Skip to Main Content

Lesson 4

We will use our definition of change agents and our foundational and pathway texts to make meaningful connections and draw conclusions about the qualities of change agents and the characteristics of change.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas within and across pathway texts?

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas in pathway texts?

  • Can I work productively in various roles with other pathway group members?

  • Can I revisit, refine, and revise my pathway understanding, knowledge, and work based on discussions with others and feedback and review by myself and others?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “The Danger of Silence,” Clint Smith, TED.com, 2015

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Write – Discuss

We will review previously read quotations in order to create meaningful and constructive connections across the texts.

Review the two quotes you previously worked with: “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” and Dr. King’s quote mentioned in “The Danger of Silence” by Clint Smith: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Individually, respond to the following questions:

  1. What ideas do these quotes share?

  2. What is the fundamental difference between the quotes?

With your research team, discuss the following two questions:

  1. Collaboratively, create a list of these similarities and differences. Can you identify trends or categories in your list? Share your answers with the class.

After each group has shared, respond to the following question:

  1. How do these ideas relate to one another?

Activity 2: Write – Discuss

We will continue working with our research team, using our definition of a change agent— created during the reading of our foundational texts—and a text from each pathway to make comparisons and draw conclusions.

Access the Foundation Unit Pathways Text handout. Select a text from your pathway text set that all group members have previously read. Review your research team’s definition of a change agent. As a team, respond to the following questions:

  1. What do your text and your definition of a change agent have in common?

  2. What might be a fundamental difference or disconnect between your text and your definition?

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will read and annotate an additional pathway text with our research team in order to practice the type of synthesis and conclusions that will be necessary in our Culminating Task.

Step 1

For this activity, you will use The Extending Understanding Tool. The Extending Understanding Tool supports and guides a process for analyzing relationships among texts or sections of text, making text-based comparisons and developing a claim or posing a new text-specific question. Often, you will use it with a new text that you want to relate or compare to a previous text you have analyzed. As with the other Reading Closely Tools, it is usually used with a guiding or text-specific question that involves comparing texts or extending understanding from one text to another.

Step 2

Using the Tool

  1. Write down the guiding question in the space provided at the top: What ideas do the pathway texts share?

  2. The first row on the tool can serve two purposes. First, if you are working with one text, it provides space to compare ideas in the text or track how an idea or claim is developed within the text. Second, if you are working with two or more texts, the space can be used to compare ideas among texts. For example, you can discuss how different authors convey similar themes, or how different authors develop arguments. Note that the directions say to explain and not to simply identify. This means you might have to include relevant facts or details to support your comparisons.

  3. The Analyze Relationships row asks you to identify how your thinking about the topic, texts, or claims has changed or expanded as a result of new information you have read. This is not just a space to write the new information you have gathered; it is a space to identify how or why this new information has shifted, refined, or confirmed your perspective.

  4. The final row invites you to synthesize this new information. When you synthesize something, you are putting all the pieces together and considering all of your information, then developing a new claim or question. You can write the claim or question in the space provided.

Step 3

With your research teams, choose another pathway text. Read and annotate the new text. As a team, use an Extending Understanding Tool to respond to the guiding question:

  1. What ideas do the two pathway texts share?

Then, discuss the following question:

  1. What is the fundamental difference between the two texts? Write down your team’s ideas in your Learning Log.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

We will reflect on the process of synthesizing texts for research.

Review the Explore Source Usefulness section of the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide. Reflecting on all rounds of the previous activity, discuss the following questions with your group members:

  1. What information does the new text provide on your pathway?

  2. How does the text help you respond to your inquiry questions or achieve your research goals?

  3. How might the text cause you to change your inquiry?

  4. How does the information in the text relate to the other text that you read?

  5. Why does it matter that these texts have similarities?

  6. Why does it matter that these texts have differences?

Activity 5: Write – Discuss

We will culminate our process of making connections and drawing conclusions by looking beyond the texts we have read in order to determine our Future needs for reading, research, and revising ideas.

Review the notes taken on each of the four materials under examination.

  • “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

  • “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

  • Pathway Text 1

  • Pathway Text 2

Complete this activity individually. Reflecting on all texts read, consider what questions remain using the following questions as a guide for your thinking. Answer at least two of the following questions using textual evidence as support:

  1. How does this group of texts inform your current understanding of change agents overall and your pathway specifically?

  2. Does one text provide more information than others? Why is that?

  3. What questions arise from these texts? How can you answer them?

  4. How will these texts help your pathway group succeed on the Culminating Task?

Share your findings with your pathway members, and discuss ways to help each other answer any remaining questions. Summarize the lesson in your Learning Log.