Reading Learning Plan

Reading-Learning Plan for Civil Disobedience, Part One

URL: http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil1.html

Publisher or Source: The Thoreau Reader

Author: Henry David Thoreau

Last Update: July 9, 2002, 7 pages

Introduction:

Thoreau is a widely anthologized American essayist and philosopher who lived from 1817-1862. Many important political leaders have studied his 1849 essay “Civil Disobedience” as they planned resistance to oppressive regimes. For example, in the 1940’s it was read by the Danish resistance, in the 1950’s it was cherished by people who opposed McCarthyism, in the 1960’s it was influential in the struggle against South African apartheid, and in the 1970’s it was discovered by a new generation of anti-war activists.

Civil Disobedience is an essay written after lectures that Thoreau had given. It is a text in many 11^th grade American literature anthologies. My Student Learning Goals include vocabulary development, critical thinking skills, literal and inferential comprehension skills, and the enrichment of students’ understanding of major religious, philosophical, and political influence on American literature of the mid-1800’s. Corollary to these goals are these state standards in Georgia:

Core Skills QCC Standards, Grades 9-12 Language Arts

2. Reads critically, asks pertinent questions, recognizes assumptions and implications, and evaluates ideas.

9. Acquires new vocabulary through reading and listening; demonstrates progress through speaking and writing.

10. Uses literal comprehension skills (e.g., sequencing, explicitly stated main idea).

11. Uses inferential comprehension skills (e.g., predictions, comparisons, conclusions, implicitly stated main idea).

13. Uses a variety of print and non-print resources as parts of the study of literature.

20. Gains insight into human behavior from the study of literature.

American Literature QCC Standards, Grades 9-12 Language Arts

27. Analyzes logical relationships in arguments and detects fallacies.

28. Recognizes different purposes and methods of writing; identifies a writer’s tone and point of view.

32. Develops and understanding of the effect of history on American literature (e.g., literary movements and periods).

33. Understands major cultural, religious, philosophical, and political influence on the literature of a given period or culture.

Readability:

Estimated Flesch-Kincaid (or Fry's) Readability Level and Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease

Score Averaged across 3 Passages from the Text Selection

_____________________________________________________________________

Passage 1 Passage 2 Passage 3

Page #(s) 1 2 6

# of Words 188 234 195

Readability Level by Grade 10.3 9.9 7.6

Reading Ease Score 54.1% 58.6% 64.7%

Average Readability Level for Text = 9.27 Average Reading Ease Score for Text= 59.13%

I think the length of the paragraphs, sentences, and syllables vary so much that the statistics may be skewed for the shorter paragraphs. I would say the text is closer to the 10.3 grade level than the 7.6. In addition, the text is full of archaic syntax and vocabulary, as well as challenging words and allusions that will be unfamiliar to students. I think the readability level is much more difficult than these scores indicate.

Structure:

This text contains a mostly hierarchical structure, consisting mainly of lists. There is some comparison/contrast, but mostly it takes its main idea (resistance to government) and makes a logical deductive argument, listing each reason and its examples. It is in paragraphs, but they do not have clear topic sentences. The topic of each is implied. It also has some inset quotes for poems. There really isn’t much to guide the reader in this text. You have to really tease out the main points and salient details. The online version does have footnote numbers in the text, which are hyperlinked to the footnote list.

Adding headings would help, as would highlighting archaic or otherwise difficult vocabulary, and having students infer and/or look up their meanings. A detailed table of contents would help the reader follow the logical progression of the argument, and even some pictures (like political cartoons of the day) would be helpful to illustrate some of the examples and references to historical political events the students might not be familiar with. It does have footnotes with explanations at the end. This helps, but I would include many more of them, and possibly hyperlink them so students can move back and forth between the text and the explanations.

Coherence:

Main ideas and important concepts are explicitly stated, but they are not in predictable locations in the text. They are sometimes in the beginning, but just as often in the middle or at the end of paragraphs. The information included is generally clear, important, and supportive of the main ideas, although the complex logic of the argument can be confusing at times, and the historical examples are not going to be relevant to students’ today. This is basically a deductive argument. The main idea (resistance to government) is stated at the beginning, and then all of the reasons and accompanying details are listed. The repetition of terms like government, justice, conscience, common sense, power, honesty, and virtue make it apparent that these are the main points of the argument. Beyond that, the text structure is very hard to grasp, and I wouldn’t expect students to get it on their own. Pronouns all have clear antecedents. Many of the terms, though are broad in meaning and could be interpreted different ways. More explicit transitions are needed. For example, a signal when one reason is finished and another is started, like first, second, third, etc. would be helpful.

Audience Appropriateness:

There are big concepts in the first paragraph (government, expedient, inexpedient, standing army, and standing government), none of which are explained in the text. Thoreau assumes his audiences understands and can apply these terms. The rest of the text is similar. Unless the teacher makes explicit connections between the events referred to in the text and parallel events affecting the student’s own lives, this text is not likely to be of interest to 11^th graders. But if this is done prior to reading, I think it is very relevant. What teenager doesn’t want to resist authority?

If the reader has thought at all about the purposes for government, or ever felt or acted out of a sense of patriotism or duty, then this text serves to give an alternate view of these ideas, so it uses many examples to correct the reader’s prior knowledge. The problem is that the examples are not relevant to students today, so the teacher would have to provide modern parallels to help students make the necessary connections with their prior knowledge.

The historical examples I mentioned above, the lack of headings, a glossary, adequate transitions, or other features that would point out the important facts and details from the text all could cause confusion and breakdown. And then the subject matter itself doesn’t at first seem relevant to teens. Frankly, I didn’t enjoy reading this text myself, or find it easy to comprehend, but it is a required part of the curriculum in American literature (or at least something by Thoreau must be read), so I chose this text to see if I could analyze what was making it so difficult and come up with some strategies to make it more accessible to my students.

I plan to highlight key terms and ask students to infer meanings and/or look them up and record them for a quiz, make an outline of the text to make the structure more clear, and most importantly make some pre-reading connections between the historical events in the text and more current events that will activate students’ interest and prior knowledge.

Reading-Learning Activities:

Pre-Reading: Here are some questions to activate prior knowledge, as this element is missing from both of the during-reading I have chosen:

1. Do you think a good citizen is a person who knows and follows all the laws of his or her society, whether or not they believe the laws are just and fair?

2. Can you think of a time that you or someone else broke a law or rule and felt it was the right thing to do? (not the convenient or fun thing, but the RIGHT thing?)

3. If you were asked by your government to do somehting that violated a stongly held personal principle or belief, what do you think you would do?

(For example, if you were asked by a judge to give information on a family member who had committed a crime, or if a military officer ordered you to kill innocent civilians, or if a police officer told you that in worshipping in your chosen faith, you were breaking the law.)

4. Why do you think we need a federal government in the United States?

During Reading: I think reciprocal teaching or dyad reading would be a appropriate strategies for students to use as they read, so they can help each other as they move through the text in class. Students will also be required to provide definitions of important terms I have highlighted in the text, either by inference or by looking them up in the dictionary (which also requires some inference). I discovered through my research on the Vocabulary Web Quest that students do not retain glossed definitions as well as inferred ones, and that direct vocabulary instruction is much more effective than incidental vocabulary learned through reading without a specific purpose. Thus I will give a vocabulary quiz on the words in the text to provide an explicit purpose for learning, OR I can ask students to correctly use at least ten of the words in their text when they write their two-column journals.

Post-Reading: I would follow up with a whole-class discussion of important concepts to consolidate new text knowledge with prior knowledge. I would also have students do a two-column journal about the major concepts in the text, pre- and post-reading and discussion, to further consolidate their new knowledge with prior knowledge. In addition, I have now made a RAFT for this text, which I will share with my students after they’ve completed their other reading strategies, and I’ll use that to model RAFTs that they will build for other challenging texts in the course.

Additional Notes:

This text needs to be taught in the context of other transcendentalist authors so the major concepts of that literary movement can be traced through all of them, and so students can see the many and close personal connections between Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, and Melville. This should serve to clarify the political and social context this was coming from. Asking students to build a timeline of key events in that era would be another good activity to do at the end of the unit of study.

Rubric: 16 PointsA=14-16B=10-13C=6-9F=4-5

Learning Goals

Exemplary – 4

Competent - 3

Satisfactory - 2

Insufficient - 1

Vocabulary Development

Able to define 90% or more of all highlighted words on a post-test.

Able to define 75-89% of all highlighted words on a post-test.

Has written down definitions of all highlighted words, and defines 50-74% on post-test.

Has not attempted to define all highlighted words, or does not remember more than 50%.

Critical Thinking

In discussion and writing, student shows evidence of significant critical thought about the text.

In discussion and writing, student shows some evidence of thinking about the text.

Participates in discussion and completes two-column journal, but does not show evidence of independent or critical thinking.

Does not participate in discussion, or two-column journal is incomplete or insufficient.

Literal Comprehension

During dyad reading or reciprocal teaching, comes to a full understanding of the text, and helps partner do the same.

During dyad reading or reciprocal teaching, comes to a full understanding of the text, and helps partner somewhat.

During dyad reading or reciprocal teaching, shows a partial understanding of the text.

Does not participate sufficiently in dyad reading or reciprocal teaching.

Inferential Comprehension and Connections to Social Context

In discussion and writing, makes text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to world connections.

In discussion and writing, makes some text connections, but not all three types.

In discussion and writing makes one type of text connection.

Does not show evidence of any text connections in discussion or writing.

	Passage 1	Passage 2	Passage 3
Page #(s)	1	2	6
# of Words	188	234	195
Readability Level by Grade	10.3	9.9	7.6
Reading Ease Score	54.1%	58.6%	64.7%
Average Readability Level for Text =	9.27	Average Reading Ease Score for Text=	59.13%

Learning Goals	Exemplary – 4	Competent - 3	Satisfactory - 2	Insufficient - 1
Vocabulary Development	Able to define 90% or more of all highlighted words on a post-test.	Able to define 75-89% of all highlighted words on a post-test.	Has written down definitions of all highlighted words, and defines 50-74% on post-test.	Has not attempted to define all highlighted words, or does not remember more than 50%.
Critical Thinking	In discussion and writing, student shows evidence of significant critical thought about the text.	In discussion and writing, student shows some evidence of thinking about the text.	Participates in discussion and completes two-column journal, but does not show evidence of independent or critical thinking.	Does not participate in discussion, or two-column journal is incomplete or insufficient.
Literal Comprehension	During dyad reading or reciprocal teaching, comes to a full understanding of the text, and helps partner do the same.	During dyad reading or reciprocal teaching, comes to a full understanding of the text, and helps partner somewhat.	During dyad reading or reciprocal teaching, shows a partial understanding of the text.	Does not participate sufficiently in dyad reading or reciprocal teaching.
Inferential Comprehension and Connections to Social Context	In discussion and writing, makes text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to world connections.	In discussion and writing, makes some text connections, but not all three types.	In discussion and writing makes one type of text connection.	Does not show evidence of any text connections in discussion or writing.