Overview

Lesson Procedure

65-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Display the scenario below. Students write answers alone for three minutes, then share in pairs. The goal is to notice that two ideas can depend on each other.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "To save money, our town library cut its evening hours. With the building closed after five, the free after-school tutoring program moved to a cafe that charges for a table. The families who most needed a free place to study now pay the most." (1) State two central ideas of this paragraph as full sentences. (2) Does one idea cause, complicate or answer the other? Explain in one sentence.

   Take two or three answers. Most students find a savings idea and a hidden-cost idea. Push to the relationship: the saving is what creates the cost, so the second idea turns the first on its head. Tell students that RI.11-12.2 asks them to do this with longer texts: find two or more central ideas, follow how each develops, and explain how they work together.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: What "interact and build" means. A text with several central ideas is not a stack of separate points. Ideas interact when one causes, limits, answers or depends on another; they build when a later idea assumes an earlier one and takes it further. A complex analysis in the standard's sense is what the ideas produce together, something none of them says alone. An objective summary of such a text has to show those links, still without opinion.

   Common ways central ideas interact

   Relationship	Signal words	Question to ask
   Cause and effect	because, so, therefore, produces	Does one idea explain why the other is true?
   Branches of one claim	if ... if not, either ... or, first ... second	Do the ideas cover different cases of the same argument?
   Tension or counterweight	but, yet, although, still	Does one idea push against or limit the other?
   Problem and remedy	instead, rather, I wish, should	Does one idea answer a problem the other describes?
   Extension	not only ... but, even, further	Does a later idea take an earlier one into new ground?

   Part 2: Model with Mill. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an English philosopher. On Liberty (1859) argues for the widest possible freedom of thought and discussion. Read the excerpt aloud. Mill uses "mankind" and "he" for all people, as writers of his time did. Then work through the examples and Diagram 1, asking after each: which idea is this, and what does it do to the other one?

   1If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

   2It is necessary to consider separately these two hypotheses, each of which has a distinct branch of the argument corresponding to it. We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

   3First: the opinion which it is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible. They have no authority to decide the question for all mankind, and exclude every other person from the means of judging. To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility. Its condemnation may be allowed to rest on this common argument, not the worse for being common.

   • Two central ideas, not one

     What are the two central ideas of the first Mill excerpt?

     Result: Idea A: we can never be certain that an opinion we silence is false, so silencing it risks losing a truth. Idea B: even a false opinion is valuable, because its conflict with the truth keeps the truth clear and alive. Both serve one claim: silencing an opinion "is robbing the human race."

   • Where both ideas emerge

     Find the sentence where both ideas first appear.

     Result: The last sentence of paragraph 1: "If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose ... the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth." The colon sets the two ideas side by side as two branches of one argument.

   • How the ideas interact

     Paragraph 2 says: "We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."

     Result: The ideas cover each other's gaps. Idea A answers anyone who is sure an opinion is false: you cannot be sure. Idea B answers anyone who insists they are sure anyway: even then, silencing does harm. Together they close every way out, which is what makes the analysis complex rather than a list of reasons.

   • How one idea is developed

     Paragraph 3 begins with the first branch: "the opinion which it is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true."

     Result: Mill develops Idea A from a possibility into a charge: to refuse a hearing is "to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty," and "All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility." The italics on their and absolute stress the gap between feeling sure and being right.

   • A summary that shows relationships

     Write an objective summary of the first Mill excerpt that shows how the ideas relate.

     Result: "Mill argues that silencing an opinion, even one held by a single person, harms everyone, including future generations. He divides the case in two: if the opinion is true, silencing it keeps people from correcting their errors; if it is false, silencing it removes the challenge that keeps true beliefs clear. He then develops the first case, arguing that anyone who silences an opinion treats personal certainty as infallible." The words divides, if and then show relationships that a list would hide.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read a later paragraph from the same chapter. Their task: decide which of the two ideas from Direct Instruction this paragraph builds on, and whether it adds a new central idea. They mark the sentences that carry each idea in the margin with A, B or New, then write two sentences explaining the relationship.

   He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that, he is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. That is not the way to do justice to the arguments, or bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of; else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. Ninety-nine in a hundred of what are called educated men are in this condition; even of those who can argue fluently for their opinions. Their conclusion may be true, but it might be false for anything they know: they have never thrown themselves into the mental position of those who think differently from them, and considered what such persons may have to say; and consequently they do not, in any proper sense of the word, know the doctrine which they themselves profess. They do not know those parts of it which explain and justify the remainder; the considerations which show that a fact which seemingly conflicts with another is reconcilable with it, or that, of two apparently strong reasons, one and not the other ought to be preferred. All that part of the truth which turns the scale, and decides the judgment of a completely informed mind, they are strangers to; nor is it ever really known, but to those who have attended equally and impartially to both sides, and endeavoured to see the reasons of both in the strongest light. So essential is this discipline to a real understanding of moral and human subjects, that if opponents of all important truths do not exist, it is indispensable to imagine them, and supply them with the strongest arguments which the most skilful devil's advocate can conjure up.

   Debrief: most pairs see that the paragraph extends Idea B (error sharpens truth) from society to the single mind: a person who has not heard opposing arguments in "their most plausible and persuasive form" does not really know his own view. Ask whether that is a new idea or Idea B taken further. Either answer can be defended if students explain the link; the point is that later ideas grow out of earlier ones.

   For Activity 2. Near the end of the chapter, Mill restates his argument himself. Keep this recapitulation face down until groups have made their own list of central ideas.

   1We have now recognised the necessity to the mental well-being of mankind (on which all their other well-being depends) of freedom of opinion, and freedom of the expression of opinion, on four distinct grounds; which we will now briefly recapitulate.

   2First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.

   3Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions, that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

   4Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds. And not only this, but, fourthly, the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience.

   For Activity 3. The two practice summaries below were written for this page, not by Mill.

   Summary A: Mill makes several points about free speech. First, one person's opinion should not be silenced by everyone else. Second, silencing an opinion robs the human race. Third, the silenced opinion might be true. Fourth, a false opinion can help people see the truth more clearly. Fifth, silencing an opinion assumes infallibility.

   Summary B: Mill rightly argues that silencing any opinion harms everyone. Because we can never be sure an opinion is false, silencing it risks losing a truth; and because even a false opinion forces people to test what they believe, silencing it also weakens the truths they already hold. This is why Mill wants the government to protect all speech.

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read the excerpt from the Introduction to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) on their own. Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English writer and teacher; the book answers writers of her time who argued that girls should be educated mainly to please. The [...] mark shows where several paragraphs of the Introduction are left out. Students answer quiz questions 1-19 with the passage open; question 20 also uses the first Mill excerpt.

   1After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but what has been the result? a profound conviction, that the neglected education of my fellow creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore; and that women in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men, who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than rational wives; and the understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilized women of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect. [...]

   2My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their FASCINATING graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists--I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them, that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.

   3Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex; and that secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Name two central ideas from any text we read today and write one sentence that explains how they work together. Use a signal word from the table." Read a few aloud and ask the class to name the relationship each one shows.

   Teacher note on language. Wollstonecraft writes in the terms of 1792. She quotes phrases of her time, such as "the weaker vessel" and "pretty feminine phrases," in order to reject them, and she calls women's dependence "slavish." Discuss these words as part of her argument, and remind students that the passage is quoted exactly.

   Homework passage. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) gave this essay as a lecture in 1848 after spending a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax, partly in protest against slavery and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), which he calls "the present Mexican war." Like Mill, he uses "men" for all people. Students keep the passage for the homework.

   1I heartily accept the motto,—“That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—“That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure. [...]

   2But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

   3After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which pair of statements best expresses two central ideas of the Wollstonecraft passage?

   AWomen are naturally weaker than men, and education cannot change that BMen's books on education are badly written, and they should be rewritten CA false education has made women weak, and it teaches them to seek love rather than respect DWomen care too much about beauty, and they alone are to blame for their position

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 1, what does Wollstonecraft name as "the grand source of the misery I deplore"?

   AThe neglected education of her fellow creatures BThe physical superiority of men over women CThe flattery of fashionable society in cities DThe idle lives led by the very rich

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk." How does this image develop the central ideas?

   AIt praises women's beauty as the quality that lasts longest in their lives BIt argues that women should spend more of their time working in gardens CIt suggests that women's weakness is natural and could never be changed DIt shows that training for beauty crowds out strength, and that such beauty soon fades unvalued

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Wollstonecraft says women are made weak "by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty conclusion." How does this phrase shape the development of her ideas?

   AIt admits that her own argument may have been reached too quickly BIt traces the many causes to one mistaken assumption, which the paragraph goes on to name CIt suggests that women themselves reached a wrong conclusion about men DIt shows that she will ignore the other causes she has just mentioned

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to paragraph 1, the books that shaped the "false system of education" were written by men who

   Aconsidered females "rather as women than human creatures" Bbelieved that women should study the same subjects as men Chad never met the women and girls they wrote about Dwanted, above all, to raise women to become "rational wives"

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "the civilized women of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect." In context, what relationship does this sentence show?

   AThe wish to please is a natural instinct that no education can touch BWomen seek respect first and look for love only afterward CThe flattery in men's books has produced women who seek love instead of respect DMen respect women most when women try hardest to inspire love

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 2, Wollstonecraft says "the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness." How does this sentence connect her central ideas?

   AIt argues that women should stop feeling emotion of any kind BIt shows that men use these phrases because they admire women's strength CIt admits that these qualities are the greatest strengths women have DIt shows that the qualities praised as feminine are really names for weakness

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt." What does this prediction add to the argument?

   AIt claims that men are naturally cruel to the women they love BIt warns that seeking pity and love defeats itself, since both soon turn to contempt CIt argues that women should avoid love and marriage entirely DIt shows that women already hold the men who flatter them in contempt

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body." What does this sentence add to the development of the passage?

   AIt names a remedy, turning her account of causes into a goal BIt shows that she values physical exercise more than study CIt admits that women are weaker than men in every respect DIt changes the subject from education to physical health

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 3 ends by saying "that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex; and that secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone." How does this paragraph build on paragraphs 1-2?

    AIt drops the argument about education for a new topic about fashion BIt concludes that men and women must have identical roles in every part of life CIt turns the critique into a standard, a "touchstone," for judging every other aim DIt admits that elegance and virtue are, in the end, of equal value

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their FASCINATING graces." Why might Wollstonecraft open paragraph 2 by asking women to excuse her?

    AShe is unsure whether her argument about education is correct BShe plans to address the rest of the book only to men CShe agrees that women's graces are their most fascinating feature DShe practices her own argument by refusing to flatter her readers

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence would belong in an objective summary of the passage?

    AWollstonecraft brilliantly exposes the foolish men who kept women ignorant for centuries. BWollstonecraft says she will address women as rational creatures rather than flatter them. CWollstonecraft proves that the women of her time were far wiser than the men who taught them. DWollstonecraft's angry tone makes her argument less convincing than it could have been.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 1 opens with two possibilities: "either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial." Which description best fits how these two ideas relate and how the paragraph handles them?

    ACause and effect, with nature producing the partial civilization BTwo rival explanations, with the rest of the paragraph pursuing the second CA problem and its remedy, with civilization as the remedy DA general rule and an exception, with nature as the exception

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which summary sentence misrepresents the passage?

    AWollstonecraft blames books on education written by men for part of women's weakness. BWollstonecraft says she has read books on education and watched parents and schools. CWollstonecraft argues that women should give up marriage and live apart from men. DWollstonecraft compares women to flowers planted in soil that is too rich.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Question 1 names two central ideas in brief. State them in your own words as precise claims. Then explain how one builds on the other, using a signal word and a quotation.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Trace one central idea from paragraph 1 to paragraph 3. Quote one detail from each paragraph and explain how the idea changes along the way.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain how Wollstonecraft's ideas about education and about pleasing together produce a more complex argument than either idea alone.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write an objective summary of the Wollstonecraft passage in 80-120 words that shows how its central ideas relate.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    A classmate wrote this summary: "Mary Wollstonecraft was an early feminist hero. She says three things: education is bad, women are too emotional, and flowers need less fertilizer. She wants women to be exactly like men." Identify three problems with this summary and rewrite it in two objective sentences.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use the analysis of the first Mill excerpt in Direct Instruction and your answers to questions 6 and 9. Compare how the central ideas interact in the Wollstonecraft passage and in the first Mill excerpt. Name the relationship in each text and quote one sentence from each that shows it.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RI.11-12.2: 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.