Students analyze the argumentative structure employed by Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzlybear) in his essay "Indian Father's Plea." There are three versions with varying levels of support.

This lesson aligns with the 7th grade Social Studies curriculum and works best when integrated into an interdisciplinary unit, such as Reliving the Middle Ages Across Lliterary Genres. Interdisciplinary Units are effective when teachers from two different content areas collaborate to plan lessons, assessments, activities and projects that support their content skills and standards. The content being taught in one course supports the content in another and students approach difficult, content-specific texts with more familiarity and gain better comprehension.  Students read two nonfiction articles about the Middle Ages, which lasted from about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500. Both texts examine one of the most significant events of this time period-- the spread of the bubonic plague, or the Black Death. Each text is organized into cause-and-effect pattern of organization. One outlines HOW the disease spread (causes) and the other explains how it affected Europe (effects). Students analyze two texts by different authors writing about the same topic, the Black Plague, and compare/contrast how each author shapes their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence. 

Part 1 of this lesson will teach students about the 5 different types of text structures through videos, slide presentation, discussion, and note-taking. Part 1 will take approximately 5 days.Part 2 of this lesson is a small-group scavener hunt (in the classroom or media center) for examples of each type of text structure. Groups will then present and defend their examples to the class. Part 2 will take 2-3 days.