Lesson 41: Multimedia Civic Memory Brief, Drafting a Brief

Turn-and-Talk

In the previous lesson, students began planning and prewriting their Civic Memory Briefs using outlines. Now, they will consider what information will need to be included in the draft of their brief.

Say these Directions: Take out your completed outlines, then turn to a partner to discuss what information you will need to include to support your thesis and the ideas you have planned in their outlines. Consider these questions:

• What information do you need to make sure is included in your brief?

• What text evidence do you need to support your ideas?

  • Because my thesis is about the sit-ins in Nashville and the march on City Hall and the power of memory and testimony related to that event, I need information about segregation in Nashville before 1960, the nonviolent student movement against it, the Looby family and why they were targeted, the march on Nashville City Hall in response, and the mayor’s response to that march.

Invite students to provide two or three quick responses.

Connection to Today’s Learning: 

• Say: Today, you will begin drafting the written portion of your multimedia Civic Memory Brief based on your thesis and the outline that you completed in the previous lesson.

Punctuation for Pause

• Say: There are a few different punctuation marks you can use to mark a pause or break in your writing. Using them effectively will help you pace your story and make it more exciting.

Remind students that they investigated using commas to mark pauses in Lesson 17.

• Say: Commas act like “road signs” for readers. They signal brief pauses, separate ideas, and prevent readers from misreading how parts of a sentence fit together.

• Say: Writers use commas to open with a transition (“Next, . . .” “After that, . . .”), set off extra information (nonessential details), close an introductory clause and begin the main action of the sentence, separate items in a list, and separate complete thoughts when they are joined by words like but or so.

• Say: Without commas, sentences can feel rushed or confusing because the reader cannot tell which words “go together,” or where one idea ends and the next begins.

Present a sentence from the Civic Memory Brief, then model adding a comma to close the introductory clause.

Say these Directions: Read the sentence and think about where a comma is needed.

“After the sit-ins Nashville was never the same.”

• Ask: Where could we add a comma here to close the introductory clause and begin the main action of the sentence?

  • after “sit-ins”

Explain:

• Say: The phrase “After the sit-ins” tells us when the next part of the sentence happened relative to something else, and the phrase “Nashville was never the same” contains the main action of the sentence. Placing a comma here separates the two clauses and makes the sentence clearer.

Explain that other punctuation marks, such as dashes and ellipses, can also be used to mark pauses.

• Say: Dashes usually separate extra information from the main sentence.

Say these Directions: Read the sentence and think about where dashes can be added.

“Z. Alexander Looby a famous NAACP lawyer was the target of the attack.”

• Ask: Where could we add dashes to set off the extra information in this sentence?

• on either side of “a famous NAACP lawyer”

Explain:

• Say: The fact that Looby was a famous NAACP lawyer is extra information about him, separate from the main action of the sentence, so adding dashes on either side helps separate it and make the sentence clearer.

• Say: Ellipses are used for longer pauses and can create a dramatic effect.

Say these Directions: Read the sentence and think about where an ellipsis can be added.

“Nashville received a distinguished visitor that day the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.”

• Ask: Where could we add an ellipsis to create a dramatic pause here?

  • after “day”

Explain:

• Say: It creates a dramatic effect to put a big pause between the phrase introducing the visitor and the phrase revealing who it was, so you can put the ellipsis after “day.”

Connection to Today’s Learning: 

• Say: Knowing how to use punctuation like commas, dashes, and ellipses effectively to mark pauses will give your writing more rhythm and make it more exciting. Using ellipses to mark omissions in quotations will let you use only the most important parts of quotations without cluttering your writing too much.

Part A: Draft Writing from an Outline (W.8.4) (10 minutes)

Display the first two sections of the model Research Essay Outline graphic organizer from the previous lesson with the sample responses that relate to the exemplar.

Say these Directions: Review the first two sections of the model Research Essay Outline graphic organizer. Then, read the first two paragraphs of the Civic Memory Brief Exemplar.

Civic Memory Brief Exemplar

Fighting for social change takes courage, hard work, and discipline. But other factors can make a big difference too. Memory and testimony are powerful tools to help inspire people to work for change. One event from the Civil Rights Movement that shows this idea was the 1960s sit-ins and march on the city hall in Nashville. Activists like John Lewis and Jim Lawson used memory and testimony to change the city and influence desegregation in the South.

Before this event, public lunch counters in Nashville were segregated. Black customers could order food to go, but they were not allowed to eat at the counter. John Lewis remembered this as “humiliating” (March, p. 83). Lewis began working with a group of student activists who met at a local Baptist church. They taught him the philosophy and tactics of nonviolence. This meant learning how not to fight back while being taunted and attacked. Some found this impossible. But John Lewis and others embraced it as the best way to fight for change (March, pp. 77–82). Testimony showed them that nonviolence had worked in the past, like with Gandhi, who used nonviolence “to free an entire nation of people” (March, p. 77). Eventually, the movement grew so big that they had to hand out simplified lists of rules instead of training everyone (March, p. 97). Protesters who participated in sit-ins at restaurants were attacked by locals and arrested by police. But they didn’t give up (March, pp. 98–109).

Demonstrate how details from the outline were expanded to create sentences for the introduction.

• Say: In the introduction, you can see that the importance of memory and testimony is expressed in two sentences: “Memory and testimony are powerful tools to help inspire people to work for change” and “Activists like John Lewis and Jim Lawson used memory and testimony to change the city and influence desegregation in the South.”

Emphasize that these sentences directly connect to the thesis about the event that changed Nashville.

Turn-and-Talk

Say these Directions: Turn to a partner and discuss how one topic or detail from the outline was expanded into sentences in the first body paragraph of the exemplar.

• The details about what Nashville was like before desegregation are described by these sentences: “Before this event, public lunch counters in Nashville were segregated. Black customers could order food to go, but they were not allowed to eat at the counter. John Lewis remembered this as ‘humiliating’ (March, p. 83).”

Ask a volunteer to point out the use of commas in a sentence or two and the purpose of the commas, such as introducing an idea or combining two thoughts.

Part B: Begin Drafting (W.8.2.a-f, W.8.4, L.8.2.a) (20 minutes)

Introduce the explanatory writing checklist, and give students a few minutes to review it.

• Say: Review the explanatory writing checklist below.

Explanatory Writing Checklist:

• Begin with an introductory paragraph, including a thesis statement that sets out the main point you want to make and previews what is to follow in the body paragraphs.

• Make sure your thesis statement represents information you can back up with specific evidence.

• Develop your topic by presenting and explaining evidence in two or three body paragraphs.

• Cite the sources that your evidence comes from, and make sure to either paraphrase or use direct quotations.

• End with a conclusion paragraph that restates your thesis statement and shows the evidence you used supports it.

• Use academic language from the texts, and maintain a formal style and tone throughout the writing.

Say these Directions: Take out your Research Essay outlines. In this lesson, you will take the short phrases and ideas from the outline and create full sentences for your essay. Be sure to include page numbers from the outline, or add them now if you didn’t already have them, to cite your textual evidence.

Explain that students should set a writing goal to use commas in sentences to introduce or connect ideas.

Quick Write

Say these Directions: Draft a two- or three-sentence Quick Write that summarizes your Civic Memory Brief.

At this point, the drafts will likely not be finished, but they should have a good idea of what is left to write.

• Activists like John Lewis, Jim Lawson, and many more showed the power of memory and testimony by showing up at sit-ins in a nonviolent way and bearing witness to the violence against them in Nashville. After a bombing at Looby’s house, the activists marched on city hall and demanded that the mayor do something. The mayor wanted to be remembered as someone who did the right thing, so he asked the businesses to negotiate and allow integration.

Homework

Introduce the homework to complete before the next lesson:

Finish your rough drafts for homework for Lesson 42.