Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan: Civil Rights Rhetorical Discourse
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LESSON TITLE
The Position Paper
Civil Rights Rhetorical Discourse
ABOUT THIS LESSON
“You are young, prospective voters who are out of a major election cycle. What’s next? For this project I want you to immerse yourself in political media. What is the Constitutional rights issue you are finding discussed that gets to the core of you? What matters to you as a person, as an American? I don’t think you’re going to find Utopia out there. You’re probably going to be inspired by hope some days, and destroyed by pessimism on others.
“Your job is to become your own expert on a Constitutional rights issue of your choosing. Listen to, read, and watch everything you can about what others are saying on your subject. You are going to join the discussion of this discourse community with your own educated opinion.
“Your project is going to be a discussion of your position on the issue based the ideas presented in The Interactive Constitution of your research expanding on those issues. It may be unique from what anyone else is saying out there. It’s going to feature your finest, most educated, yet appealing voice. Your grammar will be flawless. Your ideas will be incredibly sound. Your idea development will educate and move your reader. The only apparent spin should be reason.”
GRADE LEVEL
12 / Dual Credit ENG 101
CLASSROOM TIME
4 weeks
RESOURCES (title only – attach complete files separately)
Constitutioncenter.org
Interactive Constitution
Podcasts
Constitution Center in the News
Constitutional Rights Origins and Travels
Writing Rights
Rights Around the World
An Introduction to the Analytical Writing Section of the GRE … – ETS
Writing Analytically Sixth Edition: David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen, Chapters 8, 9, 13, and 14.
“Anti-Intellectualism is Killing America” blog post by David Niose
Blog post responses:
“No, Self-Centeredness is Killing America” blog post by Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A
“Anti-Intellectualism and Contemporary America” blog post by Michael W. Austin, Ph.D.
“Fighting Back Against Bias in ‘Intellectualism’ or ‘Reason’” blog post by Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A
“Hidden Intellectualism: an excerpt from They Say/ I Say” by Gerald Graff
BACKGROUND
Students’ unit studies are in literacy and discourse communities. This unit has a focus on the concept of intellectualism and anti-intellectualism and the conversations/issues that are still forming on the analysis of these topics. From this group model, students are working with the materials given in the Interactive Constitution website to develop their own analysis of a Constitutional issue.
Being a dual credit class, this project is practice for a GRE writing experience similar to the ACT writing experiences the students have had throughout high school. It’s a great transitional piece from persuasive writing of secondary school to analytical writing of post-secondary school.
OBJECTIVES
Students will:
- Research a chosen amendment to the Constitution
- Develop an analysis of current issues
- Present the analysis of the issue based on the extent to which the writer can agree or disagree with the issue at hand
STANDARDS : College and Career Readiness Standards, ACT.org
EXJ 601. Show advanced understanding of the persuasive purpose of the task by taking a position on the specific issue in the prompt and offering a critical context for discussion
EXJ 602. Generate insightful reasons for a position; show understanding of the complexity of the issue in the prompt by
— examining different perspectives, and/or — evaluating implications or complications of the issue, and/or
— anticipating and fully responding to counterarguments to the writer’s position
FOC 601. Maintain a precise focus on discussing the specific issue in the prompt throughout the essay
FOC 602. Present a critical thesis that clearly establishes the focus on the writer’s position on the issue
DEV 601. Provide ample development in support of ideas; substantiate ideas with precise use of specific, logical reasons and illustrative examples
DEV 602. Show effective movement between general and specific ideas and examples
ORI 601. Provide a unified, coherent organizational structure that presents a logical progression of ideas
ORI 602. Use precise transitional words, phrases, and sentences to convey logical relationships between ideas
ORI 603. Present a well-developed introduction that effectively frames the prompt’s issue and writer’s argument; present a well-developed conclusion that extends the essay’s ideas
USL 601. Show effective use of language to communicate ideas clearly by —correctly employing most conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics, with just a few, if any, errors
—consistently choosing words that are precise and varied
—using a variety of kinds of sentence structures to vary pace and to support meaning
LESSON
- Students will become acquainted with and collage journal about current national and world issues through exploring the website I Side With.
- Students will become acquainted with and collage journal about Constitutional journalism in the Constitution Center’s blog, podcasts and Constitution Center in the News.
- Students will become familiar with and collage journal about several analytical perspectives of the concept of anti-intellectualism through David Niose’s blog post and scholars who have responded (Chandra and Austin).
- Students will become familiar with and collage journal about the Interactive Constitution in selecting a Constitutional Amendment to analyze.
- Students will become familiar with and collage journal about the Constitutional Rights: Origins and Travels tab of the Constitution Center.
- Students will become familiar with and collage journal about the anti-intellectualism analysis of Gerald Graff.
- Students will work with collage pieces to find interest in potential analysis. Students will collage journal about what learning is necessary to join this discourse community.
- Students will explore relevant, scholarly resources to their project’s growth.
- Students will develop a position of perspective in relation to the current issues in Constitutional understanding/interpretation.
- Students will participate in an online discussion group through Schoology with their writer’s workshop peers sharing what they have so far and questioning the group for gaps in understanding.
POST LESSON ACTIVITIES
Students will share their completed drafts in a writer’s workshop.
Readers will look for a clear statement of Constitutional issue and writer’s position on issue.
Readers will look for analysis of current issues presented by scholarly writers.
Readers will look for connection of the writer to the current issues insofar as the writer is
able to either agree or disagree with the writers from one of our GRE thesis points.
ASSESSMENT OPTIONS
This is a 4-6 page, 12 font, double-spaced project. It is titled, has MLA in-text citations, a works cited page, and a cover letter.
Choose ONE of these possibilities from the GRE writing prompts:
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a general statement and consider
circumstances in which the statement might or might not hold true.
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a recommendation and consider specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous.
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a claim and anticipate and address the most compelling reasons or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a claim and explain what reasons or
circumstances would be most likely to cause you to change your position.
- Discuss your views on a policy and explain the possible consequences of implementing the policy.
- Discuss two opposing views and explain what principles you would use in choosing between the two views.
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement _____ and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how those considerations shape your position.
Resources
“Anti-Intellectualism is Killing America” blog post by David Niose
“No, Self-Centeredness is Killing America” blog post by Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A
“Anti-Intellectualism and Contemporary America” blog post by Michael W. Austin, Ph.D.
“Fighting Back Against Bias in ‘Intellectualism’ or ‘Reason’” blog post by Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.Ahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/ravi-chandra-md-dfapa
“Hidden Intellectualism: an excerpt from They Say/ I Say” by Gerald Graff
Writing Analytically, Sixth Edition text by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen
“Collage: Your Cheatin’ Art” an excerpt from Writing on the Edge by Peter Elbow
https://works.bepress.com/peter_elbow/7/