As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's "The Wind Begun to Rock the Grass" and "Nature, the Gentlest Mother."

Concepts

formal writing, essay writing, informative writing, emily dickinson, john muir, nature, tone, literary themes, compare and contrast essays

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Rather than an assessment, use the resource as a opportunity to model how to prepare for such an assessment
• Provide writers with the essay prompt, the reading passages, and the worksheets as homework before returning for sharing their ideas in groups

Classroom Considerations

• Writers shoulc have experience crafting essays based on excerpts from nonfiction text

Pros

• The 44-page learning performance task packet includes a copy of the student text booklet, the teacher guide, and a scoring rubric
• Fully scaffolded, the plan includes activities that provide writers an opportunity to discuss the texts with peers and find textual evidence to support their contentions, all before beginning the essay

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.11-12.1 RL.11-12.2 RL.11-12.4 RL.11-12.9 W.11-12.2.a W.11-12.9.a W.11-12.9.b SL.11-12.1.a