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Seed 1: Gr. 8 Unit: Does Speech Matter

Essential Question:

How can taking a stand help to develop a person's belief system?

Lesson Calendar

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Unit Overview Unit

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Lesson seeds are ideas that can be used to build a lesson aligned to the CCSS. Lesson seeds are not meant to be all-inclusive, nor are they substitutes for instruction. When developing lessons from these seeds, teachers must consider the needs of all learners. It is also important to build checkpoints into the lessons where appropriate formative assessment will inform a teachers instructional pacing and delivery.

Lesson Seed 1 - Day 1–2

Speeches

TEXT MODEL*

A speech by President Barack Obama that urges students to set clear goals and take responsibility for their education
Transcript: REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICA'S SCHOOLCHILDREN http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks
Video: REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICA'S SCHOOLCHILDREN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2CaJATHDc

STUDENT OUTCOMES/SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Quickwrite: How can taking a stand develop a person's belief system?
Have students brainstorm a list of things that people might take a stand for or against
Come up with names of people who took a stand for something that they believed in: President Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Hilary Clinton, friends, family.
Brainstorm a list of topics that people could take a stand against.
Brainstorm a list of ideas or topics that students would write a speech about.
Have students brainstorm what they know about speeches and the people that made them.
Ask a few students to share what the speeches were about and identify any arguments presented
Introduce key words: claim — the overall thesis the writer will argue; counterclaim- a claim that negates or disagrees with the thesis or claim. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/03/
Students will work in groups to pick a topic of interest: uniforms, lunch lines, homework, recess, cell phones.
Students will list the claims and counterclaims about the topic in their groups.
Students will compose a speech with claims and counterclaims about their topic to present to the class.
Engage students in a discussion to identify whether each group presented a clear argument with claims and counterclaims.
Read a speech by President Barack Obama that urges students to set clear goals and take responsibility for their education.
Have students read the text closely and watch the video to find evidence that assess the strength or weakness of the speech urging students to take responsibility for their education.
Have students engage effectively in collaborative discussions with a group or one-on-one to analyze and summarize what the text says explicitly.
Discuss the following questions:
1. What argument is being presented in the speech?
2. What does the speaker want the audience to learn from the speech?
3. What appeal to action is President Obama asking the audience to take on education?
4. How can the audience benefit from the message conveyed in the speech?
Have students find the claim in the text by identifying key words or phrases that supports the most relevant and sufficient evidence to support President Barack Obama's stand for students to take responsibility for their education
Have students use textual evidence to find facts to support the claim presented in the speech.
Students will respond to the Unit's Essential question: How did President Obama take a stand on education in his speech? Use textual evidence to support your answer

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Consider the need for Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) and/or for captioned/described video when selecting texts, novels, video and/or other media for this unit. See "Sources for Accessible Media" for suggestions. See Maryland Learning Links: http://marylandlearninglinks.org.

CCSS STANDARDS ALIGNMENT

Reading: Informational Text

RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RI.8.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

RI.8.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Speaking & Listening

SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.8.1d Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented.

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Last Updated 3/17/2020 1:12 PM