West Mecklenburg
High School
LESSON PLANS FOR
English II
Lesson:
OBJECTIVE/
CCSS
ESSENTIAL
QUESTIONS
MAJOR
CONCEPTS/SKILLS
RESEARCHED BASED
BEST PRACTICES
WARM-UP /
HR REVIEW
TEACHER INPUT
ACTIVITY
TEACHER
Ross
Unit 4:
Dates: Nov. 12-13
Tuesday-Wednesday
Upon completion of today’s lesson the 21st century learner will be able to
demonstrate an understanding of the major components of an argument with
90% mastery by taking notes from the Holt textbook on argumentation within a
graphic organizer and applying the concepts to models within the textbook, The
Declaration of Independence, and an original argument based on whether college
athletes should be paid to play.
What effect does effective argumentation have on an essay?
How does the presence of a counterargument strengthen a claim?


Author’s purpose and perspective
Argumentation
Text-based and argumentation
Find the argument-a quick paragraph where everyone will find the purpose of the text.
Teacher will give general description of the day with agenda, objective, and essential
questions.
Students will be given a handout titled “Arguments are Everywhere” to glue into
their folders, read, and highlight any information that is an AHA to them.
Everyone will discuss the reading and their highlighted information.
Using page 632 of the Holt textbook, students will recreate the columns that
represent the parts of an argument. When recreating the image, students should
label the parts and insert the definitions of claim, support, and counterargument.
GUIDED PRACTICE
Everyone will discuss why they believe each part is necessary to create a complete
argument and why an argument would not be as successful were any of these
elements left out.
Students will use a copy of the columns to fill in using Models 1 and 2 on page 633
of the Holt textbook. They will read the text and decide the claim, support, and
counterargument used. Everyone will share their answers.
Students will do the same with The Declaration of Independence, of which the teacher
will give each student a copy. Time permitting, students will read the text aloud,
stopping along the way to clarify vocabulary and answer teacher-presented
questions. After reading, students will fill in another copy of the columns, by
deciding on Jefferson’s claim, support, and counterargument. The teacher will take
the exercise further by asking students to identify any emotional language and
highlight it in the text. Discuss: “Why does Jefferson use this emotional language?”
The teacher will again take the exercise further by asking, “Where does Jefferson
use parallel structure, and what does he achieve by using it?” Discuss: Tactics, like
emotional language and parallel structure, help to build an author’s argument.
INDEPENDENT
PRACTICE
CLOSURE
All charts will go into their daybooks
The teacher will present students with a controversial topic: paying college athletes.
Students will have to fill in another copy of the columns with their own claim, support,
and counterargument based on the controversial topic. Students will have to complete
this 3rd chart independently and be ready to discuss their choices with everyone.
Day 1-Students will create a 120 character “tweet” that summarizes today’s lesson.
Day2-Students will use a 3-2-1 method for the days lesson.
HOMEWORK
Complete all work not completed in class.
ASSESSMENT
Informal-notes and models from the text, Declaration of Independence model
West Mecklenburg
LESSON PLANS FOR
High School
English II
Lesson:
TEACHER
Ross
Unit: 4
Dates: Nov. 14-15
Thursday-Friday
OBJECTIVE/
CCSS
Upon completion of today’s class, the 21st century learner will demonstrate 85 percent
mastery when identify persuasive, propaganda, and rhetorical techniques by creating
various foldables and graphic organizers, which can be used for independent practice
and review, and critiquing various texts based on their uses of the techniques.
ESSENTIAL
QUESTIONS
How does the use of propaganda, persuasive, and rhetorical techniques influence the
work’s effectiveness in reaching its intended audience?
MAJOR
CONCEPTS/SKILLS
RESEARCHED BASED
BEST PRACTICES
WARM-UP /
HR REVIEW
TEACHER INPUT
ACTIVITY
Author’s Perspective
Author’s Purpose
Effects of Tone
Argumentation
Textbook Activity-Kelly Gallagher
Jamestown Activities-Recognizing Tone
The teacher will explain that authors use other techniques to build their claims and
convince audiences that their claims are correct. These techniques include
persuasive techniques, propaganda techniques, and rhetorical techniques.
Day 1- The students will create two Ten-Tab Notebook Foldables, following the
teacher’s instructions, on which to record 20 of these techniques.
GUIDED PRACTICE
&
INDEPENDENT
PRACTICE
Students will use a handout from Kelly Gallagher’s Teaching Real-World Writing
Through Modeling & Mentor Texts and page 634 in the Holt textbook to record the
definitions and examples of the 20 techniques (appeal to authority, bandwagon,
glittering generalities, time crunch, plain folks, red herring, transfer, snob appeal,
testimonial, prestige identification, flag waving, card stacking, obtain disapproval,
vagueness, fear, appeal to pity, fear, or vanity, ethical appeal, loaded language,
repetition, and parallelism).
Once all the tabs are completed, students will practice reading different types of
texts and determining which techniques are being used. The techniques will be
recorded on sticky notes and placed in students’ daybooks.
o model 1: speeches (Holt textbook page 635)
o model 2: media (Holt textbook page 635)
o commencement address (Holt textbook page 636)
o AmeriCorps Network (Holt textbook page 637)
o website (adidas.com)
o print ad (Audi car ad)
o political ad (African-American abortion ad)
o TV commercial (YouTube: pantene commercial with liv tyler 2011)
o YouTube clip (Where the Hell is Matt 2012)
o The Declaration of Independence
Day 2- Students will be given a copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech
to use to answer the following questions: “What techniques are used in MLK’s Dream
speech? Highlight the evidence in the text. What is his primary claim and is it effective
in reaching his intended audience?”
CLOSURE
HOMEWORK
ASSESSMENT
The class will discuss the activities to ensure that all student’s notes are complete
before going home to do their homework.
Provide students with several sticky notes (about half a packet). Allow them to go
home and record any persuasive techniques they see in the real world, paying close
attention to conversations with friends and family members, commercials, radio
broadcasts, billboards, magazines, etc. Students will record the source and the
persuasive techniques used on sticky notes and place them in their daybooks to share
with the class.
Informal-foldables, multimedia techniques, MLK speech, homework