Madeline Decker: Just Mercy Unit Plan Lessons, January 8-10

DAY 1: PRE-LITERACY

CENTRAL QUESTION
The purpose of this lesson is to prepare students for our examination of themes related to justice and
mass incarceration through our unit on Stevenson’s Just Mercy by drawing them into an exploration of
these topics across multiple texts. Students will synthesize information and perspectives on justice and
mass incarceration from multiple sources to developed evidence-based responses to a series of guiding
questions on the topics. This lesson will equip students with knowledge on topics foundational to our
study of the anchor text and provide them with opportunities to practice utilizing textual evidence to
support their discussions of key themes.

TIME
50 minutes

SETTING
Classroom demographics: https://justmercy-elaunit.weebly.com/classroom-demographics.html

Prior academic knowledge

• Prior to this unit, students studied Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a text we are required to
teach in the department and one that figures prominently in Stevenson’s Just Mercy. To activate
students’ prior knowledge, we will carry over our discussion of justice and racialized
incarceration from To Kill a Mockingbird into our dialogue about these topics in this unit and in
this lesson in particular.
• Students completed a WebQuest exploration of race relations in the South during the Jim Crow
era at the beginning of our unit on To Kill a Mockingbird, so they have the base knowledge and
skills necessary to engage with the technology and format of the WebQuest activity they will be
required to complete in this lesson.

Personal/cultural/community assets

• Many students in our school’s community are familiar with the topic of racialized incarceration
and discrimination in the justice system, either because they have heard national/local news
stories about people of color being unjustly pulled over, arrested, or incarcerated, or because they
are personally acquainted with individuals who have had such experiences. Additionally, we
have a very racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse classroom in which many
students have awareness of and/or experiences with discrimination related to identity. In this
unit, students will have the opportunity to reflect on and draw from their own knowledge of and
experiences related to racialized discrimination, injustice, and incarceration and to expand their
knowledge and understanding of these issues.
• As Tapscott notes, the generation of students we are teaching “instinctively turns first to the Net
to communicate, to understand, to learn” (qtd. in Burke 28). In this computer-based lesson, we
will be drawing and building on students’ interest in and aptitude with using technology and the
 web for learning and communication to increase engagement and promote a successful learning
experience.

CONCEPTUAL/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

“Instead, I seek to move toward a “transformative” or “social action” approach to multicultural

education. In transformative multicultural education [TME], the mainstream-centric perspective
becomes only one of several presented. Various perspectives, frames, and content infuse
students’ understandings of the “nature, development, and complexity of U.S. society” (Banks &
Banks, 2001, p. 234). Social-action multicultural education [SAME] builds on this foundation
and goes further to equip and ignite students for social action and change” (Haviland 41).

We believe that as English teachers we have an opportunity and obligation to draw our students
into deep, critical, and authentic reflection and dialogue about the range of experiences and
viewpoints that surround us. We aim to provide students with opportunities to study a diverse
range of vantage points and equip them with the critical thinking skills they need to evaluate
various perspectives and make informed decisions about who they are, what they believe, and
what they value. In this lesson, we seek to emulate the TME model by challenging students to
explore and consider multiple perspectives on an issue and reflect independently and
collaboratively on complex issues present in the society in which we live. Additionally, drawing
on the SAME philosophy, we are promoting this examination and discussion of diverse vantage
points in order to equip students to take social action steps and promote social change later in the
unit as they apply knowledge and reasoning skills to complete their final projects.

“Carolyn and Reiko, of course, monitored the talk of diverse literary works, helping diverse students to
engage each other in the contact zone of the classroom (Pratt, 1991). It was through this developing
discourse, so rare in public-school classrooms, that these students learned that making connections
between the books of school and the experiences of their personal and community lives was valued by
their teachers and essential to their learning” (Athanases 293)

As we embark on a quest to draw students into challenging discussions about race and social justice in
this unit, we recognize that students may hold and articulate a diverse range of perspectives on these
issues. While we believe these conversations are crucial for developing empathy, openness, and
resilience in the hearts and minds of our students, we also believe educators like Carolyn and Reiko are
right to facilitate these discussions and to model and promote respectful, honest speaking and listening.
Our goal is for our students to be able to engage openly yet professionally with one another on complex
social issues, ready to share their own viewpoints and reasoning yet equally eager to listen and learn
from their peers. At the same time, we intend to incorporate appropriate scaffolding to ensure these
conversations are constructive and community enhancing.

“There is no reason that an English class cannot be a multilingual class when we have
multilingual students. We have to exhibit courageous leadership to make this happen, in our
current age of linguistic racism” (Morrell 317)

Because we have a considerable number of multilingual students in our classroom, we want to

emphasize our commitment to promoting a multilingual learning environment in which
codeswitching across multiple languages, dialects, and or/discourses is welcomed and
encouraged. We are committed to teaching language arts, and we recognize our students’
linguistic experiences and perspectives as valuable to our learning community. As such, we aim
to provide language accommodations when necessary for enhancing students’ learning, but also
encourage students to utilize all the tools in their linguistic toolboxes to learn and communicate
in ways that they believe are most conducive to their own growth and that of their peers.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Background content

• Students are familiar with using and collaborating in Google Docs and Google Slides—a skill
that they will need to draw on to co-create infographics in this lesson.
• In the first semester of this course, students read and analyzed a range of nineteenth- and
twentieth-century texts from American literature (poems, essays, novels, plays) exploring diverse
identities and experiences in the U.S. This semester, we will turn our attention primarily toward
contemporary American nonfiction (and some contemporary fiction) related to social justice
issues, with an aim to foster students’ ability to critically engage in and discuss popular culture
and current events. The exploration of themes related to identity, diversity, equity, and privilege
in which we engaged in the fall semester will continue into the spring semester as we turn our
thematic focus to contemporary issues surrounding social justice.
• Over the course of the first semester, the majority of written assignments involved analyzing unit
readings as model texts and practicing writing in different genres. In the spring semester, we will
primarily turn our attention to producing evidence-based analytical writing, with a focus on
promoting students’ ability to adeptly and critically engage with and respond to current social
issues.

Linkage to past/future lessons

• During the previous semester, our last unit involved a critical, against-the-text study of To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In this unit, as students prepared to write a summative essay
assignment about racism in the novel, they used graphic organizers to scaffold their ability to
record evidence about, reflect on, make connections related to key themes in the text. In this
lesson, students’ engagement with key themes will also be scaffolded through visual compilation
and organization of information and ideas.
• In future lessons in the unit, students will be required to continue synthesizing information and
perspectives from multiple sources to develop informed, evidence-based claims about key
themes. This lesson will scaffold students’ growth toward this target by providing them with an
opportunity to engage in this discourse with a more limited set of texts and within a more limited
time frame.
• In future lessons in the unit, students will need to approach discussions of themes in Just Mercy
and other unit texts with a base of knowledge about key terms, topics, and events related to those
themes. In this lesson, we will equip students to engage with unit themes by starting to build
their knowledge of related vocabulary and key issues, such as mass incarceration and racialized
discrimination. We will also introduce and discuss the concept of justice, a topic fundamental to
the themes we will explore across the texts we study this semester.
OBJECTIVE
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to synthesize information and perspectives from multiple
sources to describe and discuss key aspects and effects of mass incarceration in the U.S.

MATERIALS
• Journals (in students’ folders)
• 1 large sheet butcher paper
• Colorful markers
• 24 Chromebooks
• 24 pairs headphones
• SmartBoard
• Google Slides presentation
• WebQuest page (BlendSpace: https://www.tes.com/lessons/SeAcGkKI4Xjxhg/webquest-mass-
incarceration-in-the-u-s-encarcelamiento-en-masa-en-los-ee-uu)
• Google Slides presentation
(https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10wcYF0iQDIJaOLHzUy5TH2fsKDaqzCqLZQ7BRt0V
p4g/edit?usp=sharing)
• WebQuest note sheets

PREPARATION
• Write journal question (“What is justice?”/ “¿Qué es la justicia?”) on large sheet of butcher paper
• Post Google Slides presentation in Google Classroom
• Add BlendSpace link to Google Classroom
• Set up student desks in 6 pods of 4
• Ensure students retrieve journals upon entering class

PROCEDURE

10 minutes Note: Google Slides presentation will be used throughout lesson.

Warmup and Intro to Unit

Journal (4 minutes):
• Students will respond to the prompt “What is justice?”/ “¿Qué es la
justicia?” (scaffolded with images of social justice demonstrators)

Koosh ball discussion / anchor chart creation (6 minutes):

• Teacher will explain that journal question will be one of our guiding
questions for the unit, and that we will be explore justice in relation
to several current social issues as we read and discuss Bryan
Stevenson’s Just Mercy.
• Teacher will explain that we will be working together to develop an
operation definition of justice that will evolve as we learn and discuss
throughout the unit. Teacher will guide discussion inviting students
 to share their responses to the journal prompt, which will be added to
our first anchor chart for the unit, a large sheet of butcher paper with
our journal question/guiding question written at the center.
• Students should sit on front of desks, and koosh ball will be tossed to
students who volunteer or are selected by the teacher to share, which
will support students’ speaking and listening skills by helping them to
visualize/remember who has the floor. A student can also toss the
koosh ball to another student who volunteers, allowing students to
have more agency in the conversation.
• As students share their responses, 1-2 students who volunteer as
scribes will record their peers’ responses on our anchor chart, a large
sheet of butcher paper with our journal question written at the center.
• Additional questions that may be used to scaffold discussion:
-What is an example of something that is unjust?
-What is an example of something that is just?
-Who can give me a good synonym for justice?
-If someone is known as a social justice activist, what kind of
activities might they be involved in?
-What does it mean to bring someone to justice?
-What is the justice system? Do you feel like the justice system is
just?
40 minutes Inquiry Activity: WebQuest

Introduction (6 minutes):
• Pass out WebQuest note sheets (attached).
• Teacher will remind students that last semester we read To Kill a
Mockingbird and started to discuss the relationship between race and
equity and that we will continue to examine this relationship in our
society today, turning our attention toward certain issues related to
race and equitable access to justice and how these issues are present
in our society today.
• Teacher will explain that throughout the unit we will be exploring the
relationship between justice and different social issues. Today, we
will be exploring the relationship between justice and mass
incarceration in the U.S. Explain to students that they will be
discovering for themselves what mass incarceration means by
working together in small groups (4-desk pods), synthesizing
information from several sources to answer guiding questions, and
demonstrating their learning in an infographic they will create as a
group.
• Our guiding questions are:
-What is mass incarceration?
-What are the root causes of mass incarceration?
-How does mass incarceration impact people in the U.S. today?
-What is the relationship between mass incarceration and justice?
• Explain WebQuest instructions (in Google Slides presentation).
 Explain to students that they do not need to read/watch their whole
source, especially if it is a longer article or video. Instead, they need
to be treasure hunters, searching for the best pieces of information
that will help them create their final product.
• Model how to gather key information from a source and discuss
elements of an effective infographic using this infographic from
ACLU.
-Example for students of how to make a claim about mass
incarceration in response to a guiding question and support it with
evidence from a source:
-How does mass incarceration relate to justice?
Mass incarceration seems to be unjust, because this infographic
from the ACLU tells us that the percentages of Black and
Latinx men in prison are larger than the percent of White men
in prison. The infographic says, “1 in every 15 Black males age
18 or older is incarcerated” (ACLU). That seems to be evidence
of racial discrimination in the justice system.
-Ask students what features of this infographic stand out to them
and record their responses on the whiteboard. Possible answers
could include:
-Illustrations that show information visually
-Information that is clear and concise
-Claims are supported with evidence (sources are cited)

Exploration of sources (8 minutes):

• Students will choose sources from the BlendSpace WebQuest page
and each explore one source, recording information/ideas related to
guiding questions on their note sheets.

Collaboration (8 minutes):
• Each student will have 2 minutes to share key information/ideas they
recorded from their selected source with their team, while their
teammates take notes on the information/ideas they share.

Infographic creation (18 minutes):

• Students will use the infographic template to create an infographic
demonstrating their learning from the WebQuest exploration activity.
(Instructions detailed in Google Slides.)
• After teams complete their infographics, they will turn them in on
Google Classroom and explore a gallery of other teams’ infographics
and add new information/ideas they learn to their note sheets.

Students have been divided into groups of four to promote student-driven

inquiry and collaboration, and to make it possible for each student to gain
information from at least 4 different sources in a limited amount of time.
Students have been divided into groups based on strengths and needs, so that
 students who may need assistance with understanding/following instructions
and/or staying on task will be paired with focused, high-achieving students
who are strong team players and will be able to support their peers.

DISCUSSION IDEAS
• What action steps might you take in response to what we learned today about mass
incarceration?
• Which source that you read/watched/listened to today did you find most compelling? What ideas
in and/or features of that source made it most compelling to you, and how could you emulate the
source’s strengths in your own written products?
• Mass incarceration is not a popular discussion topic in most high school classrooms. Why do you
think that might be, and how would you respond to someone if they suggested this topic should
not be discussed in a high school class?

PLANNED SUPPORTS

• The journal is scaffolded with images that may activate students’ prior knowledge and provide
them with context if they are unfamiliar with the vocabulary term “justice.”
• The koosh ball used in our brief post-journal discussion will scaffold students’ speaking and
listening skills by helping them to visualize and remember who has the floor at a given point in
time.
• The “scribe” role(s) during the post-journal discussion may be given to students who have
trouble with attention and need to be doing something active (like standing up and recording
information) to focus and listen attentively.
• The Google Slides presentation will accompany verbal explanations of key ideas and activity
instructions to help students remember instructions and to help students who are visual learners
stay on task.
• The guiding questions and note sheet that accompany the WebQuest activity will help students to
focus their inquiry and organize information in a logical way so that they can effectively share
their learning with their peers.
• Students will be working in strategically selected teams so that students who need help
understanding/following directions and/or staying on task will have support from high-achieving,
attentive students who are strong team players.
• The infographic template and guidelines will help students effectively complete the formative
assessment activity.
• The “What is Justice?” anchor chart and the infographics students will continue to scaffold
students’ engagement with and exploration of key concepts and themes of the unit in future
lessons.

LANGUAGE ACCOMMODATIONS

• For Spanish-dominant students:

o Some sources included in the WebQuest are in Spanish. On the BlendSpace page,
instructions and descriptions are translated to Spanish where applicable.
 o The journal questions/guiding question for the unit (“What is justice?”) will be written in
English and Spanish in the Google Slides presentation and on the anchor chart.
o Throughout the lesson, I will repeat questions and instructions in Spanish when possible.
Spanish-dominant students are encouraged to contribute to class discussions in Spanish
or English, and I will reiterate contributions in English to ensure the whole class can
understand and benefit from these contributions.
o Guiding questions are written in Spanish and English on the note sheet.
• For AAVE-dominant students:
o In our classroom, we have an open, ongoing dialogue about dominant and nondominant
dialects and the imbalances of equity and power that contribute to a system in which
some dialects are given more privilege and power than others. As a class, we practice
determining contexts in which it may be more appropriate to engage the dominant dialect
(“standard”/“formal”) English and when it is acceptable to engage everyday speech
practices. Students are sometimes asked to complete summative assessments (essays,
speeches) using “standard”/“formal” English, but students who speak dialects of English
considered “nonstandard,” including students who are AAVE dominant, are invited and
encouraged to engage in most learning activities using language practices that are most
conducive to their learning.

SPECIAL EDUCATION ACCOMMODATIONS

• Students with ADD will be seated strategically in groups to avoid distractions in the environment
and enable maximum teacher proximity.
• Students with ADD may sit on yoga balls in place of chairs. All students also have Bouncy
Bands on their desks to help release energy and increase focus.
• Students with ADD will be given the lesson outline to help them stay on track.
• Students with ADD are permitted to stand up and walk a lap around the room or walk quietly to
and from the water fountain when necessary.
• One student with ADD receives an extended deadline all assignments and will be permitted to
turn in formative assessments for this lesson by the end of the week. The student’s team will
receive full credit for their infographic if all components are completed by the end of the week.
• Students with general anxiety and EDs will receive information about the topic and content of
this lesson prior to instruction. One student who experiences PTSD will have the opportunity to
complete an alternative independent activity or preselect their source for the WebQuest activity.
• Students with general anxiety and EDs have been strategically placed in small groups with at
least one student who they have identified as a “safe person” for them.
• Student with Type II Diabetes is permitted to eat in class and permitted to go to the nurse’s office
as necessary for medication and any other medical needs.

ASSESSMENT

The individually completed Web Quest note sheets and group-created infographics described in the
procedures above and in the Google Slides presentation will jointly serve as the formative assessment
products for this lesson.

Alignment with objectives and evidence of student understanding –

The stated objective for this lesson is: “By the end of this lesson, students will be able to synthesize
information and perspectives from multiple sources to describe and discuss key aspects and effects of
mass incarceration in the U.S.”
The note sheet students will complete as their formative assessment will provide us with information
about their ability to extract key information and ideas from several sources as they independently
explore and collaboratively discuss the topic and answer guiding questions. The infographic will allow
us to evaluate their ability to synthesize the information/ideas they collect in a meaningful way.

Through this two-part formative assessment, we will be able to evaluate students’ understanding of key
terms/concepts such as justice and mass incarceration (knowledge target). At the same time, the
assessment will also allow us to evaluate students’ understanding of how to gather and put together
information from multiple sources to solve a problem or answer question(s).

Student Feedback-

For this formative assessment, which is primarily intended to check understanding of key concepts and
provide students with practice gathering and integrating evidence, we will be using the one-point rubric,
which allows for quick turn-around time and provides space for individualized feedback. We plan to
offer students input on what is effective about their collection and integration of evidence and action
steps they can take to grow in these skills in the future, as well as any clarifying information they need
to better understand key terms/concepts. Because this is a two-part formative, students will be evaluated
and given feedback individually and as a group based on the two rubrics below:

Mass Incarceration WebQuest: Note Sheet Rubric

Concerns Criteria Advanced

I collected key information

and ideas from multiple
sources.

I strategically organized
key information and
ideas I collected from
sources to answer guiding
questions.

I included parenthetical
 citations for my sources.

Mass Incarceration WebQuest: Group Infographic Rubric

Concerns Criteria Advanced

We synthesized key
information and ideas
from 4 different sources to
respond to guiding
questions.

In our infographic, we
answered each guiding
question with clear claim(s).

We supported claims with

evidence from our sources
(quotes/paraphrase).

We included parenthentical
citations for our sources.

BONUS: We strategically
used graphics (colors,
images, charts) to illustrate
our claims.
EXTENSION IDEAS
• Invite a guest speaker from the community who serves as an advocate for individuals who are
incarcerated to hold an optional mini-conference for students in the class on a Saturday morning.
At this mini-conference, provided students with information about national/state/local
organizations that serve and advocate for individuals who are incarcerated and information about
how they can get involved in promoting justice in our prison system.
• Host an optional viewing and discussion of the documentary film Kids for Cash (2013), which
critically examines the justice system as it tells the stories of young people who received harsh
sentences that far outweighed the infractions they had committed.
• Students listen to the NPR podcast episode “How Can America Reduce Mass Incarceration?”
and write a short reflection explaining why they believe the solutions suggested in the podcast
might or might not be realistic and/or effective.

SOURCE OF ACTIVITY

The WebQuest and infographic activities in this lesson are mine.

The warm-up journal, co-constructed anchor chart, and koosh ball discussion activity ideas come from
the classroom of Alyssa Pavlakis.

The one-point rubric idea comes from Jennifer Gonzalez at the Cult of Pedagogy.

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

Abrams, Eve. “The human stories behind mass incarceration.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 16 Apr.
2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JGarsZE1rk.

Athanases, Steven Z. “Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through
Literary Encounters.” Journal of Literary Research, vol. 30, no. 2, Jun. 1998, pp. 273-296. PDF.

Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion: A Completely New Guide to Classroom, Curriculum,
and the Profession. 4th ed., Heinemann, 2012.

Column Five Media. “Incarceration Nation: The Rise of an Imprisoned America.” Visually, GOOD, 13
Sept. 2011, https://visual.ly/community/infographic/politics/incarceration-nation-rise-
imprisoned-america.

Community Coalition. “Are Our Children Being Pushed into Prison?” School Justice Partnership, Jun.
2012, https://www.schooljusticepartnership.org/component/mtree/resource-
library/partnerships/126-are-our-children-being-pushed-into-prison.html?Itemid=.

Community Coalition. “El costo del encarcelamiento vs. el costo de la prevención.” Community
Coalition, 17 Mar. 2016, http://cocosouthla.org/el-costo-de-encarcelamiento-vs-el-costo-a-la-
prevencion/.
Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Meet the #SinglePointRubric.” Cult of Pedagogy, 4 Feb. 2015,
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/single-point-rubric/.

Grinberg, Emanuella and Jamiel Lynch. “‘Nos trataron como si fuéramos animales’: Cartas desde el
interior de un centro de detención de inmigrantes en Estados Unidos.” CNN Español, 4 Jul. 2018,
https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2018/07/04/nos-trataron-como-si-fueramos-animales-cartas-desde-
el-interior-de-un-centro-de-detencion-de-inmigrantes-en-estados-unidos/.

Hager, Eli. “A Mass Incarceration Mystery.” The Marshall Project, 15 Dec. 2017,
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/12/15/a-mass-incarceration-mystery.

Haviland, Victoria S. “‘Things Get Glossed Over’: Rearticulating the Silencing Power of
Whiteness in Education.” Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 59, no. 1, Jan./Feb. 2008,
pp. 40-54. PDF.

Kann, Drew. “5 facts behind America's high incarceration rate.” CNN, 10 Jul. 2018,
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/28/us/mass-incarceration-five-key-facts/index.html.

Knefel, Molly. “Youth Incarceration in the United States, by the Numbers.” Teen Vogue, 4 Oct.
2017, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/youth-incarceration-in-the-united-states-by-the-
numbers.

Lopez, German. “Mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts.” Vox, 11 Oct.
2016, https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts.

“Mass Incarceration in the US.” YouTube, uploaded by vlogbrothers, 4 Apr. 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaPBcUUqbew&feature=youtube_gdata.

“Mass Incarceration, Visualized.” YouTube, uploaded by The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2015,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51_pzax4M0.

Morin, Amanda. “At a Glance: Classroom Accommodations for ADHD.” Understood, 2014,
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-
school/instructional-strategies/at-a-glance-classroom-accommodations-for-adhd.

Morrell, Ernest. “The 2014 NCTE Presidential Address: Powerful English at NCTE Yesterday,
Today, and Tomorrow: Toward the Next Movement.” Research in the Teaching of
English, vol. 49, no. 3, Feb. 2014. PDF.

National Research Council. “Infographic: The Growth of Incarceration in the United States.” The
National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine, 2014,
https://www.nap.edu/visualizations/incarceration/.

Sawyer, Wendy. “Artist collaboration: Visualizing 10.6 million jail admissions each year.”
Prison Policy Initiative, 22 Mar. 2018,
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2018/03/22/chalabi/.
“Slavery to Mass Incarceration.” YouTube, uploaded by Equal Justice Initiative, 7 Jul. 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4e_djVSag4.

Subramanian, Ram, Ruth Delaney, Stephen Roberts, Nancy Fishman, and Peggy McGarry.
“Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America.” Vera Institute of Justice, Feb.
2015, https://www.vera.org/publications/incarcerations-front-door-the-misuse-of-jails-in-
america.

The Sentencing Project. “Criminal Justice Facts.” The Sentencing Project, 2017,
https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/.

Wagner, Peter and Wendy Sawyer. “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018.” Prison Policy Initiative,
14 Mar. 2018, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html.

Common Core English Language Arts Standards (9-12), Addressed:

CC.11-12.R.I.7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of
information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in
words in order to address a question.

In this lesson, as students build toward more extended inquiry-based activities related to the
guiding questions of our unit, they will have the opportunity to start learning and practicing the
skills necessary to synthesize information and ideas from a range of sources (including
photographs, illustrations, articles, infographics, and videos) to construct meaningful
observations and claims in respond to guiding questions related to key concepts and themes in
the unit.

CC.11-12.W.7 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short as well as more sustained
research projects to answer a question… synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating
understanding of the subject under investigation.

In this lesson, students will conduct a short research project to answer the guiding questions included on
the WebQuest note sheet. Conducting short, low-stakes research projects as formative practice will
allow students to start developing research skills, like integrating a range of sources related to the
subject and making evidence-based claims based on their investigation of those sources. Having students
complete a short research project will also provide us as instructors with valuable information about the
research skills our students bring to the table and the areas in which they may require additional
instruction and scaffolding to succeed in the unit’s culmination project.
APPENDIX: MATERIALS

WebQuest Note Sheet

Name/nombre: __________________ My source/mi fuente: _____________________________

Record key information and ideas related to the questions below as you explore your source,
listen to your teammates, and review other teams’ infographics. Be sure to include
parenthetical citations when you quote or paraphrase.
Escribe información e ideas claves relacionadas a las preguntas a continuación mientras
examinas tu fuente, eschuchas a tus compañeros de equipo, y revisas las infografias de otros
equipos. Incluye citaciones entre paréntesis cuando citas o parafraseas.
What is mass incarceration? What are the root causes of mass
¿Qué es el encarcelamiento en masa? incarceration?
¿Qué son los orígenes del encarcelamiento en
masa?

How does mass incarceration impact people What is the relationship between mass
in the U.S. today? incarceration and justice?
¿Qué es el impacto del encarcelamiento en ¿Qué es la relación entre el encarcelamiento
masa en la gente en los EE.UU. hoy en día? en masa y la justicia?
DAY 2: DURING LITERACY

CENTRAL QUESTION
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the anchor text of the unit—Stevenson’s Just
Mercy—and to scaffold their evolving engagement with challenging and complex topics and themes of
the text. With significant modeling and scaffolding provided by the teacher, students will practice
crafting and supporting evidence-based predictions and claims related to themes in the text. This lesson
will provide students with a foundational understanding of the text and a model of how to approach,
analyze, and respond to the text as they move toward more independent reading and engagement with
the text.

TIME
50 minutes

SETTING
Classroom demographics: https://justmercy-elaunit.weebly.com/classroom-demographics.html

Prior academic knowledge

• Prior to this unit, students studied Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a text we are required to
teach in the department and one that figures prominently in Stevenson’s Just Mercy. To activate
students’ prior knowledge, we will carry over our discussion of justice and racialized
incarceration from To Kill a Mockingbird into our dialogue about these topics in this unit on Just
Mercy and the relationship between justice and mass incarceration in the U.S. today.
• Prior to this lesson, students have participated in directed reading and thinking activities
(DRTA), so they are familiar with the discourse and will be able to engage in it fairly adeptly in
the context of this lesson.
• Students have had opportunities to practice identifying, analyzing, and discussing themes in text
since ninth-grade English. Last semester, they had the opportunity to start identifying and
exploring more complex themes in literature with a greater level of depth and independence—a
proficiency they will need to extend to nonfiction and continue developing in this lesson and the
unit overall.
• Students learned about the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI’s) National Memorial for Peace and
Justice when they learned about lynching in their American history course, so they are somewhat
familiar with the organization and with Bryan Stevenson as its founder. This connection will be
drawn during the lesson to activate students’ prior knowledge.

Personal/cultural/community assets

• As mentioned in the previous lesson plan, many students in our diverse classroom have
awareness of or experiences related to discrimination by law enforcement and the justice system.
In this lesson and in the unit as a whole, students will have the opportunity to reflect on and draw
from their own knowledge of and experiences related to racialized discrimination, injustice, and
incarceration and to expand their knowledge and understanding of these issues.
• The generation of students we teach is very tech savvy, and we have recognized over time that
engagement and achievement increase when students are able to use technology to complete
 activities and assessments. For that reason, in this lesson we have chosen to provide students
with the opportunity to engage with the themes in the text and practice evidence-based analysis
by participating in a silent discussion activity with peers on Google Docs.

CONCEPTUAL/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

“So, how do we develop students as writers? One of the things that I have seen is connecting the
act of writing to the act of communicating—what we might call righteous indignation. I, for one,
do not believe that we have to cultivate that righteous indignation. Students see a world around
them filled with injustice and inequity. What we need to do as educators is simply allow the
space for the authentic sharing of these stories as we help students to learn the art of telling their
stories more powerfully” (Morrell 317).

In this lesson and over the course of the unit, we will be inviting students to engage in authentic
and challenging conversations about topics related to injustice and inequity, such as mass
incarceration and extreme punishment in the justice system. While we recognize that these topics
may at times be difficult for students to reflect on and discuss with others, we also believe that
we have a responsibility to provide our students with opportunities to read and think and write
about things that matter, and to foster in them a deep awareness of their potential to build a better
future. Much like Morrell, we believe that giving students opportunities to read, think, and write
about injustices they see and experience will lead to an increase in the engagement of our
students and make the teaching and learning that occurs in our classroom all the more
worthwhile.

“With kids from so many different backgrounds in my classes, I find Rosenblatt’s transactional
theory more useful and apt: ‘We “make sense” of new situations or make new meanings by
applying, reorganizing, revising, or extending public and private elements selected from our
personal linguistic-experiential reservoirs’ (2005, 5). When a girl who grew up in Serbian bomb
shelters but mastered English well enough in three years to thrive in my AP Lit class sits next to
a Latino boy whose parents clean offices in Silicon Valley, and both discuss Heart of Darkness
with a girl whose father is a CEO of a major Silicon Valley technology firm—well, let’s just say
that they are not necessarily the same readers reading the same text, though my job is to guide
them to a place where each is able to offer a responsible, defensible reading of that text” (Burke
154).

As we embark on the journey of reading Just Mercy, we recognize that our racially, ethnically,
culturally, and socioeconomically diverse group of students will look at the text through vastly
different lenses. Some of our students have been or have loved ones who have been incarcerated
or subjected to discriminatory treatment by law enforcement, while others have loved ones who
work in law enforcement. We aim to provide each student with opportunities to thoughtfully and
respectfully share evidence-based opinions, while also creating a context in which students will
have the opportunity to learn from each other’s perspectives. In order to foster the development a
respectful, open, and intellectually rich community of learners and thinkers in our classroom, we
will draw from Burke’s insight and begin laying the foundation in this lesson for an engagement
in key unit themes firmly grounded in thoughtful analysis of solid evidence.
“Afflerbach (2007) argues that, when assessing reading performance, we must also apply a more
demanding conceptual framework of reading that represents its complexity and invites more
sophisticated assessments than the narrow, standardized tests often reflect. To this end, he offers
the definition provided by the Program for International Assessment (PISA) in its most recent
report: ‘Reading literacy is understanding, using, reflecting on and engaging with written texts in
order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in
society’ (OECD 2010, 24)” (Burke 193).

In teaching reading and promoting literacy development in our students, it is our primary aim to
foster their ability to analyze and reflect on texts in ways that allow them to engage deeply and
respond meaningfully—to develop awareness of the nature of the world and themselves in the
world and to take action steps based on their discovery in order to grow and make a positive
impact on those around them. To that end, the emphasis of our activities and assessments in this
lesson and in the unit overall will be not only to develop students’ proficiency in evidence-based
analysis, but also to provide them with opportunities to learn about and reflect on the world
around them and to “participate in society” by discussing complex and challenging themes
related to issues present in our society today (Burke 193).

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Background knowledge

• As mentioned in the lesson above, our previous unit included a critical study of Lee’s To Kill a
Mockingbird. As we begin to read Chapter 1 of Just Mercy, entitled “Mockingbird Players,”
students will be able to use prior knowledge from their study of To Kill a Mockingbird to grasp
and analyze the allusions Stevenson makes to the novel throughout Just Mercy.
• Prior to this lesson, students have had experience identifying themes in literature and engaging
with course texts through DRTA. In the past, however, students’ analysis of themes has
primarily taken place during studies of fictional works. In this lesson, students will build on
previous experiences as they begin to identify and analyze themes and make predictions based on
textual evidence as they study a nonfiction work.

Links to past/future lessons

• In the previous lesson, students were required to practice supporting their responses to guiding
questions with textual evidence. In this lesson, they will continue to develop the skill of
supporting claims with text-based evidence as they engage in a silent discussion activity with
peers.
• In the previous lesson, students engaged in an inquiry activity in order to develop an
understanding of key topics and concepts we will explore in our unit, such as mass incarceration
and justice. The previous lesson provided students with a knowledge of terms and concepts they
will need to be familiar with and have some understanding of as they delve into our unit’s anchor
text.
• In the subsequent lesson, students will be completing a short summative assessment in which
they will be required to write a brief analytical piece integrating evidence from multiple sources
to describe the relationship between justice and mass incarceration. In this lesson and the
 previous lesson, to prepare students for this summative assignment, we provide students with
opportunities to practice supporting claims with evidence.

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to identify and discuss key themes in the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Just
Mercy.

Students will be able to craft and support evidence-based claims about key themes in Just Mercy.

MATERIALS
• Google Slides presentation
• Smartboard
• Just Mercy Introduction Notes worksheets
• Just Mercy Theme Tracker worksheets
• Just Mercy Silent Discussion worksheets
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (25 copies)
• 24 Chromebooks

PREPARATION
• Print Introduction Notes and Theme Tracker worksheets
• Set up desks in pairs according to seating chart in Google Slides
• Post Just Mercy Silent Discussion worksheet in Google Classroom
• Make sure students pick up journals and copy of Just Mercy when they enter the room

PROCEDURE

6 minutes Note: Google Slides presentation will be used throughout lesson.

Warmup

• Students will enter class and pick up a copy of Just Mercy by

Bryan Stevenson. Once class begins, they will begin their warm-up
journal assignment (4 minutes). The prompt for their journals is:
“Let’s judge the book by its cover. Pick a copy and examine:
-The title
-Images on the front/back covers
-Key words on the front/back covers
Then predict: What could be a key theme in this text? Explain
what leads you to believe that.
• Following the journal assignment, the teacher will lead a brief
discussion, inviting students to share their predictions about the
text.
14 minutes Intro to the text

• Teacher will explain unit goals: “By the end of this lesson we will
be able to:
-Identify and discuss key themes presented in the Introduction and
Chapter 1 of Just Mercy.
-Craft and support evidence-based claims about key themes in Just
Mercy.
• Teacher will offer brief introduction of author, Bryan Stevenson:
-Grew up in a poor, racially segregated community in Delaware
-Majored in philosophy at a college in Pennsylvania, then attended
Harvard Law School
-Founded the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama to
combat racial and socioeconomic discrimination in prisons and the
legal system
-Professor at New York University School of Law

-At this point, the teacher should also activate students’ prior
knowledge by explaining that Bryan Stevenson’s organization, EJI, is
the organization behind the National Memorial for Peace and Justice
that they learned about when they studied lynching in American
history.

• While passing out copies of the Just Mercy Introduction note

sheet, the teacher will explain that we will be moving quickly
together through the Introduction of Just Mercy so that we can
get started with Chapter 1.

• The teacher will lead the class through a summary of the

Introduction to Just Mercy (slides 5-8 in the Google Slides
presentation) as they fill in the blanks on their note sheets. The
teacher will move throughout the classroom while walking the
class through the summary to maximize engagement and manage
student behavior.

• After students complete their notes on the summary, the teacher

will ask students: “Based on what we learned in the introduction,
what THEMES do you predict we’ll start to see in Chapter 1?” at
this point, the teacher should also review the definition of
“theme” and how to identify themes in a text in order to activate
prior knowledge and reinforce students’ academic vocabulary.
The teacher should ask students to share what they recall, then
share the definition of theme and guidelines for identifying theme
found in slide 9:
 -A theme is “an insight about human life that’s revealed in a
literary work” (Randazzo).

-Always more than 1 word.

-As yourself, “What’s the author’s message to readers?”

-Example: In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee critiques how

people perpetuate discrimination and injustice when they make
judgments about others without really knowing them.

15 minutes DRTA

• After students make several predictions about potential themes

they may see in Chapter 1, the teacher should pass out the Just
Mercy theme tracker note sheets and explain how students may use them
while reading the text.
-Students will use the theme tracker worksheets to identify 4 key
topics/concepts of their choosing in the text, identify the author’s
message about those themes/concepts, and provide textual
evidence to support their claims about the author’s message about
those key topics/concepts.
-Students will be expected to find 1-2 key topics/concepts to
identify and track in Chapter 1. They should fill out the theme
tracker worksheet as they follow along during reading and the
subsequent discussion.
• The teacher will begin reading Chapter 1 as students follow along,
then following reading of first 10 pages discuss, make predictions,
model identifying and analyzing the author’s message about key
topics/concepts, and providing students with opportunities to
record information, observations, and evidence on their theme
tracker worksheets:
-Call students’ attention to the title (“Mockingbird Players”) and
ask them to think about the allusion (reference to another text) the
author might be making.
-READ p. 19-28, then DISCUSS:

-What does Bryan Stevenson do after he graduates?

(Goes back to George to work at the SPDC.)

-Who do we find out Bryan Stevenson is representing in this

chapter, and what is said about him?
(Walter McMillian, a prisoner on death row; “one of the biggest
drug dealers in all of South Alabama,” “Dixie Mafia,”
“not indigent,” “not particularly well educated,” “hailed from a
 small rural community,” “insistent…that he’d been wrongfully
convicted”)

-What is the “growing crisis” Stevenson describes, and what does

Stevenson do about this?
(Alabama has almost 100 people on death row but no public
defenders to represent them; seeks federal funding to help
prisoners on death row and wants to start nonprofit; decides to help
Walter McMillian)
-What allusion does Stevenson make to To Kill a Mockingbird, and
what’s the irony he points out?
(p. 22-23)

-What do we find out about Walter McMillian’s story & context?

(“grew up in one of several poor black settlements outside of
Monroeville,” “worked fields with his family before he was old
enough to attend school,” went to a “colored school,” child of
sharecroppers in a segregated South, started his own business, had
an affair with a white woman in an era when interracial
relationships were frowned upon and was exposed, had one prior
misdemeanor conviction)

MAKE PREDICTIONS & MODEL:

-What are some key topics that are starting to emerge in Chapter 1,
and what seem to be the author’s messages about these topics?
(guilt/innocence, segregation, racism, black/white, white
supremacy, racial subordination)
-Model identifying a topic and think aloud about what might be
the author’s message about the topic. Write the topic and
potential message (theme) on the board to help students
visualize, then ask them to provide examples of textual evidence
to back up that claim. E.g. “Stevenson talks a lot about race, and
he seems to be suggesting that people of color like Walter
McMillian are sometimes unjustly incriminated and/or
Incarcerated because of their racial identity. Who can support
that claim with evidence from the text for me?”

15 minutes Silent Discussion

After the reading and group discussion, the teacher should explain to
students that they will have the opportunity to engage in a more in-depth
silent discussion with a peer using Chromebooks and Google Docs.

They will work in pairs selected by the

 teacher based on students’ strengths and needs, as well as preferred work
partners they indicated in a survey at the beginning of the year.

-Students will log in to Google Docs on Chromebooks, and each pair will
open a new copy of the Just Mercy: Chapter 1 Silent Discussion
worksheet. They will complete the activity in Google Docs by following
the directions in the worksheet. They should type their responses and
remain silent during the activity.

DISCUSSION IDEAS
1. How might our experience of reading a long nonfiction text vary from our experience of
studying a novel? What are the unique features and impacts of each genre?
2. How might we as readers experience this text differently based on our singular experiences and
values? What are steps we can take in our classroom to create a culture in which we are honest
about our perspectives but open to hearing those of others?
3. In Chapter 1 of Just Mercy, Stevenson points out the irony of people in Monroe County
celebrating To Kill a Mockingbird even though they fail to embrace or embody the values the
novel promotes. What are other examples of situations in today in which people seem to support
a certain set of values they see in others but don’t follow up with actions that align with those
values? Why do you think people might do this?

PLANNED SUPPORTS

• A seating chart and goals for the day are included in the Google Slides presentation to help
students get set up and ready for learning and to understand expectations from the beginning of
class.
• The journal activity is intended to help students warm up and prepare their minds for
engagement in class. It is also intended to orient students to the skills and subject matter involved
in the lesson.
• The Google Slides presentation will accompany verbal explanations of key ideas and activity
instructions to help students remember instructions and to help students who are visual learners
stay on task.
• The Just Mercy Introduction note sheet is intended to keep students engaged while the teacher
speaks and help students who are ELLs, students who have ADD, and other students who may
have trouble processing information aurally without visual support stay on track.
• The teacher will move around the room and use proximity to increase engagement and manage
behavior during the Introduction summary portion of the lesson.
• The Just Mercy theme tracker worksheet is intended to support students in their engagement with
the text during group reading, to help them organize information and ideas about the text, and to
scaffold their progress toward incorporating claims, evidence, and analysis in future writing
assignments.
• An academic vocabulary term—theme—and skills related to identifying and analyzing theme in
a text are reviewed to support students’ ability to engage in academic vocabulary and discourses.
 • Students will be working in strategically selected pairs to increase engagement and achievement.
• In the DRTA activity, identifying and analyzing themes in a text while supporting claims with
evidence is modeled for students.
• Open-ended question sentence starters are included in the Silent Discussion activity worksheet to
scaffold students’ engagement in the task.

LANGUAGE ACCOMMODATIONS
• For Spanish-dominant students:
o General language supports such as the “What is justice?/¿Qué es la justicia?” anchor
chart, the open-ended question sentence starters, and the review of academic vocabulary
and discourses will support the language development of our bilingual students.
o Throughout the lesson, I will repeat questions and instructions in Spanish when possible.
Spanish-dominant students are encouraged to contribute to class discussions in Spanish
or English, and I will reiterate contributions in English to ensure the whole class can
understand and benefit from these contributions.
o I will provide Spanish-dominant students with a list of challenging vocabulary words and
definitions from the Introduction and Chapter 1 prior to this lesson.
o Because our two Spanish-dominant students have indicated a preference to work together
in Spanish during some pairs activities and formative assessments, they have been paired
for the Silent Discussion activity and will be allowed to complete the activity in Spanish.
• For AAVE-dominant students:
o In our classroom, we have an open, ongoing dialogue about dominant and nondominant
dialects and the imbalances of equity and power that contribute to a system in which
some dialects are given more privilege and power than others. As a class, we practice
determining contexts in which it may be more appropriate to engage the dominant dialect
(“standard”/“formal”) English and when it is acceptable to engage everyday speech
practices. Students are sometimes asked to complete summative assessments (essays,
speeches) using “standard”/“formal” English, but students who speak dialects of English
considered “nonstandard,” including students who are AAVE dominant, are invited and
encouraged to engage in most learning activities using language practices that are most
conducive to their learning.

SPECIAL EDUCATION ACCOMMODATIONS

• Students with ADD will be seated strategically in pairs to avoid distractions in the environment
and enable maximum teacher proximity.
• Students with ADD may sit on yoga balls in place of chairs. All students also have Bouncy
Bands on their desks to help release energy and increase focus.
• Students with ADD will be given the lesson outline to help them stay on track.
• Students with ADD are permitted to stand up and walk a lap around the room or walk quietly to
and from the water fountain when necessary.
• One student with ADD receives an extended deadline all assignments and will complete the
silent discussion activity with the teacher. This student will have until the beginning of the next
week to complete the silent discussion activity.
• Students with general anxiety and EDs will receive information about the topic and content of
this lesson prior to instruction. One student who experiences PTSD will have the opportunity to
 read independently in a designated silent area and respond to discussion questions independently.
This student will complete the silent discussion activity with the teacher.
• Students with general anxiety and EDs have been strategically placed in pairs with a student who
they have identified as a “safe person” for them.
• Student with Type II Diabetes is permitted to eat in class and permitted to go to the nurse’s office
as necessary for medication and any other medical needs.

ASSESSMENT

The formative assessment for this activity is the silent discussion exercise, which students will complete
in pairs. Students will be evaluated individually based on their contributions to the silent discussion.

Alignment with objectives and evidence of student understanding –

The stated objectives for this lesson are:

“Students will be able to identify and discuss key themes in the Introduction and Chapter 1 of
Just Mercy.”

“Students will be able to craft and support evidence-based claims about key themes in Just
Mercy.”

The silent discussion activity students will complete as their formative assessment will allow us
to evaluate students’ progress toward both of these targets, as it will provide us with information
about students’ ability to identify themes in a text and analyze them utilizing textual evidence.

Student feedback –

Students will receive actionable written feedback on their silent discussions in the form of
comments inserted in the documents they upload to Google Classroom. This feedback will
provide them with ideas of how to enhance their understanding and/or extend their thinking.
They will also be evaluated based on the following scoring criteria:

I asked an open-ended analysis question about a theme I saw emerging in Chapter 1 of Just
Mercy that allowed for and invited a thoughtful response from my peer. ____ /1

I responded to my peer’s open-ended question with a thoughtful analytical response supported

with evidence from the text. ____/1

I asked my peer a follow-up question that invited them to clarify, deepen, or extend their
thinking. _____/1

I responded to my peer’s follow-up question with a thoughtful analytical response supported

with evidence from the text. ____/1

TOTAL: ______/4
EXTENSION IDEAS
• Students complete a mini research project on Bryan Stevenson to gather 3-5 more interesting and
relevant facts about his life and career.
• Students select a topic/theme from Just Mercy to journal about on their student blogs for the rest
of the unit.
• Students attend an optional viewing of the film Loving (2016) to learn more about the history of
interracial relationships in the U.S.
• Students complete one of the implicit bias tests from Project Implicit to extend their
understanding of how their implicit biases may impact the way they interact with others.

SOURCE OF ACTIVITY

The pre-reading prediction activity is inspired by activities in the classroom of Alyssa Pavlakis.

The guided group reading and group discussion activities are mine, but they are inspired by reading
strategies taught by Professor Mark Dressman.

The theme tracker worksheet is mine but is inspired by similar graphic organizers used in the classroom
of Alyssa Pavlakis.

The silent discussion activity is inspired by Professor Arlette Willis.

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion: A Completely New Guide to Classroom, Curriculum,
and the Profession. 4th ed., Heinemann, 2012.

“How to Teach Theme, English Teacher Help, Free Lecture Slides, High School Teacher Vlog.”
YouTube, uploaded by Laura Randazzo, 7 Oct. 2017, https://youtu.be/Hwbwdj4mAiU.

Morrell, Ernest. “The 2014 NCTE Presidential Address: Powerful English at NCTE Yesterday, Today,
and Tomorrow: Toward the Next Movement.” Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 49, no.
3, Feb. 2014. PDF.

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Spiegel & Grau, 2014.

Common Core English Language Arts Standards (9-12), Addressed:

CC.11-12.R.I.2 Key Ideas and Details: Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their
development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide
a complex analysis.

In this lesson, students will be challenged to start identifying key topics in Just Mercy such as justice
and mass incarceration and describing and analyzing the central ideas Stevenson presents related to
those themes. Their understanding of how Stevenson introduces these themes early on in the text will be
foundational to their later ability to continue tracing and analyzing key themes as they progress through
the text.

CC.11-12.R.I.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including
determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to make claims about central ideas in the text
and Stevenson’s positions on issues related to key topics (justice, mass incarceration) and to
practice supporting the claims they craft with textual evidence and analysis.
DAY 3: POST-LITERACY

CENTRAL QUESTION
The purpose of this lesson is to extend students’ exploration of topics and themes central to the unit by
examining and synthesizing sources from the previous two lessons and by providing them with an
opportunity to demonstrate their learning in a summative evidence-based analysis of the relationship
between justice and mass incarceration in the U.S. Students will finish reading Chapter 1 of Just Mercy,
then complete a brief, summative op-ed writing assignment integrating evidence from Just Mercy and
other sources on mass incarceration to make clear and defensible claims about the current state of the
justice system in the U.S. This lesson will provide students with an opportunity to respond meaningfully
to learning and demonstrate their progress toward knowledge and reasoning skills central to the unit.

TIME
50 minutes

SETTING
Classroom demographics: https://justmercy-elaunit.weebly.com/classroom-demographics.html

Prior academic knowledge

• Prior to this semester, students have had fairly extensive experience completing writing activities
involving analytical paragraph structure. They are familiar with how to develop paragraphs that
contain topic sentences, context, evidence, analysis, and a concluding statement.
• Students have had opportunities to practice identifying, analyzing, and discussing themes in text
since ninth-grade English. Last semester, they had the opportunity to start identifying and
exploring more complex themes in literature with a greater level of depth and independence—a
proficiency they will need to extend to nonfiction and continue developing in this lesson and the
unit overall.

Personal/cultural/community assets

• As mentioned in the previous lesson plan, many students in our diverse classroom have
awareness of or experiences related to discrimination by law enforcement and the justice system.
In this lesson and in the unit as a whole, students will have the opportunity to reflect on and draw
from their own knowledge of and experiences related to racialized discrimination, injustice, and
incarceration and to expand their knowledge and understanding of these issues.
• Many students in our classroom are passionate about social justice and currently interested or
involved in activism. In this unit and in this lesson, we aim to provide students with opportunities
to respond meaningfully to learning and articulate their perspectives on social justice issues that
matter to them.

CONCEPTUAL/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

“Struggle will be with us, or, I should say, the reasons for struggle will always be with us. I am
hoping that the struggle is with us because that means that we have the will and the desire to face
oppression and injustice. Struggle is a good thing because oppression is a natural reality, and
without struggle oppression happens unabated. Think of the struggle as beautiful because you are
embracing it. You are embracing a legacy of people who have struggled on behalf of what is
right” (Morrell 326).

In this assignment, students will be challenged to write an op-ed piece answering the question,
“Is the U.S. justice system really just?” We recognize that this topic will require students to
struggle intellectually with critical issues of oppression and injustice in our society and, like
Morrell, believe that facing this struggle is a positive experience. It is our aim for our students
that they grow into citizens who are willing to face and boldly stand up against injustice and
oppression in the world around them.

“As students and educators translanguage, or flexibly move across languages and registers of
speech, students can develop their proficiencies in multiple languages…deepen their
metalinguistic awareness…and strengthen important components of their reading comprehension
tool kits, such as summarizing and understanding vocabulary” (Daniel and Pacheco 654).

Like Daniel and Pacheco, we recognize the value of allowing and encouraging our multilingual
students to engage with multiple languages and dialects in their writing. We want our
multilingual students and our students who engage multiple linguistic codes to develop
metalinguistic awareness and the skills they need in order to strategically move between multiple
languages/dialects in their speaking and writing to effectively communicate and engage their
audience. For that reason, multilingual students will be allowed to complete the op-ed
assignment in this lesson in an language, dialect, or combination of languages/dialects of their
choosing, but must make these decisions intentionally and be able to justify/rationalize the
linguistic decisions they’ve made.

“The essay should be treated as an invitation to explore, to reflect, to persuade; it is not a form to
be filled out, nor is each paragraph a box into which a certain number of items should be stuffed.
[…]. Newkirk (2005) expresses best what I am saying here: ‘Do current approaches to teaching
expository writing promote or do they actually foreclose possibilities for open-ended,
conversation-like exploration? Or does the ‘thesis-control essay’…actually limit the inquiry that
writing supposedly should foster?’ (33)” (Burke 82).

As Burke and Newkirk observe, we often restrict students’ growth as writers when we only allow
them practice writing using a fixed set of formats or requirements. For that reason, in this lesson
we will provide students with an opportunity to practice evidence-based analytical writing in a
novel format—that of the op-ed—which will give students the sense of a more authentic and
relevant purpose for writing and allow them more flexibility in terms of the format and style of
their pieces.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Background knowledge

• Prior to this lesson, students have had experience identifying themes in literature and engaging
with course texts through DRTA. In the past, however, students’ analysis of themes has
 primarily taken place during studies of fictional works. In this lesson, students will build on
previous experiences as they begin to identify and analyze themes and make predictions based on
textual evidence as they study a nonfiction work.
• Students have had practice producing evidence-based analytical writing in the past, in the form
of paragraphs, conventional essays, and digital/multimodal essays. In this lesson, they will have
the opportunity to extend this skillset to a new format and context as they write op-ed pieces for
the first time.

Links to past/future lessons

• In previous lessons, students were required to practice supporting their responses to guiding
questions with textual evidence. In this lesson, they will continue to develop the skill of
supporting claims with text-based evidence as they complete an op-ed summative assignment.
• Earlier in the week, students will have the opportunity to practice integrating information from
multiple sources to answer guiding questions about mass incarceration in the U.S. Additionally,
they have begun their study of our unit’s anchor text, Just Mercy. In this lesson, they will
synthesize evidence from Just Mercy and the other sources they read to answer the question “Is
the U.S. justice system really just?” in their op-ed pieces.
• Earlier in the week, students engaged in an inquiry activity to acquire a foundational
understanding of social justice issues related to mass incarceration and the justice system. In this
lesson, they will be asked to use this basis of knowledge to produce their own evidence-based
analysis of the issues in their op-ed pieces.
• In future lessons, students will be producing more extensive written works in which they will be
required to develop strong claims and support their claims with evidence and analysis. The brief
summative op-ed assignment in this lesson will provide students with an opportunity to practice
the skills they will need for success in future assignments.

OBJECTIVE/S

Students will be able to integrate information and perspectives from multiple sources to explain the
relationship between justice and mass incarceration in the U.S.

Students will be able to craft an evidence-based analysis of the relationship between justice and mass
incarceration in the U.S.

MATERIALS
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (24 copies)
• 24 Chromebooks
• Just Mercy theme tracker worksheets (in students’ packets)
• Op-ed assignment sheet (24 copies)
• Evidence-based writing rubric (24 copies, in students’ course packets)

PREPARATION
• Set up desks in typical arrangement: 2 sets of rows facing each other with aisle down the middle
of the classroom (students will sit in typical assigned seats)
 • Ensure students pick up Just Mercy, a Chromebook, and the Op-Ed assignment sheet upon
entering the classroom
• Write guiding question for the lesson, “Is the U.S. justice system really just?” on the board
• Write lesson objectives on the board

PROCEDURE

10 minutes Guided reading

• Guiding question, “Is the U.S. justice system really just?” will be
written on the board when students enter the classroom. Teacher
should explain that we will be reflecting on this question today
as we finish reading and discussing Chapter 1 of Just Mercy and
write Op-Ed pieces about the guiding question written on the board.
• Instruct students to keep tracking the themes they selected
yesterday and recording evidence on their theme tracker worksheets.
• Read p. 29-34 of Just Mercy.
• Give students 2 minutes to finish writing on their theme tracker
worksheets.

10 minutes Discussion

• Discuss text as a class:

-What risk was Walter McMillian running by having an affair with
a white woman? Historically, what could happen to a black man
rumored to be romantically involved with a white woman?
-What “unthinkable act shocked Monroeville” in 1986 (30)?
-Why is Walter McMillian implicated in the murder of Ronda
Morrison?
-What does Bryan Stevenson suggest about the justice system based
on what happened to Walter McMillian?
-Based on what we’ve read in this chapter, how might Stevenson
answer the question, “Is the U.S. justice system really just?”
Why might he respond that way?

30 minutes Op-Ed Summative Assessment

• Students will write Op-Ed pieces in response to guiding

question: Is the U.S. justice system really just?
• An explanation of the assignment and instructions are on the
assignment sheet and should be read aloud to the class.
• Students should also be informed that they will be graded on the
assignment based on the evidence-based writing rubric in their
 packets, which they have used before.
• Students will have the last 30 minutes of class to work on their
Op-Ed pieces, and their final drafts will be due the following
Monday.

DISCUSSION IDEAS
• What changes could be made to our justice system to promote a more just and equitable society?
• What steps can we take to promote a more justice and equitable society?
• In your opinion, what type of text is most compelling and effective for convincing people of
one’s point of view about a social issue? An Op-Ed? A nonfiction book? A news article? A
video? What features of this text make it the most effective format for conveying important
ideas?
• What are techniques that Stevenson uses to engage his readers and convince them of his
perspectives? How could we incorporate these strategies in our own writing?

PLANNED SUPPORTS
• Teacher will walk throughout the room during group reading and discussion to increase
engagement and manage student behavior.
• Student objectives, guiding question and theme tracker sheets are provided to direct and support
students’ engagement in reading.
• Summative writing assignment has been scaffolded by practice crafting claims and supporting
them with evidence-based analysis in the two previous lessons.
• A clear assignment explanation and rubric are provided to help students have a thorough
understanding of what is expected of them in the summative assessment.
• We will engage in a brief whole-class discussion after we complete the reading of Chapter 1 to
clarify key information and ideas in the text and help students solidify their thinking about
certain themes and topics in the text.
• A graphic organizer for the Op-Ed piece is provided to help students visualize and organize their
thinking as they develop their arguments.

LANGUAGE ACCOMMODATIONS
• For Spanish-dominant students:
o General language supports such as the “What is justice?/¿Qué es la justicia?,” Op-Ed
graphic organizer, and theme tracker sheet will support academic vocabulary
development for all students, including our Spanish-dominant students.
o Throughout the lesson, I will repeat questions and instructions in Spanish when possible.
Spanish-dominant students are encouraged to contribute to class discussions in Spanish
or English, and I will reiterate contributions in English to ensure the whole class can
understand and benefit from these contributions.
o I will provide Spanish-dominant students with a list of challenging vocabulary words and
definitions from the latter portion of Chapter 1 prior to this lesson.
o To promote students’ multilingual development, Spanish-dominant students will be
allowed to write their Op-Ed pieces in English, Spanish, or a blend of languages/dialects.
• For AAVE-dominant students:
 o In our classroom, we have an open, ongoing dialogue about dominant and nondominant
dialects and the imbalances of equity and power that contribute to a system in which
some dialects are given more privilege and power than others. As a class, we practice
determining contexts in which it may be more appropriate to engage the dominant dialect
(“standard”/“formal”) English and when it is acceptable to engage everyday speech
practices. Students are sometimes asked to complete summative assessments (essays,
speeches) using “standard”/“formal” English, but students who speak dialects of English
considered “nonstandard,” including students who are AAVE dominant, are invited and
encouraged to engage in most learning activities using language practices that are most
conducive to their learning.
o For this writing assignment, students are encouraged to adhere to guidelines for effective
academic writing but also have stylistic freedom to make strategic linguistic choices,
writing. Students who are AAVE-dominant have the freedom to write in the dialect or
blend of dialects they deem most effective for conveying their message and engaging
their audience.

SPECIAL EDUCATION ACCOMMODATIONS

• Students with ADD will be seated strategically to avoid distractions in the environment and
enable maximum teacher proximity.
• Students with ADD may sit on yoga balls in place of chairs. All students also have Bouncy
Bands on their desks to help release energy and increase focus.
• Students with ADD will be given the lesson outline to help them stay on track. One student with
ADD will be given the Op-Ed assessment handout ahead of time so that the student can prepare
beforehand for more focused engagement during the lesson.
• Students with ADD will be allowed to use headphones during individual writing.
• Students with ADD are permitted to stand up and walk a lap around the room or walk quietly to
and from the water fountain when necessary.
• One student with ADD receives an extended deadline all assignments and will be expected to
complete the Op-Ed assignment by the following Wednesday. This student will also be expected
to check in with the teacher about their progress on the assessment during class on Friday.
• Students with general anxiety and EDs will receive information about the topic and content of
this lesson prior to instruction. One student who experiences PTSD will have the opportunity to
read and write independently in a designated silent area and respond to discussion questions
independently.
• Student with Type II Diabetes is permitted to eat in class and permitted to go to the nurse’s office
as necessary for medication and any other medical needs.

ASSESSMENT

Alignment with objectives and evidence of student understanding –

The stated objectives for this lesson are:

“Students will be able to integrate information and perspectives from multiple sources to explain the
relationship between justice and mass incarceration in the U.S.”
“Students will be able to craft an evidence-based analysis of the relationship between justice and mass
incarceration in the U.S.”

The Op-Ed writing assignment at the end of this lesson will provide students with the opportunity to
integrate the evidence they have gathered over the past two days of instruction and apply the skills they
have developed in crafting claims and supporting them with evidence-based analysis. In addition to
demonstrating targeted reasoning skills (evidence-based analysis, synthesis), students will also be
required to demonstrate a developing understanding of key themes in the unit, such as the relationship
between justice and mass incarceration in the U.S. This assessment strategy will elicit evidence of
students’ progress toward these targets, because students must integrate evidence from multiple sources
and craft evidence-based analysis in order to follow the steps of the assessment and create a successful
product.

Student feedback –

Students will be graded based on this evidence-based analysis rubric, which they are familiar
with from previous assessments. They will also receive written, actionable feedback from their
instructor about how to sharpen claims and analysis and choose strong evidence in future writing
assignments.
EXTENSION IDEAS
• Students write a second Op-Ed piece on a unit-related theme of their choice and submit them to
the New York Times.
• Students interview their peers to gather additional opinions on whether or not the U.S. justice
system is truly just and compile their findings into a report to be published in the school
newspaper.
• Students explore the website Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,
created collaboratively by EJI and Google.

SOURCE OF ACTIVITY

The lesson plan and assessment ideas are mine, but ideas for how to design the Op-Ed assessment were
drawn from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Kent State University.

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

Daniel, Shannon M. and Mark B. Pacheco. “Translanguaging Practices and Perspectives of Four
Multilingual Teens.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 59, no. 6, May/Jun.
2016, doi:10.1002/jaal.500.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “Persuasive Writing: Creating an Editorial.” Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt, https://www.hmhco.com/~/media/sites/home/education/disciplines/language-
arts/homeschool/write-source-homeschool/samplers/g7_sampler.pdf?la=en.

Kent State University. “Assignment Types: Op-Ed.” Kent State University,

https://onlineteaching.kent.edu/library/online_assignments/OpEd_Handout.pdf.

Morrell, Ernest. “The 2014 NCTE Presidential Address: Powerful English at NCTE Yesterday,
Today, and Tomorrow: Toward the Next Movement.” Research in the Teaching of
English, vol. 49, no. 3, Feb. 2014. PDF.

Odell Education. “Evidence-Based Writing Rubric.” Engage NY,

https://nysed-prod.engageny.org/file/89821/download/evidence-based-writing-rubric.pdf.

Common Core English Language Arts Standards (9-12), Addressed:

CC.11-12.R.I.7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of
information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in
order to address a question or solve a problem.

In this lesson, students will be required to integrate information and ideas from a range of sources,
including the anchor text and various types of texts from the Mass Incarceration WebQuest, in order to
develop an informed opinion piece in response to the assigned prompt. Students have had the
opportunity to build proficiency in these skills earlier in the week.
CC.11-12.W.1 Text Types and Purposes: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of
substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In this lesson, students are challenged to write Op-Ed pieces that include clear, defensible
claims, carefully selected evidence, and strong analysis of the evidence selected. Students have
had the opportunity to develop these skills in the previous two lessons and will bring them
together to develop a more cohesive, publishable piece in this lesson.