Primary Source Exemplar: Progress, Conflict, and Outcomes


Learning Objectives

Students will write arguments, and begin to build evidence to support their claims

Students will work in groups and form a consensus regarding their claims

Students will evaluate arguments, claims, use of evidence, and use of ambiguity in a government report

Students will determine the most important information to strengthen their claims, and present their findings via discussion and presentation.


Standards Addressed

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.

RI.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.

RI.9-10.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient.

W.9-10.1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

SL.9-10.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

SL.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically.


Instructional Approach/Procedures

Review and Preteach:

During this lesson, students will read and annotate:  Food Deserts in Chicago: A Report of the Illinois Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Oct. 2011. Retrieved from:  http://www.oercommons.org/courses/food-deserts-in-chicago/view. To begin the lesson, the teacher should ask all students to read the Introduction of the document. While students read, they should annotate the article in two ways. First, students should circle words they do not know. Second, students should underline any part of the text that they think connects the article to the work they’ve been doing on human rights and/or child malnutrition.

After students have had the opportunity to read and annotate the text, the teacher should guide them in a discussion of unfamiliar vocabulary. The teacher should support students through specific questions as they use context to discover the meaning of these words.

After students have discussed unfamiliar vocabulary, they should be asked to re-read the text. As they read, they should add to their annotations, again underlining those quotations that may have to do with the content of the previous lessons.

Next, students should work in groups of 3 or 4 to discuss the connections they made. In their groups, students should share what they underlined and as a group come up with a claim regarding the connections. They should use specific evidence from the texts (UDHR, child malnutrition data, and the Introduction to “Food Deserts in Chicago” to support their reasoning.

If desired, the teacher can ask students to evaluate each other’s claims and evidence through a Gallery Walk or other peer review protocol.

Instruction/Modeling

The teacher should guide students in reading, understanding, and evaluating the first section of the report entitled “Chicago Demographics.” Using a graphic organizer such as the one below, the teacher should model summarizing the main idea, identifying sub-points to support the main idea, and evaluating the evidence and reasoning. The teacher should also model for students the use of maps as evidence.



Summary of the Main idea:








Sub-claims



What claims does the author make to support the main idea of the text?

Evidence to Support the sub-claim


What evidence is used to support the claim?

Reasoning



How does the author connect the evidence to the point? How does the author connect the point to the main idea?

Effectiveness



Is the reasoning effective? Do the connections make sense? Why or why not?














Where in the text is the author missing evidence? Where does the author leave things ambiguous?









Student Tasks/Activity

After modeling argument evaluation with “Chicago Demographics,” the teacher should divide the class into small groups and assign each group a different part of the report. Students should work in their groups to complete an argument evaluation on the section they are assigned. Note: the teacher does not have to use all sections of the text, but each group should be assigned a different section.

After students evaluate their section of the text, they should be asked to present their section of the text to the rest of the class. Presentations should include an objective summary of the main idea of the section, a list of sub-claims and the evidence used to support these sub-claims, and a summary of any statements made without evidence and/or areas of the text that were ambiguous.

Following the presentations, the teacher should guide students in a discussion of the evaluations. Particularly, what kinds of evidence was used in the report? Was this evidence effective? Why or why not? What claims were left unsupported? What was the impact of the lack of support on the text as a whole? Why might authors leave claims unsupported? What was left ambiguous? What was the impact of ambiguity on the text as a whole? What is the purpose of ambiguity in a text?

At the end of class, return to the claims they made at the beginning of class connecting the Introduction of this text to the UDHR and child malnutrition. Alone or in groups, they should be asked to revise these claims based on an evaluation of their original arguments as well as additional evidence from the work they did on their specific pieces as well as the presentations from the groups.

Student Literacy Tasks:

Reading task

Students will conduct a “close read” of the government report by analyzing claims, evidence, and reasoning.

Vocabulary task

Students will investigate unfamiliar vocabulary during a first reading of the text.

Sentence syntax task

Students will craft well-written claims and evidentiary statements based upon the Common Core language Standards.

Inquiry and analysis task

Students will analyze the government report to evaluate use of evidence.

Writing (or other production)

Students will use their written claims to add complexity to the culminating written assignment at the end of the unit.


Checking for Understanding

Guided Questions and Discussions: The instructor will check for understanding by modeling the process and prompting students thinking with questioning and discussion.

Group/Pair Discussion:  Students will analyze and discuss the materials together and come to a consensus regarding the best analysis of the content.

Writing-Based Assessment:  Students will begin to write claims and evidence to support them for the culminating written assessment.


Differentiation and Supports

Adaptations: The teacher might provide students with a partially completed graphic organizer to scaffold their learning. For example, she might identify a few claims and ask students to find and evaluate the evidence. Alternatively, she might provide the evidence and ask students to identify the related claims. If students struggle with the effectiveness column, the teacher might ask students to complete the first three columns in their groups and then guide the entire class in a discussion of effectiveness.

Supports:  Students having difficulty with the material may draw upon those in their groups to craft claims and arguments, students should be grouped strategically, and placed in groups that represent a diversity of skill levels and background knowledge.

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