8 4 Faces of the Essay Lessons

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Lesson Plan Grade 8: Unit 4: Faces of the Essay

Writing Workshop Lessons 1-3: Introducing the Understanding Essays Work

Lessons 1-3: Introducing the Understanding Essays Work

Materials

Transparency and student copies of: Understanding Essays: A Protocol forWorking with Text handout (see end of lesson)

Writing notebooks, chart paper, markersIntended Learning

Students review what an essay is so they can actively participate in thisunit of study.

Standard

Compare and contrast a varietyof texts with similar themes andideas.

Big Idea

Read, discuss, and describeessays to articulate thediversity of their arguments,characteristics, similarities,and differences

Focus Lesson Notes

Note:The Understanding Essays work of the next several lessons is an essentialpart of this units work, supported largely by the Understanding Essaysprotocol located at the end of this lesson. Additional support:

1. Rereading is a fundamental way good readers deal with challengingtexts.

2. Getting smarter is a social process, a by-product of sharedexperiences, discussion, and reflection.

3. Discussion is an essential part of rigorous and effective intellectualwork.

4. For discussions to work well, participants must stay anchored to thetexts under consideration and have the opportunity to try out ideas in acommunity-oriented setting that demands rigor and good thinking.

The Understanding Essays protocol is a general template designed forwork with essays of all shapes and kinds. The order of the work on theprotocolconsidering the essays arguments before considering what iscompelling about the essayis intentional. An essays arguments must bestudied first. If not, we run the risk of glossing over, or missing altogether,the heart of texts under consideration.

There is an alternative to using the Understanding Essays protocol in thiswork. If you are interested, generate essay-specific slides or steps thathonor the essential features and progression of the Understanding Essaysprotocol. These essay-specific tools would replace the more generalprotocol. Crafting text-specific questions may help you better supportstudents work.

The rationale for providing a general template instead of essay-specificprotocols is that this unit is simple: A general template does a better job ofmaking explicit the basic and essential moves of working with challenging

50/5 Advance Organizers: Gettingthe Mind in Gear for Instruction

Concepts to SupportUnderstanding

50/6 Preview/Review: BuildingVocabulary and

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texts. If you can work effectively with the template, then you are wellequipped to generate text-specific tools that may better support studentswork with any number of difficult texts.

Connection

Introduce students to what an essay is. Throughout the unit, a smallcollection of essays and a large portion of the work will be devoted toreading and rereading essays using a few questions to guide reading andensuing discussions.

Have students do a five-minute quickwrite about their experiences in writingessays. What do they think the components of an essay are?

Direct Instruction

Take a minute to describe the following problem to the class: The wordessay is used in many different ways to describe many different texts. Alogical by-product of this is significant confusion: generally, people have ahard time understanding what essays are, what they can do, and why peoplewrite and read them.

Explain to the class that the point of this unit is to help students think moreintelligently about essays, eliminate some of the confusion about what they

really are, and work more confidently with them. Take a moment to sketchout the work ahead:

During the unit, students will have a chance to read and think carefullyabout a small collection of model essays.

During the unit, students will have an opportunity to write essays oftheir own.

At the end of the unit, students will take a look at what essaymeans inhigh-stakes school settings.

The goal of this portion of the unit is to help students acquire confidenceand insight they need to do well in on-demand writing situations.

Explain to the class that the first part of the units work will focus on a setof five short essays (essays are listed in the Unit at a Glance; also, seeReading Lessons 13 for copy-ready texts). The next few writing and reading

lessons will be devoted to reading and understanding the content of theseessays.

Place a transparency copy of the Understanding Essays protocol on theoverhead.

Distribute paper copies to each student, then review the protocol with theclass.

Active Engagement during Direct Instruction

In triads, have students discuss what an essay is and their experiences inreading or writing essays.

Link to Work Period

None.

Work Period

Note:The first three writing and reading lessons of this unit have been set asidefor the completion of the Understanding Essays work. However, the paceof this work obviously depends upon a number of variables, and therefore,the reason lesson instructions are particularly brief. If you are interested inadditional support, consult other Studio Course Investigations and/or Unitsof Study facilitating the following aspects of Understanding Essays work:

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Setting up and supporting small group work Conducting whole-group conversations Quickwriting

Have students share in groups their quickwrites about what they think anessay is.

Sharing/Closure

Ask: What is something new you learned today?

Opportunities for Assessment

Ask: Based on todays conversation, what are your ideas about why it isimportant to study essays?

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Understanding Essays: A Protocol for Working with Texts

Essays Contain Arguments

Arguments can be understood as the heart of what an essay is about. Its important to note that arguments are not always thesisdriven. Authors do not have to announce they are making arguments for arguments to be present in an essay. Stories carry

arguments as easily as op-ed pieces do. Texts sometimes leave us changed

with a new perspective. When this is the case, we cansay that we have been moved by an essays arguments.

Essays are Compelling

To say that an essay is moving is to say that the arguments are compelling. Compelling simply means that an argument isinteresting or thought-provoking. You may not agree with the argument, but a compelling argument is one that grabs your

attentionthat challenges you to think about events, objects, people, ideas, or cultural phenomena in new and more complex ways

The First Reading: Looking for Arguments

During the first reading of each essay, work hard to answer the following two questions:

What is/are the argument(s) in this essay? What passages or moments in this essay support your thinking? Be sure to refer to and mark these places.

The First Quickwrite

Write down what you think the main argument in the essay is. Review any passages or moments you marked and describe how thesesupport the argument.

Small Group Discussions

After youve completed your readings and quickwrites, meet in small groups to share your thinking. During these conversations, besure to illustrate your claims, questions, and ideas by referring to specific places in the essay. At the end of the conversation, eachgroup should prepare a set of notes that summarize the big topics, ideas, or questions discussed.

The Second Reading: Are the Arguments Compelling?

Use the following questions to guide this second reading of the text:

Are the arguments in this essay compelling? If they are, why? If they arent, why not?

Be sure to identify specific passages to support your answer.

The Second Quickwrite

After this reading, take time to answer the question, Are the arguments compelling? Be sure to refer to specific passages in thetext to support your response.

The Second Small Group Discussion

This is an opportunity to share the results of your second reading and quickwriting. Once again, during these conversations, be sureto illustrate your claims, questions, and ideas by referring to specific places in the essay. At the end of the conversation, each groupprepares a set of notes that summarize the big topics, ideas, or questions discussed.

Whole-Class Wrap-Up

We will wrap up our work with each essay by reconvening as a whole group to discuss our readings of the essay. The results of thesediscussions will be captured on charts specific to each essay. Ask any remaining questions you have about the UnderstandingEssays protocol. Remember, we will complete the Understanding Essays work for each of the five essays.

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Reading Workshop Lessons 12: Understanding the Essay

Lessons 12: Understanding the Essay

Materials

Academic Workout: Teachers Guide, pages 146147 Academic Workout: Student Practice, pages 7879 Academic Workout: Assessment, page 81 Transparency and student copies of:

Understanding Essays: A Protocol for Working with Text handout (seeWriting Lessons 13)

The Circuit by Francisco Jimnez Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard or

My Cuban Body by Carolina Hospital The Basketball Kidnappings by William Upski Wimsatt Hip-Hop as a Double Edged Sword by William Upski Wimsatt Theres No Place Like It: The Very Humble Cave by Elisabeth

Rosenthal* see end of lesson

Writing notebooks, chart paper, overheads, and markersIntended Learning

Students review essays according to a protocol so they can activelyparticipate in the unit of study.

Standard


Big Idea

Read, discuss, and describeessays to articulate the diver-sity of their arguments,characteristics, similarities,and differences

Focus Lesson Notes

Note:You might not have the time to read all essays listed above during theselessons. This work will continue through Lesson 4 where you may continuereading them or essays students will bring to class.

ConnectionReading Lessons 12 and Writing Lessons 13 should be devoted tocontinuing and completing the Understanding Essays work with each ofthe five essays using the protocol provided in the handout (see WritingLessons 13).

Direct InstructionUse the Understanding Essays protocol to read the essays for the nextthree lessons.

The First Reading: Looking for Arguments

During the first reading of each essay, have students work diligently toanswer the following two questions:

What is/are the argument(s) in this essay? What passages in this essay can you refer to so you can support

your thinking? Be sure to mark those passages.The Second Reading: Are the Arguments Compelling?

Use the following questions to guide your reading of the text: Are the arguments in this essay compelling? If they are, why? If they arent, why?

You should model an essay analysisusing the protocol and then havestudents work on their own, in pairs,or in groups using the protocol/yourversion of the protocol.

l Support Within a Group

ing, these

introductory lessons.

50/4 Interactive Read-Aloud:Reading Designed to SupportUnderstanding

50/39 Guided Reading: ProvidingIndividuaSetting

You may have to spend time teach-ing students about authors presenceand first, second, or third personperspective before, or dur

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Be sure to identify specific passages to support your answers.

You might want to consider making an activity sheet with those two read-ing segments to create a ritual on how students should analyze essays.

You might also want to consider putting students into groups and havethem analyze one essay a day so at least they will have an opportunity oanalyze two or three essays during Reading Lessons 13.

If students need additional help understanding what an essay is,consider usingAcademic Workout: Teachers Guide, pages 146147.Academic Workout: Student Practice will be given as homework.

50/4 Read the essays as a whole group using expression, differentvoices for different characters, and gestures. Check for listenersactive participation and understanding through prediction and essaydiscussion.

Active Engagement during Direct Instruction

Have students discuss the work ahead for the next three lessons: How willthey keep track of their work? Where will they store it? What do they thinktheir expectations will be?

Link to Work Period

Remind students that as they read independently, they should practicereading strategies discussed during prior units of study.

Work Period

Shared ReadingFor the next three lessons, students will discuss essays using the protocolprovided in the Second Small Group Discussion segment:

The Second Small Group DiscussionThis is an opportunity to share the results of your second reading andquickwriting. Once again, during these conversations, be sure to illustrateyour claims, questions, and ideas by referring to specific places in theessay. At the end of the conversation, each group prepares a set of notesthat summarize the big topics, ideas, or questions discussed.

Independent Reading

Have students use this time to continue reading essays or their books.

Sharing/Closure

Whole-class wrap-up: Wrap up student work on each essay by reconveningas a whole group to discuss essay readings. Capture results of thesediscussions on charts specific to each essay. Answer any questions studentshave about the Understanding Essays protocol. Reiterate that the classwill complete the Understanding Essays work for each of the five essays.

Homework Opportunity:Academic Workout: Student Practice Book,pages 7879.


Does the set-up for this lesson work for you?Ask: Academic Workout: Assessment Book, page 81.

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The Circuit

by Francisco Jimnez

It was that time of year again. Ito, the strawberry sharecropper, did not smile. It was natural. The peak of the strawberry seasonwas over and the last few days the workers, most of them braceros, were not picking as many boxes as they had during themonths of June and July.

As the last days of August disappeared, so did the number of braceros. Sunday, only onethe best pickercame to work. I liked

him. Sometimes we talked during our half hour lunch break. That is how I found out he was from Jalisco, the same state in Mexicomy family was from. That Sunday was the last time I saw him.

When the sun had tired and sunk behind the mountains, Ito signaled us that it was time to go home. Ya esora, he yelled in hisbroken Spanish. Those were the words I waited for twelve hours a day, every day, seven days a week, week after week. And thethought of not hearing them again saddened me.

As we drove home Pap did not say a word. With both hands on the wheel, he stared at the dirt road. My older brother, Roberto,was also silent. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Once in a while he cleared from his throat the dust that blew infrom outside.

Yes, it was that time of year. When I opened the front door to the shack, I stopped. Everything we owned was neatly packed incardboard boxes. Suddenly I felt even more the weight of hours, days, weeks, and months of work. I sat down on a box. Thethought of having to move to Fresno and knowing what was in store for me there brought tears to my eyes.

That night I could not sleep. I lay in bed thinking about how much I hated this move.

A little before five oclock in the morning, Pap woke everyone up. A few minutes later, the yelling and screaming of my little

brothers and sister, for whom the move was a great adventure, broke the silence of dawn. Shortly, the barking of the dogsaccompanied them.

While we packed the breakfast dishes, Pap went outside to start the Carcachita. That was the name Pap gave his old blackPlymouth. He bought it in a used-car lot in Santa Rosa. Pap was very proud of his little jalopy. He had a right to be proud of it.He spent a lot of time looking at other cars before buying this one. When he finally chose the Carcachita, he checked itthoroughly before driving it out of the car lot. Heexamined every inch of the car. He listened to the motor, tilting his head fromside to side like a parrot, trying to detect any noises that spelled car trouble. After being satisfied with the looks and sounds ofthe car, Pap then insisted on knowing who the original owner was. He never did find out from the car salesman, but he boughtthe car anyway. Pap figured the original owner must have been an important man because behind the rear seat of the car hefound a blue necktie.

Pap parked the car out in front and left the motor running. Listo, he yelled. Without saying a word Roberto and I began tocarry the boxes out to the car. Roberto carried the two big boxes and I carried the two smaller ones. Pap then threw themattress on top of the car roof and tied it with ropes to the front and rear bumpers.

Everything was packed except Mams pot. It was an old large galvanized pot she had picked up at an army surplus store in SantaMaria. The pot had many dents and nicks, and the more dents and nicks it acquired the more Mam liked it. Mi olla, she usedto say proudly.

I held the front door open as Mam carefully carried out her pot by both handles, making sure not to spill the cooked beans. Whenshe got to the car, Pap reached out to help her with it. Roberto opened the rear car door and Pap gently placed it on the floorbehind the front seat. All of us then climbed in. Pap sighed, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and said wearily,Es todo.

As we drove away, I felt a lump in my throat. I turned around and looked at our little shack for the last time.

At sunset we drove into a labor camp near Fresno. Since Pap did not speak English, Mam asked the camp foreman if he neededany more workers. We dont need no more, said the foreman, scratching his head. Check with Sullivan down the road. Cantmiss him. He lives in a big white house with a fence around it.

When we got there, Mam walked up to the house. She went through a white gate, past a row of rose bushes, up the stairs to thehouse. She rang the doorbell. The porch light went on and a tall husky man came out. They exchanged a few words. After theman went in, Mam clasped her hands and hurried back to the car. We have work! Mr. Sullivan said we can stay there the

whole season, she said, gasping and pointing to an old garage near the stables.

The garage was worn out by the years. It had no windows. The walls, eaten by termites, strained to support the roof full of holes.The dirt floor, populated by earth worms, looked like a gray road map.

That night, by the light of a kerosene lamp, we unpacked and cleaned our new home. Roberto swept away the loose dirt, leavingthe hard ground. Pap plugged theholes in the walls with old newspapers and tin can tops. Mam fed my little brothers andsister. Pap and Roberto then brought in the mattress and placed it on the far corner of the garage. Mam, you and the littleones sleep on the mattress. Roberto, Panchito, and I will sleep outside under the trees, Pap said.

Early the next morning Mr. Sullivan showed us where his crop was, and after breakfast, Pap, Roberto, and I headed for thevineyard to pick.

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Around nine oclock the temperature had risen to almost one hundred degrees. I was completely soaked in sweat and my mouthfelt as if I had been chewing on a handkerchief. I walked over to the end of the row, picked up the jug of water we had brought,and began drinking. Dont drink too much; youll get sick, Roberto shouted. No sooner had he said that than I felt sick to mystomach. I dropped to my knees and let the jug roll off my hands. I remained motionless with my eyes glued on the hot sandyground. All I could hear was the drone of insects. Slowly I began to recover. I poured water over my face and neck and watchedthe dirty water run down my arms to the ground.

I still felt dizzy when we took a break to eat lunch. It was past two oclock and we sat underneath a large walnut tree that was on

the side of the road. While we ate, Pap jotted down the number of boxes we had picked. Roberto drew designs on the groundwith a stick. Suddenly I noticed Paps face turn pale as he looked down the road. Here comes the school bus, he whisperedloudly in alarm. Instinctively, Roberto and I ran and hid in the vineyards. We did not want to get in trouble for not going toschool. The neatly dressed boys about my age got off. They carried books under their arms. After they crossed the street, the busdrove away. Roberto and I came out from hiding and joined Pap. Tienen que tener cuidado, he warned us.

After lunch we went back to work. The sun kept beating down. The buzzing insects, the wet sweat, and the hot dry dust madethe afternoon seem to last forever. Finally the mountains around the valley reached out and swallowed the sun. Within an hour itwas too dark to continue picking. The vines blanketed the grapes, making it difficult to see the bunches. Vmonos, said Pap,signaling to us that it was time to quit work. Pap then took out a pencil and began to figure out how much we had earned ourfirst day. He wrote down numbers, crossed some out, wrote down some more. Quince, he murmured.

When we arrived home, we took a cold shower underneath a water hose. We then sat down to eat dinner around some woodencrates that served as a table. Mam had cooked a special meal for us. We had rice and tortillas with carne con chile, myfavorite dish.

The next morning I could hardly move. My body ached all over. I felt little control over my arms and legs. This feeling went on

every morning for days until my muscles finally got used to the work.

It was Monday, the first week of November. The grape season was over and I could now go to school. I woke up early that morningand lay in bed, looking at the stars and savoring the thought of not going to work and of starting sixth grade for the first time thatyear. Since I could not sleep, I decided to get up and join Pap and Roberto at breakfast. I sat at the table across from Roberto,but I kept my head down. I did not want to look up and face him. I knew he was sad. He was not going to school today. He wasnot going tomorrow, or next week, or next month. He would not go until the cotton season was over, and that was sometime inFebruary. I rubbed my hands together and watched the dry, acid stained skin fall to the floor in little rolls.

When Pap and Roberto left for work, I felt relief. I walked to the top of a small grade next to the shack and watched theCarcachita disappear in the distance in a cloud of dust.

Two hours later, around eight oclock, I stood by the side of the road waiting for school bus number twenty. When it arrived Iclimbed in. Everyone was busy either talking or yelling. I sat in an empty seat in the back.

When the bus stopped in front of the school, I felt very nervous. I looked out the bus window and saw boys and girls carryingbooks under their arms. I put my hands in my pant pockets and walked to the principals office. When I entered I heard a

womans voice say: May I help you? I was startled. I had not heard English for months. For a few seconds I remained speechless.I looked at the lady who waited for an answer. My first instinct was to answer her in Spanish, but I held back. Finally, afterstruggling for English words, I managed to tell her that I wanted to enroll in the sixth grade. After answering many questions, Iwas led to the classroom.

Mr. Lema, the sixth grade teacher, greeted me and assigned me a desk. He then introduced me to the class. I was so nervous andscared at that moment when everyones eyes were on me that I wished I were with Pap and Roberto picking cotton. After takingroll, Mr. Lema gave the class the assignment for the first hour. The first thing we have to do this morning is finish reading thestory we began yesterday, he said enthusiastically. He walked up to me, handed me an English book, and asked me to read. Weare on page 125, he said politely. When I heard this, I felt my blood rush to my head; I felt dizzy. Would you like to read? heasked hesitantly. I opened the book to page 125. My mouth was dry. My eyes began to water. I could not begin. You can readlater, Mr. Lema said understandingly.

During recess I went to the rest room and opened my English book to page 125. I began to read in a low voice, pretending I was inclass. There were many words I did not know. I closed the book and headed back to the classroom. Mr. Lema was sitting at thisdesk correcting papers. When I entered he looked up at me and smiled. I felt better. I walked up to him and asked if he couldhelp me with the new words. Gladly, he said.

The rest of the month I spend my lunch hours working on English with Mr. Lema, my best friend at school.

One Friday during lunch hour Mr. Lema asked me to take a walk with him to the music room. Do you like music? he asked me aswe entered the building. Yes, I like corridos, I answered. He then picked up a trumpet, blew on it, and handed it to me. Thesound gave me goose bumps. I knew that sound. I had heard it in many corridos. How would you like to learn how to play it? heasked. He must have read my face because before I could answer, he added: Ill teach you how to play it during our lunchhours.

That day I could hardly wait to tell Pap and Mam the great news. As I got off the bus, my little brothers and sister ran up tomeet me. They were yelling and screaming. I thought they were happy to see me, but when I opened the door to our shack, I sawthat everything we owned was neatly packed in cardboard boxes. Courtesy University of New Mexico Press.

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Theres No Place like It: The Very Humble Cave

by Elisabeth Rosenthal

Liwang, ChinaTwo years ago, Ma Xiuhuas family finally gave up on the parched fields of their poor mountain village and movedto this town to try their hand at buying and selling vegetables. Tired of fighting years of drought, they said goodbye to the smallmud-brick househome to Ms. Ma, her husband, their two children and her inlaws and set out to find an in-town apartment torent.

But with a combined income of $13 a month, the family could not afford the new the new apartment blocks that line the road inthis sleepy rural township in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of northwest China, a sign of the even Chinas most impoverishedregions. So they pay $4 a month instead for a more modest dwelling a little down the road: one room, no view, poor light, noventilation. It is, in fact, a cave.

In our village there was no water and nothing to eatwe had to go down the mountain, said Ms. Ma, a shy 22-year-old, wearingthe white cap of the Muslim Hui minority. This is what we could afford. We are very poor.

Even as urban Chinese aspire to high-rise condos with dishwashers and microwaves, cave-dwelling remains common in many ruralareas of northwest China, where the yellow loess soil is well suited to digging caves. Though hardly the abode of choice, cave-dwelling is a Chinese tradition dating back to the Neolithic Age, said Prof. Shou Xing of Beijing Universitys Sociology andAnthropology Research Institute.

And even in modern times, caves have had their moments of glory: during the 1934- 35 Long March, Mao Zedong and his fellowCommunists hid in caves to avoid detection by Nationalists troops. And so it is with a touch of pride that Ma Kuanca, Ms. Masgray-bearded father-in-law, explains that the Mas rental cave dates back to at least revolutionary daysalthough he concedesthat there is no evidence that Mao or anyone else famous ever slept there.

But for the Ma family, the bottom line is that a cave is the best they can do, and they have tried to make this irregular15-by-30-foot hole dug into a mountainside a comfortable home, papering the curving earthen walls with old newspapers, hanging framedfamily photos and buying a second-hand television set for the young people to pass long winter nights. Their landlord has riggedup electricity and a light bulb and affixed to the opening in the mountainside a sturdy front door of wood.

The front part of the cave has a small cooking stove, the television and a small table. The back, set off by a cabinet and hangingquilt, contains a bed where the extendedfamily sleeps. There is no toilet or running water, and the Mas, like the two otherfamilies living in this row of caves, just beside a major provincial highway, fetch water from a collecting pool, a quarter of a mileaway.

Although there are no exact statistics about how many Chinese people live in caves, many villages in northwest Chinas poorerareas still have at least some residents who are cave-dwellers, although few are renters. In general, as these cave-dwellersprosper a bit, they tend to move, or build houses. In farming areas, the abandoned cave often serves as a barn for the animals.

We didnt have money; it was cheap, said Li Xia, the matriarch of a family in the tiny mountain village of Kaicheng, standing infront of the cave that she and her husband dug by hand decades ago. It is a small dank structure with a wood and paper door. For

many years, subsistence farming provided the only livelihood for families like the Lis, and the dusty brown soil of southern Ningxiawas rarely up to that task. But ever since the Chinese government started allowing people to move around the country in searchof transient work two decades ago, a bit more cash has started to flow into this still desperately poor region. Two sons of Ms. Linow work as coal miners in distant provinces and bring money home. And about five years ago the family built the two-roomhouse just across a patch of dirt from the cave, where Ms. Li lives with her daughters-in-law and grandchildren. When we gotmoney to build a house, we did its more sanitary, she said.

But among scholars and older rural Chinese, there remains a certain nostalgia, even fondness, for the caves. Though stuffy anddamp, they provide good protection, a cocoon against the extreme temperatures of this remote region.

People moving out of caves is inevitable in the urbanization process, said Professor Shou.

But that doesnt mean that caves are backward. Also, they are a kind of folk culture and have great historical value.

In fact, in this desolate area, were wood and other construction materials are scarce, it is often debatable whether the newhouses are more than an aesthetic improvement over the primitive caves they replace. Most houses are tenuous one- or two-roomstructures, made of packed earth with mud and thatch roofs, supported by a few wooden beams.

Along the dirt road that wraps around the hillside in Kaicheng, Ma Beili recently abandoned just such a house to return to hisformer cave when rain soaked a support beam of the roof and rot set in. Awizened 50-year-old farmer with an old straw hat andbroad grin, Mr. Ma (a common surname among the Hui Muslims) now pesters visitorsto check out his home: a tiny hole in thehillside with a blanket for a door.

Inside it is not much: farm tools, some bags of grain, and a hard narrow platform made of dried mud that is Mr. Mas bed. Severalchickens, a mule and a large ox crowd a tiny dirt front yard.

Cool in the summer, warm in the winter, said Mr. Ma, pointing to the cave. Even when the house was still in good repair, inthe winter I would come to sleep here.

Copyright 1999 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.

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Living Like Weasels

by Annie Dillard

A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he livesin his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eatwarm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular veinat the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel whowas socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a

mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label.

And once, says Ernest Thompson Setononce, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skullof a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveledand bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won. I would like to have seen that eagle from the air a few weeks ormonths before he was shot: was the whole weasel still attached to his feathered throat, a fur pendant? Or did the eagle eat whathe could reach, gutting the living weasel with his talons before his breast, bending his beak, cleaning the beautiful airbornebones?

I have been reading about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a longglance.

Twenty minutes from my house, through the woods by the quarry and across the highway, is Hollins Pond, a remarkable piece ofshallowness, where I like to go at sunset and sit on a tree trunk. Hollins Pond is also called Murrays Pond; it covers two acres ofbottomland near Tinker Creek with six inches of water and six thousand lily pads. In winter, brown-and-white steers stand in themiddle of it, merely dampening their hooves; from the distant shore they look like miracle itself, complete with miracles

nonchalance. Now, in summer, the steers are gone. The water lilies have blossomed and spread to a green horizontal plane that isterra firma to plodding blackbirds, and tremulous ceiling to black leeches, crayfish, and carp.

This is, mind you, suburbia. It is a five-minute walk in three directions to rows of houses, though none is visible here. Theres a55-mph highway at one end of the pond, and a nesting pair of wood ducks at the other. Under every bush is a muskrat hole or abeer can. The far end is an alternating series of fields and woods, fields and woods, threaded everywhere with motorcycletracksin whose bare clay wild turtles lay eggs.

So, I had crossed the highway, stepped over two low barbed-wire fences, and traced the motorcycle path in all gratitude throughthe wild rose and poison ivy of the ponds shoreline up into high grassy fields. Then I cut down through the woods to the mossyfallen tree where I sit. This tree is excellent. It makes a dry, upholstered bench at the upper, marshy end of the pond, a plushjetty raised from the thorny shore between a shallow blue body of water and a deep blue body of sky.

The sun had just set. I was relaxed on the tree trunk, ensconced in the lap of lichen, watching the lily pads at my feet trembleand part dreamily over the thrusting path of a carp. A yellow bird appeared to my right and flew behind me. It caught my eye; Iswiveled aroundand the next instant, inexplicably, I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me.

Weasel! Id never seen one wild before. He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizards; he would have made a good arrowhead. There was just a dot ofchin, maybe two brown hairs worth, and then the pure white fur began that spread down his underside. He had two black eyes Ididnt see, any more than you see a window.

The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous shaggy wild rose bush four feet away. I wasstunned into stillness twisted backward on the tree trunk. Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key.

Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on an overgrown path when each had been thinking ofsomething else: a clearing blow to the gut. It was also a bright blow to the brain, or a sudden beating of brains, with all thecharge and intimate grate of rubbed balloons. It emptied our lungs. It felled the forest, moved the fields, and drained the pond;the world dismantled and tumbled into that black hole of eyes. If you and I looked at each other that way, our skulls would splitand drop to our shoulders. But we dont. We keep our skulls. So.

He disappeared. This was only last week, and already I dont remember what shattered the enchantment. I think I blinked, I thinkI retrieved my brain from the weasels brain, and tried to memorize what I was seeing, and the weasel felt the yank ofseparation, the careening splash-down into real life and the urgent current of instinct. He vanished under the wild rose. I waited

motionless, my mind suddenly full of data and my spirit with pleadings, but he didnt return.Please do not tell me about approach-avoidance conflicts. I tell you Ive been in that weasels brain for sixty seconds, and hewas in mine. Brains are private places, muttering through unique and secret tapes-but the weasel and I both plugged intoanothertape simultaneously, for a sweet and shocking time. Can I help it if it was a blank?

What goes on in his brain the rest of the time? What does a weasel think about? He wont say. His journal is tracks in clay, a sprayof feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose leaf, and blown.

I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forgetabout it. That is, I dont think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particularshall I suck warm blood, hold my tail high,walk with my footprints precisely over the prints of my hands?but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of thepurity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive. The weasel lives in necessity and we live in

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choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should.And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasels: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, rememberingnothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will.

I missed my chance. I should have gone for the throat. I should have lunged for that streak of white under the weasels chin andheld on, held on through mud and into the wild rose, held on for a dearer life. We could live under the wild rose wild as weasels,mute and uncomprehending. I could very calmly go wild. I could live two days in the den, curled, leaning on mouse fur, sniffingbird bones, blinking, licking, breathing musk, my hair tangled in the roots of grasses. Down is a good place to go, where the mind

is single. Down is out, out of your ever-loving mind and back to your careless senses. I remember muteness as a prolonged andgiddy fast, where every moment is a feast of utterance received. Time and events are merely poured, unremarked, and ingesteddirectly, like blood pulsed into my gut through a jugular vein. Could two live that way? Could two live under the wild rose, andexplore by the pond, so that the smooth mind of each is as everywhere present to the other, and as received and asunchallenged, as falling snow?

We could, you know. We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedienceeven of silencebychoice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug intothat pulse. This is yielding, not fighting. A weasel doesnt attack anything; a weasel lives as hes meant to, yielding at everymoment to the perfect freedom of single necessity.

I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limpwherever it takes you. Then evendeath, where youre going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize youup aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge andscatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles.

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My Cuban Body

by Carolina Hospital

Hot pants is what we called the very tight shorts we used to wear in the 70s. One hot Friday night when I was fifteen yearsold, I sneaked out of the house wearing a shiny blue plastic raincoat over my hot pants and my spandex tube top. It was Mamisidea to put on the raincoat over the hot pants. She wanted to avoid Papis anger when he saw my clothes, or lack of them. Mypetite older sister (by two years), two inches shorter and thirty pounds lighter, dressed the same way. So what was the problem?The problem was that I was younger but I had developed sooner. Plus, the fashion in the 70s only helped to attract attention to

my early development. It was impossible to hide curves and protrusions within miniscule pieces of cloth or skintight polyesterblouses and pants. In Papis eyes, I was flaunting my womanhood, yet I didnt have the maturity to deal with its consequences.His instincts were right, but his volatile approach was not.

That night I eagerly went to my classmates party. My sister and I walked into the screened patio in the back of the house wherethe stereo had been set up. I removed the raincoat. Immediately, all eyes were on me. I felt self-conscious, yet as I dancedslowly with different boysfor us, success was measured in slow danceI discovered the power of flesh.

I felt exhilarated by my ability to attract the opposite sex. However, I also felt the fear of unleashing a power I had little controlover. In addition, my fathers anger and my mothers collusion sent me mixed messages. Was there something wrong with myemerging womanhood? Instead of enjoying my new curves, I began to feel shame and embarrassment.

I also had to deal with the fact that I was different from most of my petite blond classmates. Being rounder, shorter, and hairierthan they was a great source of anguish. My solution was to diet, straighten my hair, and wear platform shoes, the highest I couldtolerate. But the damage was done. I grew up unhappy with my physical appearance, always self-conscious of my looks.

Mother didnt help. It wasnt that she disliked my looks. The opposite: she constantly noticed and complimented the very things I

wanted to forget. For instance, she always told me I was lucky to have thighs and calves that were beautifully endowed, not thinand scrawny like hers. She believed I had inherited their thickness from my father's Cataln side. That was the last thing I wantedto hear, that I looked like my short, overweight, bear-like hairy father (by Anglo standards) with whom I did not get along duringmy teen years.

Ironically, my mother also suffered growing up because of her physical appearance. She was often called a tomboy and was fedthick mango and papaya shakes in the hopes that she would put more fat on her bones. You see, for the Havana of the 1930s and40s, she was too thin and too tall at five feet seven. Plus she lacked the thick, long, wavy hair I so detested in myself. That iswhy as she watched me diet, exercise, and straighten my hair, day in and day out, she would say, perplexed, how growing up, shewould have given anything to have had the physical traits I so rejected in myself. I didnt understand or care. I wasnt living inHavana. I was living in the land of Twiggy.

Back then no one talked about being anorexic, but that is exactly what Twiggy looked likea beautiful anorexic gazelle with long,blond, perfectly straight hair that probably weighed more than she did. Soon all the models became Twiggy look-alikes, and shebecame the standard for us to aim for, an impossible goal for a Cubanita with already emerging curves and protrusionsbut whatdid I know?

I wish I had known that beauty comes in all sizes and shapes and that the media promotes artificial standards of beauty. It wouldhave helped me to understand that peoples perceptions of beauty are shaped by the culture and the times they belong to. Forinstance, what was undesirable in the Havana of my mothers youth was longed for in mine. I have tried to explain these things tomy own daughter, now a teenager.

Just the other day, she pointed out to me how Marilyn Monroe weighed 160 pounds when she was Americas most admired sexsymbol. Of course, that was before the age of Twiggy. But perhaps her awareness, especially growing up in a city like Miami, fullof cultural diversity, will help her and her peers become more tolerant of themselves and their appearances. Perhaps beingdifferent will be easier for them than it was for me.

One rainy afternoon, I sat in the back of Sister Helens class, sleepily listening to her read classic love poems. I soon grew tired ofhearing about angelic ladies with alabaster skin, hazel eyes, and golden hair. Suddenly, a sonnet by Shakespeare shook me frommy stupor.

My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun

My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks,

And in some perfumes is there more delight

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Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound.

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare.

That afternoon, Shakespeares verse filled me with hope. I felt redeemed. Perhaps out there existed a young Shakespearewho would find beauty in my own brown wires and raspy voice, who didnt mind my heavy treads and olive flesh. Shakespeareswords taught me an unforgettable lesson about the force of words while validating my own reality. That sonnet planted a seed.Yet, it took many more years, marriage, and motherhood for me to finally be pleased with my Cuban body. It shouldnt have totake that long.

Carolina Hospital

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HipHop as a Double-Edged Sword

by William Upski Wimsatt

From the beginning, hip-hops unstated goals were not that different from the stated goals of many community-based youthorganizations. Hip-hop grew out of the South Bronx gang culture of the early 70sthe astounding evolution in less than a decadeof DJing, break-dancing, rap and graffitias a reaction and an antidote to the drugs, violence and cynicism of the post-Black Powerera.

Graffiti caught on in Philadelphia in 1968 and in Harlem in 1970. DJs began throwing outdoor park jams in the South Bronx a fewyears later. Rap evolved from MCsthe hostsof the park jams. Break-dancing came from the dancers who would dance on thebreaks of the songs. Afrika Bambaataa, himself a DJ and a leader of a gang called the Savage Skulls, brought the four elementstogether as hip-hop under a new organization, The Universal Zulu Nation, whose motto was Peace, Unity, Love and HavingFun. The Zulu Nation was supported by a community center in the Bronx River Projects until the mayor decided to shut themdown.

Hip-hop gained a worldwide following in the 80s and rap reached maturity with lyricists like Rakim, MC Lyte, KRS-ONE, De La Soul,Latifah and Public Enemy who made it cool to be righteous, use big words, study history, and become politically and spirituallyattuned. Throughout the 80s, to varying degrees in different locales, hip-hop served as a bridge from crime, drugs and madness towork, creativity and citizenship. Hip-hop got kids out of their neighborhoods, introduced them to different cultures, provided anarena to learn at their own pace, set their own goals and succeed on their own terms. In many circles, it is almost clich to say,Hip-hop saved my life.

In its informal, impossible-to-document way, hip-hop culture probably did as much to keep young urban males off of drugs, out offights, and constructively engaged during the 1980s as all the at-risk youth programs combined.

But hip-hop has always been a double-edged sword, reflecting the best and especially lately, the worst of urban America, with themurders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. When rappers first proclaimed themselves great, that was a huge dissenting opinion ina society which said they were irrelevant, the scum of the Earth, explains Jay George, an Oakland-based rapper who co-directsRising Youth for Social Equity (RYSE), a youth empowerment agency. But we have failed to become a complete, viablecounterculture. When it comes to our treatment of women, were still on the same page as the U.S. culture. It mirrors the rulingclass. Rappers want to drive around in a Lexus dressed like a banker.

Rappers feel most of the negative attention they receive is unfounded. When I mention hip-hop to older people, theres a visibleknee-jerk reaction in their face, says Rha Goddess, a lyricist who grew up on hip-hop and returned to it after a successful run incorporate America and a string of non-profits. What intimidates people is the boldness, the honesty of it. There are some verynasty and ugly truths about this society and people are not trying to hear it. Sure theres some hip-hop that glamorizes thegangster lifestyle, but theres a lot of hip-hop that if we read between the lines, we should learn that theres a lot of rage amongpeople who are poor and marginalized. Hip-hop is the wake-up call.

As the hip-hop generation matures, many recording artists and industry executiveslike their grassroots counterpartsarebeginning to realize they have responsibilities to their fan base.

When Dr. King led the Montgomery bus boycott, he was 26 years old, younger than Puffy and RZA, says Bill Stephney, C.E.O. ofStepSun Records. Stephney is also engineer of the Ready to Live Foundationa reference to Biggie Smalls first album Ready toDiewhich is raising money to fund hip-hop-based grassroots organizations. Puffy and RZA are putting together economic concernsthat are being studied as revolutionary at the highest levels of business schools such as Wharton and Harvard. People are startingto realize that its not about How can we save the kids in the projects? but how can they save us. We have some of the finestminds for entrepreneurshipthe Bill Gateses and Oprah Winfreysliving in those buildings, if they only had the resources. Werealways talking about protecting the poorwell thats dismissive. If they can create a $5 billion industry from nothing, what elsecan they create?

From NO MORE PRISONS by William Upski Wimsatt 1999 by William Upski Wimsatt. Used by permission of Soft Skull Press, Inc

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The Basketball Kidnappings:How the Good People of Hyde Park are Sucking the Life out of Urban Childhood

by William Upski Wimsatt

Hyde Park basketball courts had remained stubbornly black as areas around them whitened and upscaleThe courts were undersuspicion and the older players knew it. But discretion was of no avail. The courts were being swept away. The first to go was themost perfect court known to man. It was situated among the trees just off Lake Shore Drive, its eastern basket facing the lake.Gliding to that basket, with lake and sky beyond gave you the illusion of flight. The second court to disappear was less beautifulbut much loved by its playersShortly before the annual tournament, the backboards were taken down and carted away undercover of darkness.

Brent Staples, Parallel Time

That was in the 1970s.

There are now no public basketball hoops in Hyde Park.

Last summer, I was walking down and alley off 55th Street. A white father and two boys were playing basketball inside a gatedyard. In a parking lot across the alley sat six black boys of comparable age, noticeably sullen.

I went over to the black boys. Why dont you play.

They wont let us.

Did you ask?

Yeah. They said no. Will you ask for us?Will I ask for you? OhIm white too.

Excuse me. I was wondering if theres any chance we could pl

No. Sorry. This is our yard. This is private property, the father said.

I walked back over to the black boys and shrugged.

This is private property, one of them repeated.

Dang, said the youngest. If I had a court, Id let them play.

I wouldnt, said another. Cause they dont let us play. We should build our own hoop so when they come, we can say no, youcant play.

They sometimes used a hoop they made by nailing a milk crate to an electric pole in the alley. Theres too much glass in thealley, one said. I looked at the alley. It was coveredwith glass; the pavement was more pock than pave. And the building managertakes their hoop down. The boys have tried nailing their milk crates up in two other alleys but each time the hoops were

mysteriously torn down the same night.Whats your name, the oldest of the boys said to me, scowling.

He shook my hand and introduced himself as Shawn, surprising me with friendliness.

People are going to get ruthless around here in the summer if theres no hoops, he said. Black kids have nothing to do in thisneighborhood. Thats how they get into trouble. The only other courts are at the neighborhood club and you have to pay to becomea member. Then at 47th and 43rd.All the other ones have been torn down.

They tried to say it was gang activityBasketball is what keeps people outof troubleI

know, I used to be in all kinds of trouble.

Chimed in the youngest, They need to put up a whole bunch of courts and spread them around so everyone wont be crowdedonto one court.

The only place on my block kids could play basketball was outside Alex OHaras building because his parent owned the apartment.Ms. OHara had to fight the neighbors just to keep her kids milk crate up. (When she told me the names of the neighbors, they

were two Hyde Park liberal families whose own kids used to play in the alley with me.) Every day in the summer, twenty kids wereout there playing. Ms. OHara supplied popsicles and took them in if they needed a place to stay. Now even the OHaras milk crateis gone.

Its very sad, said a woman who has lived on the block for 35 years. All the kids used to play in the alley. Now theyre allupstairs with computers. The kids lives today are all programmed. You look at the alley today, theres not a kid playing.

Whats the most fun you guys have on the block? I asked a racially mixed group of four boys whose parents have just purchasedthem a portable basketball hoop.

Three summers ago, we had so much fun. We used to play kickball in the alley every night, and basketball and baseball.

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Its as if the only way to have fun is to play sports.

When I was a kid growing up, way back in the 80s, sports werent the only thing for kids in Hyde Park to do. On my block, we had:

Trees to climb and rooftops on which to build clubhouses.

Basements to break into and hallways to steal light bulbs from.

Snowballs to throw at passing cars and at each other.

Cars to skitch in the wintertime and delivery trucks to ride.Gangways, alleys, and yards to play all-block tag in.

Garbage chutes to slide down.

Mulberry trees and grape vines to eat off.

Tourists at the Museum of Science and Industry to mess with.

Drunks to play tricks on.

Other kids to meet and play with just walking around.

Other neighborhoods to walk toto see what would happen.

Water to squirt, mud to make mud castles, warm tar to have tar fights.

Pedestrians to sell lemonade to.

Junk and garbage to build things out of.

Bugs, alley cats, squirrels, and birds to play with.

Lobbies to read peoples magazines in.

Sports fell near the bottom of the list.

Who needed toys? We had imaginations.

We had a neighborhood.

The tar pit was replaced by a parking lot. Mulberry trees and vines got cut. Our rooftop clubhouses got barb-wired. Abandonedgarages were razed, gangways sealed, fences erected, and buzzer systems switched to outer doors of lobbies. The museum chargesadmission now, and the block next to ours is gated off. The block next to ours is a gated community!You have to have a specialkey card just to walk down what used to be a public sidewalk. I used to play in their park. Now, I have to go all the way around theblock and hop a fence. The call it urban renewal. I call it nailing shut the window of communication between urban kids andadults, rich and poor, whites and blacks. The city that created people like me doesnt exist anymore.

Fifty years ago in my neighborhood, before there was air conditioning, families used to sleep outside in the park on summer nights.

Twenty-five years ago, my parents met while watching the African drummers at the park by the lake. Now its illegal to playinstruments there because of complaints from residents living in the high-rises more than a block away. If the people who makethe rules in Hyde Park had had their way a few years earlier, my parents never would have met and I never would have been born.

No wonder I grew up feeling like the people who called the shots in my neighborhood didnt care about me.

They dont.

And they definitely didnt care abut the black kids.

No wonder we wanted to write graffiti and break windows.

Its bad enough theyre building more tollways and gated communities in the cornfields, sucking away resources, jobs and transitfrom existing communities including present-day suburbs. But even in the city, suburb-inspired zoning has made itillegal to buildalleys and mixed-use buildings with apartments located above storefronts. Why do you think theres a shortage of moderatelypriced housing? It all used to be in alleys and above storefronts! Thats part of why we have a housing crisis in this country! Andwhen did restaurants, movies, sports and cultural events become the essence of urban social life?

Ten years from now, demographics predict therell be more middle-agers and teenagers in the population which means my block isgoing to be even more alientated. Its gonna take a couple more Kathy OHaras to keep my block from getting a lot worse.

I have something for you to do this summer. Get to know the kids on your block.

Invite them into your house before they invite themselves in. Find out what they need before they take it from you.

In Hyde Park, to begin with, kids need basketball courts.

From NO MORE PRISONS by William Upski Wimsatt 1999 by William Upski Wimsatt. Used y permission of Soft Skull Press, Inc.

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Reading Workshop Lesson 3: Completing the Essay Work

Lesson 3: Completing the Essay Work

Materials

Transparency and student copies of: Understanding Essays: A Protocol for Working with Text (see Writing

Lessons 13)

The Circuit by Francisco Jimnez* Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard* or

My Cuban Body by Carolina Hospital*

The Basketball Kidnappings by William Upski Wimsatt* Hip-Hop as a Double Edged Sword by William Upski Wimsatt* Theres No Place Like It: The Very Humble Cave by Elisabeth

Rosenthal** see Reading Lessons 12

Essay Summary chart (see end of lesson) Writing notebooks, chart paper, overheads, and markers

Intended Learning

Students will complete analyzing the essays to draw conclusions.

Standard

Summarize, synthesize, andevaluate information from avariety of text and genres.

Big Idea

Read, respond to, discuss, andstudy essays that representpoints of view from places,

people, and events that arefamiliar and unfamiliar as theyare presented in high-stakesschool contexts and in relationto other essays.

Focus Lesson Notes

Connection

Students have so far been exploring essays through a protocol. Today theywill finalize and draw conclusion on that work.

Direct Instruction

Ask students whether they have any questions or issues related to their workon reading essays, then have them discuss how theyre doing.

Link to Work Period

Have students quickly fill out the Essay Summary chart (see end of lesson)to summarize a piece from an essay they enjoyed reading.

50/10 Skills Grouping: Planning forMore Individualized Instruction

l Support Within a Group

Setting

50/4 Interactive Read-Aloud:Reading Designed to SupportUnderstanding

50/39 Guided Reading: ProvidingIndividua

Work Period

Shared Reading

Groups use this time to complete their essay reading work. Confer with groups about their work.

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Reading Workshop Lesson 3: Completing the Essay Work

Independent Reading

Have students use this time to continue reading essays or their books.

Sharing/Closure

Reconvene the class and explain to students they will have an opportunity toextend their Understanding Essays work to a few more essays during thenext few reading lessons.

Explain that each student will be expected to locate and bring to class threecopies of one essay.

During Reading Lessons 58, students will apply the Understanding Essaysprotocol to these essays as well. At the end of that work, groups will berequired to make brief presentations about their work to the rest of theclass.

Review expectations for students presentations during the next readinglessons. Presentations should be simple and straight forward:

Each group should present work from an essay they studied during theReading Essays work.

If necessary, essay should be read aloud to the class. Using the board or a transparency, students post and present concise

responses to each of the three following questions:

What are the arguments in this essay? Are the arguments compelling? Why or why not? How does the author make himself or herself present?

Each groups presentation should conclude with a whole-class discussionabout the text presented, focusing on the three questions above.


Second quickwrite: After this reading, take time for student responses to thequestion: Are the arguments compelling? Be sure to refer to specificpassages in the text to support your responses.

Essay Summary

Quote and page no.: Why I chose this piece from the essay titled:

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Writing Workshop Lesson 4: Introducing the Essay Continuum Task

Lesson 4: Introducing the Essay Continuum Task

Materials

Studio Course Unit of Study 2, Grade 6: Faces of the Essay, Session Four:Introducing the Essay Continuum Task

Transparency and student copies of The Essay: Ideas to Consider (see endof lesson)

Transparency and student copies of: Understanding Essay: A Protocol forWorking with Text (see Writing Lessons 1-3)

Essay Continuum: Characteristics of an Authors Presence chart (seeDirect Instruction)

Writing notebooks, chart paper, markersIntended Learning

Students notice and articulate relationships among essays.

Standards


Analyze the texts main ideaand use relevant details tosupport the analysis.

Big Ideas

Read, discuss, and describeessays to articulate thediversity of their arguments,characteristics, similarities,and differences.

Generate a continuum tofacilitate thinking and discussionaround the qualities of, andrelationships among, acollection of essays.

Focus Lesson Notes

Note:The essay continuum task introduced in this lesson is a process designed tohelp students notice and articulate relationships among essays. During thislesson, the class will begin creating a representation of the relationshipsamong model essays. One way to manage this work is to use a piece of chartpaper and several large sticky notes. Each essay can be represented by asticky note. The personal/transpersonal continuum on the EssayContinuum: Characteristics of an Authors Presence chart (see below) canbe drawn on the chart. You or a student can place and move the sticky noteson the continuum to reflect the work as it unfolds during the class.

When the continuum work is brought to a close at the end of WritingLesson 6, save each classs continuum so it can be used during the third part

of this unit.

Connection

Have a brief summary about students prior work.

Have students do a 510 minute quickwrite:Write down what you think the main argument in the essay is. Review anypassages or moments you marked and describe how they support theargument.

50/5 Advance Organizers:Getting the Mind in Gear forInstruction

Verbal Interaction 50/15 Partner Work: Practicing

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Direct Instruction

Remind students that the point of most of their work in this unit is to helpthem make sense of the huge variety of essays and help them become betterreaders and writers of individual essays.

Place a transparency copy of The Essay: Ideas to Consider (see end oflesson) on the overhead and review it with the class.

To ensure that students better comprehend the gist of the Ideas sheet,take a minute to recreate the Essay Continuum on the board or a piece ofchart paper.

Essay Continuum: Characteristics of an Authors Presence

Personal Transpersonal

Tell students that during the next few writing lessons they will take on the

challenge of arranging the five model essays on this person/transpersonalcontinuum.

Remind the class that there is no definitive spectrumthe value of the workis in the work itself: the conversations, arguments made and considered,and careful readings.

Consider starting a vocabulary journal.

del the

Link toHave one or two students explain the required work for the Work Period.

Vocabulary words: essay, characteristics, authors presence, spectrum

Active aEng gement during Direct Instruction

Give students a few minutes to create a Venn-Diagram to moprocess of noting similarities and differences among essays.

Work Period

Work Period

Review again the notion ofcharacteristics of authors presence (presentedin The Essay: Ideas to Consider), then set the class to work on noticingsimilarities and differences among essays by asking them to consider the

Similarities Differences

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r

proceed

mall group sharing and negotiation, wrapping up in

when considered through the lens ofcharacteristics of authorspresence?

characteristics of the authors presence in each essay. There are a numbeof ways to conduct this work. For example, you might decide to begin byassigning essays to small groups of students where their work mightmuch like the Understanding Essays work did: a movement fromindependent thinking to swhole group discussion.

Keep in mind that students cannot do this work by working with essays inisolation from other essays. For this reason, students should always bepushed to think about an essay under consideration in relation to otheressays. Be sure to remind students again and again that the point of thiswork is the construction of the continuum: How do these essays compare toone another

Sharing/Closure

his

ifficult work. To do it well requires time, patience, focus,and stamina.

Use this time to debrief the essay continuum work; remind students that twork is challenging and that there is no definitiv right or wrong answer.Instead, it requires students to offer up and consider arguments about an

essays position relative to other essays. This requires students to referencespecific essays and specific parts of them, use critical terms introduced inthe unit (e.g., characteristics of authors presence), and invent terms andmetaphors that allow them to convey what they see an author doing in anessay. This is d


we working on a continuum? How is that going tohelp us with our work?Exiting ticket: Why are

d to describe a huge variety of texts. Essays come in many different forms and are used to accomplish a

rsonal stories); in other essays, the author may seem less present (e.g., when an author never

gree of authors presence; the author is simply present in

sonal.

rcise suggested, take a minute to recreate the personal/transpersonal spectrum on the board or a piece of chart paper.

The Essay: Ideas to Consider

The term essayis usevariety of purposes.

One way to make sense of the variety of texts called essays is to sort them according to how the author appears in the text.

A phrase used to describe how the author appears or shows up in an essay is: characteristics of authors presence.

The author is always present in an essay. In some essays, the author may seem more present (e.g., when the author frequentlyuses the pronoun I or tells perefers to herself in the essay).

Remember, an essay that seems more personal doesnt have a higher dedifferent ways. The characteristics of authors presence are different.

Heres a way to sort out essays you read: Arrange them on a spectrum according to how they seem: at one end is the wordpersonal. At the other end is the word transpersonal, a word James Moffett uses to describe essays that seem less perArrange the essays on that spectrum, placing essays relative to each other and to the personal/transpersonal terms.

To better comprehend the gist of the concepts presented and exe

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Reading Workshop Lesson 4: Introducing the Reading Essays Task

Lesson 4: Introducing the Reading Essays Task

Materials

Studio Course Unit of Study 2, Grade 6: Faces of the Essay, Session Four:Introducing the Reading Essays Task


Lessons 13)

The Essay: Ideas to Consider (see Writing Lesson 4) The Circuit by Francisco Jimnez* Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard* or

My Cuban Body by Carolina Hospital



Problems During Reading Small Group Time chart (see end of lesson) Writing notebooks, chart paper, overheads, and markers

Intended Learning

Students test learning of the Understanding Essays work so they cancontinue to experience reading and thinking about essays.

Standard


Big Idea



Focus Lesson Notes

Connection

Read-aloud two quickwrites and have a brief discussion about their content.

Direct Instruction

Collaborate with the class to review the results of the UnderstandingEssays work. During this conversation, focus on the following things:

Clarifying any confusion about arguments and/or the question ofwhether or not an essay is compelling.

The Understanding Essays protocol itself, including the roles ofrereading, quickwriting, and discussion of the work.

Explain that during this, students will begin work on a small group ReadingEssays task. The purpose of this task is to give students additionalexperience reading and thinking about essays. It is also an opportunity forstudents to work together to further test the learning of their Under-standing Essays work: Do these questions work? Does the quickwriting anddiscussion help you read and think better?

50/10Skills Grouping: Planning forMore Individualized Instruction

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Take time to place students in small groups of three. Arrange groups so eachone has at least one member who brought an essay to class. (In cases wheregroups do not have an essay to work with, or where students need moretime to prepare materials for other members of the group, consider askingstudents to work with either Annie Dillards Living Like Weasels orCarolina Hospitals My Cuban Bodywhichever of the two the class did notstudy in previous lessons.)

Take time to walk through the Understanding Essays protocol with theclass. Be sure to address any questions students have about conducting thiswork in small groups. Two items especially worth noting:

Explain that small group presentations during Reading Lessons 78 willtake the place of the protocols Whole-Class Wrap-Up.

Strongly recommend that students read their groups essay forhomework or have them read the essay during independent readingtime.

For this to happen requires some additional planning and foresight, but itwill ensure that groups have enough time to discuss and reread texts duringclass time.

You are strongly encourage to require groups to write up results of theirwork. The simplest way to do this is to tie work to specific sections of theUnderstanding Essays protocol and adding a characteristics of authors

presence question. Ask each student to devote a notebook page to eachessay to answer the following questions:

1. What are the arguments in this essay?2. Are the arguments compelling? Why or why not?3. Where does this essay fit on the classs Essay Continuum:

Characteristics of Authors Presence?

Remind students that their answers to these questions should be anchored inthe essays they studied.

Link to Work Period

In groups, have students prepare an agenda for todays work.

Work Period

Shared Reading

If necessary, give groups a few minutes to plan how they will spend theWork Period. Consider taking a minute to ask groups to volunteer theiragendas.

Have groups use this time to begin the Reading Essays work. Use this time to confer with groups about their work.

Independent Reading

Students use this time to continue reading essays or their books.

Sharing/Closure

Reconvene the class and take time to debrief the Reading Essays work ofthe lesson: What was challenging? What went well? What will you do toprepare for the next reading lesson work? How will the group use thatlessons Work Period time?

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Consider creating a chart titled, Problems During Small Group ReadingTime (see below). Divide it into two columnsProblems and Solutions.Ask volunteers to offer short descriptions of problems that arose during thistime.

After you have Problems listed, ask the class to help you brainstormSolution ideas for problem items.


Second quickwrite: After this reading, take time to answer the question:Are the arguments compelling? Be sure to refer to specific passages in thetext to support your response.

Problems During Reading Small Group Time

Problems Solutions

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Writing Workshop Lesson 5: Faces of Authors Presence

Lesson 5: Faces of Authors Presence

Materials

Studio Course Unit of Study 2, Grade 6: Faces of the Essay, Session Five:Faces of Authors Presence

Transparency copies of essays Signs of Authors Presence chart (see end of lesson) Essay Continuum: Characteristics of an Authors Presence chart (begun in

Writing Lesson 4)

Writing notebooks, chart paper, and markersIntended Learning

Students provide evidence of the authors presence in an essay.

Standards


Identify an authors point ofview and purpose.

Analyze text to make pre-dictions and draw conclusions.

Big Ideas

Read, discuss, and describeessays to articulate thediversity of their arguments,characteristics, similarities,and differences.

Consider the shapes essays takeand the choices essayists makeabout sources, arrangement,examples, and point of view.

Focus Lesson Notes

Connection

Have a brief summary about students work during prior lessons.

Have students do a 510 minute quickwrite:Write down what you think the main argument in the essay is. Review anypassages or moments you marked and describe how they support the essaysargument.

Direct Instruction

Review the notion ofauthors presence with the class; that the author isalways present, but present in different waysthrough argument or positionand personal stories told and in the way text is selected and arranged. Theauthor is always there, selecting one argument or position over another,arranging text one way rather than another, and taking a particularperspective over another.

Using transparency copies of the essays, work with the class to underline,circle, or otherwise identify exact words, lines, and/or sections in eachessay that signal the presence of the author. For example, you might circlethe word I or underline a phrase such as Twenty minutes from myhouse You might underline a paragraph that contains many detailsdescribing a place, or that the author chose these particular details and left

50/5 Advance Organizers:Getting the Mind in Gear forInstruction.

: Practicing 50/15 Partner WorkVerbal Interaction

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Writing Workshop Lesson 5: Faces of Authors Presence

spective

ns of Authors Presencemodel the process of filling it out.

Link to

In small groups, have students review their agendas for todays work.

others out as another example of authors presence. Add excerpts orsummaries of these examples to the Signs of Authors Presence (see endof lesson). Place the examples in the Signs of Authors Presence column.

Collaborate with the class to come up with descriptors of the ways authorsreveal (or conceal) themselves in essays. Be slow to give away items thatstudents might otherwise discover in Work Period discussions.

You might want to start a vocabulary journal to help your secondlanguage learners.

Vocabulary words: argument, position, per

Active aEng gement during Direct Instruction

Give students a few minutes to create the Sigchart then

Work Period

Work Period

ords, students individual and corporate thinking anddiscussion is critical.

Devote this lessons Work Period and Closing Meeting to the classsconstruction of the Essay Continuum begun during Writing Lesson 4.

Keep in mind that, in this work, the means (the process of negotiating thecontinuum) is perhaps even more important than the end (the completedcontinuum). In other w

Sharing/Closure

Use this time to debrief students continuum work.


Exiting ticket: What have you found difficult about this activity?

Signs of Authors Presence

Signs of Authors Presence Descriptors

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Reading Workshop Lesson 5: Reading Essays Work

Lesson 5: Reading Essays Work

Materials

Studio Course Unit of Study 2, Grade 6: Faces of the Essay, Session Five:Reading Essays Task


Lessons 13))

The Essay: Ideas to Consider (see Writing Lesson 4) The Circuit by Francisco Jimnez* Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard* or

My Cuban Body by Carolina Hospital



Problems During Reading Small Group Time chart (see Reading Lesson 4) Writing notebooks, chart paper, overheads, and markers

Intended Learning

Students continue to test their learning during Understanding Essays workso they can continue to experience reading and thinking about essays.

Standard


Big Idea



Focus Lesson Notes

Connection

Read-aloud two quick writes and have a brief discussion about their content.

Direct Instruction

Review the goals of reading essays.

Revisit the idea of an agenda with the class by pointing out that it is simplya work plan that keeps people on task and ensures they accomplish workthey set out to do.

Ask groups to share any concerns or frustrations they are having about howto use the upcoming Work Period time.

Address these issues and answer any additional questions students haveabout their work for reading essays.

50/23 Explain the reading activity, model what students will do, andprovide some guided practice before asking students to workindependently.

: PracticingVerbal Interaction

50/10 Skills Grouping: Planning forMore Individualized Instruction

50/15 Partner Work

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Reading Workshop Lesson 5: Reading Essays Work

Link to Work Period

Have students form groups and prepare an agenda for todays work.

Work Period

Shared Reading

Have groups use this time to finish reading assigned essays. Use this time to confer with groups about their work.

Independent Reading

Students use this time to continue reading essays or their books.

Sharing/Closure

Reconvene the class and take time to debrief this lessons Reading Essayswork: What was challenging? What went well? What will you do to preparefor the next reading lesson work? How will the group use that lessons WorkPeriod time?

Add to the chart, Problems During Reading Small Group Time (see ReadingLesson 4). Ask volunteers to offer short descriptions of problems that aroseduring this time.

After you added to the Problems list, ask the class to help you brainstormsolution ideas for each problem item.


Second quickwrite: After this reading, take time to answer the question:Are the arguments compelling? Be sure to refer to specific passages in thetext to support your responses.

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Writing Workshop Lesson 6: Faces of Authors PresenceArgument as Presence

Lesson 6: Faces of Authors PresenceArgument as Presence

Materials

Studio Course Unit of Study 2, Grade 6: Faces of the Essay, Session Six:Faces of Authors PresenceArgument as Presence

Student copies of model essays Signs of Authors Presence chart (see Writing Lesson 5) Writing notebooks, chart paper, and markers

Intended Learning

Students consider additional ways authors reveal themselves in essays.

Standards


Identify an authors point ofview and purpose

Analyze text to make predic-tions and draw conclusions.

Big Ideas

Read, discuss, and describeessays to articulate the diver-sity of their arguments,characteristics, similarities,and differences.

Consider the shapes essays takeand the choices essayists makeabout sources, arrangement,examples, and point of view.

Focus Lesson Notes

Note:This lesson is important for it is another opportunity for students to getcomfortable with the notion ofauthors presence. This Focus Lesson isdesigned to help you help students consider additional ways authors revealthemselves in essays.

Of course, in all of this work, your critical role is to facilitate discoveryaprocess that requires, undoubtedly, no small amount of patience andflexibility.

Connection

Briefly summarize students work during prior lessons.

Have students do a 510 minute quickwrite:

Write down

8 4 Faces of the Essay Lessons

Documents

Transcript of 8 4 Faces of the Essay Lessons