This unit was created by ELA Educators in Idaho Schools, part of the 2021 cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. It is designed for facilitation across approximately 3-4 weeks, or 15-20 70 minute class periods.
Objectives
Students will be able to...
- Closely read, analyze, discuss, and write about given nonfiction texts (individually and in groups) in order to make a connection to real-world events and problems.
- Make a claim about the effectiveness of an author’s rhetoric and support that analysis with textual evidence.
- Organize claims logically, establish significance of claims, and anticipate their audience’s values and biases.
- Analyze texts for themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.
- Write a rhetorical analysis essay.
Essential Questions
- What story do people tell or believe about you?
- What story do you tell or believe about someone else?
- What story is told/believed about America?
- How do these narratives inform our understanding of ourselves, our community, others, and our country?
- How are the past, present, and future linked in yourself, others, your community, and your country?
Unit Overview
In this unit, students will spend about three weeks learning about and practicing rhetorical analysis of various texts in multiple modes, including print essays, videos, photo essays, and podcasts from The 1619 Project. Their learning will culminate with a rhetorical analysis essay in which they choose three different types of texts (one photo essay, one podcast, one written essay) and analyze how they connect the past to the present/tell the story of the past/achieve each author’s individual purpose. Students will practice close reading, analytical thinking, civil discussions, argumentative/persuasive writing with claims and evidence, and more.
Performance Task
This unit’s summative assessment is an analytical essay. The texts students read across this unit have all shared a common goal: to share the story of America from various perspectives. The authors have aimed to demonstrate the ongoing impacts of slavery, racism, economic disparity, and other injustices on today’s world. Students will choose three texts—an essay, a photo essay, and a podcast—and write about how their authors achieved this goal within their works. Students will consider the choices the authors made and describe how those choices supported their purposes. In this essay, students are not writing about whether they agree with the authors. Rather, they are analyzing how the writing is successful.
Three-four week unit plan for teachers, including pacing, texts and multimedia resources, graphic organizers for student projects, and performance tasks for the unit. Download below, or scroll down to read the complete unit plan.
Week 1: Introduction to unit
Analyzing nonfiction essays and seminal U.S. historical documents
Pacing | Focus text(s) / resource(s) for today’s lesson | Lesson Objective(s) or Essential Question(s) | Lesson / Activities | Lesson Materials |
Days 1-2 | “Medical Inequality” by Linda Villarosa “Undemocratic Democracy” by Jamelle Bouie “Traffic” by Kevin Kruse “A Broken Health Care System” by Jeneen Interlandi “The Danger of a Single Story,” a TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Declaration of Independence The Bill of Rights The Preamble Lincoln’s Second Address The Federalist Papers |
Students will closely read, analyze, discuss, and write about given nonfiction texts (individually and in groups) in order to make a connection to real-world events and problems. | 1. Introduce the project with “The Danger of a Single Story” video and talk about the many American perspectives and voices. 2. Ask students these questions: What story do people tell or believe about you? What story do you tell or believe about someone else? What story is told/believed about America? How do these narratives inform our understanding of ourselves, our community, others, and our country? How are the past, present, and future linked in yourself, others, your community, and your country? 3. The instructor will choose a nonfiction text to have the class read together from the list at left. Then, the instructor will work with the class as a whole to answer the deep dive questions for the text. 4. The class will then write a rhetorical precis together. Think of a rhetorical precis as a mini rhetorical analysis. In a well-developed paragraph, students should identify an author’s purpose and analyze how the author achieves that purpose, specifically. The student should discuss the author’s choices and audience. |
Rhetorical Analysis Deep Dive Questions [.pdf] Rhetorical Analysis Deep Dive Questions [.docx] |
Days 3-4 | Same as above | Same as above | Students will get into groups of 3-4. Each group will read an assigned nonfiction article. Then, they will work together to answer the deep dive questions. Each student will then write their own rhetorical precis. Students will then share their precis aloud and choose the best one. Finally, they will revise and improve this precis and share it with the whole class. | Same as above |
Day 5 | Same as above | Formative assessment: Students read their chosen precis aloud. The teacher will provide verbal feedback to each group at this time. |
Week 2: Analyzing photo essays and podcasts
Pacing | Focus text(s) / resource(s) for today’s lesson | Lesson Objective(s) or Essential Question(s) | Lesson / Activities | Lesson Materials |
Days 1-2 | “They Sold Human Beings Here” by Dannielle Bowman and Anne C. Bailey “Hope” by Djeneba Aduayom and Nikole Hannah-Jones “Stories from Slavery, Shared Over Generations” compiled by Nicole Phillip Additional photo stories: “I Am Omar” by Gavin McIntyre and Jennifer Berry Hawes “Afropunk Brings the Black Lives Matter Ethos Abroad” by Melissa Bunni Elian “Where They Stood” by Melissa Lyttle Various photo essays from the NY Times Lens Blog |
Students will analyze, discuss, and write about visual rhetoric. This will provide them with practice analyzing multimodal texts. | The teacher will choose a photo essay to analyze with the whole class. When analyzing, consider the overview (whole picture), parts (details), title, interrelationships (how they all come together), and conclusions (this is an acronym – OPTIC). Then, the class will write a precis together. (20-30 minutes) Students will get into groups to discuss new photos and analyze them. Each student will then write their own rhetorical precis. Students will then share their precis aloud and choose the best one. Finally, they will revise and improve this precis and share it with the whole class. Formative assessment: Students read their chosen precis aloud. The teacher will provide verbal feedback to each group at this time. |
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Days 3-4 | Podcasts from The 1619 Project* *=each podcast episode is 29-42 minutes long. The link above includes the audio and transcripts for each episode. Select songs from the Hamilton soundtrack: “Guns and Ships”; “One Last Time”; “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” |
Students will conduct a rhetorical analysis of a podcast and various songs to practice analyzing multimodal texts. | The class as a whole will listen to a podcast. The instructor will then work with the class to answer podcast analysis questions. Then, the class will write a precis together. Students will work in groups to listen to the podcast episode of their choice. Then, they will answer the podcast analysis questions. Then, they will each write their own precis. Then, they will read them aloud and choose the best one to share with the class. Formative assessment: Students read their chosen precis aloud. The teacher will provide verbal feedback to each group at this time. |
Podcast Analysis Questions [.pdf] Podcast Analysis Questions [.docx] |
Day 5 | Students will create a plan for their essay (summative assessment). | The instructor will review the instructions and an outline to help the students organize and format their essays. The teacher will provide a pacing guide to students to help them chunk the essay into smaller tasks. The teacher will also review the rubric. | Essay Instructions [.pdf] Essay Instructions [.docx] Pacing Guide (teacher will need to make the latter to be custom for their own learners’ needs) Essay Outline [.pdf] Essay Outline [.docx] |
Week 3: Writing the analytical essay
Pacing | Focus text(s) / resource(s) for today’s lesson | Lesson Objective(s) or Essential Question(s) | Lesson / Activities | Lesson Materials |
Days 1-7 | All resources used so far | Students will write a rhetorical analysis essay. | 1. Students decide which texts to use and start creating a thesis statement. 2. Students participate in thesis conferences with the instructor. 3, Students start working on writing their rough draft as thesis conferences continue. 4. Students participate in peer editing. 5. Students make revisions. 6. Students submit their final drafts. |
Essay Instructions [.pdf] Essay Instructions [.docx] Pacing Guide (teacher will need to make the latter to be custom for their own learners’ needs) Essay Outline [.pdf] Essay Outline [.docx] |
Common Core Standards
W.11-12.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
- Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
- Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.
- Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.
- Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile and analogy to manage the complexity of the argument.
- Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
I.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
- W.11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3.)
- W.11-12.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grades 11-12.)
- W.11-12.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
- Apply grades 11-12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, and other literary canons, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”).
- Apply grades 11-12 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. and other texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy [e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses]”).
- L.11-12.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
- Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested.
- Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references (e.g., MerriamWebster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.
- L.11-12.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
- Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text.
- Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations
RI.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
- RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
- RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
- RI.11-12.5 Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
- RI.11-12.8 Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. and other texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses).
- RI.11-12.9 Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) and other documents of similar significance for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.
- SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
- Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.
- Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.
- Set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.
- Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.
- Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.