CCRA.R.5: Analyzing How the Parts of a Text Build the Whole

Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-60 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "These four sentences come from one short note, but they are out of order. Number them 1-4, then circle the word that told you where each one goes. (a) So take the 4:30 bus to the library instead. (b) Coach just called. (c) I'll pick you up at the library at 6. (d) Practice is canceled because the field is flooded."

   Take answers and agree on the order b, d, a, c. Ask what gave each sentence away: "just called" sounds like a beginning, "because" explains, "So" signals a result, and a pickup time sounds like a plan that comes last. Point out that no sentence changed; only the order did. That is what structure means: how the parts of a text are arranged and how each part depends on the others. Today students apply the same question to a poem, a book section and a story.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Terms for the whole period.

   • Structure: the way a text's parts are arranged and connected.
   • Structural unit: any part a reader can point to: a sentence, a paragraph, a stanza (a group of lines in a poem, set off by a space), a scene (one stretch of a story in one time and place), a section or a chapter.
   • Job: what a part does for the whole. Useful verbs: sets up, explains, gives an example, contrasts, turns, answers, frames, resolves.
   • Flashback: a scene that jumps back to events that happened before the story's present.

   Three questions for any part. (1) What is this part's job? (2) Which other part does it connect to, and what word or idea links them? (3) What would the whole text lose if this part were cut or moved?

   How the anchor grows. The table lists every grade-level standard that carries CCRA.R.5 in grades 6-12, with a short paraphrase of what each band adds.

   Progression of CCRA.R.5 in grades 6-12

   Grade-level standard	Band and text type	What this band adds
   RL.6.5	Grade 6, literature	How one sentence, chapter, scene or stanza fits the overall structure and develops the theme, setting or plot
   RL.7.5	Grade 7, literature	How the form or structure of a drama or poem (for example a soliloquy or a sonnet) contributes to its meaning
   RL.8.5	Grade 8, literature	Comparing the structures of two or more texts and how each structure shapes meaning and style
   RL.9-10.5	Grades 9-10, literature	Choices about structure, the order of events and the handling of time (parallel plots, pacing, flashbacks) that create mystery, tension or surprise
   RL.11-12.5	Grades 11-12, literature	Choices about specific parts, such as where to begin or end or whether to resolve comically or tragically, and their effect on meaning and aesthetic impact
   RI.6.5	Grade 6, informational	How one sentence, paragraph, chapter or section fits the overall structure and develops the ideas
   RI.7.5	Grade 7, informational	The structure that organizes a whole text, including how the major sections contribute to it
   RI.8.5	Grade 8, informational	One paragraph in detail: the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept
   RI.9-10.5	Grades 9-10, informational	How ideas or claims are developed and refined by sentences, paragraphs or larger portions such as a section or chapter
   RI.11-12.5	Grades 11-12, informational	Analyzing and evaluating the structure of an exposition or argument: does it make the points clear, convincing and engaging?
   RH.6-8.5	Grades 6-8, history/social studies	Describing how a text presents information, for example sequentially, comparatively or causally
   RH.9-10.5	Grades 9-10, history/social studies	How a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis
   RH.11-12.5	Grades 11-12, history/social studies	How a complex primary source is built: what key sentences, paragraphs and larger portions add to the whole
   RST.6-8.5	Grades 6-8, science and technical	How the major sections of a text contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic
   RST.9-10.5	Grades 9-10, science and technical	The relationships among concepts and key terms in a text (for example force, friction, reaction force and energy)
   RST.11-12.5	Grades 11-12, science and technical	How a text sorts information or ideas into categories or hierarchies

   Model text. A. E. Housman (1859-1936) was an English scholar and poet. This poem is the second in his book A Shropshire Lad (1896). Two words to know: a ride (line 3) is a path through woods for riders, and Eastertide (line 4) is the Easter season in spring. "Threescore years and ten" (line 5) is an old way of saying seventy years, the length of a full life in the Bible's Psalm 90; a score is twenty. Read the poem aloud twice, then work through the examples.

   1Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
   Is hung with bloom along the bough,
   And stands about the woodland ride
   Wearing white for Eastertide.

   5Now, of my threescore years and ten,
   Twenty will not come again,
   And take from seventy springs a score,
   It only leaves me fifty more.

   And since to look at things in bloom
   10Fifty springs are little room,
   About the woodlands I will go
   To see the cherry hung with snow.

   • Stanza to stanza: the turn

     Stanza 1 (lines 1-4) describes a cherry tree in bloom. How does stanza 2 (lines 5-8) relate to it?

     Result: Stanza 2 turns from the tree to the speaker. Line 1 says the cherry is in bloom "now"; line 5 repeats "Now" but uses it for the speaker's own life: of his "threescore years and ten," twenty "will not come again." The repeated word is the hinge. The poem moves from what the speaker sees to what the sight makes him think about, his own limited time.

   • Cause and effect between stanzas

     Line 9 begins "And since." What does that word tell a reader about the job of stanza 3?

     Result: "Since" means "because." It makes stanza 3 a conclusion drawn from stanza 2: because of the count, the speaker will go "About the woodlands" (line 11) to look at the cherry. The structure is see, then count, then decide. Without stanza 2, the decision in stanza 3 would have no reason behind it.

   • Larger portions: chapters (grades 7 and up)

     The Life of the Bee, used in Guided Practice, has eight chapters: I. On the Threshold of the Hive; II. The Swarm; III. The Foundation of the City; IV. The Life of the Bee; V. The Young Queens; VI. The Nuptial Flight; VII. The Massacre of the Males; VIII. The Progress of the Race. What does the order of the chapters show?

     Result: Chapter I explains what kind of book this is. Chapters II-VII follow one colony through a season: the swarm leaves the old hive (II), builds a new home (III), lives and works in it (IV), raises young queens (V), sends a queen on her mating flight, the "nuptial flight" (VI), and drives out the male bees at the end of the season (VII). Chapter VIII opens by saying the book has closed the hive on the silence of winter, then steps back to the history of the species. So the chapter order is the order of the bees' year, and each chapter is one stage of a single sequence.

   Diagram 1 below shows the poem's see, count, decide structure. Leave it on the board for Activity 1.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   A paragraph built to explain one idea. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) was a Belgian writer who kept bees for many years. In The Life of the Bee he asks what force organizes a hive, since the queen does not give orders, and he names it "the spirit of the hive." The excerpt below comes from section 10 of chapter II, The Swarm, with three cuts, each marked [...]; the last cut is the section's final paragraph. A swarm is the moment in spring when the old queen and thousands of workers leave the hive to start a new colony. Read the excerpt once for meaning; then read paragraph 1 again, sentence by sentence.

   1What is this "spirit of the hive"--where does it reside? It is not like the special instinct that teaches the bird to construct its well planned nest, and then seek other skies when the day for migration returns. Nor is it a kind of mechanical habit of the race, or blind craving for life, that will fling the bees upon any wild hazard the moment an unforeseen event shall derange the accustomed order of phenomena. On the contrary, be the event never so masterful, the "spirit of the hive" still will follow it, step by step, like an alert and quickwitted slave, who is able to derive advantage even from his master's most dangerous orders.

   2It disposes pitilessly of the wealth and the happiness, the liberty and life, of all this winged people; and yet with discretion, as though governed itself by some great duty. It regulates day by day the number of births, and contrives that these shall strictly accord with the number of flowers that brighten the country-side. [...]

   [...]

   3Finally, it is the spirit of the hive that fixes the hour of the great annual sacrifice to the genius of the race: the hour, that is, of the swarm; when we find a whole people, who have attained the topmost pinnacle of prosperity and power, suddenly abandoning to the generation to come their wealth and their palaces, their homes and the fruits of their labour; themselves content to encounter the hardships and perils of a new and distant country. This act, be it conscious or not, undoubtedly passes the limits of human morality. Its result will sometimes be ruin, but poverty always; and the thrice-happy city is scattered abroad in obedience to a law superior to its own happiness. Where has this law been decreed, which, as we soon shall find, is by no means as blind and inevitable as one might believe? Where, in what assembly, what council, what intellectual and moral sphere, does this spirit reside to whom all must submit, itself being vassal to an heroic duty, to an intelligence whose eyes are persistently fixed on the future?

   [...]

   1. Sentence 1: the question. Ask: "What does the first sentence of paragraph 1 do?" Teacher note: it names the key concept and asks the question the whole section is about: "where does it reside?" A question at the start of a paragraph promises an answer, so readers keep reading to find it.
   2. Sentences 2 and 3: ruling out. Ask: "Sentence 2 begins 'It is not like' and sentence 3 begins 'Nor is it.' Why would an author explain something by saying what it is not?" Teacher note: Maeterlinck clears away two easy answers, that the spirit is just an instinct like a bird's nest-building or just "a kind of mechanical habit of the race." Ruling out the wrong ideas makes room for his own.
   3. Sentence 4: the answer, by comparison. Ask: "Which two words signal the turn to Maeterlinck's own view?" Teacher note: "On the contrary." The sentence then compares the spirit to a quick-witted servant who turns even dangerous orders to advantage. The paragraph's structure is question, two rejections, answer.
   4. The section as a whole (grades 9-12). Ask: "Paragraph 1 says what the spirit is not and what it is like. What do paragraphs 2 and 3 do instead?" Pairs write a one-sentence answer and keep it; they test it against the text in Activity 2, so collect answers without confirming one yet.
   5. What the cuts mean. Ask: "The excerpt has three [...] marks. What do they tell you about how this excerpt relates to the full section?" Teacher note: words and two whole paragraphs were left out, including the section's last paragraph, so any claim about structure is a claim about the excerpt. A careful reader checks a structural claim against the full text before making it about the whole section.

   Diagram 2 maps the four sentence jobs in paragraph 1. Students use the same job cards in Activity 2.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read the original story below on their own. They mark each place where the story jumps in time and then make a two-column chart: Order told (paragraph numbers in the order a reader meets them) and Order lived (the same events in the order they happened to Nadia). Below the chart they write two sentences: one about what the reader wonders after paragraph 2, and one about where that question is answered. The 800 meters is a race of two laps on a standard track; running even laps (paragraph 3) means running both laps at about the same speed.

   1The results went up on the gym door at 3:15 on Friday. Nadia found her name on the second line under the girls' 800 meters: 2nd, N. Haddad, 2:41. She read the sheet twice, and then she laughed out loud, which made two seventh graders at the water fountain turn and stare.

   2Second place was not what she had trained for. First place was. And yet she walked to the bus with a photo of the results on her phone and a grin she could not put away.

   3Three weeks earlier, Coach Ortiz had given the 800 runners a choice for Thursday's meet. They could run two even laps, which was safe, or go out fast with the leaders and try to hang on. "Even laps get you a decent time," he had said. "A fast first lap shows me what you could become. Your call."

   4Nadia chose even laps. It was safe. She could run them half asleep, and for two weeks she nearly did.

   5Then, on a Tuesday, she watched Elena Park practice the fast start on the track. Elena faded on the last turn four times, muttered something to herself, and tried a fifth time. On the fifth try she held on all the way to the line. Nadia stood by the fence with her water bottle in her hand and did not say a word.

   6That night Nadia wrote a new plan in her training log: Go with them.

   7At the meet she went out fast with the leaders. On the last turn her legs went heavy, and two runners passed her, a slowdown that everyone in the stands could see. She kept going. Her last hundred meters were the fastest she had ever run, and she caught one of the two at the line.

   8Coach Ortiz wrote something on his clipboard and said only, "Thank you, Nadia. That was a real race."

   9On the bus, Nadia looked again at the photo of the results. Elena's name sat on the first line. Under the two names, in Coach Ortiz's small handwriting, was a note that only the runners would understand: Both of you: the relay at the county meet.

   Grades 6-8 may work from a list of the nine paragraph openings. Grades 9-12 add a third sentence: how the story would feel different if it were told in the order lived.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: Pick one stanza, paragraph or scene from today's texts. Write (1) its job in one verb phrase, (2) the other part it connects to and the word or idea that links them, and (3) one thing the whole text would lose without it.

   Teacher note on the 1901 translation: In paragraph 1 Maeterlinck compares the spirit of the hive to "an alert and quickwitted slave." The comparison reflects its time and treats slavery as a neutral image. Name this plainly with students, explain what the comparison is meant to show (a force that follows events and turns them to advantage), and note that a writer today would choose a different image. The excerpt also calls the colony a "city" with "palaces"; these comparisons to human society run through the whole book.

   For homework: students read the original article below. The school and its numbers are invented for this lesson. The article has four sections, each with a heading in italics; the renderer numbers them as paragraphs 1-4.

   1The Problem
   For years, every heavy rain turned the corner of Alder Street and Fifth Avenue into a shallow pond. Water ran off the school parking lot, across the sidewalk and into a storm drain that could not keep up. Students walking to the bus splashed through puddles that lasted for hours.

   2The Plan
   Last fall, the school's environmental club proposed a rain garden: a shallow bowl of loose soil and deep-rooted plants that catches runoff and lets it soak into the ground. Club members measured the low spot, about 6 meters by 4 meters, and chose native plants that can survive both standing water and dry weeks. A local nursery donated forty plants, and the district gave permission to dig.

   3What Happened
   The garden was planted in April. During the first big storm in May, club members timed how long water stood on the sidewalk after the rain stopped. Before the garden, puddles there had lasted about three hours. This time the sidewalk was dry in forty minutes. Not everything went well: two young plants washed out and had to be replaced.

   4What Comes Next
   One storm is not proof. The club plans to time the puddles after every heavy rain this school year and compare the results with the custodian's notes from last year. If the garden keeps working, members want to build a second one at the north entrance. If it does not, they say they will find out why.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which question asks about the structure of a text rather than its content?

   AWhat does the word "reside" mean in the first sentence? BWhat is the central idea of the second paragraph? CWhy does the author give two examples before stating the rule? DWhich character in the story changes the most from beginning to end?

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In "Loveliest of Trees," line 8 says the subtraction "only leaves me fifty more." What does the word "only" do in the structure of the poem?

   AIt makes fifty years sound short, preparing for the decision in stanza 3. BIt shows that the speaker has made a mistake in the subtraction in line 7. CIt repeats the picture of the blooming cherry tree from stanza 1. DIt signals that the poem will now describe a different kind of tree.

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Line 2 says the cherry "Is hung with bloom along the bough"; line 12 says the speaker will go "To see the cherry hung with snow." What is the effect of this echo?

   AIt shows that the speaker has forgotten what the tree looked like. BIt brings the ending back to the opening image, closing a circle. CIt introduces a second tree that the poem has not mentioned yet. DIt proves that the poem's events all happen in a single afternoon.

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In line 7 the speaker counts his life in "springs" rather than years. How does this word connect stanza 2 to stanza 1?

   AIt contrasts the speaker's own age with the age of the cherry tree. BIt shows that the speaker prefers counting seasons to doing sums. CIt ties the count of his years to the spring bloom in stanza 1. DIt brings in the idea of water, which comes back as snow in line 12.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In The Life of the Bee, paragraph 2 says the spirit "regulates day by day the number of births" so that they match "the number of flowers." What job does this sentence do in the section?

   AIt rules out a third wrong answer about what the spirit really is. BIt asks a new question that the rest of the section tries to answer. CIt states the main idea of the whole book in one short sentence. DIt gives a specific example of the spirit at work in the hive.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 3 of the bee excerpt opens with "Finally." What does this word tell a reader about how paragraph 3 relates to paragraph 2?

   AParagraph 3 adds the last item to a list of the spirit's powers. BParagraph 3 disagrees with the examples given in paragraph 2. CParagraph 3 repeats paragraph 2 in simpler words for new readers. DParagraph 3 starts a new topic that has nothing to do with bees.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The bee excerpt ends with two questions: "Where has this law been decreed" and, in the last sentence, where "does this spirit reside." How do they relate to paragraph 1?

   AThey answer the question of paragraph 1 in the author's own words. BThey return to the question that opens paragraph 1, still unanswered. CThey contradict the comparison that ends paragraph 1 of the section. DThey raise a question that paragraph 1 had already ruled out.

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which phrase in paragraph 3 of the bee excerpt shows that this section is one part of a longer explanation that continues later in the book?

   A"the hour, that is, of the swarm" B"the topmost pinnacle of prosperity and power" C"as we soon shall find" D"be it conscious or not"

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does the author begin "The Fast First Lap" with the posted results instead of with the coach's choice?

   ATo show that the race results matter least in the whole story BTo explain how places are decided in an 800-meter race CTo make readers wonder why Nadia is happy with an unwanted result DTo introduce Elena as the story's main character from the first sentence

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What does the phrase "Three weeks earlier" at the start of paragraph 3 signal?

    AThe story jumps back in time to show how the result came about. BThe story skips ahead to the county meet three weeks later. CA different narrator is about to take over telling the story. DThe meet will be held a second time in three weeks.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 2 says Nadia had "a grin she could not put away" but does not say why. Which detail finally explains the grin?

    AElena holding on to the finish on her fifth try at practice BCoach Ortiz telling Nadia that hers was a real race CNadia catching one of the two runners at the line DThe handwritten note that both girls will run the relay

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 6 is one sentence: "That night Nadia wrote a new plan in her training log: Go with them." What is its job in the story's structure?

    AIt describes the track where the next scene is about to happen. BIt marks the turning point where Nadia changes her earlier choice. CIt gives the race result before the race itself takes place. DIt ends the flashback and returns the story to Friday afternoon.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How does paragraph 5 of "The Fast First Lap" relate to paragraph 4?

    AIt repeats the safe choice from paragraph 4, adding more detail about it. BIt explains why Coach Ortiz offered the runners a choice. CIt shows the race itself, which paragraph 4 only predicts. DIt shows the event that unsettles the safe choice in paragraph 4.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which statement accurately compares the structures of "Loveliest of Trees" and "The Fast First Lap"?

    ABoth texts tell their events in the order they happened, from the first to the last. BBoth texts open with a question and end with a part that leaves the question open. CThe poem jumps back in time in its middle stanza, while the story moves straight ahead from start to end. DThe poem moves forward from sight to decision, while the story opens on a result and jumps back.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Paragraph 2 of the bee excerpt begins: the spirit "disposes pitilessly" of the bees' happiness and lives, "and yet with discretion, as though governed itself by some great duty." Explain how this sentence refines (adds to or adjusts) the idea of the spirit from paragraph 1.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Grades 11-12: Maeterlinck ends the excerpt with questions instead of a definition. Evaluate this choice. Does it make the explanation clearer, more convincing or more engaging? Cite the opening and the closing of the excerpt.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    List the paragraphs of "The Fast First Lap" in the order the events happened to Nadia. Then explain in one or two sentences how this order differs from the order in which the story tells them.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Suppose "The Fast First Lap" ended after paragraph 8. What would a reader not know, and how would the story's meaning change? Quote one sentence to support your answer.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Section 10 belongs to chapter II, "The Swarm." Explain how paragraph 3 of the excerpt connects the section to its chapter and to the order of chapters listed in Direct Instruction.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Paragraph 8 of "The Fast First Lap" holds Coach Ortiz's only words on the day of the meet. Explain how this short paragraph relates to the paragraph before it and to the paragraph after it.

    Show model answer

These are the grade-level standards that carry anchor CCRA.R.5 in grades 6-12, plus closely related anchors.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.