Craft Lesson: Hashtag into Evidence Paragraph
Thanks to Maurice Cowley and Tara Jardine from the 2015 OWP Summer Institute for
this lesson.
1. Begin by asking students, “What is a hashtag? How are they used?” You may look
at some sample hashtags if students aren’t familiar.
2. Select a quote or image from your work together and place it on the document
camera. Ask students to generate a hashtag for the prompt. Explain that this is part
of the process you will work through together. You might show the attached models
to students.
3. On large pieces of chart paper, students draw three circles in the form of a bulls
eye.
4. Each group selects a quotation that they think is the most important (relevant to
the essential questions) based on their individual selections in their reading
journals, articles, etc. Students write the quotation in the inner circle on a large
piece of chart paper
5. With each group’s chart paper hanging on the wall, students walk around adding
hashtags in the first circle on the chart paper. These hashtags should capture the gist
of the quote, theme of the quotation. Then ask students to walk around and discuss
which hashtags they think are most effective. (See sample below.)
4. Bring the class back together. Return to your original quote (#2) and ask students
to pull the quote into a sentence. (See model) Ask students to partner share or small
group share. Ask a few students to share with the large group to make sure
everyone has a common understanding of the next step.
5. Once students return to the hallway, ask students to write sentences in response
to the hashtags and quotations. Tell them to write on at least three sheets.
6. Once students have written on a few hashtag posters, return once again to the
large group. The last step is to write a paragraph using one of the quotations,
hashtags and sentences as the evidence for their paragraph. Before students write
their evidence paragraph, brainstorm together the elements of an evidence
paragraph: What is in an evidence paragraph:
 Claim
 Support Evidence
 Interpretation/Analysis
 Quote
 Context
(See “Raising the bones of an evidence paragraph”.)
Students write a practice paragraph with the classroom model. (#2) Students
partner or small group share and pop up share a few paragraphs in class. (See
model below.)
7. Ask students return to hashtag posters, find a quote, hashtag, and sentence they
want to develop into a paragraph. Once students complete their paragraphs, share
in small groups or post on the wall next to the hashtag posters.
Sample hashtag poster:
Hashtag sentence
Hashtag paragraph. Notice how Dawn Patrick took the quote, as well as
hashtags to create her paragraph.
Strong words are necessary. When governments, schools, and teachers take
native languages away by force, it is a form of rape. It is a declaration of war. It is
violence. A scratch on the surface of the stories of people whose languages were
taken away is all that is needed to see the evidence. Years after enduring forced
English education, an elderly Cree man, Andrew Windy Boy, broke down and wept
with shame when asked about his experiences. Camila Arza Torres Goitia, a bilingual
Latina, describes her mind as "a constant battlefield." And in an all-too-literal
illustration of the violence of forced language eradication, a 12 year old South
African boy was shot dead by a policeman for daring to oppose the imposition of
state language upon his people.