QUAD TEXT SET 1

Quad Text Set

Madeline Bishop and Claire Cummings
University of Virginia
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Quad Text Set and Reading Guide Rubric

Assignment Criteria Self Instructor

Assessment Assessment

Cover sheet with title of project, author, and date, N/A

ALONG with this rubric (self assessment completed
and included in the paper) are presented together as
a single file when submitted through the assignment
link.

Level of Selections for Quad Text Set 25

All selections are at appropriate levels of difficulty.
Origin of all sources is clear and adequate for locating.
The quad text set is a coherent set of texts and the
visual, information, and YA texts are likely to facilitate
students comprehension of target text (25 points)

Reading Guide 20
The reading guide demonstrates an understanding of
the places where students may struggle with the
target text and provides strong supports to aid in
understanding of the text. The guide utilizes a
relevant structure, logical organization, and
appropriate purpose setting devices that will aid in
students comprehension of the text.
(20 points)

Discussion Technique 10
The implementation plan includes a description of a
clear technique for discussion, which fosters students
critical thinking about the text and ensures that all
students have an opportunity to talk about the text.
(10 points)

Writing Activity 10
The implementation plan includes a description of a
writing activity that will follow the reading of the
QUAD TEXT SET 3

target text. The writing activity will foster students

thinking and allow for reflection of ideas both in the
target text as well as across the quad text set.
(10 points)

Implementation 20
The plan for implementation considers a relevant
order of presentation of the texts that supports
students understanding of the quad text set.
Description of how the lesson will be administered
utilizes small group, whole group, and individual work
time appropriately. References from course readings
are cited to justify choices in the lesson.
(20 points)

Differentiation 5
The Quad Text Set and implementation appropriately
differentiates instruction to accommodate a variety of
needs in the class and provides all students with
opportunities to read both challenging, grade level
texts as well as texts that are attainable and at a
students instructional reading level. (5 points)

Professional Language 10
The paper is written in presentation-style English,
with rules of grammar, agreement, and punctuation
followed. References are included and listed using
APA formatting following the body of the paper on a
new page. (10 points)

Grade: ___ out of 100 points 100

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Your Name(s): Madeline Bishop and Claire Cummings

Grade Level and Subject Area of the Class: 10th Grade English Language Arts

Theme or Topic of the Text Set: Developing Identity and Empathy Through Literature

Standard of Learning: Virginia SOL 10.4d) Analyze the cultural or social function of literature.

Target Text

Source Lexile Grade Band

Adolescents on Edge: Jimmys Introduction | The Journey to Be Loved 1350L 11th-12th

Visual Text/s

Source Brief Description

Crashcourse Literature: How and Why We Read
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSYw502
dJNY&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTfqc0h6Pe
8vb
This video talks about how and why to read critically. John
Green discusses the importance of reading and writing for
communication and expression of ideas. It depicts reading
as always being an act of empathy, and describes
interpretation as completely in the hands of the reader.
He is asking [students] to read critically so that [they] can
1. Have a fuller understanding of lives other than [their]
own, which 2. Will help [them] to be more empathetic,
and that 3. Reading critically and attentively can give
[them] the linguistic tools to share [their] own stories
with more precision.

Reason for Choice: The video is engaging and fun, while presenting a clear message to students about the
importance of literature and the powerful role they hold in it. It provides a deeper purpose to be applied to
the reading of all texts and gets them ready to make internal connections to their reading and writing. This
prepares them to empathize with the characters in our text set and pull from their experiences to inform
their perceptions and their writing.

Source Brief Description

Vlogbrothers: Mass Incarceration in America This video gives background on the mass incarceration
system currently in place in America. It provides numbers
 QUAD TEXT SET 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaPBcUUq about costs, inmates, and reform programs that fail to

bew meet correctional standards.

Reason for Choice: The animations in this video are clear and engaging, and the information provided
excellently describes the prison system that Jimmy from our target text is struggling to navigate while
attempting to better his literacy skills and improve himself. It depicts the setting of the target text through a
real-world lens, allowing students to more fully imagine and empathize with Jimmys situation. It sets up the
opportunity for students to explore the Books Through Bars program with more context.

Source Brief Description

This image is a powerful and relevant source for our

students. It is a screenshot from the Humans of New York
Instagram account, featuring both a highly recognized
platform and photographer. This particular portrait
showcases a middle school student named Vidal who
notes that his principal, Ms. Lopez, is the person who has
influenced him the most. Vidals honest, thoughtful, and
moving interview responses are noted in the caption of
this photograph. He lives in Brownsville, New York City
and attends Mott Hall Bridges Academy. Ms. Lopezs
belief in her students is evident from Vidals testimony
that each student matters.

Reason for Choice: We chose this image because it powerfully proves that even social media platforms like
Instagram can harness and highlight moving pieces of literature and explore deep themes of art and identity.
Vidal is a young student whose identity has been stereotyped because of his neighborhood, his background,
and his odds of success. He defies those odds, thanks to meaningful education and intentional
administration. By using a familiar art form, this post will scaffold and ultimately create a stepping stone to
 QUAD TEXT SET 6

bridge the complex themes of our target text. It also provides a point of contact so that students can
imagine themselves in the place of Vidal, allowing them to think from another point of view.

Information Text 1 (Below Grade Level)

Source Brief Description Lexile Grade Band

Books Through Bars | About
http://booksthroughbarsnyc.org/w
p/index.php/about/
The Books Through Bars website 990L 7th-10th
provides a lengthy description of the
volunteer based program that provides
reading materials to incarcerated
prisoners. Prisoners write letters to the
organization requesting specific books,
genres of books, or other literacy
materials, and the volunteers provide
them with those items on a weekly
basis.

Reason for Choice: This program provides background about why it is so difficult for people like Jimmy to
get access to reading materials in prison. The website is written at just under the reading level and describes
the shambles that prisons educational programs are in and the importance of literature and education in
hostile and violent environments. This will be used in conjunction with the video about mass incarceration
to further illuminate the failing correctional programs of prisons in America and the impact that
literature/literacy can have. Through this, the situation in the target text is scaffolded to that students will
have a better understanding of Jimmys situation as they read.

Information Text 2 (Near Grade Level)

Source Brief Description Lexile Grade Band

Nadia Lopez: Why Open a School?
To Close a Prison.
Nadia Lopez discusses her journey of 1130L 8th-10th
opening a school to provide
disadvantaged kids with the proper
educational and emotional support to
see past their immediate surroundings.
She provides demographic information
about her students and discusses the
transformations her program caused
and the current graduation rates of her
school.
 QUAD TEXT SET 7

Reason for Choice: This text provides examples of students in situations similar to the target text, allowing
our class to make connections to their own lives and see how education now can impact future prospects. It
will be used in conjunction with the visual Instagram post from Humans of New York that drew attention to
Nadia Lopez and her school to allow for a social media connection. Right on grade level, this will aid in the
understanding that Jimmys situation could happen to anyone and help students to empathize with Nadia
Lopezs students and Jimmy.

YA Selection

Source Brief Description Lexile Grade Band

I Am Malala | The Clever Class In chapter 11 of Malala Yousafzais 880L 4th-5th

autobiography, she shares the
importance that school had in her life.
Learning and going to school kept
[her] going in those dark days
(Yousafzai, 2013, pg. 135). She also
describes her drive as a determined
and clever high school student. Malala
then goes on to explain the importance
of speaking up about the need for
peace, education, and equality for
women. She sheds light on the
experience as a stereotyped Muslim
girl living in a Taliban-and-terrorist
world and calls on others do stand up,
speak out, and fight injustice
everywhere.

Reason for Choice: This YA text is a powerful first-hand account of the power of education and the impact of
vulnerably sharing ones identity through literature. Malalas appreciation for schools and learning as
vehicles for peace can be eye-opening for our students. Our SOL highlights the importance of cultural and
social functions of literature, and this YA literature contains complex themes and cultural variance that are
necessary for the holistic representation of the text set. The low Lexile score does not adequately represent
the complexity of the text and its contribution to our lesson, so we chose to include it despite its technical
5th grade level. It will expose students to the complex themes of our target text without hindering their
understanding with complicated syntax.
QUAD TEXT SET 8

Name __________________________________________ Date _________________________

BEFORE READING!
Embarking on a Journey of Literacy | Adolescents on the Edge

Lets stop and think: What does a journey really mean?

Journey- noun (definitions and examples from Oxford Dictionary)

1. An act of traveling from one place to another
An eight-hour train journey
2. A long and often difficult process of personal change and development
A characters journey through the film

What might someone do before setting off on a journey?

What emotions might someone feel before or during this adventure?

Lets meet the Author, Jimmy Santiago Baca:

As an abandoned child and a runaway Jimmy Santiago Baca spent his childhood
on the margins of society. In early adulthood he reverted again and again to a life
of crime, eventually being sentenced to five years in a maximum-security prison.

Instructions:
Read through this story, taking time to think about how Jimmys
experiences impacted his journey and his identity. As you read, be on
the lookout for stops to pause, reflect, and think when you see symbols
in the margins, like this handy, dandy pin! Feel free to stop and
annotate or mark your text in places that intrigue or challenge you!

NOW LETS HIT THE ROAD AND START THE READ!

QUAD TEXT SET 9

Jimmys Introduction: The Journey to Be Loved

Ive written more extensively about this in my memoir A Place to

Stand, but Id like to give you a snapshot of how it all started - that is, how
I learned to read and write when I was in my twenties, and what the
journey was like.
The first five years of my life were enveloped in a sweet silence of
the prairie and so abundant was the silence that I could lose myself for STOP AND SKETCH!
hours playing with pieces of wood, stones, and flowers. The wind Character analysis: Draw a
whispered to me, shadows urged me to follow them into darker spaces in face to represent how you
abandoned barns and shacks. I hurled headlong into the depth of light that
think Jimmy is feeling now.
shone with a dull density in the grasshoppers wings, and it seemed a
solitary angels voice sang all my wounds open and squeezed from them
the infection and healed my pain by mornings end.
With my imagination so intact and volatile, casting on inanimate
things a vigorous life of their own, I was anything but lonely. All things
reflected their dreams to me, and induced in me a hypnotic enchantment
where I recreated and shaped my perspective on life.
If I saw an old man pushing a cart of pots and pans he had repaired
and was trying to sell, he became a prince giving away secret maps to the
fabled fairy-tale lands. A grasshopper became God in green wings and
large eyes and antennae. A horny toad, a warrior armed for battle. Ants
were my serfs and I whirled in the dust and cacti crawling in the dirt trying
to scare a quail. I became Pavarotti, singing in my own romantic opera on
a stage inhabited by cedar and juniper trees that sat spellbound listening
to my tragic and ecstatic tale.
I compressed all life into a common pebble that I tossed in the air
and pocketed because I liked its colors or markings.
It was all pretending because pretending was a way to deny seeing
my dad and mom fight last night. My own make-believe world blocked
out the other world of drunk uncles and money-hungry cousins and fights
about poverty.
It was when I was five years old, after my parents had left us with
grandma, that grandma said she could not take care of my sister, brother,
and me and she informed us that authorities would arrive within days to
take my brother and me to an orphanage.
With that information my pretend world shattered.
But it wasnt as bad as I expected.

I learned to understand a new reality through the eyes of movie

characters like Pinocchio, Bambi, and Ben-Hur, and in the classroom at
the orphanage, I would sit by the window and doodle in the margins of
my Dick and Jane book. I never learned to read very well and my ability
FYI: A popular childrens
to express myself was negligible at best. Books had very little to do with
my life for the first eighteen years. book at the time.
QUAD TEXT SET 10
PAUSE AND PONDER!
Describe Jimmy in 3 words:

I was an impulsive, idealistic follower. I thought everyone had the 1.

answer to how the world really worked except me. I was wrong but I
didnt know it because everyone seemed opinionated and boasted about
their wisdom. Id go with anyone to do almost anything they asked; as 2.
long as they led, I was their guy, there to give support and show my
loyalty. 3.
The orphanage was run by Franciscan nuns and they didnt put much
importance on education, at least not as much as converting our souls and FYI: Franciscan is a strict
making sure we grew into pious Christians. order of religious women
I enjoyed enormously singing in the choir, and I belted out Latin
lyrics to hymns as if the good Lord sat a foot away from me midair
listening to my beautiful homage. I loved working the barn animals,
milking the cows, feeding the pigs, riding the backs of trucks, and going
around town picking up donated shoes and day-old donuts and bread;
wrecking havoc on the playground with our incredibly dangerous games.
But I had problems with saints. Kneeling in the pews every morning
and praying to them? Ugh. Especially knowing that Father Gallagher was
molesting certain kids, and some of the younger nuns were carrying on
sexual liaisons with other kids. And then there were the gruesome Stations
of the Cross that flanked the pews and hung on the walls surrounding us.
All this made me wonder about the world and confused me even
more. Still, I endured the discrepancies and lounged in my happiness like
an old dog before a fireplace in the winter. That is, until Sister Pauline, FYI: Superior means the
the Superior, informed me that she was sending me to Boys Town. head nun
I ran away that same evening. I begged my older brother to come
with me but he was scared, so I hugged him, and he stood there looking
after me as I disappeared into the night. Had I known at the time I would
not see my brother for another year after that night, I probably wouldnt
have left him.
Not knowing a person in the world beyond the fence boundary of
the orphanage, nor anything about the world beyond, I clambered over the
fence, and crawled on hands and knees until I was far enough away to
stand and run along the ditch. I headed in the direction where I thought PREDICTION PIT STOP!
my maternal grandma lived. What do you think will
I found her place but she had been moved and I was homeless. I
happen next? What do you
became a street kid for the next seven years, joined a group of other
homeless kids, going in and out of the Boys Detention Home, doing time think is driving Jimmy right
at Montessa Park - a gladiator school that prepared teenagers for prison - now?
and months at different intervals in the county jail for fighting, burglary,
and possession of drugs.
It was a small leap to prison. On the cusp of turning nineteen, I was
convicted of possession of heroin with the intent to sell and sentenced to
five to ten years in a maximum-security prison without chance of parole,
to do day for day with no good time allowed.
I was physically stopped and I needed to be; if I hadnt been, I am
absolutely certain Id be dead. I was on a death mission for years, partying,
QUAD TEXT SET 11

getting drunk, doing drugs, hanging out with the wrong guys - in every
respect, when I look back on those days, I see a kid, yes - innocent and
beautiful and lost and uneducated with no family or real friends, and
because of that, with a hidden suicide wish.
In prison, however, I wanted to change that and get an education and
see if I could improve my life, even from behind bars and walls. But the
DETOUR!
prison administration refused to let me attend school to get my GED and
I retaliated by refusing to work or go along with the prison rules. This Why do you think Jimmys
branded me as a troublemaker. I was given indefinite disciplinary attitude has changed?
punishment and locked down in administrative segregation, in a dungeon
with the most brutal and cruelest gangbangers, where for the next three Reflect: Have you ever set a
years I taught myself to read and write. goal without knowing you
I wanted to learn to read and write because it was a tool that would could achieve it? How did it
help me understand people and systems - why people do what they do. feel?
Why was it that my family was so poor and dysfunctional? What
mechanism was in the system that a judge wouldnt even consider giving
me a chance to help myself? Why, when looking through the bars of my
prison cell, was it that all those people were free and I was not? Books
had the answers, and I was going to find them. I was determined to solve
my dilemma myself. I had depended on what people said and suggested
for far too long. Now, my life and my role in the world would be shaped
and molded by my own ideas and feelings.
The driving force to educate myself never slowed or relented. I
devoured books. I wrote my first letters to people, I kept a journal, wrote
poems, and miraculously the power of literacy took hold and dug in and STOP AND SKETCH!
embedded itself into my heart. I became known to myself and loved who Character analysis: Draw a
I started to know in me. Through the mist and darkness, through the tears face to represent how you
and misguided intentions, through the anger and despair that entangled think Jimmy is feeling right
me for so many years, Jimmy was emerging--a strong, beautiful Jimmy, now.
with the growing capacity to think and analyze the world beyond, and to
make courageous choices interacting in that world.
It was extraordinary to have this power to name things, to study my
past and understand why I did what I did. The destructive forces poured
in, transforming me into a formidable human being capable of healing old
wounds and forgiving enemies. Every morning on awakening, I eagerly
moved forward into a new landscape where a future awaited me.
I was not going to be exiled like a leper or driven from society like
a low-life criminal. I was not a criminal, I was a human being trying to
understand the world, and I learned I could not do it without educating
myself. As a human being, I suffered through horrible times where I
almost gave up. I couldnt go anymore--I wanted to pick up old habits and
resume my violent response to the world. Someone disrespected me, stole
something of mine, said something bad to me and I found myself wanting
to throw the books away and deal with the punk on the yard and show him
you dont earn a reputation with me so other convicts will look up to you-
-no, you get a beat-down.
QUAD TEXT SET 12

But I realized this was the cowards way, and this way never worked
for me. Now, I realized, I had an opportunity to give myself a fighting FORK IN THE ROAD!
chance to make my dreams come true and I went for it, with as much gusto Why does Jimmy choose
and fearlessness as I ever had going for anything Id wanted in my past this direction? What is
life. driving him?
It was all going to be different now and I was going to make it
happen myself. If I had to pace my cell for twenty years to learn how to
read, I would do it. Thank God it didnt take that long. Restlessly, when I
started I paced for hours in my cell reading aloud, writing on a tablet for PAUSE AND PONDER!
hours, reading all through the night, month after month, until finally, I Describe Jimmy in 3 words:
could compose my first letter.
Not only did I go through enormous changes, but suddenly the
1.
hardcore fighters and warriors around me started looking at me with
renewed respect. They wanted me to speak for them, to answer their
questions, and help them solve their problems by helping them understand 2.
their own feelings.
I remember with joy what an incredible power it was to be able to 3.
express myself, not just read and write, but convey my ideas to another
convict, to have their respect because I was smart, to have them depend
on me to write their letters home, to have them look up to me because I
had done it, improved myself, done something they wanted to do but felt
they couldnt do.
I never suspected in my craziest reveries that I would eventually
Reveries (noun)
become a poet. Nor could I allow myself to imagine that the poems I was
hopes or dreams
writing down in the dungeon would be published one day.
I had my first book of poems published by Louisiana State
University and shortly after that one, ten more books followed. I wrote
and executive-produced Blood In/Blood Out, the feature movie produced
by Hollywood Pictures. I went on to write novels, short story collections,
more poetry, essays, more movies. But as important as all of this is,
including my thirty-two awards, rising above these achievements, is that
I am now educated. I went to school, got my BA and masters, and was
honored with a PhD.
And greater than even that, I have a lovely family, and my five
children are very proud of and love their father. That was all I ever wanted, FINAL STOP!
to be respected and loved. This is the last stop on
Jimmys journey, but its
(Jimmy Santiago Baca, 2010, pg. 79-83)
only beginning for your
adventure of literacy!
QUAD TEXT SET 13

AFTER READING!
Find textual evidence of emotions, details, or questions you have found about the following
parts of Jimmys life, and note them in the boxes below. Feel free to mark your textual evidence
with a symbol like the pin so you can easily revisit.

Looking for direction? Consider details like Jimmys age, location, or emotions and attitudes!

Jimmys Life Before He When Jimmy First Develops Jimmys Life After He
Develops Literacy Literacy Develops Literacy
QUAD TEXT SET 14

After Reading Reflection

How can reading and writing transform your life and your identity?
Try to incorporate one idea or quote from Jimmys story into your reflection! Think back to the
Crashcourse: How and Why We Read for inspiration.

Compare and contrast the journeys of Jimmy and Malala. How did overcoming
academic adversity open doors for them and change their lives? What was similar or different
about their circumstances?
QUAD TEXT SET 15

Venn Diagram Reflection

STEP 1: Pick one of the following characters from our quad text set:
1. Jimmy Santiago Baca
2. Malala Yousafzai
3. Vidal, student at Mott Hall Bridges Academy
4. Nadia Lopez, principal at Mott Hall Bridges Academy
STEP 2: Think about his or her journey, and consider ways you are alike and different.
STEP 3: Complete the Venn diagram below!

Your choice ______________ YOU!

LOOKING AHEAD: Tomorrows class will provide opportunities for you to share your
reflections and findings. Get ready for a chance to connect with your classmates and learn
more about their identities! We will use the ReQuest model of learning, so please brainstorm
two questions you might want to use in tomorrows small group discussions.

Question 1: Question 2:
QUAD TEXT SET 16

Implementation

Our quad text set is targeted towards a tenth grade standard English Language Arts class

with mixed levels of literacy. We envision this to be used in a unit focused on developing

identity and empathy through literature, with a focus here on acquisition of literacy. We have

already established structural class norms of reading, writing, and discussion, and the students

have become familiar with using reading guides. They have enjoyed comprehension and

reflection checks like Prediction Pit stop, for example, as they are in the process of becoming

licensed drivers themselves!

Day 1. The quad text set will start with the YouTube video of John Green addressing

readers about how and why reading is important. As they will already be comfortable

approaching new texts in terms of comprehension, this video will get them prepped to begin

looking deeper at the meanings and implications behind the words on the page. They will view

the video as a whole class and then do a think-pair-share about how they feel about it, how it

differs from how they have previously thought about texts, and whether or not they will change

their attitudes about reading moving forward. This intentionally builds on what they read and

turns it into reflective writing (Graham and Hebert, 2010).

We will follow this video by introducing chapter 11 from I Am Malala. This text presents

a similar educational journey to that of the target text and begins grappling with the complexities

of oppression, disadvantaged circumstances, and the struggle to obtain literacy. Our SOL

highlights the importance of cultural and social functions of literature, and this YA literature

contains complex themes and cultural variance that are necessary for the holistic representation

of the text set. The lower reading level of this text will make these concepts accessible to

students without hindering their comprehension through syntax. Students will approach the text
QUAD TEXT SET 17

through Reciprocal Teaching in small groups of four where they will be either predictor,

clarifier, questioner, or summarizer as they move through the chunked sections of the chapter

(McKenna, 2013). We chose reciprocal teaching to set additional purposes that will enhance both

their individual and shared reading experience.

Day 2. Following the purpose video and YA selection, we open the second day by

presenting students with the Humans of New York Instagram visual of Vidal, a young student

from Mott Hall Bridges Academy. We chose to include this visual to highlight the everyday

literacies with which students engage and show the power behind Vidals testimony of his

principal and the value of education. It lends itself nicely to opening Nadia Lopezs conversation

about the value of education and the ways in which literacy can open doors for students futures.

Both Nadia and Vidal believe in overcoming obstacles and allowing ones identity to be shaped

beyond stereotypes and hardships. This will provide at connection point between our students

and the topics we are grappling with in this text set.

After Nadia Diaz presents students with the reality that, for many children, prison is what

awaits a life without education, we ease them further towards the target text by providing some

background about the prison systems in America. The students will complete an anticipation

guide about the incarceration to activate their prior knowledge before moving to the next activity

(McKenna, 2013). Then, the Vlogbrothers animated video, Mass Incarceration in America,

walks students through the structures, demographics, and large issues of U.S. prisons. We then

ask them to read about the Books Through Bars program that provides educational materials to

incarcerated prisoners and stresses the importance of literature and education in the reform

process. They will then complete the after portion of their anticipation guides. We will close
QUAD TEXT SET 18

the day with an exit ticket about how their thoughts and views about mass incarceration have

changed and where they think we are headed with the target text.

Day 3. All of these texts scaffold beautifully towards grappling with the themes and

textual structures of Jimmys Introduction. Armed with the themes from I Am Malala, the

connections to Vidal, and the background on Jimmys incarceration, they will then approach the

target text through silent sustained reading. The reading guide is designed to guide individual

learners and provide them with optional supports and clarifications while also slowing them

down and asking them to think more deeply about the content they are reading (McKenna,

2013). As students will already be familiar with the complex themes, the guide is designed to

help them through the more difficult syntax and style of the piece. As the chapter is only four

pages, it will be read in one sitting, at each student's individual pace. Once reading is completed

it will be followed by the reflection question discussed further down.

Differentiation

The quad text set features multiple opportunities for differentiation, making sure to keep

in mind the interests, readiness levels, and identities of our students. We have incorporated

scaffolds that can be helpful, not required, for students who are seeking additional support as

they read. For example, we offer additional instruction on our after reading guide that notes,

Looking for direction? Consider details like Jimmys age, location, or emotions/attitudes!

Having support that is optional is meant to focus tasks for students in need of more direct

instruction while providing the opportunity for open reflection for those seeking a different

direction (McKenna, 2013). There is power in our students ability to stop and plan their writing,

and we include the opportunity to brainstorm before even beginning the writing process (Graham

and Perin, 2007). Additionally, we provide guiding consideration within the target text that does
QUAD TEXT SET 19

not require a full stop. This is meant to slow down the pace of reading to encourage reflection,

check for comprehension, and heighten engagement. We differentiated the Venn diagram

exercise to allow student choice in character selection. We provided vocabulary definitions in

our target text, making sure to give background that is sensitive to our students, particularly in

the texts religious or cultural components. Finally, we will offer reciprocal teaching and a think,

pair, share opportunity made in heterogeneous groupings to allow students to individually reflect,

build on ideas, and grow in confidence before sharing out to the group.

Writing Exercise

Following the target text, students will engage in three written after-reading reflection

opportunities. We know the power of writing as a tool for comprehension, as noted in Chapter 2

of Teaching Through Text (2013). First, students will chart the course of Jimmys identity and

journey through literacy by completing a graphic organizer. By doing this exercise first, students

are better equipped to do the second reflection. We provide two open-ended response questions

so students can think first about the transformative journeys of self and other. We also include

the Crashcourse video and the characters of Jimmy and Malala to bridge the content across

components of our quad text set. This act of writing will improve their comprehension of both

texts (Graham and Hebert, 2010). A similar approach is taken in the third and final after-reading

activity: the written Venn diagram reflection. Students have the chance to choose a character to

put in the Venn diagram and find ways they are personally are alike and different from the

character. Students will then generate two questions they would like to use in the following days

ReQuest small group discussion. At the conclusion of the ReQuest, students will have a

summative assessment that invites students to draw parallels across all quad text set components

in the form of a of an expressive journal entry (McKenna, 2013).

QUAD TEXT SET 20

Discussion Strategy

Students generate their own questions for a ReQuest exercise. We are modifying this with

small groups of four students (McKenna, 2013). Each student will take a turn as the questioner,

asking each of their three group members one of their two previously-generated questions. The

cycle continues as each student takes a turn to ask questions, making sure to fall back on

question two should their question be taken by another group member. We will then come

together for an all-class Socratic wrap up where groups will be invited to share the ideas and

questions they discussed and ask any further questions they have to the larger group and teacher

if needed.
QUAD TEXT SET 21

References

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. A. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve

reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for

Excellent Education.

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of

adolescents in middle and high schools - A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

McKenna, M. C., & Robinson, R. D. (2013). Teaching through text: Reading and writing in the

content areas. Boston, MA: Pearson.