Origins of Authority and Control in Early American Literature

Introduction

When this Webquest is completed, you will be able to say:

◆I can define textual evidence (“In paragraph 3, sentence 5, the text says...this is how I know...” ). (Knowledge)

◆I can define inference and explain how a reader uses textual evidence to reach a logical conclusion (“based on what I’ve read it’s most likely true that...”). (Reasoning/Understanding)

◆I can read closely and find answers explicitly in the text and answers that require an inference (If Arthur Miller can write "The Crucible" to get back at the government for being unjustly accused of being a communist, then I can write...) (Skill)

◆I can analyze an author’s words and determine multiple pieces of textual evidence that strongly and thoroughly support both explicit and inferential questions. (Reasoning/Understanding)

Suggested Learning Targets:

Priority Standard RI 1 and RL 1

Supporting Standards: RI 5, RI 6, RI7, W9

Task

Go through the 5 stations and determine 

Process

STEP 1

 READ Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband"

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/238168

STEP 2

VIEW “The Death of Jane McCrea” by John Vanderylyn

http://southwilliamstown.org/2010/06/12-the-murder-of-jane-mccrea/

AND

VIEW  “The First Thanksgiving” by John Lean Gerome Ferris (1621)

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001699850/

Additionally, a resource (“Visual Rhetoric Unpacking”) is located in the Resources to assist in determining guiding questions for students to model with students to progress their visual analysis skill to independence.

STEP 4 

Read an excerpt from The Scarlett Letter.

http://www.bartleby.com/83/2.html

 Start in Chapter 2 at the 16th paragraph. It begins“A lane was forewith opened” and concluding two paragraphs later with the ending phrase “for the infant that she had borne.”

STEP 5

Nonfiction: “The Mayflower Compact” (Lexile 850) Available at http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/mayflower.htm

Evaluation

 Find a “Top 100 Speeches”  they want to use to conduct a thorough rhetorical analysis to turn into a well-written, multi-paragraph response utilizing text-based evidence and thorough, insightful analysis and evaluation

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

Conclusion

Now that we have written the analytical essays, we will use the rubrics to score them and to improve your scores.

Grades from this Webquest

  1. Comparitive analysis worksheet
  2. Essay
  3. Essay scoring
  4. Essay rewrite