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What might students notice on their own?
What would they need help noticing?
What might they try in their own writing?
What is the range of skills of the writers in my class?
What will I need to be able to show both my most experienced and least experienced writers?
What skills and techniques have been challenging for my students this year?
What skills and techniques will stretch my students’ thinking?

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Is it a just-right size of 5-8 texts?

Does my stack show varied genres (if not a genre-specific unit)?

Across the stack, can students find examples of everything I want them to notice or try?

Have I included diverse perspectives in my stack?

In what ways will students see themselves and others in this stack?

Is there a right-now element to some of the texts? (For students, your school, your country, the world)

(Glover and Berry, 2012)

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Will this text engage my students?

Can I use the text for several different teaching points?

Do I need to keep an eye out for a particular crafting element or feature?

Is this text a clear example of the genre/technique/process I’m teaching? OR is it intentionally a gray-area text worthy of debate?

Might this text do double duty, working in both this unit and another?

How is this text different than the others in the stack?

Is the length about the same as what I want students to write?

(Glover and Berry, 2012)

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Name the unit

Construct a storyline

Create a stack of mentor texts

Study the texts

Project possible minilesson topics

Reflect during and after

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Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master

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Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master

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Jourdon Anderson, a former slave, responds to a request from his former master to return to work for him. Anderson explains, with a hint of sarcasm, his requirements for returning to work on his former plantation. This is Handout 3.4 (p. 44) from The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy.

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865.

To my old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.

Sir:

I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks call her Mrs. Anderson), and the children, Milly, Jane, and Grundy, go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve and die, if it come to that, than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson

P.S.- Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

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Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master

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Jourdon Anderson, a former slave, responds to a request from his former master to return to work for him. Anderson explains, with a hint of sarcasm, his requirements for returning to work on his former plantation. This is Handout 3.4 (p. 44) from The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy.

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*Clean music video
*NPR Review
*Beyoncé's Formation reclaims black America's narrative from the margins
*7 Reasons Beyoncé's "Formation" Music Video Is a Powerful Statement During Black History Month

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"Luffy reminds me a lot of me, when I was a little kid." When Iñaki Godoy received the news he got the role of Luffy, he knew it would change his life forever. From keeping his own 'One Piece' journal where he kept notes on every episode to putting on the straw hat for the first time, Iñaki Godoy truly manifested his pirate dreams. Iñaki breaks down his entire process for the 'One Piece' live-action, from studying original voice actor Mayumi Tanaka's legendary dubbing, working alongside director Marc Jobst on set, seeing the incredible set come to life, and so much more. SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; as part of the strike, union actors are not promoting their film and TV projects. This video was conducted prior to the strike. Director: Adam Lance Garcia Director of Photography: Jack Belisle Producer: Madison Coffey Associate Producer: Rafael Vasquez Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Alfonso Audio Engineer: Rehanna Chandan, Michael Guggino Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Erica Dillman Assistant Editor: Jason Malizia Graphics Supervisor: Ross Rackin

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7 Reasons Beyoncé's "Formation" Music Video Is a Powerful Statement During Black History Month

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From the Washington Post

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Kanye speech at bottom
Kanye speech analysis

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This Is America: Childish Gambino's Genius Absurdity

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Rhetorical Analysis of Macklemore's "Same Love"

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COVID Era Rhetoric in Video Advertisements

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Coke ad rhetroical analysis
Ad here

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Rhetorical Analysis of Super Bowl 2016 Coke Commercial

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What If Bears Killed One In Five People?

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Like a Girl ad

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Generic Presidential Ad
Nixon Campaign Ad
Kennedy Ad
Obama Ad
Williams Ad
LBJ Ad
Bush-Cheney
Hillary Clinton ads and analysis

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1968 Nixon Campaign Commercial - Vietnam War

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kgaribotto@gmail.com

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Is it a just-right size of 5-8 texts?

Does my stack show varied genres (if not a genre-specific unit)?

Across the stack, can students find examples of everything I want them to notice or try?

Have I included diverse perspectives in my stack?

In what ways will students see themselves and others in this stack?

Is there a right-now element to some of the texts? (For students, your school, your country, the world)

(Glover and Berry, 2012)

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-Will this text engage my students?
-Can I use the text for several teaching points?
-Do I need to keep an eye out for a particular crafting element or feature?
-Is this text a clear example of the genre, technique, or process I’m teaching? OR is it intentionally a gray-area text worthy of debate?
-Might this text do double duty, working in both this unit and another?
-How is this text different than others in the stack?
-Is the length about the same as what I want students to write?
(Glover and Berry, 2012)

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Katrina will scribe in the document while the team shares what they picked out during reading.

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Which blended learning possibilities might your try or adapt for your students? Ideas you heard from others or your own!

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Which blended learning possibilities might your try or adapt for your students? Ideas you heard from others or your own!

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General Sources of Mentor Texts for MS/HS

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General Sources of Mentor Texts for MS/HS

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NewsELA
Tween Tribune
Common Lit.
Teen Vogue
National Geographic
The Players' Tribune
Mentor Text Dropbox
The Atlantic - By Heart
The Guardian - Poem of the Week
NPR: In Character
AV Club
Vulture
Linda Holmes
The Paris Review
Essay 5 W: Great Essays
Mentor Text Database
Internet Movie Script Database
Lapham's Quarterly
Vox
TED
Teen Ink
538
Grantland
NPR
NYT: Writers on Writing
Emily Nussbaum