Lesson 7
We will continue the seminar-based research, reading, and discussion process.
Lesson Goals
Can I participate collaboratively, offering ideas or judgments that are purposeful in moving the team toward goals, asking relevant and insightful questions, tolerating a range of positions and ambiguity in decision making, and evaluating the work of the group based on agreed-upon criteria while working in my seminar discussion teams?
Can I make connections to personal experiences and ideas in my research texts?
Can I paraphrase and summarize my research texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order?
Can I synthesize information from a variety of sources read and analyzed by members of the seminar team?
Texts
There are no texts for this Lesson.Materials
Tools
Question Sets
Editable Google Docs
Activity 1: Read – Write
We will prepare for our next seminar discussion by doing a close reading of a third supplemental text. We will consider questions about the text’s central claims, use of figurative language, and meaning relative to the unit’s Central Questions, and we will develop a summary and explication we can share with our team.
Step 1
In this and the following lessons, we will repeat the seminar reading and discussion processes that we used for the first two supplemental texts.
Individually, do a closer rereading of the text you initially read for homework, now focusing on questions from the Section 2 Question Set and details from the text that are related to its ideas, claims, and use of figurative language.
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?
What is the central claim, idea, or theme conveyed in the lyrical poem?
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.
Step 2
Review again the text you read and analyzed in response to questions from the question set and the annotations or notes you made. Then consider what the text seems to be saying in relation to the Central Questions, your inquiry questions, and your developing sense of what it means to live a life well-lived.
In what ways does the text comment on the first Central Question: What does it mean to live a life-well lived?
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 3
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 summary.
Be prepared to review and summarize your text for your seminar team in the next activity.
Activity 2: Discuss
In a seminar discussion format, we will present our impressions and summaries of the supplemental texts we have individually read.
Step 1
Identify the texts from the Supplemental Texts Handout that team members read individually for homework. Note any texts that may have been read in common, and also related keywords that might connect the set of texts. Determine an order for discussing those texts as a seminar team.
Step 2
Individually, use the summaries and explications you developed and selected questions from the Section 2 Question Set to present what you have discovered in and learned from the text you read.
Share your reasons for being interested in and reading the text and your initial impressions of it (Questions 1 and 2).
Briefly summarize the topic and key ideas or themes addressed in the text (what it is about), and characterize the author’s perspective (Question 3).
If the text used a story to convey its ideas, summarize the narrative and how it is used (Question 4).
Share observations about how figurative language was used in the text, and read a few examples of figurative language that you find interesting (Question 5).
Explain the meaning you have found in the text and how its central claims or ideas are developed (Questions 6 and 7).
Present your thinking about how the text relates to the unit’s Central Questions (Questions 8 and 9).
After presenting your summary and analysis, respond to any questions and observations from the team that might help you relate your text to others that teammates have read.
Step 3
Repeat the presentation and discussion process for all of the texts that team members have read.
Activity 3: Discuss – Read
As a team, we will discuss connections and common themes among the texts we have read and use them to revise or extend our initial claims in response to the Central Questions of the unit.
Step 1
Having presented and discussed all of the texts that members of the seminar team have read, now discuss connections and common themes you found among the texts.
First, make a team list of central ideas or themes that members identified in their reports, looking for connections among the texts and their meanings.
Then consider not only the central ideas and themes of the texts, but also the stories they might be built around, their use of figurative language, their genres, and their authors.
Make a list of similarities and differences among the texts.
Step 2
In light of the previous comparative discussion, reconsider the two Central Questions of the unit:
What does it mean to live a life well-lived?
What compass might you carry as you undertake your journey in the world?
Discuss the various ways in which the texts relate to or present an idea that connects to the first question about a life well-lived. As you do so, continue to develop an emerging team definition of what a "life well-lived" might involve, based on the texts you have read and the ideas of members of the team.
Step 3
Review your previously developed team claim in response to the first Central Question, which you will continue to reconsider throughout your team’s research, reading, and discussion process.
As a team, discuss the ways in which the texts you have read for this seminar discussion might have supported, extended, enriched, or changed your thinking in forming your initial claim.
Based on that discussion, revise your team claim in response to the unit’s Central Question.
In addition, make a list of any new inquiry questions that might have come up during your seminar discussion.
Step 4
Record the revised team claim and new inquiry questions in your Learning Log. Then write a personal response to the claim, reflecting on what you learned from the new text, the seminar discussion itself, and the process of comparing texts and what they say about living a life well-lived. Explain whether you might now see this text as a guiding compass.
Activity 4: Read
We will review the Supplemental Texts Handout and plan our next steps for individual reading and team research and discussion.
Step 1
As a team, review again the Supplemental Texts Handout in light of this seminar discussion and the revised claim and new questions it has generated.
Consider now if you want to expand your individual and team research by using a research source or website and keyword search.
If so, identify potential sources from the Supplemental Texts Handout that seem related to your team’s common interests, topics, themes, and questions. Assign exploratory research tasks to each member of the team.
Identify keywords that might help guide your search, and review the notes you took when your teacher modeled how to do a keyword search.
Step 2
As a team and as individuals, determine the next research you will do for homework and review in the next day’s seminar.
Activity 5: Read
For homework, we will use keywords to search for additional information and possible texts.
For homework, access the research source or website you were assigned by your group. Using keywords you have agreed upon, search the site to identify potentially valuable information, texts you or your teammates might read next, or multimedia resources that could be used within your team’s presentation at the end of Section 3. Add any interesting words to your Vocabulary Journal.