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Lesson 8

We will form an evidence-based claim and begin preparing our response to the Section Diagnostic question:

How did the photojournalism of Charles Moore and others define the American Civil Rights Movement and serve as a catalyst for social and political change?

Lesson Goals

Reading and Knowledge

  • Gather and Organize Evidence: How well do I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate my understanding of the texts and topics of this section, as well as the task posed by the question in the Section Diagnostic?
  • Analyze Relationships: How well do I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas within texts and the events that were part of the historical context surrounding those details and ideas?

Writing

  • Form Claims: How well do I develop and clearly communicate a meaningful and defensible claim regarding the influence of photojournalism during the civil rights era using valid, evidence-based analysis?
  • Develop Ideas: How well do I use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to support and elaborate on coherent and logical explanations?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will break down what the Section Diagnostic prompt is asking us to do and begin using our Learning Logs and previous activities to think about a response to that prompt.

Step 1

Read and annotate the Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist.

Work with a partner to think about the task’s expectations and respond to the following questions:

  1. What were civil rights leaders trying to accomplish in the 1960s in the South?

  2. How did civil rights photojournalists capture and document “in a luminous glare” what the Civil Rights Movement was trying to change?

  3. How did iconic photographs like Birmingham, Alabama influence public opinion and serve as a catalyst for social and political change?

Step 2

As a class, read and discuss the three “be sure to” expectations listed under the task question.

Note that the task expects you to write a summary about the Civil Rights Movement, a visual analysis of one or more photographs by Moore or another civil rights photojournalist, and a claim about how photojournalism was a catalyst for change. Note also that you are expected to write a three-paragraph response, and that each of the three expectations could organize a paragraph in your response.

Ask any clarifying questions about what you will be expected to do in the Section Diagnostic.

Activity 2: Write

We will learn how to write strong body paragraphs for an expository essay, beginning with writing effective topic sentences.

Develop three topic sentences, one for each of the task expectations. One of these will also be the central claim of your essay, about civil rights photojournalism as a catalyst for change.

An effective topic sentence encapsulates and organizes an entire paragraph. While topic sentences might appear anywhere in a paragraph, they most often appear at the beginning. When writing a topic sentence for a paragraph, it is helpful to ask yourself what’s going on in your paragraph, as well as the following questions:

  1. What is your central claim? How is the topic sentence related to your central claim?

  2. What point are you trying to make?

  3. Why is the paragraph important in the context of what you are trying to say?

  4. What information will you include to support and explain your topic sentence?

You should have at least three topic sentences in your response.

Activity 3: Read

We will begin introducing evidence to accompany our topic sentences, working toward a cohesive whole.

Work individually or in pairs to locate three brief quotes⁠ or pieces of information (paraphrased, in your own words) from the texts in this section that support the topic sentences from the previous activity.

Activity 4: Discuss

We will work on unpacking the evidence we have collected, considering how it is connected to the original claim and three topic sentences we intend to develop in our response.

Work with a partner to talk through how you will use the evidence you have identified through visual analysis, reading, or research to explain and support each of your topic sentences and your central claim. Unpack the evidence for your claims by showing how that evidence supports your topic sentence, main idea, or thesis. Try to explain in more detail how the concepts or ideas fit together.

As you explain what you intend to write, or listen to your partner’s explanation, think about how the claim, topic sentences, and evidence work together to form a unified and coherent response to the task question.

Activity 5: Read – Write

For homework, we will review our notes, tools, and topic sentences to identify additional evidence we might use, and we will develop an organizational plan for writing our responses to the Section Diagnostic.

Step 1

Review the three topic sentence claims you developed earlier in this lesson. Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Are my three sentences organized in the best way? If not, how should I organize them?

  2. What is the connection among my ideas?

  3. What additional evidence can I use from texts and photos to explain and support my ideas?

Step 2

Go back over the notes and tools you have developed, looking for additional evidence or quotes you might use. If you are selecting quotes, think about how you can smoothly integrate them into your own writing.

Make a sequential list or outline of your three claims and the evidence you will use. You will use this plan to guide your writing of an in-class essay in the Section Diagnostic lesson.

Review your Vocabulary Journal. Identify a significant word or words that you would like to use in your response to the Section Diagnostic.

Review your Mentor Sentence Journal. Select at least one technique that you plan to use when writing your response to the Section Diagnostic.