An Idea for Derek Jeter

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2 ACTIVITY 2.13 Materials: Highlighters Vocabulary Notebooks Purpose: To identify and explain the main ideas of a text To recognize the structure and purpose of a persuasive essay To analyze how an author uses persuasive appeals to achieve a purpose Steps: 1 Have students answer the Before Reading questions. Then allow them to think-pair-share what they know and feel about sports stars and celebrities, and how much money such people make. (Context for the article: In 1999, Derek Jeter, then a star shortstop for the New York Yankees, signed a contract worth $189 million, one of the largest in sports history at the time.) 2 Have students skim the article addressed to Derek Jeter and rewrite the title as a question, such as Should Jeter Put His Money Where His Fans Are? This is an exercise that will help students focus on and identify the main idea of nonfi ction texts. Before Reading SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Drafting, Marking the Text, Skimming, Soapstone, Think-Pair-Share 1. Who are some of your favorite movie, sports, or music stars? 2. Do you feel that they are paid too much? Why or why not? 3. Skim the article titled Jeter: Put Your Money Where Your Fans Are, and write a prediction about what you think this article will be about. 4. Rewrite the title of the article so that it becomes a question. This will be the question that the author will try to answer in his piece. During Reading 5. Mark the text where the author uses appeals to logos, ethos, and/or pathos. Identify particularly persuasive words, phrases, ideas, and so on. 6. Complete a SOAPSTone analysis of the text. 7. In the My Notes section, identify the following key elements of a strong persuasive piece: position (thesis) context and background information acknowledgment of opposition After Reading 8. Do you agree with the author s position? Why or why not? 166 SpringBoard English Textual Power Level 3 Differentiating Instruction: To provide additional support for comprehension, have students read the article fi rst to form an initial understanding. Then ask them to reread the article to locate the appeals used. Additional exposure to the text allows students time to process the task being asked of them. Provide a sample of each type of appeal, and consider allowing students to work with partners to extend their understanding through speaking and listening. To extend the activity for students who are prepared, allow students to identify all three appeals while reading. Have students mark the appeals in three different colors. 166 SpringBoard English Textual Power Level 3

3 Teacher Notes 9. Who else should be encouraged to donate money to this cause? Why? 10. On separate paper, write a letter to a celebrity about an idea you have that you would like him or her to support. Include a thesis, background information, appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos, and address the reasons he or she might not want to support your cause. Draft the letter using a hook to grab the audience s attention, an introduction to the topic, a well-written thesis statement (your topic and opinion), and two or three reasons for your opinion in the first paragraph. Your body paragraphs should expand on your reasons and refute those who might disagree with you (your opposition). Your conclusion should review your argument and include a call to action (what you want to happen to change the situation). WORD CONNECTIONS Complete the following analogy. Famous : celebrity :: young : child What is the relationship presented in this analogy? Write it as a sentence. Unit 2 Real-Life Challenges 167 Unit 2 Real-Life Challenges 167

4 Steps 3 Ask whether any students have noticed that the author of this article is a teacher. Provide a focus for reading by asking one third of the class to mark the text to identify the author s logical appeals (logos), one third to identify ethical appeals (ethos), and the other third to identify emotional appeals (pathos). (Appeals are highlighted in the Teacher Edition: ethos highlighted; pathos black underscore; logos blue underscore.) Allow students to share answers and discuss the persuasiveness of the author s arguments. Which of his appeals are most persuasive? 4 After students read the article, pair students, and have them use the SOAPSTone strategy to analyze the article. The paragraphs are numbered to facilitate this discussion. 5 Return to the piece and ask students to write the key elements of a strong persuasive piece in the My Notes section. My Notes S: a male New York City public high school teacher O: Daily News article stated Derek Jeter signed a contract for $189 million for playing baseball in the Bronx, while schools and students do with very little. A: Derek Jeter, professional athletes, citizens of New York City P: to encourage those who can (especially sports figures) to give to help kids in schools; to inform the public about the difficulties schools have in meeting the needs of kids; to remind citizens that kids have potential S: Derek Jeter and wealthy people like him have the capacity to help schools meet the needs of students Tone: The tone shifts from possible responses such as saddened to resigned, discouraged, speculative, and hopeful 1 2 Article Jeter: Put Your Money Where Your Fans Are by Michael Lupinacci 168 SpringBoard English Textual Power Level 3 MY STUDENTS ARE YOUR BIGGEST SUPPORTERS. WHY NOT USE YOUR $189 MILLION TO BUILD THEM A NEW SCHOOL? I teach geometry, humanities, and film at a wonderful, ethnically and economically diverse public high school in New York City. In all of my classes, I push my students to develop a sense of social justice. I ask them to consider how resources can be distributed fairly in our society and what responsible citizens can do to give back. In class discussions my students often ask me difficult questions, like Why aren t many of the wealthiest people in our country doing more? My only answer is that many people haven t yet realized the power they have to change lives. The truth is, my students ask a valid question. When I see the profound impact education has on the lives of my students and, by extension, the larger social fabric, I wonder why those who have so much don t do more for our kids. Earlier this year in my humanities course, I asked students to pick a passage from The Autobiography of Malcolm X that got their hearts beating a little faster, and to prepare a four-minute presentation on it. Dante (not his real name) chose to discuss the revelation Malcolm had in prison about the value of being an educated person. Dante couldn t believe that Malcolm would read the dictionary for hours, especially since Malcolm couldn t read very well at that point in his life. Dante had the full attention of his 33 classmates. You could have heard a pin drop as the soft-spoken, thoughtful 17-year-old told us how he skipped class during his freshman year and nearly succumbed to the allure of crime, and how easily he could relate to Malcolm s 168 SpringBoard English Textual Power Level 3

5 struggle to change. When he was finished, I asked Dante if he had a dictionary at home. When he said he didn t, I brought one over and said, Now you do. In a quiet and confused voice he asked, You mean I can keep this? As I looked at Dante, I had a flashback. When I was a boy, all seven of my family members ate dinner together every night. After dinner my father and I would sit and talk. He was a New York City police officer who rarely brought his work home, but one night, when I was 10, he told me about a young boy, about my age, who was brought into the station house for stealing some clothes. My father asked the sobbing boy if he knew that stealing was wrong. The boy nodded. Then why did you do it? my father asked. Because, the boy said, not looking my father in the eye, my mother can t afford to buy me new clothes. I wear the same clothes to school every day, and the other kids make fun of me. My father said to me, There are always going to be people out there who have more than you, but remember, son, there are always going to be those who have less. For me, being a teacher to kids like Dante is a chance to make up for the injustice suffered by the boy in my father s story. After 10 years of teaching, I ve come to accept that the role I play in my students lives is limited some go on to impressive colleges, some go on to prison. I ve learned how to be involved with my students on a personal level while maintaining enough distance that I don t allow their difficulties to overwhelm me. Still, something about Dante s response to Malcolm X s autobiography that afternoon left me feeling restless. On the way home from school, I noticed the front page of the Daily News. Derek Jeter had just signed a $189 million contract to play baseball in the Bronx. Later that night I was just sitting, thinking. I thought about Dante and the boy who stole the clothes. Then I thought about something Plato wrote that it is our responsibility as a society to allow children to develop their talents, regardless of the class to which they re born. There are potential doctors born every day who never have a chance to practice medicine because of neglect on our part. It occurred to me that for any society to be great, it has to do two things. It must reward hardworking, talented people like Derek Jeter, then strongly encourage those people to share their rewards thoroughly and intelligently with their fellow citizens. I know that money won t solve all problems (give a kid a loving My Notes GRAMMAR & USAGE A subordinate clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb that cannot stand alone as a sentence; it must be connected to an independent clause (a complete thought) to make a sentence. Subordinate adverbial clauses usually are signaled by subordinating conjunctions, such as although, if, when, because, as, after, before, since, unless, or while. When a subordinate clause introduces a sentence, it should be followed by a comma. Example: When he was finished, I asked Dante if he had a dictionary at home. Steps 6 Take students back to the opening and closing of this piece. Ask them what is effective or ineffective about the introductory and concluding paragraphs. Assign half of the class to write a new opening to the piece; the other half to write a new concluding paragraph. 7 Ask students to identify the challenges in the author s school based on the article. Then lead a discussion of the challenges in your school. How might some of those challenges be met realistically? Who might be able to help through talents, or skills, or fi nances? Have students draft a letter to a person they identifi ed who might help. Tell them to use all of the persuasive elements they have examined in this unit. 6 Unit 2 Real-Life Challenges 169 GRAMMAR & USAGE EXTENSION Remind students that sentences that contain subordinate clauses are complex sentences. Explain that subordinate clauses may function as adjectives, adverbs, or nouns. The subordinate clause in the example on the student page is adverbial; it modifi es the verb asked. You might ask students to fi nd other examples of adverbial clauses in this article and tell what they modify. For further practice, you may ask students to fi nd additional examples of introductory subordinate clauses in the text. Have them label the subordinating conjunction in each. Unit 2 Real-Life Challenges 169

6 Teacher Notes My Notes 7 8 environment over a few extra bucks any day). But why should there be 34 students in each of my classes instead of 25, and why should the ceiling in the gym at school be too low for us to even shoot a basketball? I m sure that Mr. Jeter has lots of demands on his money, and my guess is that he gives a fair amount of it pretty generously. But I wonder if he realizes that if he wanted to, he could build a new public school. After all, he ll never be able to spend all of that money in a lifetime. He could change the lives of the thousands of Bronx kids who root for him and are a big part of the reason that he can make so much money doing what he loves in the first place. Recently, I read that Andre Agassi is opening a charter school in Las Vegas. I wonder if that will help set a trend. Is it so hard to imagine that a few years from now Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams will be in the Yankee clubhouse talking about something like how to hit Pedro Martinez, when they ll turn to each other and ask, By the way, how s your school doing? 170 SpringBoard English Textual Power Level SpringBoard English Textual Power Level 3