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Lesson 4

We will learn more about how to do keyword searches for additional texts and information. Then, we will begin reading, analyzing, summarizing, and responding to supplemental texts.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I describe personal connections to my self-selected research sources?

  • Can I paraphrase and summarize my self-selected research texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order?

  • Can I locate relevant sources?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will learn about processes and guidelines for keyword searches, which we might use as we look for additional texts and information related to our research topics, inquiry questions, and responses to the first Central Question.

Step 1

As a class, access and review the Supplemental Texts Handout, which lists preapproved texts and research sources for your individual and team research from this point forward.

Notice again that the texts on the list include information about key words or themes that characterize the text and that also might lead you to new texts.

Follow along as your teacher models an example of how to take a personal interest—such as a focus on the topic of family—to find texts and resources on the handout that might in some way be related. Take notes on suggestions about how to access and do a preliminary review of an example text from the handout.

Step 2

Now follow along as your teacher moves to the research sources section of the handout, which lists preapproved sources or websites through which you might find additional texts or information. Take notes about how to use a keyword like “family” to do a search.

For a source such as the longform.org, search for relevant essays or articles related to a pathway for the unit. For example, a search for the keyword "family" on that site yields a series of essays titled Life on the Land: An American Farm Family. It is described as “A six-part series on a Minnesota farm family facing the worst U.S. agricultural crisis since the Depression. Winner of 1986 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.”

Note how this title surfaces a specific element of the family: families on farms. Also note that the description hints at the credibility of the series, since it won a Pulitzer Prize.

Step 3

Using inquiry questions you generated in the previous lesson, you can either peruse the text options on the Supplemental Texts Handout as a starting point, or you can enter a website portal to begin searching for texts relevant to your questions and research goals.

Be sure to follow your teacher’s research guidelines around choosing appropriate texts using the Website Research Portals.

Activity 2: Read – Write

We will individually read our first supplemental text and will use a question set to analyze the text as we prepare to present what we have learned to our seminar team.

Step 1

As you prepare to read the first supplemental text you selected from the Supplemental Texts Handout, review the steps from the Section 2 Task Directions Handout to read either a personal essay or a poem. Though you will now be doing these steps on your own, the process is still useful to follow:

  1. Determine how you can access your text.

  2. Review the question set for either an essay or a poem on the Section 2 Question Set. Identify any inquiry questions that might be related to the text.

  3. Determine a strategy for how to read and examine the text in response to the questions and how to record notes or annotations.

  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. Read the text (or a section of it) in response to one or more of the guiding questions.

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

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

  9. 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 questions that have arisen during your reading.

Step 2

Next, review the question set for the type of text you are reading (an essay or poem). Pay particular attention to the first questions of the set, which should guide your initial reading:

  1. Why were you initially interested in this text 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 text, the perspective of its author, and the central ideas it seems to be about?

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

  4. What stories does the author present to illustrate the central ideas of the text?

Do an initial reading of the text, noting key details and annotating or making notes in response to these questions.

Step 3

Do a closer rereading of the text, now focusing on questions from the question set that are related to its ideas, claims, and use of figurative language:

  1. 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?

  2. What is the central claim, idea, or theme conveyed in the text?

  3. What ideas, images, or metaphors are presented to develop the central claim, idea, or theme?

If it is helpful, use a tool such as the Analyzing Relationships Tool to help you focus on key details and language in the text.

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will individually review our notes about our first supplemental text, again using a question set. We will then use a Summarizing Text Tool to analyze the text as we prepare to present what we have learned to our seminar team.

Step 1

Review the text you read and analyzed in response to the questions from the appropriate question set on the Section 2 Question Set, using the annotations or notes you have made. Then consider what the text seems to be saying in relation to the unit’s Central Questions, your inquiry questions, and your developing sense of what it means to live a life well-lived.

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

  2. Why might you consider using the text and its central idea, story, or metaphors as a personal compass as you undertake your journey in the world?

Step 2

Having framed and considered your responses to the questions, use a Summarizing Text Tool to develop a detail-based summary and explication of the text that you can share with your new seminar team. Think deeply about what you will write in the final section of the tool, when you write a statement about the central idea or theme of the text and its relationship to the unit’s Central Questions, your inquiry questions, and your developing sense of what it means to live a life well-lived.

Because space on the tool is limited, you might need to write your summary and explication of the text in your Learning Log or on a separate piece of paper; if so, you can use the space on the tool to write one or two statements that will serve as topic sentences for your longer summary.

Be prepared to review and summarize your text for a new seminar team at the start of the next lesson.