9

A Voice for the Marginalized

9th Grade English Language Arts
Patrick Mulier
TE 408 - Unit Plan
4/27/2015

Unit Overview

Unit Goals
This unit is centered upon teaching students to be critically aware of how certain
peoples face oppression or marginalization in various contexts and become voices
of truth to shed light upon such injustices. They will learn define and dissect
marginalization as it occurs in both their school context and in a young adult literary
text of their choosing, in which theyll collaborate in small groups to examine,
discuss and form logical arguments about. Students will engage in the
argumentative writing process, being equipped with both theory and practical
writing tools to employ strong persuasive writing. Students will also be trained to
be grammatically effective writers in the structural alignment and transition of ideas
in their papers.

Standards
Common Core State Standards addressed & expected to have been met by
students:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development
over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by
specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts,
using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1.B
Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while
pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the
audience's knowledge level and concerns.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations
for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question
(including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the
inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject,
demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Unit Rationale
I believe its extremely valuable for students to have a clear vision of the
manifestations of marginalization in the world around them. There are
disempowered, vilified and hurting people groups all over the world and all too often
they are sadly unseen, disenfranchised and underrepresented by the general public.
My underlying goal is for students to see the importance and become part of
proactively building a more equitable world. I want my students become intolerant
of marginalization upon seeing it in their futures. In addition, by meeting in
literature circles students will practice the collaborative work necessary for the
demands of college and their careers, as well as being able to read texts closely and
critically. The work of dissecting marginalization will take on a real-life relevance as
students investigate their own school communities to shed light on such injustices.
Lastly, because argumentative communication is the most common form of
message-giving in societyfrom books to newspapers to debates to movies to
conversations, arguments are everywhereand its high demand in academia,
students need to become grounded and well-rounded persuasive communicators to
navigate their way successfully through the world.

Prior Knowledge
Students will have experience in various cub-communities within their school (such
as gym class, student-council, the wrestling team, book club, peer-groups, ect.),
which will each come with literacies of their own. For example, for peer groups,
they will know that students clump together according to interest and personality
types, and there are various types of groups such as jock, nerd, popular, and
loner. Theyll have a basic social understanding of their school. Students will have
already engaged in activities and assignments that are argumentative in nature.
Students will have read young adult novels before, and most likely read stories
where people groups have faced marginalization.

Unit Assessment
Students will write a 3-4 paged argumentative paper answering the question how
does marginalization occur in this young adult literature novel? Students will be
assessed on their inclusion of the elements of an argument, including claim,
evidence, counterarguments and warrant, to make for a stronger paper. They will
also be assessed on how well they defined and included the concept of
marginalization in their work and its existence in the text. Students will display a
thoughtful understanding of the text they are engaged in. In sum, the close reading
of this text and the introducing of and developing a claim about marginalization will
teach students to be critical inquirers of social injustices. As displayed in the Rubric
for the Final Argumentative Essay, students will also be assessed for their ability to

argue a well-developed argument about marginalization, including claims, counterclaims, evidences, and warrants. Their papers will be assessed also for their
capacity to be grammatically accurate in having structural flow, alignment, and
effective transitional phrases between both sentences and paragraphs. Students
will be equipped to reach these goals by aid of lesson plans throughout the unit.

Unit Sequence
The unit begins by building students foundational content knowledge by defining
what marginalization is and what it looks like in real-life examples. They will
achieve this analyzing How It Is to Be Colored Me and writing marginalized-accounts
from personal experiences. From the beginning of the unit until the end students
will gather content knowledge from their outside of class reading of a multi-cultural
novel and the who/how/why journal they fill out on marginalizations appearance
throughout that text. This will be the basis for many structured literature-circle
small group discussions as well as the final argumentative paper. More content
knowledge will be gained about how marginalization works by critically reading
Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Students will begin to learn the procedural
knowledge of form by studying how arguments are framed and crafted within both
Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Letter to a Birmingham Jail. They will analyze the
choices the authors make to craft strong arguments, as well as identifying, defining
and discussing the argumentative elements within the texts. In order for students
to become Voices for the Marginalized in their own societies, students will
continue to learn the procedural knowledge of thinking critically about social
inequities within the school contexts, and framing arguments in classroom
discussions (with their claims, evidences, warrants and counter-arguments) to bring
these real-life instances of marginalization into the light. Students will then begin to
write their final argumentative papers, taking the structured process of writing by
developing a thesis, outline, arranging a coherent structure, drafting, peerreviewing, editing, conferencing with the teacher and rewriting again for the final
draft. Lessons on grammar and mechanics will aid students ability to write their
papers effectively. They will learn how to properly transition ideas on a sentence
level (coordinating conjunctions), as well as a body-paragraph level. They will learn
how to align everything back to the thesis for a unified and thus stronger argument.
These grammar lessons give students the procedures needed to write a terrific
argumentative paper.

Calendar of Events
Key Elements of Unit:

Teaching argument elements/moves

Revision activity
Dialogic activity
Grammar/mechanics activity

Technology

Day 1: Defining and Relating to the Margins

Objective: define and discuss marginalization (among different forms of social
inequity) and why its important to think about; read a mentor texts which shows
how marginalization occurs in real life and have students write about how they
themselves have experienced it, in a similar writing form.
Activity: (1) have students look up online definitions (such as OED) of Marginalize,
Oppress, Disenfranchise and Discriminate and compare and contrast them; close
read the Oxford English Dictionary definition; collaborate on the board a working
definition and real life examples of marginalized. (2) Do an in class reading of How it
is to be colored me and a class discussion about how the narrator endures
marginalization for their racial status. Then have students imitate that text and
write their own short stories of how it is to be X me (nerdy me, woman me, gay
me, Muslim me) based on their own personal experiences with marginalization.
Day 2: Literature Circles begin
Objective: Begin young adult book selection in small groups (in 3-4); build
foundational knowledge of the texts and practice reading comprehension strategies
on first couple chapters of in class reading; introduce a guiding question into their
reading.
Activity: students choose a book from a small library of six multi-cultural young
adult books (Things Fall Apart, Growing Up Amish, Lord of the Flies, American born
Chinese, Invisible man, Under the Blood Red Sun) in groups of 3 to 4. Each
literature circle group spends a small amount of time researching and gathering
knowledge the book and its author. Teacher models and explains to students the
triple entry journal for their book, in which they track who is being marginalized
in the story? Why are they being marginalized? How is it occurring? This will help

students become critically aware whats happening in the text and will sufficiently
prepare them for material to base their final argument papers upon.
Day 3: Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Objective: develop close reading skills and further develop a theoretical knowledge
of what marginalization is and how it works through Edward Saids Pedagogy of the
Oppressed. Students will begin to analyze as a class how Freire frames and crafts
his argument, introducing to students to the argument of process.
Activity: Do a whole class and then small group close reading and discussion of
excerpts of Pedagogy of the Oppressed; then grapple into the question how does
Said define social marginalization and oppression? Students will deepen their
understanding of what marginalization is, according to Saids famous work. Second,
students will be questioned to observe how Freire crafts his argument, what makes
it particularly strong and effective?

Day 4: Teaching argumentative elements via. Martin Luther Kings Letter

to Birmingham Jail
Objective: Build an understanding of the elements that make a strong argument
(claim, evidence, warrant, and counter-arguments); practice close reading with the
mentor text Letter to Birmingham Jail to determine the argumentative elements at
work.
Activity: Define with the whole class each of the argumentative elements and
generate examples to make them clear; Have students read the Letter to
Birmingham Jail, annotate and fill out a graphic organizer to record the
argumentative elements present, then discuss these ideas (within the text) as a
class and the question how and why King writes about the occurrence of
marginalization in his social context? Students will discuss as a class the specific
literary techniques King uses to craft his argument to how African-American
populations are facing social injustice and need to be set free.
Day 5: Finding the School Outcasts
Objective: Students make connections between marginalization literature (theory)
and real world society (in practice) by taking the role of ethnographer or journalist
in their school and searching for social inequities occurring within its various
communities.
Activity: Students review a few model texts of articles, editorials and columns that
have been written from media sources about social injustice and marginalization is
occurring within the school and local communities; they then go out into their
school contexts (band class, the lunch-room, track-team, student council) to
observe critically and note-take (via journal, recorder or video) on the ways in which
people are marginalized and vilified in such contexts. Students will question how
and why are these people being marginalized. Theyll use their data (and the
model articles) to formulate a paragraph arguing about the social inequity instance
in focus. Their paragraph should contain the elements of argument (claim,
evidence, counter-arguments, warrant), and some real-life observations they
accumulated while engaging in their communities. In a sentence or two, students
also write a proposed solution for the social problem.

Day 6: Marginalization in the School Context Socratic Seminar

Objective: Students practice voicing their arguments in the class and debating their
claims with their peers. Students grapple with the evidence and warrants to
support their claims and respond to the counter-claims that are made against them.
Through observation, students become more aware of the argumentative elements
that exist in presenting positions about marginalization in school, and how to
effectively use them in a debate. Lastly, students will learn about how
marginalization occurs in their own class and school communities, becoming aware
of social injustices that exist in real-life.
Activity: Students form into two groups. The first group gathers into an inner circle
(of the fishbowl Socratic seminar), and a few students present their paragrapharguments about how marginalization occurs in the classroom or school context,
(including the claims, evidences, warrants and counterarguments in their
presentation). The rest of the students of the first group asks questions and
discusses each argument, asking themselves do I agree? and conversing
accordingly. The second group forms on outer circle of the Socratic seminar, each
taking notes on one partner for their observations, the argumentative elements and
the effectiveness of their argument accordingly, for positive feedback. Halfway
through the class the two groups will switch roles in the fishbowl seminar, for a
second set of argumentative-debates regarding how marginalization occurs in the
school.
Day 7: School-Marginalization argument critique
Objective: students will spend more time considering what makes an effective
argument, by integrating the necessary elements in a coherent manner. Students
will have seen excellent model-arguments on school-marginalization cases to take
after, and will know what pitfalls to avoid.
Activity: Students will do a whole-class workshop on the overhead-screen of several
examples of students school-marginalization arguments (written by students the
day before) that go from good, to better to best. Students and teacher will evaluate
together which arguments are written best and why, analyzing the validity and
clarity of claims, evidence, warrants and counter-claims and how coherently their
texts are constructed, in order to improve students argumentative writing. Lastly,
the teacher will show a model editorial column from a newspaper, showing how it
was written, and have for homework students reformulate their paragraphs into
newspaper editorials/columns about a way in which marginalization/social injustice
occurs in their school, and what solution theyd propose to solve it. Their work will
be turned in the next class and then compiled into a class anthology.
Day 8: Digging for Argumentative Moves in Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Objective: Students will study a particular chapter from pedagogy of the oppressed
to examine how Edward said crafts a strong argument and includes the proper
elements of claim, evidence and warrant. What textual features (tone, style,
vocabulary, ect.) work to enhance his argument?
Activity: Students will work in small groups and collaboratively analyze excerpts
from Said to discover how he constructs his argument about the occurrence of
marginalization, then meet as a class to share ideas.
Day 9: Arguing about Marginalization

Objective: develop a thesis and construct an outline of an argumentative paper

about how marginalization occurs within a literary text. Students will have a good
sense of what a strong and effective thesis looks like, and will leave the class
knowing what they will write about.
Activity: Construct a working definition of the thesis statement as a class. Use
mentor text examples of both excellent and poor thesis statements, analyzing why
they are good or bad, and how they can be improved. Students first individually
brainstorm thesis-ideas to write about for their argumentative paper, on how
marginalization occurs in their text, looking back their triple-response journal for
ideas. Small group discussions are then structured within literature circles, in which
students share and critique what they came up with. They will ask each other,
What makes it a good thesis? and then need to provide sufficient evidence to
support it. From their evidence, students will have to come up with a sufficient
warrant to support their evidence, asking, What makes you think thats good
evidence? Teacher circulates, giving feedback to thesis ideas. Lastly, teacher
models how to construct an outline quickly and assigns them to write an outline of
their papers (of their main ideas) for homework.
Day 11: A Day of Conferencing
Objective: students have written an outline of their papers, and are supported by
the teachers feedback on their final argument papers.
Activity: Students meet with the teacher one on one to discuss the progress on their
marginalization papers and receive feedback. Students begin writing their papers!
Day 10: Structural Flow Grammar/Mechanics lesson (Transitioning Ideas)
Objective: students will know the importance of aligning body paragraphs back to
the thesis in a way that works the entire piece together into a coherent and unified
argument. Students will review texts that excellently and poorly achieve this
purpose, and have the opportunity to edit their own argumentative drafts to
improve their work.
Activity: Analyze poor and excellent model argumentative papers that (both do and
dont) have smooth and clear transitions among ideas. The objective is having
alignment of body paragraphs back to the thesis, and commenting upon the model
papers (and encouraging students to give) to critique and provide feedback to
improve the arguments. Allow students time to review and revise their own drafts
to also seek structural alignment for a stronger argument. They will ask, what can I
change, add or remove, from a paragraph to paragraph structural plane, in order to
make a stronger and more coherent paper? They will work in pairs to do this work.
Day 12: Syntactic Grammar/mechanics Lesson (coordinating conjunctions)
Objective: equip students with grammar rules that allow students to write ideas that
flow clearly and coherentlyon a sentence level. Students will have a theoretical
and practical knowledge of coordinating conjunctions to connect sentences,
commas after introductory phrases to begin paragraphs, and transitional sentences
at the end of paragraphs. They will be able to write their papers with greater clarity
and rhetorical effectiveness.
Activity: First, discuss definitions and examples of coordinating conjunctions and
commas after introductory phrases (from Andersons Grammar and Mechanics). As
a class, analyze a mentor text (argumentative paper) on the overhead that
successfully applies these rules, then one that doesnt. Have students make

corrections with you. Lastly, have students find sentences in their own papers that
need to be modified in order to meet these grammar rules, and adjust accordingly.
Students will have time to edit their papers to be more have a higher grammatical
accuracy and flow.
Day 13: A Day of Revision
Objective: Students will practice critically reviewing their peers papers to improve
their writing and think more meta-cognitively on what makes a strong
argumentative paper. Having finished their drafts coming into the class, by the
end of the class (by their peers comments) they will have a much stronger sense of
how their work can be revised to be a much stronger written argument.
Activity: Students pair up to peer review each others papers. They follow a
worksheet that lays out the criteria-expectations of the argumentative paper
(elements of argument, structural alignment, grammar, effective thesis, supporting
evidence from literary novel, ect.), and give positive-constructive feedback to their
peers. For homework, students are to apply the modifications recommended by
their peers to strengthen their drafts, and submit their final drafts online on the 14th
day of the unit.

Final Argumentative Essay

A Voice for the Marginalized Unit
9Th Grade English Language Arts
TE 413 Patrick Mulier
4/19/2015
For your final assignment you will write a 3-5 paged argumentative paper about the
multicultural novel which you had read with your literature circles. Your paper will answer
the question how does marginalization occur within story? You may write about anything

you want within the novel, as long as it displays that you understand what marginalization is
and how it is manifested in the text. You may pull from the ideas you had already recorded
throughout the unit in your triple-entry who-why-how journal. By your inclusion of these
textual examples, you will need to display a thoughtful understanding of the text you are
engaged in.
For the sake of a strong argument, you will want to have a strong and clear thesis statement
that is supported throughout the paper. You will be assessed on your ability to include the
following elements of argument: claim, evidences, warrant and counterargument. For each
claim you make to support your thesis, you will need to provide evidences and warrants to
give it support and strength. Lastly, your papers should display a cohesive structure of body
paragraphs which point back to the thesis and sentences which transition smoothly.
Rubric 1 (incomplete); 1 (poor); 2 (needs work); 3 (adequate/good); 4 (mature); 5 (excellent)
Thesis: The work contains a clear and thoughtful thesis statement about how
marginalization is occurring within the literary text.
1
2
3
4
5
Textual Engagement: Through multiple examples, ideas and analyses the student displays
a thoughtful understanding of the literary text in focus.
1
2
3
4
5
Marginalization: Student displays in the paper a definitive understanding of what
marginalization is and uniquely how it is working in the text.
1
2
3
4
5
Elements of Argument: Various claims, evidences, warrants and counter-arguments are
working together throughout the piece to create a logical and thoughtful argument.
1
2
3
4
5
Structural Flow: The paper contains sentences that grammatically and conceptually flow
in a cohesive and comprehensive manner. The audience can follow the arguments
movement without trouble or confusion. Contains adequate transition sentences.
1
2
3
4
5
Structural Alignment: The body paragraphs point back to the thesis to support it logically
and cohesively. Evidences and supporting textual examples align with claims in body
paragraphs.
1
2
3
4
5