discussion team, guided by a set of Section 2 Task Directions Handout you will follow when reading, studying, and discussing personal essays:

1. Determine how you can access your essay so every member of your team can read it. If you are accessing it online, use the Seminar Texts Handout to provide information that will let you find it.

2. Review the Personal Essay Guiding Questions on the Section 2 Question Set. Discuss what type of question each is and what kinds of details it might cause you to look for. Identify any initial questions or observations members of the team have that might be related to the topic of the essay.

3. Determine a team strategy for rereading and examining the essay in response to the questions, and decide how to record and share notes or annotations (e.g., read individually, read as a team, or assign specific sections or questions to team members).

4. Determine if and how you might use tools to develop responses to selected questions.

5. Determine if you need to know more about the author and the text, and if so, how you will research information.

6. Reread the essay (or a section of it) in response to one or more of the guiding questions.

7. After rereading, discuss what you individually or collectively find interesting or important about the essay’s ideas, the story it tells, or specific quotations from it. Consider how the text relates to the two Central Questions.

8. Using a Summarizing Text Tool, individually summarize the essay and the meaning you have found in it.

9. Compare and discuss your summaries and the various meanings you have found in the essay.

10. Generate a list of key words or themes that you might want to pursue further as you extend your reading, and take note of any new team questions that arise during your seminar discussion.

Step 3

Review the Personal Essay Guiding Questions on the Section 2 Question Set:

1. Why were you initially interested in this essay as one you wanted to read and discuss? What about its key words or summary drew you to it?

2. What are your first impressions of the essay, the perspective of its author, and the central ideas it seems to be about?

3. What do key words and details in the first few paragraphs of the essay suggest about its author’s perspective on life and view of the world?

4. What personal story (or stories) does the author present to illustrate the central ideas of the essay?

5. How does the author use figurative language—paradox, imagery, metaphors, symbolism, or personification—to evoke responses in you as a reader and artfully present claims and ideas?

6. What is the central claim, idea, or theme conveyed in the personal essay?

7. What supporting claims or ideas are presented to develop the central claim, idea, or theme?

8. In what ways does the essay comment on the first Central Question: What does it mean to live a life-well lived?

9. Why might you consider using the essay and its central idea or story as a personal compass as you undertake your journey in the world?

Step 4

As a team, determine who will facilitate and lead your seminar discussion process for this text, who will monitor your progress, and who will record key observations made during discussions.

Activity 2: Discuss

We will learn about methods and tools we can use for taking notes. Then we will plan for the reading and note-taking process.

Follow along as your teacher reintroduces and overviews the Annotating and Note-Taking Reference Guide.

Pay particular attention to the explanation and template for two column note-taking at the end of the guide.

Your teacher will model the use of this tool with a short section of text you have read as a class. Note the process of moving from notes you take (information from the text) in the right-hand column, to notes you make (key words, comments, or questions), to a brief summary at the bottom.

As a team, discuss how familiar you are with this format for note-taking and how you will use it as a consistent format for recording notes during your investigation.

Activity 3: Discuss – Read – Write

We will use our agreed-upon seminar team processes and the Section 2 Task Directions Handout to begin reading, note-taking, and analyzing the personal essay we read.

Step 1

As a team, discuss the steps from the Section 2 Task Directions Handout, and develop some initial agreements about how you want to proceed. For example, for Steps 3 and 4, agree if and how you will use two-column notes and any relevant tools when responding to questions about the essay.

Discuss your team strategy and plan for the first five steps, then follow them to prepare for your reading of your essay.

Step 2

As a team, determine if you will read your text completely before discussing it or if you want to break the text into parts and review notes and observations after each part.

Individually, reread your text (or the first part your team chose to read). Take notes or make annotations that can be shared with your team after reading, using the two-column note-taking process or another format. Add any vocabulary you find interesting to your Vocabulary Journal. Think about these guiding questions from the Personal Essay Guiding Questions on the Section 2 Question Set as you read:

3. What do key words and details in the first few paragraphs of the essay suggest about its author’s perspective on life and view of the world?

4. What personal story (or stories) does the author present to illustrate the central ideas of the essay?

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

Using the personal essay guiding questions from the Section 2 Question Set, we will re-examine and discuss our common essay and develop some team observations about its perspective, use of language, central ideas, and meaning in relation to the unit’s Central Questions.

Step 1

After reading all or part of the text, follow your facilitator’s lead as you share notes, observations, and responses to the guiding questions.

Begin your seminar discussion by re-examining and discussing Questions 3 and 4 from the set:

3. What do key words and details in the first few paragraphs of the essay suggest about its author’s perspective on life and view of the world?

4. What personal story (or stories) does the author present to illustrate the central ideas of the essay?

Pointing to specific evidence from the text, develop a team observation about what you already know about the author’s perspective, life, and thinking from the essay’s opening paragraphs and stories. Individually, record this observation in your Learning Log.

Step 2

Next, examine the language and imagery of the essay more closely, considering any relevant examples of figurative language, as guided by Question 5:

5. How does the author use figurative language—paradox, imagery, metaphors, symbolism, or personification—to evoke responses in you as a reader and artfully present claims and ideas?

Pointing to specific evidence from the text, develop a team observation about the ways in which the author uses figurative language artfully in the essay and what responses its language and imagery evoke in you as readers. Individually, record this observation in your Learning Log.

Step 3

Having discussed the ways in which the author communicates ideas in the essay, now discuss what you think those central ideas, messages, or commentary are by focusing on Questions 6 and 7:

6. What is the central claim, idea, or theme conveyed in the personal essay?

7. What supporting claims or ideas are presented to develop the central claim, idea, or theme?

Point to specific evidence from the text as you develop a team observation about the central claim, idea, or theme of the essay and how it is developed through other supporting claims or ideas. Individually, record this observation in your Learning Log.

Activity 5: Write – Discuss – Present

We will individually develop a text-based summary for the essay we read. Then, we will compare our summaries and develop an overall observation about the essay and its relationship to the Central Questions, which we can share with the class as a whole.

Step 1

Using notes and ideas from your seminar discussion and a Summarizing Text Tool, individually develop a summary of the central ideas and supporting details in the essay your team has read. Complete the tool to organize your thinking, then write a short paragraph that summarizes the essay and its meaning for you.

Step 2

With your seminar team, share and compare the summaries you have developed, noting what is similar and different about them, particularly regarding the meaning you each found in the essay. In explaining that meaning, point to evidence from the text that led you to it.

As a team, complete Step 10 from the Task Directions:

10. Generate a list of key words or themes that you might want to pursue further as you extend your reading, and take note of any new team questions that arise during your seminar discussion.

Start by considering the key words or themes already listed on the Seminar Texts Handout. Add to these based on what you discovered and concluded during your discussion.

Step 3

As a team, reconsider the two Central Questions of the unit and your essay’s relationship to them:

1. What does it mean to live a life well-lived?

2. What compass might you carry as you undertake your journey in the world?

Use the final two questions from the Personal Essay Guiding Questions on the Section 2 Question Set to guide your discussion:

8. In what ways does the essay comment on the first Central Question: What does it mean to live a life-well lived?

9. Why might you consider using the essay and its central idea or story as a personal compass as you undertake your journey in the world?

Discuss the commentary on life stated or implied within your essay and how it might be connected to the idea of a life well-lived.

Present your individual opinions about whether the essay might represent a guiding compass. Explain why.

Develop an overall claim about the meaning of your essay and its relevance to the Central Questions, which you will share with the class. Individually, record this claim in your Learning Log.

Step 4

Present your seminar team’s claim about your essay, its meaning, and relevance to the class. Respond to any questions from students who might want to read the essay later in the unit. Identify any additional key words you suggested for your essay to guide other students as they do their own supplemental reading.

As a class, discuss the “personal essay” genre and how it presents opportunities to tell stories, comment on life, and offer useful guiding ideas. Consider what you have learned from models of that genre and how you might apply them in writing your own personal reflections, essays, or narratives for the Culminating Task.

Activity 6: Discuss – Write

We will review and assess our discussion as a seminar team, then individually rate our contributions and set goals for Future seminar discussions.

Step 1

As a class, review the Academic Discussion Reference Guide—specifically the Discussion Norms section and the Discussion Checklist. As a team, review the discussion norms and reflect on what you have done well and what you might have done better.

Step 2

Individually, complete the Discussion Checklist. Assess how well you evidenced each of the checklist’s questions by indicating whether you have exceeded, met, or not yet met the expectations.

In your Learning Log, write a short reflection about how you did in this first seminar discussion. Identify at least one strength that you will build on in later discussions and at least one specific goal that you will work on to improve your contributions to discussion.

Activity 7: Read – Write

For homework, we will read our assigned poem in preparation for a seminar discussion of it, and we will complete an Analyzing Relationships Tool in response to a guiding question.

For homework, access and do a first reading of the lyrical poem you have been assigned for the next seminar discussion. Recall that you chose two poems from the Seminar Texts Handout.

Read the poem closely several times, focusing on its use of imagery and figurative language to convey its perspective and ideas. Consider what reactions the images and language evoke in you.

Use an Analyzing Relationships Tool to record and think about key details you find in the poem in response to this guiding question:

1. What initial responses does this poem evoke in you as a reader? How do its language and imagery affect your first impressions and sense of the poem’s meaning?

Be prepared to share your tool and its final observation about your initial responses to the poem at the start of the next lesson.