Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A coach says three sentences to the team: (1) 'Practice matters.' (2) 'That is, ten minutes of free throws every day matters more than two hours on Saturday.' (3) 'Missing one day is fine, but missing a week undoes most of your work.' What does sentence 2 do to sentence 1? What does sentence 3 add?"

   Take answers. Students will notice that sentence 2 does not add a new idea: it makes "practice" exact (how long, how often). Sentence 3 draws a limit: one missed day is allowed, a missed week is not. Tell students that a paragraph works the same way. One idea sits at the center, and each sentence has a job: some add support, and some sharpen the idea until the reader knows exactly what the writer means. Today's writer, the psychologist William James, would argue with the coach about sentence 3, and students will see why.

2. Direct Instruction15 minutes

   Teach eight terms and leave them on the board:

   • Key concept: the main idea a paragraph is about, the one idea its sentences work on together.
   • Topic sentence: a sentence that states the key concept. It is often, but not always, the first sentence.
   • Paragraph structure: the order of the sentences and the job each one does.
   • Sentence role: the job a sentence does for the key concept, such as stating it, giving an example, explaining a cause or concluding.
   • Develop: to add support to the key concept with examples, reasons, details, analogies or an expert's words.
   • Refine: to make the key concept more exact, by restating it in plainer words, narrowing it, adding a condition, answering an objection or drawing a distinction.
   • Analogy: a comparison that explains one thing through another thing the reader already knows.
   • Signal words: words that show a sentence's role, such as "that is" (restating), "for example" (example), "like" (comparison), "but" (a turn) and "so" (a result).

   Introduce the writer. William James (1842-1910) was an American psychologist, a scientist who studies the mind and behavior, and he taught at Harvard. In the 1890s he gave a series of talks to schoolteachers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and printed them in 1899 as Talks to Teachers on Psychology. Chapter VIII, "The Laws of Habit," gives teachers five maxims (short rules for living) about forming good habits. Passage 1 is the paragraph with the fifth maxim. Words to know: faculty (an ability of the mind), gratuitous (done without being needed, for free), systematically (by a regular plan), dire need draws nigh (a time of great trouble comes near), unnerved (without courage), asceticism (strict self-discipline, giving up comforts on purpose), salvation from ruin (what saves him from losing everything), inured (made used to something hard), volition (willpower, the power to choose), self-denial (going without something you want) and winnowed like chaff (blown away like the light husks separated from grain). Read the paragraph aloud once for meaning, then number its seven sentences in pencil.

   1To go back now to our general maxims, I may at last, as a fifth and final practical maxim about habits, offer something like this: Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty, so that, when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The tax does him no good at the time, and possibly may never bring him a return. But, if the fire does come, his having paid it will be his salvation from ruin. So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

   • Sentence 1: stating the key concept

     "To go back now to our general maxims, I may at last, as a fifth and final practical maxim about habits, offer something like this: Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day." What is the key concept, and how does the sentence present it?

     Result: The key concept is the maxim in italics: practice making an effort every day, even when nothing requires it, so that the ability stays strong. The opening words "To go back now to our general maxims" are a transition: they link the paragraph to the four maxims before it and signal that a new rule is coming. The italics mark the rule itself, so the reader knows which words the rest of the paragraph will explain.

   • Sentence 2: refining by restating

     "That is, be systematically heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty, so that, when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test." What is the role of this sentence?

     Result: The signal words "That is" show a restatement. The maxim's abstract words ("faculty of effort," "gratuitous exercise") become concrete: do something small and hard "every day or two" for no reason but its difficulty. The sentence also adds the purpose, being ready for "the hour of dire need." It refines the key concept: it adds no new rule, but it makes the old one exact enough to follow.

   • Sentences 3-5: developing with an analogy

     "Asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The tax does him no good at the time, and possibly may never bring him a return. But, if the fire does come, his having paid it will be his salvation from ruin." How do these three sentences work together?

     Result: Sentence 3 brings in the analogy (the signal word is "like"): daily hard practice is like paying for fire insurance. Sentence 4 admits what a doubting reader would say, that the payment seems wasted, since it "does him no good at the time." Sentence 5 turns on "But" and shows the payoff: when disaster comes, the payment saves him. Together they develop the key concept by answering the question "Why do something useless every day?"

   • Sentences 6-7: applying and concluding

     "So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast." What do the last two sentences add?

     Result: Sentence 6 begins "So with," which carries the analogy back from insurance to people. It also refines the key concept by naming the three habits that "effort" means: attention, willpower and self-denial. Sentence 7 concludes with the result, in two images: the trained person stands "like a tower," and the untrained are blown away "like chaff." The paragraph ends where the key concept leads, with the "test" from sentence 2 finally arriving.

   Map the paragraph. Show Diagram 1 and walk through the roles in order. Then show Diagram 2 and sort the moves: which sentences in Passage 1 develop the key concept (3, 4 and 5 add an analogy and its logic) and which refine it (2 and 6 make it exact). Give students a sentence frame: "In sentence ___, the words ___ signal that the writer is ___. This sentence develops / refines the key concept by ___."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Passage 2 aloud. James quotes his own earlier book, The Principles of Psychology (1890), and explains the most useful thing habits can do. Words to know: nervous system (the brain, spinal cord and nerves), ally (a partner on your side), fund and capitalize (to save money and invest it), acquisitions (things gained; here, skills and habits), interest (the money a savings account pays you), disadvantageous (harmful), custody (safekeeping), automatism (doing things automatically, without thinking), express volitional deliberation (a separate, conscious decision each time), ingrained (fixed deeply) and my hearers (the teachers listening to the talk). Pairs number the seven sentences and copy the two-column chart from Diagram 2. They place each sentence under Develop or Refine, or mark it as stating or concluding, and write the signal words that prove it. Take answers, then share the teacher notes.

   1To quote my earlier book directly, the great thing in all education is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous. The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work are subjects of express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding or regretting of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. If there be such daily duties not yet ingrained in any one of my hearers, let him begin this very hour to set the matter right.

   1. Sentence 1, "the great thing in all education is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy." Teacher note: states the key concept as a contrast between two roles, ally and enemy. "The great thing" signals that this is the main point.
   2. Sentence 2, "It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund." Teacher note: refines by restating through a money metaphor. A habit is like savings that keep paying interest without new work, which shows exactly what kind of "ally" the nervous system can be.
   3. Sentences 3 and 4, "For this we must make automatic and habitual..." and "The more of the details of our daily life..." Teacher note: sentence 3 develops by explaining how (make useful actions automatic early, and guard against harmful ones). Sentence 4 gives the reason: the "more... the more" pattern shows that every habit handed to automatism frees the mind for "higher" work.
   4. Sentences 5 and 6, "There is no more miserable human being..." and "Full half the time of such a man..." Teacher note: they develop by contrast, a picture of the "enemy" side. A person with no habits must decide every small thing, and sentence 6 gives the cost: half his time goes to "deciding or regretting." The negative example makes the key concept easier to feel.
   5. Sentence 7, "let him begin this very hour to set the matter right." Teacher note: concludes by turning to the audience with a call to act. The key concept becomes an instruction for the teachers listening.
4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Passages 3 and 4 on their own. In Passage 3, James gives his second maxim and then quotes Alexander Bain (1818-1903), a Scottish writer on psychology. In Passage 4, he answers a criticism of his ideas. Words to know for Passage 3: suffer (here, allow), lapse (a slip back into the old way), continuity (going on without a break), infallibly (without ever failing), peculiarity (special feature), contradistinguishing (setting apart by contrast), moral habits (habits of behavior, of right and wrong), intellectual acquisitions (knowledge and skills of the mind), hostile powers (two forces fighting each other), ascendant (the stronger, winning position), conquests (victories), precaution (a step taken to prevent trouble), fortified (made strong), cope with (handle) and career (here, path or course). Words to know for Passage 4: reform (a change for the better), conversion (a sudden, complete change in beliefs or way of life), doctrine (a set of ideas someone teaches), suffice to condemn (be enough to prove wrong), the latter (the second of two things just named), incompatibility (a conflict: two things that cannot both be true), stimuli (things that cause a reaction; one is a stimulus), abounds (is full of), ruptured (broken apart), motives (reasons for acting) and regenerate (renewed, reborn).

   1The second maxim is, Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up: a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again. Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right. As Professor Bain says:--

   2"The peculiarity of the moral habits, contradistinguishing them from the intellectual acquisitions, is the presence of two hostile powers, one to be gradually raised into the ascendant over the other. It is necessary above all things, in such a situation, never to lose a battle. Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect of many conquests on the right. The essential precaution, therefore, is so to regulate the two opposing powers that the one may have a series of uninterrupted successes, until repetition has fortified it to such a degree as to enable it to cope with the opposition, under any circumstances. This is the theoretically best career of mental progress."

   1I have been accused, when talking of the subject of habit, of making old habits appear so strong that the acquiring of new ones, and particularly anything like a sudden reform or conversion, would be made impossible by my doctrine. Of course, this would suffice to condemn the latter; for sudden conversions, however infrequent they may be, unquestionably do occur. But there is no incompatibility between the general laws I have laid down and the most startling sudden alterations in the way of character. New habits can be launched, I have expressly said, on condition of there being new stimuli and new excitements. Now life abounds in these, and sometimes they are such critical and revolutionary experiences that they change a man's whole scale of values and system of ideas. In such cases, the old order of his habits will be ruptured; and, if the new motives are lasting, new habits will be formed, and build up in him a new or regenerate 'nature.'

   On the handout, students (1) make a sentence map of the first paragraph of Passage 3, with the role of each of its four sentences and the signal words; (2) write two sentences on how Bain's paragraph relates to James's; (3) in Passage 4, highlight in one color the sentences about the criticism and in another the sentences of James's answer, then write one sentence on how the answer changes the key concept. The quiz uses Passages 3, 4 and 5.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, explain the difference between developing a key concept and refining it. (2) Choose one sentence from Passage 3 or 4, name its role, and quote the signal words that show it.

   Teacher note on the text: James spoke to teachers in the 1890s, and his language shows it. He uses "man" and "he" to mean any person, and some of his everyday examples come from his own time: lighting a cigar, men raising their hats in greeting, and men letting women go first ("giving way for ladies to precede"). Point these out as details of the period. His brain science is simplified; the core idea that nerve pathways change with repeated use is close to what scientists today call neuroplasticity, but "ninety-nine hundredths" in Passage 5 is his estimate, not a measurement. In Passage 6, "the destroyer" means death, and the spiritual and religious reading he mentions is taught as part of the text, not as advice about any belief.

   Quiz passage: questions 11-16 use Passage 5, printed below: two paragraphs in which James explains why people have habits at all. Words to know: plasticity (the ability to take a new shape and keep it), semi-mechanically (almost like a machine), Dr. Carpenter (William B. Carpenter, an English doctor who wrote about the mind), second nature (a habit so strong it feels inborn), the Duke of Wellington (the British general who defeated Napoleon in 1815), inhibited (held back), impulsive tendencies (things we do by instinct, without thinking), reflex actions (automatic actions of the body, such as blinking), impression (here, something we see, hear or feel) and nay (an old word meaning "and even").

   1I believe that we are subject to the law of habit in consequence of the fact that we have bodies. The plasticity of the living matter of our nervous system, in short, is the reason why we do a thing with difficulty the first time, but soon do it more and more easily, and finally, with sufficient practice, do it semi-mechanically, or with hardly any consciousness at all. Our nervous systems have (in Dr. Carpenter's words) grown to the way in which they have been exercised, just as a sheet of paper or a coat, once creased or folded, tends to fall forever afterward into the same identical folds.

   2Habit is thus a second nature, or rather, as the Duke of Wellington said, it is 'ten times nature,'--at any rate as regards its importance in adult life; for the acquired habits of our training have by that time inhibited or strangled most of the natural impulsive tendencies which were originally there. Ninety-nine hundredths or, possibly, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of our activity is purely automatic and habitual, from our rising in the morning to our lying down each night. Our dressing and undressing, our eating and drinking, our greetings and partings, our hat-raisings and giving way for ladies to precede, nay, even most of the forms of our common speech, are things of a type so fixed by repetition as almost to be classed as reflex actions. To each sort of impression we have an automatic, ready-made response. My very words to you now are an example of what I mean; for having already lectured upon habit and printed a chapter about it in a book, and read the latter when in print, I find my tongue inevitably falling into its old phrases and repeating almost literally what I said before.

   For homework: students read Passage 6, printed below. Words to know: all that may become a man (everything a person can grow into; the phrase echoes Shakespeare's Macbeth), philosophic (about the big questions of life), sanguine (hopeful), atrophies (wastes away from lack of use), abstractly and concretely (in general words, and in real actions), remission (a pause or break), fulness (an older spelling of fullness) and aspiring (hoping to achieve something). "We make ourselves into Darwins" refers to a passage James quoted just before: in his autobiography, the scientist Charles Darwin wrote that he had loved poetry and music when young but lost all taste for them after years of doing nothing but science, and wished he had kept reading poetry every week.

   1We all intend when young to be all that may become a man, before the destroyer cuts us down. We wish and expect to enjoy poetry always, to grow more and more intelligent about pictures and music, to keep in touch with spiritual and religious ideas, and even not to let the greater philosophic thoughts of our time develop quite beyond our view. We mean all this in youth, I say; and yet in how many middle-aged men and women is such an honest and sanguine expectation fulfilled? Surely, in comparatively few; and the laws of habit show us why. Some interest in each of these things arises in everybody at the proper age; but, if not persistently fed with the appropriate matter, instead of growing into a powerful and necessary habit, it atrophies and dies, choked by the rival interests to which the daily food is given. We make ourselves into Darwins in this negative respect by persistently ignoring the essential practical conditions of our case. We say abstractly: "I mean to enjoy poetry, and to absorb a lot of it, of course. I fully intend to keep up my love of music, to read the books that shall give new turns to the thought of my time, to keep my higher spiritual side alive, etc." But we do not attack these things concretely, and we do not begin to-day. We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. We postpone and postpone, until those smiling possibilities are dead. Whereas ten minutes a day of poetry, of spiritual reading or meditation, and an hour or two a week at music, pictures, or philosophy, provided we began now and suffered no remission, would infallibly give us in due time the fulness of all we desire. By neglecting the necessary concrete labor, by sparing ourselves the little daily tax, we are positively digging the graves of our higher possibilities. This is a point concerning which you teachers might well give a little timely information to your older and more aspiring pupils.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Read this paragraph, written for the quiz: "(1) A good science fair project starts with a question you can actually test. (2) 'Why is the sky blue?' is interesting, but you cannot run an experiment on the sky in your garage. (3) 'Does the color of a lamp's light change how fast bean plants grow?' is a question you can test with seeds, lamps and a ruler. (4) In other words, pick a question that tells you what to change and what to measure." Which sentence states the key concept?

   ASentence 4 BSentence 2 CSentence 1 DSentence 3

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the same paragraph, "(1) A good science fair project starts with a question you can actually test. (2) 'Why is the sky blue?' is interesting, but you cannot run an experiment on the sky in your garage. (3) 'Does the color of a lamp's light change how fast bean plants grow?' is a question you can test with seeds, lamps and a ruler. (4) In other words, pick a question that tells you what to change and what to measure." what is the role of sentence 4?

   AIt restates the key concept in more exact terms BIt gives a second example of a testable question CIt raises an objection to the writer's advice DIt introduces a new idea about science fairs

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Passage 3, what is the role of the sentence "Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up: a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again"?

   AIt states the second maxim for the first time in the paragraph BIt uses an analogy to explain why one exception does so much harm CIt reports evidence from an expert whom James admires DIt raises an objection to the maxim that the next sentence answers

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Passage 3, what is the role of the sentence "Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right"?

   AIt adds a new maxim that differs from the second one BIt gives an example from James's own training CIt admits that the maxim is sometimes wrong DIt restates the maxim as a positive general rule

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does James follow his own paragraph in Passage 3 with Professor Bain's words?

   ATo show that Bain disagrees with the second maxim BTo change the subject from moral habits to school subjects CTo back the maxim with an expert's words and a new image DTo tell the story of a real battle that Bain once fought

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Bain's paragraph (Passage 3, paragraph 2), the sentence "Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect of many conquests on the right" makes the same point as which sentence in James's paragraph?

   A"The second maxim is, Never suffer an exception to occur..." B"Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string..." C"Continuity of training is the great means of making..." D"As Professor Bain says"

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What is the role of the first sentence of Passage 4?

   AIt reports a criticism of James's ideas about habit BIt states James's own key concept about sudden change CIt gives an example of a sudden conversion DIt explains why old habits are so strong

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Of course, this would suffice to condemn the latter; for sudden conversions, however infrequent they may be, unquestionably do occur" (Passage 4). What does James admit in this sentence?

   AThat his laws of habit are wrong and must be dropped BThat sudden conversions happen only once in a lifetime CThat old habits can be changed only very slowly DThat the charge, if true, would prove his theory wrong

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Passage 4, which words mark the turn from the criticism to James's answer?

   A"Of course, this would suffice" B"New habits can be launched, I have expressly said" C"But there is no incompatibility" D"In such cases, the old order"

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How does the last sentence of Passage 4 ("In such cases, the old order of his habits will be ruptured...") refine James's key concept?

    AIt drops the laws of habit in favor of sudden change BIt shows sudden change follows the laws if motives last CIt warns that sudden changes never last very long DIt gives a second example of a person who reformed quickly

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What is the role of the first sentence of Passage 5, "I believe that we are subject to the law of habit in consequence of the fact that we have bodies"?

    AIt states a cause that the rest of the paragraph explains BIt gives an example of a habit that nearly all people share CIt answers an objection raised by Dr. Carpenter DIt concludes the paragraph by summing up its ideas

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Passage 5, paragraph 1, why does James compare the nervous system to "a sheet of paper or a coat, once creased or folded"?

    ATo show that habits wear out, like an old coat BTo prove that paper behaves just like living nerves CTo explain why doing a thing for the first time is so hard DTo picture how nerves keep the shape of repeated use

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "Habit is thus a second nature, or rather, as the Duke of Wellington said, it is 'ten times nature'" (Passage 5, paragraph 2). What do the words "or rather" do here?

    AThey introduce an example of a natural habit BThey replace the first phrase with a stronger one CThey show James disagrees with the Duke of Wellington DThey signal that the next idea is less important

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Passage 5, paragraph 2, how does the phrase "at any rate as regards its importance in adult life" refine James's claim?

    AIt extends the claim to children and animals as well BIt shows that adults have fewer habits than young children CIt limits the claim to adults, once training takes over DIt admits that James has no evidence for the claim

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Passage 5, paragraph 2, what are the roles of the sentence beginning "Our dressing and undressing" and the sentence beginning "My very words to you now"?

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Passage 5, paragraph 2, what is the role of the short sentence "To each sort of impression we have an automatic, ready-made response"? Explain how it connects to the sentence before it.

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Bain's paragraph (Passage 3, paragraph 2), what is the role of the sentence beginning "The essential precaution, therefore"?

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Read this paragraph, written for the quiz, with sentence 2 left out: "(1) Our school should start a lunchtime walking club. (2) ______ (3) For example, two laps around the track take about ten minutes, which still leaves twenty minutes to eat. (4) Some students may worry about missing time with friends, but friends can walk together and talk. (5) A club that asks for only ten minutes, and adds time with friends, is easy to join." What role should sentence 2 play? Write a sentence that fits, and explain your choice.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Passage 4, what is the role of the sentence "Now life abounds in these, and sometimes they are such critical and revolutionary experiences that they change a man's whole scale of values and system of ideas"?

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Read this paragraph, written for the quiz: "(1) Keeping the library open until 5 p.m. would help students who have nowhere quiet to work after school. (2) By 'help,' I mean something specific: a table, a working computer and an adult nearby for an hour and a half. (3) Many students ride the late bus or wait for a parent who finishes work at 4:30. (4) Some teachers worry that the library would become a hangout, but a sign-in sheet and a quiet rule already work in the after-school study hall. (5) An open library would not solve every homework problem, but it would give these students a place to start." Name the key concept, then explain how one sentence develops it and one sentence refines it.

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These standards connect to RI.8.5: 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.