Challenges of the Digital World

Challenges of the Digital World

Experiment Results Share

Opening

Working with your small group, share your Digital Connection Log from Lesson 2 and the results of your digital disconnection experiment.

Be sure to make a note of any part of your partners’ experiences that might provide personal evidence for your argument paper. Use these questions to guide your discussion.

  • What ideas about digital connecting do you see in your partners' experiences?
  • What key lessons did your partners draw from this activity?
  • What new perspectives did you learn about from your partners' work?

Open Notebook

Survey Analysis

Work Time

In your museum exhibit teams, read the “AT&T; Teen Driver Survey Executive Summary” together. This survey attempts to isolate the factors that lead teens to engage in texting while they’re driving and offers some potential solutions to lessen the problem. It’s highly relevant to your work on digital culture because the texting and driving problem is a great example of an area in which people’s urge to connect often outweighs their better judgment.

Discuss the questions below and write down key ideas and insights as needed. For the last two questions, be sure to note a quotation or a piece of data from the survey to support your ideas.

  • What do the words fielded ,survey , andrespondent mean?
  • What are the biggest predictors of whether a teenager will text and drive?
  • What does the survey tell you about the difference between what teens believe about the dangers of texting and driving and what they choose to do when they are actually driving?
  • How do the visual representations of the information in the article help you understand teenagers’ motivations when they make decisions about texting and driving?
  • What does this survey tell you about Digital Natives’ urge to connect constantly with each other?

Open Notebook

Argument Essay Scoring

Work Time

Before you continue writing your essay, be sure you fully understand the requirements of the Unit Accomplishments and the assessment criteria in the Argument Rubric. (You can find the Unit Accomplishment documents in Lesson 3.)

Your teacher will get you started applying the Argument Rubric to the provided Sample Essay.

  • Score the essay with the rubric. Examine each of the five categories in the rubric and judge how well the essay accomplishes them. For each of the five categories, find one example in which the writer at least attempted to meet the requirements and discuss how well he or she did it.

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Essay Score Comparison

Work Time

work time Essay Score Comparison

Now compare your scoring and your examples to your partner’s. Use the questions below to spark discussion, and take notes for yourself as needed.

  • Did you arrive at identical or similar scores to your partner’s?
  • Where were you and your partner the most similar and most different?
  • Do you feel you have all of the information you need to write the paper successfully? If not, why not?
  • What areas will you need to focus on the most?
  • Do you need any help from your teacher so you have a clear idea of the requirements before you continue to write?

Open Notebook

Body Paragraphs

Closing

It’s time to begin to write body paragraphs.

Here are some elements of a strong body paragraph for you to consider as you write:

  • The topic sentence acts as a mini-thesis that states the goal of the paragraph.
  • The topic sentence acts as a connection between the main thesis and the claims of the paragraph.
  • Evidence is blended elegantly with a sentence that makes its purpose clear.
  • The claims of the paragraph are clearly based on the evidence, using a valid line of reasoning that your reader can follow.

Draft your first body paragraph.

When you have finished, look at your thesis. Now that you’ve examined some specific evidence within your writing, what can you do to make your thesis more specific, challenging, and creative?

Open Notebook

Argument Essay Writing

Homework

  • Revise your introduction and finish at least one body paragraph by the next lesson.