Goals

Buy-in, introduction to task, research paper topic selection

 

Details

Duration: 120+ minutes

Assessments: Student writing, Research

 

Description

1. We started this unit by reading the novel, "Kindred," by Octavia Butler. It is engaging from the start, which gave us an easy in to the content.

2. We held discussions about slavery, the n-word, and power. One reading we used was "An Essay on a Wickedly Powerful Word" by Keith Woods.

3. We followed this up with a KWL on Civil War.

4. We closed this lesson listening to the song "Strange Fruit," by Billie Holiday, annotating the lyrics, analyzing the metaphors, and discussing meaningful passages.

5. The following day we gave students a handout of the research paper description and requirements to give them a big picture scope of what their task would be for this project. The handout has the research paper benchmarks and citation format for the research paper.

6. We distributed possible paper topics and students selected their first and second choice.

"An Essay on a Wickedly Powerful Word"
a reading on the n-word...
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Exhibition Clips
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Reearch Paper Topics
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Research Paper Description
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Research Paper Rubric
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Sample Student Work
Research paper by Argent Ilejay on Civil War Strategies...
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Strange Fruit lyrics
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Student Work
Research paper by Jasmine Kamariotis...
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Author Reflections

Students were eager to discuss these topics. It wasn't new to them, and they made it clear that they wanted to go beyond the traditional figures and heros. The actual research paper format would afford them this opportunity.

We read this during the research paper process, and although it took the backseat in terms of time and energy, it was engaging and kids enjoyed reading it. We always started class with a reading uiz and a discussion about the reading homework, which was a great motivator for launching into the research process each day.

Many thanks to Justin Wells and Josh Brankman for their work on the "State of the World Project." Our research paper guidelines and benchmarks were modeled off of of this project.