Curriculum / ELA / 10th Grade / Unit 1: Altruism and Interconnectedness in Short Texts / Lesson 4
ELA
Unit 1
10th Grade
Lesson 4 of 11
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Analyze how King’s rhetorical strategies address his audience’s needs, values, and beliefs.
Letter: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Tasks that represents the peak thinking of the lesson - mastery will indicate whether or not objective was achieved
How do King’s rhetorical strategies address his audience’s needs, values, and beliefs?
An example response to the Target Task at the level of detail expected of the students.
Key thinking students do about today's reading.
Rereading #1: What is the rhetorical situation? In other words, what lines in the text reveal the rhetorical situation including the exigence, purpose, audience, and context?
Rereading #2: What diction choices, allusions, and sentence structures seem particularly interesting and noteworthy?
Who is the intended audience of his letter? What is Dr. King’s purpose for writing the letter?
What words and phrases in the opening paragraph reveal King’s tone? What do these words and phrases suggest about King’s perspective and attitude? His leadership?
King faced criticism for being in Birmingham as an outsider. In paragraphs 2 through 4, King addresses the criticism he faced for being in Birmingham as an outsider. How does King appeal to ethos and pathos in these paragraphs? Build his credibility as a speaker? What are the effects of these appeals?
What are the four basic principles in a nonviolent campaign? Why does King go into such detail and specificity when describing these principles and the process?
Trace the use of parallelism (the repetition of grammatical structures) in paragraph 14. Identify the three to four examples of parallelism. Explain the impact it has on meaning in this paragraph.
What is the difference between a just law and unjust law? Why does King go into such detail and specificity when differentiating between the two types of laws?
In what ways are King’s rhetorical strategies intentional and strategic?
How do his choices as a writer reflect his rhetorical situation?
Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text
cognizant
adj.
having knowledge or being aware of
paradoxical
seemingly absurd or self-contradictory
scintillating
sparkling or shining brightly
sanctimonious
making a show of being morally superior to other people
existential
relating to existence
constructive
serving a useful purpose; tending to build up
rabid
having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something
catapult
v.
to hurl or launch (something) in a specified direction
unfettered
unrestrained or uninhibited
incorrigible
not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed
repudiate
to refuse to accept or be associated with
elegy
n.
a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead
substantive
having a separate and independent existence
admonish
to warn or reprimand someone firmly
latent
existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden or concealed
languish
to suffer from being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation
Reading and/or task to be completed at home in preparation for the next lesson.
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LO 1.2B — Explain how the rhetorical features of an argument contribute to its effect and meaning.
RI.9-10.6 — Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
LO 1.2A — Analyze the development of an argument, evaluating its central claim(s), the soundness of the reasoning, and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
LO 2.3A — Assert a precise central claim that establishes the relationship between a work's features and overall meaning.
LO 5.1B — Cite relevant evidence and evaluate the evidence presented by others.
RI.9-10.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RI.9-10.2 — Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
SL.9-10.1 — Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9—10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
W.9-10.2.a — Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
Lesson 3
Lesson 5
Introduction
Synthesize ideas from excerpts from Justice and SuperFreakonomics to formulate an argument about altruism.
LO 1.1A LO 1.4B RL.9-10.1
Close Reading
Determine the audience's needs, values, and beliefs in John Lewis’s farewell essay and examine the rhetorical strategies that compel his audience to action.
LO 1.2B RI.9-10.6
Identify and analyze the rhetorical situation and key diction choices in “A Call for Unity.” Craft an argument about the extent to which the public statement is ethical.
LO 1.2B LO 2.3A RI.9-10.6 W.9-10.2.a
Socratic Seminar
Analyze how King achieves his authorial purpose by identifying and interpreting his rhetorical strategies.
Assessment: Free Response
Analyzes the rhetorical choices that Lewis or King makes to convey his message about the importance of unifying in response to injustice.
LO 2.2B LO 2.3A LO 2.3C LO 2.3D RI.9-10.1 RI.9-10.2 RI.9-10.6 W.9-10.2
Analyze Sammy’s characterization and narrative perspective to unpack central ideas in “A&P.”
LO 1.3B RL.9-10.3
Analyze the speaker’s perspective and poetic form to convey central ideas about interconnectedness in “The World is Too Much with Us.”
LO 1.3A RL.9-10.3
Analyze how the author uses the juxtaposition between "The Pledge of Allegiance" and the Thanksgiving address to convey central ideas about gratitude and interconnectedness in the excerpt from Braiding Sweetgrass.
Assessment: Socratic Seminar
Formulate and share unique arguments about meaning across Unit 1 texts. Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a summative Socratic Seminar.
LO 5.1A LO 5.1B RI.9-10.1 RI.9-10.2 RI.9-10.6 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3 SL.9-10.1 SL.9-10.2
Assessment: Performance Task – 4 days
Complete the performance task to show mastery of unit content and standards.
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