Quarter 2: ALL ABOUT ARGUMENT

Use chosen prompts once during the quarter.

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9.

Note claims made by characters in the book you are

reading and analyze the value of the characters
position. Was he or she right in her thinking or
actions? Why or why not?
Judge the evidence a character uses to justify his or
her position on an issue. Is the character thinking or
acting logically? Why or why not?
Examine how characters use logical appeals (ethos,
logos and pathos) to persuade others. What argument
is the character making? Are the appeals successful?
Why or why not?
Location might be everything in real estate but
context is everything when it comes to argument.
Context includes beliefs about gender, history,
politics, religion, economics, entertainment (pop
culture) and more. Dig into the context in which your
book is set. Research it and write to explain what you
learned.
Choose a topic from the passage and take a position
on the topic. Write a claim and support your claim
using evidence from the text and from your own
background knowledge, research or experience.
Pretend to be a character from a book youve read
and write an argument between two characters on a
topic from the text.
Take a position on the value of the book you have
read. Was it a good read? Why or why not? Write a
review of the book you could post on GoodReads or
Amazon.
Analyze the position the book takes on an issue.
Does, for instance, John Green take a realistic
approach to falling in love in The Fault in Our Stars?
Justify the claims you make by citing evidence from
the book, your experience and or research on the
topic.
Illustrate an argument. Take an advertising or art
approach and draw out an argument. Draw the scene
and label it with text details on one page. Then write
about the argument on the next pagetry to analyze
the writers claims or reasoning in your response.

10. Connect a characters argument to a current event in

the real world. Relate something a character claims to
events in the news or media. Cite both sources and
explain the connections you see. Quarter 2: ALL

ABOUT ARGUMENT
Use chosen prompts once during the quarter.

1.

Note claims made by characters in the book you are

reading and analyze the value of the characters
position. Was he or she right in her thinking or
actions? Why or why not?
2. Judge the evidence a character uses to justify his or
her position on an issue. Is the character thinking or
acting logically? Why or why not?
3. Examine how characters use logical appeals (ethos,
logos and pathos) to persuade others. What argument
is the character making? Are the appeals successful?
Why or why not?
4. Location might be everything in real estate but
context is everything when it comes to argument.
Context includes beliefs about gender, history,
politics, religion, economics, entertainment (pop
culture) and more. Dig into the context in which your
book is set. Research it and write to explain what you
learned.
5. Choose a topic from the passage and take a position
on the topic. Write a claim and support your claim
using evidence from the text and from your own
background knowledge, research or experience.
6. Pretend to be a character from a book youve read
and write an argument between two characters on a
topic from the text.
7. Take a position on the value of the book you have
read. Was it a good read? Why or why not? Write a
review of the book you could post on GoodReads or
Amazon.
8. Analyze the position the book takes on an issue.
Does, for instance, John Green take a realistic
approach to falling in love in The Fault in Our Stars?
Justify the claims you make by citing evidence from
the book, your experience and or research on the
topic.
9. Illustrate an argument. Take an advertising or art
approach and draw out an argument. Draw the scene
and label it with text details on one page. Then write
about the argument on the next pagetry to analyze
the writers claims or reasoning in your response.
10. Connect a characters argument to a current event in
the real world. Relate something a character claims to
events in the news or media. Cite both sources and
explain the connections you see.

Quarter 1: Analyzing Authors Choices

Use chosen prompts once during the quarter.
1. Find a passage that uses imagery and details to describe a
character, setting or event. Draw the scene and label it with
text details on one page. Then analyze how the description
develops the theme/main ideas or signals the authors tone (1
page drawing, 1 page writing).
2. Examine how your author uses types of details to develop
an idea, character or setting.
3. Add a scene to the book you are reading. Try to imitate the
authors style and use of details. On the left paste text that
would come right before the scene you create.
4. Analyze the authors use of tropes (artful diction) to create
character, set mood, establish setting or develop theme.
5. Analyze a character from your book embodies vices and
virtues. How does the character represent a particular
vice/virtue? How is the character a realistic or unrealistic
blend of vices and virtues?
6. Write to explain how the author develops a theme of the
book of you are reading. Be sure to cite specific examples
(snippets of quotes) from the book that illustrate the theme.
7. Many writers use setting to establish values or express tone.
For example, a rural/country setting may be a place of peace
and beauty or one of ignorance and isolation. Explain how
setting plays a significant role in the book you are reading.
8. Some books serve as advocates for change regarding social
issues. Analyze a work you have read using the lens of an
activist. Describe the issue and how characters thoughts,
actions or deeds work to change it.
9. Write to explain a topic, issue, phenomena mentioned in
your book. This one will require some research. Then imagine
you are writing a video script explaining the concept to others.
10. Investigate the author of the book you are reading. Visit
his or her website. Learn a bit about the writer. Then write to
explain how the authors life or life events relate to the story
being told in the book.
*challenge prompts*
11. Everything is a quest, so says Foster in chapter one of
How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Analyze the book
you are reading using an archetypal lensapply the steps in
the heros journey to the book you are reading. See me for a
handout to help you.
12. How would a feminist or a historian analyze characters,
elements, scenes or themes in your book? Choose a critical
perspective and apply it to the book you are reading. See me
for a handout to help you.

The reading journal is a place to practice writing

connected to a text you have chosen to read. What
does that mean exactly? It means that you will put a
passage from your book on the left side of a twopage spread in your journal and write about that
passage on the right side of the two-page spread in
your journal.
Note book information at the top of the page in
MLA format like so:
Green, John. Papertowns. NY: NY: Penguin, 2009.
Get the passage you will use a jumping off point
into your journal by photocopying it, photographing
it, typing it, writing (part or most) of it or printing it
(from online).

Left Side

Right Side

-Note the book

information.
-Glue in a passage or
scene.
-Annotate the passage
show evidence of your
active reading.

-Make a claim about the

passage/book at the top.
-Write body paragraphs
citing textual evidence to
support your claim.
-Cite page numbers in
parenthesis for evidence
you pull from the book.

Weekly Requirements:
Read up to or beyond your weekly page amount
goal.
Record your pages read on our Reading Record
(shared Google Document).
Write one piece per week (2 pages in length).
Paste/copy the text on the left.
Annotate the passage on the left side of your RJ.
Write about the text/passage on the right side of RJ.
Cite textual evidence to support your claims and
ideas in each paragraph.
Include citation information at the top of the page
above the passage from the book.