I, Me, You, We

Individuality Versus Conformity, ELA Lessons for Gifted and Advanced Learners in Grades 6-8

Emily Mofield, Tamra Stambaugh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000493474
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Languages

Winner of the 2016 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award

In I, Me, You, We: Individuality Versus Conformity, students explore essential questions such as "How does our environment shape our identity? What are the consequences of conforming to a group? When does social conformity go too far?" This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth and aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), includes a major emphasis on rigorous evidence-based discourse through the study of common themes across rich, challenging nonfiction and fictional texts.

The unit guides students to examine the fine line of individuality versus conformity through the related concepts of belongingness, community, civil disobedience, questioning the status quo, and self-reliance by engaging in creative activities, Socratic seminars, literary analyses, and debates. Lessons include close-readings with text-dependent questions, choice-based differentiated products, rubrics, formative assessments, and ELA tasks that require students to analyze texts for rhetorical features, literary elements, and themes through argument, explanatory, and prose-constructed writing.

Ideal for pre-AP and honors courses, the unit features short stories from Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury, poetry from Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou, art by M. C. Escher and Pablo Picasso, and primary source documents from Plato, Eleanor D. Roosevelt, William Bradford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.

Grades 6-8

AN EXAMINATION OF RISK

Against the Status Quo

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235620-8

Lesson 4
"Letter to DAR" and "My Day" Column

by Eleanor Roosevelt

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235620-9

Goals/Objectives

Content: To analyze and interpret texts and art, students will be able to:

• ∎ explain with evidence how a writer supports a claim,
• ∎ respond to interpretations of texts through a variety of contexts by justifying ideas and providing new information, and
• ∎ compare and contrast texts and real-world events on theme.

Process: To develop thinking, writing, and communication skills, students will be able to:

• ∎ reason through an issue by analyzing points of view, assumptions, and implications;
• ∎ use evidence to develop and support inferences;
• ∎ evaluate the use of effective argumentation; and
• ∎ analyze societal or individual conflicts resulting from the struggle between individuality versus conformity.

Concept: To understand the concept of individuality versus conformity in the language arts, students will be able to:

• ∎ support conformity versus individuality generalizations with evidence,
• ∎ develop and apply generalizations of additional key concepts, and
• ∎ explain the conflict between conformity and individuality.

Accelerated CCSS ELA Standards

• ∎ RI.9-10.1
• ∎ RI.9-10.2
• ∎ RI.9-10.3
• ∎ RI.9-10.6
• ∎ RI.9-10.7
• ∎ RI.9-10.9
• ∎ SL.9-10.1
• ∎ SL.9-10.1c
• ∎ SL.9-10.1d
• ∎ RH.9-10,1
• ∎ RH.9-10.2
• ∎ RH.9-10.8
• ∎ RH.9-10.9
• ∎ W.9-10.4

Materials

• ∎ Handout 1.3: Concept Organizer (continued from previous lessons)
• ∎ Handout 4.1: "Letter to DAR" by Eleanor Roosevelt and "Response From ∎ Mrs. Robert, President of DAR"
• ∎ Handout 4.2: "My Day" Newspaper Column by Eleanor Roosevelt
• ∎ Handout 4.3: Reasoning About a Situation or Event
• ∎ Rubric 1: Product Rubric (Appendix C)

Introductory Activity

Engage students in a quick debate. Ask: Suppose you are a member of a group, and the group does something you do not approve. Should you work to persuade the group to change, or should you remove yourself from the group? Students may stand on opposite sides of the room to debate their point of view.

Read Text

Instead of giving students a great deal of background information, tell students that they will be uncovering clues to a situation by looking at a few primary source documents. They will be reading correspondence between Eleanor Roosevelt and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) society. Distribute Handout 4.1: "Letter to DAR" by Eleanor Roosevelt and "Response From Mrs. Robert, President of DAR." Allow students time to read both documents. Then lead them in a discussion. You may want to try a Socratic Seminar approach with a fishbowl discussion.

Text-Dependent Questions

These questions may be useful for a Socratic seminar or class discussion focused on Handout 4.1. Select from the following:

• ∎ What is the cause of the controversy?
• ∎ What do these documents reveal about Eleanor Roosevelt's character?
• ∎ What questions do you have about the context of these documents?
• ∎ What role does Eleanor Roosevelt's emotion play in the resignation letter? ∎ Consider her appeal to guilt and personal obligation.

Encourage students to ask questions to each other during this process. After discussion, explain to students that DAR banned Marian Anderson, an African-American singer, from singing at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. Explain that later Marian Anderson was invited to sing at the Lincoln Memorial dedication in Washington, DC, bringing racial discrimination into the national spotlight. Ask students to consider the ironies of the controversy (i.e., Lincoln is being memorialized). This performance is available on YouTube.

Read Text

Explain that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a syndicated newspaper column called "My Day." Distribute Handout 4.2: "My Day" Newspaper Column by Eleanor Roosevelt. Tell students: In this excerpt, we have more insight into Eleanor Roosevelt's decision making. Read the column silently.

Text-Dependent Questions

After reading Handout 4.2, select from the following questions for students to respond to in small groups:

• ∎ What additional insight do you have about Eleanor Roosevelt's decision making?
• ∎ What phrase in the document best supports her fight against the status quo?
• ∎ What does this document reveal about her character? Support this with textual evidence.
• ∎ What one word best describes Eleanor Roosevelt, based on this text? What evidence supports this?

In-Class Activity to Deepen Learning

Use Handout 4.3: Reasoning About a Situation or Event to reason through the issue "Should Eleanor Roosevelt resign from the DAR?" Help students realize that this decision may seem small, but it made a large statement to the nation about racial discrimination. As a First Lady, she also risked her husband's reputation. Figure 4.1 provides some sample responses.

• ∎ Situation: Should Eleanor Roosevelt resign from the DAR?
• ∎ Stakeholders: Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson, DAR Representatives, FDR.
• ∎ Point of View: How the stakeholder(s) would answer the question, including evidence of why they feel this way.
• ∎ Assumptions: The values and beliefs taken for granted by the stakeholders.
• ∎ Implications: The short- and long-term consequences that happened or could have happened if that particular point of view were actualized.

Figure 4.1.Should Eleanor Roosevelt resign from the DAR? Sample responses.

Concept Connections

Lead students through a discussion using Handout 1.3: Concept Organizer, continued from previous lessons. Students should list examples about how the work demonstrates some of the generalizations. Figure 4.2 provides some sample responses.

Choice-Based Differentiated Products

Students may choose one of the following independent products to complete (Note: Use Rubric 1: Product Rubric in Appendix C to assess student products):

Figure 4.2. Sample student responses to individuality versus conformity generalizations.

• ∎ Read three additional "My Day" columns written by Eleanor Roosevelt. Create a product (PowerPoint, video documentary, brochure, pamphlet, monologue) that shows how Eleanor Roosevelt's individuality fought against the status quo during her time period. Also explain how her decision-making had long-term implications to today. Cite textual evidence from all three sources in your product.
• ∎ Study the style of Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" columns. Develop your own "My Day" column that addresses contemporary national issues using the same style Eleanor Roosevelt used. Be sure to include an idea relating to an individual questioning the status quo.
• ∎ Find various quotes of Eleanor Roosevelt that reflect her passion to promote positive change in society. Develop a collage with quotes, images, pictures, and symbols that represent Eleanor Roosevelt as a nonconformist who promoted change in society. Include at least 10 quotes from her texts, letters, or speeches.

ELA Practice Tasks

Assign one of the following tasks as a performance-based assessment for this lesson:

• ∎ Read three "My Day" columns (suggested source: http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/browsebyyear.cfm) and explain the extent to which Eleanor Roosevelt was a nonconformist who promoted change during her lifetime. Use sufficient evidence from the texts to develop your reasoning in an explanatory essay and support your central idea.
• ∎ Research more about the controversy around Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial Dedication. Explain the causes of the controversy and explain the short- and long-term implications (effects). Use sufficient evidence from primary and secondary sources and cite your sources appropriately.

Figure 4.3. Scoring guidelines for Lesson 4 formative assessment.

Formative Assessment

1. Ask students to respond to the following prompt in a single paragraph: What can you infer is meant by the phrase "you had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way" and how does it relate to the societal conflict?
2. Use the scoring guidelines in Figure 4.3 to evaluate students' assessments.

Name:__________________________________________________________ Date:_________________________

Handout 4.1
"Letter to DAR" by Eleanor Roosevelt and "Response From Mrs. Robert, President of DAR"

"Letter to DAR" by Eleanor Roosevelt February 26, 1939

My dear Mrs. Henry M. Robert Jr.:

I am afraid that I have never been a very useful member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, so I know it will make very little difference to you whether I resign, or whether I continue to be a member of your organization.

However, I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist. You have set an example which seems to me unfortunate, and I feel obliged to send in to you my resignation. You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed.

I realize that many people will not agree with me, bu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Pretest
• Pretest Rubric
• AN EXAMINATION OF IDENTITY: How Does Our Environment Shape Our Identity?
• AN EXAMINATION OF RISK: Against the Status Quo
• AN EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL CONFORMITY
• AN EXAMINATION OF NONCONFORMITY: A Force of Social Change
• References
• Appendix A: Instructions for Using the Models
• Appendix B: Blank Models and Guides
• Appendix C: Rubrics
• About the Authors
• Common Core State Standards Alignment