Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "In 1790 the British politician Edmund Burke predicted what the French Revolution would lead to: 'Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.' In two sentences, explain what he means. Then name the word or structure that made the sentence hardest to unpack."

   Take several explanations and push for the literal claim: once people rebel because they believe in a principle, rulers will be harsh as a deliberate policy, to protect themselves. Then collect the difficulties. Students usually name the balanced structure (tyrants/rebels, policy/principle), the abstract nouns, and the missing background: what had happened in France to make Burke say this. Tell students that texts in the grades 11-CCR band, the range that runs from grade 11 to the level of college and career readiness, pack all of these difficulties into long arguments. RH.11-12.10 asks that by the end of grade 12 they read such texts independently and proficiently. Today they learn one routine for doing it, watch it used on Burke, run it with a partner on Mary Wollstonecraft's reply, and then run it alone on a historian writing a century later.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: The routine. Show Diagram 1. Situate: what debate is the text part of, who is it answering, and what event lies behind it? Trace: how does the argument move from sentence to sentence, and where does it turn? Unpack: what literal claim sits under a figure of speech, an allusion or an abstract word? Weigh: how strong is the argument, where does the writer stand, and what is left out? Stress the loop at the bottom of the diagram: at this level, a reader who cannot state a claim that fits the whole passage goes back and traces it again.

   Part 2: The modeled passage. Read the context note aloud: On October 5-6, 1789, a crowd of Parisians, many of them women, marched to the palace of Versailles and brought King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette and their children back to Paris under guard. In November 1790 Edmund Burke, an Irish-born member of the British Parliament, published Reflections on the Revolution in France, written as a letter to a young Frenchman. It answered a London sermon by the minister Richard Price that had welcomed the Revolution. Burke had seen Marie Antoinette at Versailles in 1773, when she was married to the heir to the throne. Glossary: "orb" (the earth), "cavaliers" (gentlemen soldiers, knights), "sophisters" (people who argue cleverly but falsely), "bland assimilation" (gentle blending), "superadded" (added on top), "ratifies" (approves). Then think aloud, one step at a time.

   1It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in,--glittering like the morning-star, full of life and splendor and joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what an heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream, when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom! little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor, and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness!

   [...]

   2But now all is to be changed. All the pleasing illusions which made power gentle and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which by a bland assimilation incorporated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason. All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All the superadded ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination, which the heart owns and the understanding ratifies, as necessary to cover the defects of our naked, shivering nature, and to raise it to dignity in our own estimation, are to be exploded, as a ridiculous, absurd, and antiquated fashion.

   • Situate: the debate behind the passage

     What does a reader need in place before the first sentence?

     Result: This is a primary source in a live argument: a British politician, writing in 1790 in the form of a letter, answering people in Britain who praised the Revolution. His "sixteen or seventeen years" goes back to his visit of 1773 (1790 - 17 = 1773). The event behind paragraph 1 is the October Days of 1789, which the context note supplies. Expect a partisan writer who is trying to move British readers, not a neutral report.

   • Trace: where the argument turns

     Mark the turns in the passage. What job does each part do?

     Result: Paragraph 1 moves from a memory ("I saw her just above the horizon") to her fall ("that elevation and that fall"), to the response Burke expected ("ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards"), and then turns on "But the age of chivalry is gone": the missing swords are his evidence that an age has ended. Paragraph 2 turns again on "But now all is to be changed" and names the agent of the change, "this new conquering empire of light and reason." The two "But" sentences are the spine of the argument.

   • Unpack: a figure that runs through a paragraph

     "All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off." What is the literal claim?

     Result: The drapery is the set of customs, manners and shared beliefs (the "pleasing illusions") that make power gentle and obedience willing. Burke keeps the clothing figure going: "the wardrobe of a moral imagination," "our naked, shivering nature," "antiquated fashion." Literal claim: the revolutionaries will throw out every custom that cannot be defended by reason alone, and people will be left with raw power and nothing to soften it.

   • Unpack: a phrase that hides a fact

     What is "the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom"?

     Result: An antidote cures, and "sharp" suggests a blade: Burke is hinting that the queen had to carry a hidden weapon, or poison, so that she could kill herself rather than be dishonored. He will not say it outright, which is part of his manner: shocking facts are wrapped in formal, indirect language.

   • Weigh: strength, stance and silence

     How strong is the argument, and what does it leave out?

     Result: Burke argues through feeling and image more than evidence; exclamations such as "Oh! what a revolution!" ask readers to share his grief. His stance is plain: he admires rank and "that generous loyalty to rank and sex," and scorns the "sophisters, economists, and calculators." He says nothing about why a crowd marched to Versailles in the first place. Yet his core idea, that inherited customs make power bearable, is a serious claim that the next source has to answer.

   Teacher tip. Let students see you misread once. Read "the glory of Europe is extinguished forever" as a claim about Europe's power, then stop at "That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded" and correct yourself aloud: Burke means a kind of civilization, the "glory" of honor and loyalty, not armies or wealth. Naming the misreading and its fix models the loop in Diagram 1.

3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes

   Give pairs this context note and the routine card with prompts, but no glossary: Mary Wollstonecraft, a London writer and teacher, published her answer to Burke within weeks, at the end of 1790; the first edition carried no name, the second carried hers. The letter speaks to Burke directly as "Sir." Two years later she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Pairs also get Diagram 2 with the right-hand column blank, and fill it in as they read.

   1Whether the glory of Europe is set, I shall not now enquire; but probably the spirit of romance and chivalry is in the wane; and reason will gain by its extinction.

   2From observing several cold romantic characters I have been led to confine the term romantic to one definition—false, or rather artificial, feelings. Works of genius are read with a prepossession in their favour, and sentiments imitated, because they were fashionable and pretty, and not because they were forcibly felt.

   3In modern poetry the understanding and memory often fabricate the pretended effusions of the heart, and romance destroys all simplicity; which, in works of taste, is but a synonymous word for truth. This romantic spirit has extended to our prose, and scattered artificial flowers over the most barren heath; or a mixture of verse and prose producing the strangest incongruities. The turgid bombast of some of your periods fully proves these assertions; for when the heart speaks we are seldom shocked by hyperbole, or dry raptures.

   4I speak in this decided tone, because from turning over the pages of your late publication, with more attention than I did when I first read it cursorily over; and comparing the sentiments it contains with your conduct on many important occasions, I am led very often to doubt your sincerity, and to suppose that you have said many things merely for the sake of saying them well; or to throw some pointed obloquy on characters and opinions that jostled with your vanity.

   5It is an arduous task to follow the doublings of cunning, or the subterfuges of inconsistency; for in controversy, as in battle, the brave man wishes to face his enemy, and fight on the same ground. Knowing, however, the influence of a ruling passion, and how often it assumes the form of reason when there is much sensibility in the heart, I respect an opponent, though he tenaciously maintains opinions in which I cannot coincide; but, if I once discover that many of those opinions are empty rhetorical flourishes, my respect is soon changed into that pity which borders on contempt; and the mock dignity and haughty stalk, only reminds me of the ass in the lion’s skin.

   1. Situate. Prompt: which sentence answers Burke most directly, and which phrase names his book? Teacher note: paragraph 1 picks up his words, "Whether the glory of Europe is set"; paragraph 4 calls the Reflections "your late publication," which she has now read "with more attention than I did when I first read it cursorily over."
   2. Trace. Prompt: give each paragraph a one-line job. Teacher note: paragraph 1 states a counterclaim (reason will gain as chivalry fades); paragraph 2 defines "romantic" as "false, or rather artificial, feelings"; paragraph 3 applies the definition to poetry, then prose, then Burke's own style; paragraph 4 explains her harsh tone by doubting his sincerity; paragraph 5 compares controversy to battle and ends with her contempt.
   3. Unpack. Prompt: explain "scattered artificial flowers over the most barren heath" and "the ass in the lion's skin." Teacher note: the first means decorative language spread over an empty argument; the second is from Aesop's fable of the donkey that wears a lion's skin and gives itself away when it brays, so Burke's grand manner hides a weak case.
   4. Weigh. Prompt: does this passage answer Burke's argument, or his style and motives? Teacher note: mostly style and motives. Paragraph 1 offers a counterclaim but does not argue for it here; paragraphs 3-5 attack "the turgid bombast of some of your periods" and his sincerity. Students should see both the force of the attack and its limit.

   Close by comparing pairs' versions of Diagram 2. Ask which row was hardest to fill; many pairs choose row 3, because Wollstonecraft never uses Burke's word "illusions" and the link runs through her definition of "romantic." Tell students that for Source 3 they will get a one-sentence context note and the card with step names only.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Each student reads alone, with the names-only card and no prompts, glossary or partner. Context note: Lord Acton (1834-1902) taught modern history at Cambridge, and this is the opening of the first lecture in his course on the French Revolution. Students annotate one example of each step in the margin, then write a three-sentence account of the passage: its claim, how the argument moves, and one thing they would question. Collect the accounts before the quiz, which uses this passage.

   1The revenue of France was near twenty millions when Lewis XVI., finding it inadequate, called upon the nation for supply. In a single lifetime it rose to far more than one hundred millions, while the national income grew still more rapidly; and this increase was wrought by a class to whom the ancient monarchy denied its best rewards, and whom it deprived of power in the country they enriched. As their industry effected change in the distribution of property, and wealth ceased to be the prerogative of a few, the excluded majority perceived that their disabilities rested on no foundation of right and justice, and were unsupported by reasons of State. They proposed that the prizes in the Government, the Army, and the Church should be given to merit among the active and necessary portion of the people, and that no privilege injurious to them should be reserved for the unprofitable minority. Being nearly an hundred to one, they deemed that they were virtually the substance of the nation, and they claimed to govern themselves with a power proportioned to their numbers. They demanded that the State should be reformed, that the ruler should be their agent, not their master.

   2That is the French Revolution. To see that it is not a meteor from the unknown, but the product of historic influences which, by their union were efficient to destroy, and by their division powerless to construct, we must follow for a moment the procession of ideas that went before, and bind it to the law of continuity and the operation of constant forces.

   3If France failed where other nations have succeeded, and if the passage from the feudal and aristocratic forms of society to the industrial and democratic was attended by convulsions, the cause was not in the men of that day, but in the ground on which they stood. As long as the despotic kings were victorious abroad, they were accepted at home. The first signals of revolutionary thinking lurk dimly among the oppressed minorities during intervals of disaster. The Jansenists were loyal and patient; but their famous jurist Domat was a philosopher, and is remembered as the writer who restored the supremacy of reason in the chaotic jurisprudence of the time. He had learnt from St. Thomas, a great name in the school he belonged to, that legislation ought to be for the people and by the people, that the cashiering of bad kings may be not only a right but a duty. He insisted that law shall proceed from common sense, not from custom, and shall draw its precepts from an eternal code. The principle of the higher law signifies Revolution. No government founded on positive enactments only can stand before it, and it points the way to that system of primitive, universal, and indefeasible rights which the lawyers of the Assembly, descending from Domat, prefixed to their constitution.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket (index card): (1) Name the step you needed most on Source 3 and copy the words where you used it. (2) Compare Source 3 with Source 1: which was harder for you, and on which step?

   Teacher note on the sources: The passages are quoted exactly as they appear in the Project Gutenberg texts of the 1790, 1887 and 1910 editions and of Carlyle's history (first published 1837), with the writers' spellings and punctuation. None of the printed passages contains a slur. Some phrasing reflects its time: Burke's "manly sentiment" and "loyalty to rank and sex" assume that honor and deference belong to men and to birth, and Wollstonecraft's reply, written by a woman, is partly aimed at that assumption. Other parts of the Reflections, not printed here, describe the Paris crowd in contemptuous terms. In Source 4, Carlyle addresses the people in his story directly ("think what thou wilt do!") and writes in the present tense; his French phrases are "Que voulez vous?" (What do you want?) and "the générale" (the drum call to arms).

   For homework: students read the passage below as a cold read: no card, no context note beyond its source line, and no glossary.

   1Old de Launay, as we hinted, withdrew “into his interior” soon after midnight of Sunday. He remains there ever since, hampered, as all military gentlemen now are, in the saddest conflict of uncertainties. The Hôtel-de-Ville “invites” him to admit National Soldiers, which is a soft name for surrendering. On the other hand, His Majesty’s orders were precise. His garrison is but eighty-two old Invalides, reinforced by thirty-two young Swiss; his walls indeed are nine feet thick, he has cannon and powder; but, alas, only one day’s provision of victuals. The city too is French, the poor garrison mostly French. Rigorous old de Launay, think what thou wilt do!

   2All morning, since nine, there has been a cry everywhere: To the Bastille! Repeated “deputations of citizens” have been here, passionate for arms; whom de Launay has got dismissed by soft speeches through portholes. Towards noon, Elector Thuriot de la Rosiere gains admittance; finds de Launay indisposed for surrender; nay disposed for blowing up the place rather. Thuriot mounts with him to the battlements: heaps of paving-stones, old iron and missiles lie piled; cannon all duly levelled; in every embrasure a cannon,—only drawn back a little! But outwards behold, O Thuriot, how the multitude flows on, welling through every street; tocsin furiously pealing, all drums beating the générale: the Suburb Saint-Antoine rolling hitherward wholly, as one man! Such vision (spectral yet real) thou, O Thuriot, as from thy Mount of Vision, beholdest in this moment: prophetic of what other Phantasmagories, and loud-gibbering Spectral Realities, which, thou yet beholdest not, but shalt! ‘Que voulez vous?’ said de Launay, turning pale at the sight, with an air of reproach, almost of menace. ‘Monsieur,’ said Thuriot, rising into the moral-sublime, ‘What mean you? Consider if I could not precipitate both of us from this height,’—say only a hundred feet, exclusive of the walled ditch! Whereupon de Launay fell silent. Thuriot shews himself from some pinnacle, to comfort the multitude becoming suspicious, fremescent: then descends; departs with protest; with warning addressed also to the Invalides,—on whom, however, it produces but a mixed indistinct impression. The old heads are none of the clearest; besides, it is said, de Launay has been profuse of beverages (prodigua des buissons). They think, they will not fire,—if not fired on, if they can help it; but must, on the whole, be ruled considerably by circumstances.

   3Wo to thee, de Launay, in such an hour, if thou canst not, taking some one firm decision, rule circumstances! Soft speeches will not serve; hard grape-shot is questionable; but hovering between the two is unquestionable. Ever wilder swells the tide of men; their infinite hum waxing ever louder, into imprecations, perhaps into crackle of stray musketry,—which latter, on walls nine feet thick, cannot do execution. The Outer Drawbridge has been lowered for Thuriot; new deputation of citizens (it is the third, and noisiest of all) penetrates that way into the Outer Court: soft speeches producing no clearance of these, de Launay gives fire; pulls up his Drawbridge. A slight sputter;—which has kindled the too combustible chaos; made it a roaring fire-chaos! Bursts forth insurrection, at sight of its own blood (for there were deaths by that sputter of fire), into endless rolling explosion of musketry, distraction, execration;—and overhead, from the Fortress, let one great gun, with its grape-shot, go booming, to shew what we could do. The Bastille is besieged!

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What kind of source is Source 3, and what should a reader expect from it?

   AAn eyewitness account by a French official, so expect vivid scenes from 1789 itself BA historian's lecture a century after 1789, so expect an explanation of causes CA pamphlet from the debate of 1790, so expect an attack on another writer DA speech to the National Assembly, so expect a call for a new constitution

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 2 begins, "That is the French Revolution." What does "That" refer to?

   AThe demand of a growing, excluded majority to reform the State and make the ruler its agent BThe rise of the national revenue from near twenty millions to more than one hundred millions CThe procession of ideas that went before, from the Jansenists and Domat to the Assembly DThe storming of the Bastille by the people of Paris in the summer of 1789

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Acton says the Revolution "is not a meteor from the unknown." What does he mean?

   AIt was a rare and brilliant event that no other nation will ever see again in history BIt was an idea brought into France from abroad, chiefly from America CIt flared up and burned out quickly, leaving little behind it in France DIt was not a sudden, causeless event but the product of long historical forces

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Acton writes of influences "which, by their union were efficient to destroy, and by their division powerless to construct." Which paraphrase is most accurate?

   AUnited, these influences built a strong new constitution that lasted for many years BOnce divided, the influences grew even stronger and were able to destroy the old order CTogether they could tear down the old order; divided, they could not build a new one DThe influences were divided at first and united only after the new order was built

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "The cause was not in the men of that day, but in the ground on which they stood." What does "the ground on which they stood" mean here?

   AThe conditions and history France inherited, not the character of the people of 1789 BThe soil and the farmland of France, which failed to feed the people CThe streets of Paris, where the crowds gathered in 1789 to fight against the king's troops DThe beliefs of the Jansenists, whom Acton names in the next sentences

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to paragraph 1, about how much did the revenue of France grow "in a single lifetime"?

   ABy about 80 percent, from near twenty millions to near one hundred millions BBy exactly twenty millions, from twenty millions to forty millions CTo more than five times its size, with national income growing faster DIt shrank from more than one hundred millions to near twenty millions

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The majority were "nearly an hundred to one." Roughly what share of the population, then, was the privileged minority?

   AAbout 10 percent BAbout 1 percent CAbout 50 percent DAbout 99 percent

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does Acton mean by the demand "that the ruler should be their agent, not their master"?

   AThe ruler should be chosen only from the merchants and the other wealthy families BThe ruler should hire agents to collect taxes from the privileged minority CThe people should obey a master chosen for them by the Army and the Church DThe ruler should act for the people and carry out their will, not command them

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "The excluded majority perceived that their disabilities rested on no foundation of right and justice." What does "disabilities" mean in this sentence?

   ALegal and social disadvantages imposed on them, such as being shut out of high office BPhysical injuries and illnesses caused by hard work in the fields and workshops CTheir lack of education, which left them unable to read the new books of the day DThe debts that they owed to the monarchy after it raised their taxes in their own lifetime

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Why does Acton say that "The principle of the higher law signifies Revolution"?

    ABecause the higher law was written by the kings of France to protect their thrones forever BBecause only lawyers trained in the higher law were allowed to sit in the Assembly CBecause a law above a government's own laws lets any government be judged and removed DBecause the higher law required the French to copy the laws of England exactly

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Acton ends with "that system of primitive, universal, and indefeasible rights which the lawyers of the Assembly [...] prefixed to their constitution." Which document is he referring to?

    AThe Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776 BThe Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set at the head of the constitution CMagna Carta, the charter that the English barons forced on King John in 1215 DThe Tennis Court Oath, in which the deputies swore not to part until France had a constitution

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How are the three paragraphs of Source 3 organized?

    AThey tell the events of 1789 in order, from the meeting of the Assembly to the new constitution BThey compare France with England and argue that England's government was better CThey answer Burke's Reflections point by point and defend the Revolution against him DParagraph 1 gives a social cause, 2 names it and promises a history of ideas, 3 begins it

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which statement would Acton, in Source 3, most likely reject?

    AThe Revolution happened mainly because of the failings of the men in power in 1789 BThe Revolution grew out of ideas that had been developing in France long before 1789 CThe rising wealth of a class shut out of power helped to bring the Revolution on DThe idea of a law higher than a government's own laws pointed toward revolution

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Near the end of grade 12, which task would best show that a student meets RH.11-12.10?

    ASummarizing a textbook chapter on the Revolution after the class has discussed it together BReading an unfamiliar historian's argument alone and explaining its claims and stance CMemorizing the dates and names of the main events of the French Revolution for a test DReading a grades 9-10 history text alone and writing an accurate summary of its main idea

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Trace the argument of paragraph 1 as a chain of at least four links, from the growth of revenue to the demand that ends the paragraph. Quote one word or phrase for each link.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Unpack two phrases from paragraph 1: "wealth ceased to be the prerogative of a few" and "unsupported by reasons of State." Give the literal meaning of each and name the clue you used.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Weigh paragraph 1. What evidence does Acton give for his account of the causes, and what would a historian want to know before accepting it?

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare Source 1 (Burke) with Source 3 (Acton). How does each explain what the Revolution destroyed or replaced, and how do their stances differ? Quote each source once.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Source 1 fears "this new conquering empire of light and reason." Explain how Source 2 and Source 3 each give reason a different role from the one Burke gives it, with a quotation from each.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Reading log: which step of the routine did you need most on Source 3? Copy the words where you used it, explain what you did, and say what you understood afterward.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RH.11-12.10: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

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.