Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-60 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Your friend says: 'You should try out for the soccer team. Tryouts are free, the team practices right after school, so you can still take the late bus, and my uncle played soccer in college.' Which reason does nothing to show that YOU should try out?"

   Take a few answers. The uncle is about soccer, the right topic, but not about this claim: his college career says nothing about whether tryouts fit your time, money or skills. Name it: irrelevant evidence is support that does not bear on the claim, even when it is true and on the topic. Then ask how students would decide whether the other two reasons are enough. Today they practice both jobs while listening, when they cannot reread.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: The words of the standard. Hand out the two tables and Diagram 1. Students keep them for the whole lesson.

   Words for SL.8.3

   Word	Meaning	Listener's question
   Delineate	Lay out the argument and each claim in the speaker's order	What does the speaker want, and what are the separate points?
   Argument	The overall position or request	What should listeners believe or do?
   Claim	One point the speaker wants accepted as part of the argument	What is this part trying to prove?
   Evidence	Facts, numbers, records, examples, expert statements	How does the speaker know?
   Relevant	Bears on this exact claim	If this is true, does the claim become more likely?
   Irrelevant evidence	Support that does not bear on the claim, even if true and on the topic	When did it come in, and what is it really about?
   Sufficient	Enough relevant evidence, from fair sources, for a claim of this size	How many cases? Who counted? Would more change my mind?
   Sound reasoning	The claim follows from the evidence with no missing step	Could the evidence be true and the claim still be false?
   Comparison (analogy)	Arguing that two cases are alike, so what is true of one is true of the other	Are the two cases alike in the way that matters?

   Words in Twain's statement

   Word	Meaning here
   copyright	The legal right to be the only one who may print and sell a work
   bill	A proposed law that Congress has not yet passed
   the decalogue	The Ten Commandments in the Bible
   forty-two years	The longest an American copyright lasted in 1906: 28 years, plus one renewal of 14
   confederates	Partners in a scheme
   affluence	Wealth

   Part 2: Listen, then read. Students turn Source 1 face down. Read it aloud in a dry, serious voice, the way Twain delivered his jokes. Students jot the request and a word or two for each point they hear, and they make a small mark in the margin whenever they think Twain says something that does not help his case. Then they turn the page over and follow along during a second reading.

   1I am interested particularly and especially in the part of the bill which concerns my trade. I like that extension of copyright life to the author's life and fifty years afterward. I think that would satisfy any reasonable author, because it would take care of his children. Let the grandchildren take care of themselves. That would take care of my daughters, and after that I am not particular. I shall then have long been out of this struggle, independent of it, indifferent to it.

   2It isn't objectionable to me that all the trades and professions in the United States are protected by the bill. I like that. They are all important and worthy, and if we can take care of them under the Copyright law I should like to see it done. I should like to see oyster culture added, and anything else.

   3I am aware that copyright must have a limit, because that is required by the Constitution of the United States, which sets aside the earlier Constitution, which we call the decalogue. The decalogue says you shall not take away from any man his profit. I don't like to be obliged to use the harsh term. What the decalogue really says is, “Thou shalt not steal,” but I am trying to use more polite language.

   4The laws of England and America do take it away, do select but one class, the people who create the literature of the land. They always talk handsomely about the literature of the land, always what a fine, great, monumental thing a great literature is, and in the midst of their enthusiasm they turn around and do what they can to discourage it.

   5I know we must have a limit, but forty-two years is too much of a limit. I am quite unable to guess why there should be a limit at all to the possession of the product of a man's labor. There is no limit to real estate.

   6Doctor Hale has suggested that a man might just as well, after discovering a coal-mine and working it forty-two years, have the Government step in and take it away.

   7What is the excuse? It is that the author who produced that book has had the profit of it long enough, and therefore the Government takes a profit which does not belong to it and generously gives it to the 88,000,000 of people. But it doesn't do anything of the kind. It merely takes the author's property, takes his children's bread, and gives the publisher double profit. He goes on publishing the book and as many of his confederates as choose to go into the conspiracy do so, and they rear families in affluence.

   • Delineating the argument (Source 1, paragraphs 1-7)

     What is Twain's argument, and what claims does he make, in order?

     Result: Argument: Congress should pass the bill, because a copyright of the author's life plus fifty years is fair (paragraph 1), and Twain doubts there should be any limit at all (paragraph 5). Claims in order: the new term would take care of an author's children (1); taking away an author's profit is a kind of stealing (3); the law singles out authors and discourages literature (4); forty-two years is too short, since land and a coal mine have no time limit (5-6); and when copyright ends, the profit goes to publishers instead of the public (7). Paragraph 2 makes no claim about authors at all.

   • Irrelevant material introduced (Source 1, paragraph 2)

     At what moment does Twain bring in something that does nothing for his argument, and what should a listener do with it?

     Result: It comes in right after his first claim, when he turns to the other trades the bill covers and says, "I should like to see oyster culture added, and anything else." Oyster farming has nothing to do with how long an author's rights should last. It is a joke, not evidence, so it neither helps nor hurts any claim. A listener marks it, enjoys it and does not count it. At "I am aware that copyright must have a limit" (paragraph 3), he is back on his argument.

   • Soundness (Source 1, paragraph 3)

     Twain says the Ten Commandments forbid stealing, so taking away an author's profit is wrong. Is the reasoning sound?

     Result: No. The step only works if the book still belongs to the author after forty-two years, and that is exactly what the hearing is trying to decide. Calling it stealing assumes the point instead of proving it. Twain even admits in the same paragraph that the Constitution requires copyright to have a limit. The commandment is relevant to theft in general, but it cannot settle whether this is theft.

   • Relevance and soundness of a comparison (Source 1, paragraphs 5-6)

     Twain says there is no time limit on owning land, and Doctor Hale compares an author to a man whose coal mine is taken after forty-two years. Are these comparisons relevant, and do they hold?

     Result: They are relevant, since the question is whether a book is property like other property. But the cases differ in a way that matters: only one person at a time can use a piece of land or dig the same coal, while a book can be printed for millions of readers without taking anything from the author's own copy. Because the comparison skips that difference, it is a weak support. A listener should ask why the Constitution treats writings differently from land.

   Walk through Diagram 1 with the four examples. Point out the order: a listener sets aside what is irrelevant first, because it should not make relevant evidence look stronger or weaker. Stress two ideas. Marking a claim unsound or not sufficient does not mean the claim is false; Twain's bill might still have been a good idea. And one weak claim does not decide the whole argument: a listener judges the argument by what is left.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Teacher note, before Source 2. Twain's words are quoted exactly as printed in 1910. In paragraph 1, he pokes fun at a man who is "strenuous about race-suicide," most likely President Theodore Roosevelt, who was famous for praising "the strenuous life." Around 1906, Roosevelt and others used "race suicide" to warn that native-born white Americans were having fewer children than immigrant families, a fear tied to prejudice against immigrants. Twain uses the man only as a comic example, and the speech does not argue for or against the idea. Explain the phrase in a sentence or two before the reading, then keep the discussion on Twain's comparison.

   Read Source 2 aloud once with the text face down, then have pairs read it. Pairs answer three questions, one sentence each: (a) Twain compares copyright to a law limiting families to twenty-two children. Is the comparison relevant, and does it hold? (b) Check his numbers in paragraph 3: how many books does "one book in 1000" of 220,000 come to, and does that fit "one author per year"? (c) Is the list of authors in paragraph 4 sufficient evidence?

   1Why, if a man who is not even mad, but only strenuous—strenuous about race-suicide—should come to me and try to get me to use my large political and ecclesiastical influence to get a bill passed by this Congress limiting families to twenty-two children by one mother, I should try to calm him down. I should reason with him. I should say to him, “Leave it alone. Leave it alone and it will take care of itself. Only one couple a year in the United States can reach that limit. If they have reached that limit let them go right on. Let them have all the liberty they want. In restricting that family to twenty-two children you are merely conferring discomfort and unhappiness on one family per year in a nation of 88,000,000, which is not worth while.”

   2It is the very same with copyright. One author per year produces a book which can outlive the forty-two-year limit; that's all. This nation can't produce two authors a year that can do it; the thing is demonstrably impossible. All that the limited copyright can do is to take the bread out of the mouths of the children of that one author per year.

   3I made an estimate some years ago, when I appeared before a committee of the House of Lords, that we had published in this country since the Declaration of Independence 220,000 books. They have all gone. They had all perished before they were ten years old. It is only one book in 1000 that can outlive the forty-two year limit. Therefore why put a limit at all? You might as well limit the family to twenty-two children.

   4If you recall the Americans in the nineteenth century who wrote books that lived forty-two years you will have to begin with Cooper; you can follow with Washington Irving, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allan Poe, and there you have to wait a long time. You come to Emerson, and you have to stand still and look further. You find Howells and T. B. Aldrich, and then your numbers begin to run pretty thin, and you question if you can name twenty persons in the United States who—in a whole century have written books that would live forty-two years. Why, you could take them all and put them on one bench there [pointing]. Add the wives and children and you could put the result on, two or three more benches.

   Debrief. (a) The comparison is relevant to Twain's point that a limit touching very few people is not worth having. It does not hold, because the two limits do different jobs: the family limit helps no one, while the copyright limit is meant to let everyone print and read old books freely, and it matters for exactly the few books that last. The comparison leaves out the public's side. (b) 220,000 ÷ 1,000 = 220 books. From 1776 to 1906 is 130 years, and 220 ÷ 130 ≈ 1.7 books a year, which roughly fits "one author per year" and "can't produce two authors a year." But the paragraph also says "They have all gone. They had all perished before they were ten years old," and a book cannot all perish and still be one of the 1 in 1,000 that lasts; the overstatement weakens trust in the numbers. The estimate is Twain's own, made "some years ago," and he names no source for it. (c) The list comes from memory, and "twenty persons" in a century is about one lasting author every five years, not one a year. Accept the objection that one author, such as Cooper, can write lasting books in many different years; the point is that Twain's counts are rough and not checked. Finish by showing Diagram 2.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students work alone on Source 3, written for this page: an invented eighth grader speaks to her school board about overdue fines, the small daily charges for a late library book. Read it aloud once while students listen with the text face down and write the argument, the claims and any moment where they heard irrelevant evidence. Then they read the transcript and answer the quiz. Questions 1-10, 16, 17, 19 and 20 are about Source 3, questions 14 and 15 return to Source 1, and questions 11-13 and 18 use new speakers.

   1Good evening, members of the board. My name is Tessa Morales, and I'm in eighth grade at Cedar Hill Middle School. Tonight I'm asking the board to end overdue fines in the libraries of all four district middle schools, starting in January. Students would still pay for any book they lose. They just wouldn't be charged ten cents for every day a book is late.

   2First, fines keep students from using the library. At Cedar Hill, anyone who owes more than $5 in fines can't check out books until the fines are paid. Last week our librarian, Mr. Ruiz, looked up the records for me. Of our 840 students, 126 have blocked accounts right now. He also asked the librarians at the other three middle schools, and their records show between 11 and 17 percent of students blocked.

   3Second, fines don't get books back any faster. My grandmother was a school librarian for thirty-one years, and she always told me that a library belongs to everyone. Riverside Unified, the district next to ours, stopped charging fines two years ago. Its head librarian told the Riverside Record that books are coming back about as often as they did before.

   4Third, the fines bring in very little money. According to the district's budget report, the four middle school libraries collected $1,260 in fines last year. The same report shows that the district spends $84,000 a year on books, magazines and supplies for those libraries. So the fines pay for only a tiny part of that cost.

   5Fourth, ending fines will get students reading more. The Cedar Hill library just got twelve new beanbag chairs, and they're really comfortable. During our book fair week in October, checkouts doubled, from about 300 books in a normal week to about 600. So once the fines are gone, checkouts will double too.

   6Some people say that without fines, students won't bother to return books. But students would still get a reminder email every week, and they would still have to pay for any book they lose. So there would still be good reasons to bring books back.

   7Please vote to end overdue fines in January. At my school alone, fines are keeping 126 students from borrowing books, and across the district the fines cover only a tiny part of what the libraries spend. Thank you.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Write one sentence a speaker might say that is true and on the topic of school start times, but irrelevant to the claim 'Our school should start later.' Then explain in one sentence why it does not help." Read three aloud and have the class vote on whether each is truly irrelevant.

   Teacher note. Twain's words are quoted exactly as printed in 1910. The note before Source 2 in the Guided Practice explains the phrase "race-suicide." Some facts help with the evaluation: in 1906 an American copyright lasted 28 years plus one renewal of 14; the bill Twain spoke for did not pass as written, and the Copyright Act of 1909 set 28 years plus a renewal of 28. Today most works are protected for the author's life plus 70 years. Source 3, its speaker, schools, districts and numbers are invented, and the transcript says so.

   Homework. Tonight students listen to a real persuasive speaker, map the argument, catch any irrelevant evidence and judge the rest. Go over the directions and the rubric before they leave.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What is Tessa's overall argument in Source 3?

   AStudents who lose library books should never have to pay to replace them BThe district should spend more money on its middle school libraries CThe board should end overdue fines at the four middle school libraries DCedar Hill should buy more beanbag chairs for its library

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which list gives Tessa's four numbered claims in the order she makes them?

   AFines block students; fines don't speed returns; fines raise little money; no fines means more reading BFines raise little money; fines block students; no fines means more reading; fines don't speed returns CFines block students; no fines means more reading; fines don't speed returns; fines raise little money DFines don't speed returns; fines block students; fines raise little money; no fines means more reading

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 2, 126 of Cedar Hill's 840 students have blocked accounts. What percent is that?

   AAbout 6.7% B85% CAbout 12.6% D15%

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence in paragraph 3 introduces irrelevant evidence?

   A"Riverside Unified, the district next to ours, stopped charging fines two years ago." B"My grandmother was a school librarian for thirty-one years, and she always told me that a library belongs to everyone." C"Its head librarian told the Riverside Record that books are coming back about as often as they did before." D"Second, fines don't get books back any faster."

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How should a listener evaluate the Riverside evidence in paragraph 3?

   ARelevant but not sufficient: one district, one vague report BIrrelevant, because Riverside is a different district from Tessa's CSufficient, because a head librarian is an expert on library books DUnsound, because it assumes that fines cause students to lose books

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 4 says the libraries collected $1,260 in fines and the district spends $84,000 a year on them. What share of that cost do the fines cover?

   A15% BAbout 67% C1.5% D98.5%

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 5, Tessa says the library "just got twelve new beanbag chairs, and they're really comfortable." Why is this irrelevant to her claim?

   ABecause a listener cannot check how comfortable a chair really is BBecause twelve chairs are too few for a school of 840 students CBecause comfort matters in a reading room but not in a library DBecause chairs have nothing to do with whether fines are charged

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Also in paragraph 5, checkouts doubled during book fair week, "So once the fines are gone, checkouts will double too." What is wrong with this reasoning?

   ANothing: the doubling is a real number from the school's own records BThe book fair explains the jump, so it says nothing about fines CIt is irrelevant, because checkouts have nothing to do with reading DThe arithmetic is wrong, because 300 doubled is not 600 books

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 6, Tessa answers people who say students won't bother to return books without fines. Why is her answer reasonable?

   AReminders and lost-book charges would still give reasons to return books BIt proves that no student will ever keep a library book too long again CIt uses numbers from all four schools to show that returns will not change DIt proves that the people who disagree with her are not being honest

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which two of Tessa's four numbered claims are well supported: relevant, sufficient evidence and sound reasoning?

    AParagraphs 2 and 3 BParagraphs 3 and 5 CParagraphs 2 and 4 DParagraphs 4 and 5

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A resident asks the city for a stop sign at Pine Street and 3rd Avenue: (1) "Neighbors counted 41 cars going over 25 mph there in one hour." (2) "Two children were nearly hit there in May." (3) "Pine Street was named for the pine trees that once lined it." (4) "A stop sign would slow every driver at the corner." Where is irrelevant evidence introduced?

    ASentence 1, because a count made by neighbors is not an official count BSentence 2, because the children were not hurt CSentence 4, because it is a prediction DSentence 3, because the street's name says nothing about safety

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A student says: "The new vocabulary app is making everyone in our grade better at English. My two best friends started using it, and both of their quiz grades went up." What is the main problem with the evidence?

    AIt is irrelevant, because quiz grades have nothing to do with English BNot sufficient: two friends cannot stand for a whole grade CIt is sufficient, because both of the friends who tried it improved DIt is irrelevant, because the speaker is a student, not a teacher

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A speaker says: "Every student on the honor roll this year has a public library card. So if you get a library card, you'll make the honor roll." Which evaluation is accurate?

    AUnsound: having a card and good grades together does not show the card causes them BSound, because the speaker says that every single student on the honor roll has a card CIrrelevant, because library cards are not school property DNot sufficient, because the speaker should have counted two years instead of one

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 1, paragraph 4, Twain says the laws of England and America single out authors and "do what they can to discourage" literature. What is the main weakness of this claim?

    AIt is irrelevant, because England's laws have nothing to do with a bill in Congress BIt is unsound, because it assumes that only two countries have copyright laws CNot sufficient: he gives no example or fact showing that authors were discouraged DIt is well supported, because Twain was a famous author who knew the law

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Source 1, paragraph 7, Twain says that when copyright ends the government "merely takes the author's property, takes his children's bread, and gives the publisher double profit." Evaluate this claim: is the evidence relevant and sufficient, and is the reasoning sound?

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Delineate Source 3: state Tessa's argument in one sentence, then list her four numbered claims and her answer to the other side in order, each with its paragraph number.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Rewrite the evidence in paragraph 3 of Source 3 so that it supports the claim "fines don't get books back any faster." Remove what is irrelevant, keep what is relevant and name one piece of evidence Tessa should add.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    A student running for class treasurer says: (1) "I have kept the money records for my family's lemonade stand for three summers." (2) "I earned an A in math this year." (3) "My dog won a blue ribbon at the county fair." (4) "I will post a report of every dollar the class spends on the bulletin board each month." Name the sentence that introduces irrelevant evidence and explain why. Then decide whether sentence 2 is relevant.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    In paragraph 5 of Source 3, checkouts rose from about 300 to about 600 during book fair week. By what percent did they increase? Then explain what comparison Tessa would need to show that ending fines raises checkouts.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Set aside everything in Source 3 that is irrelevant or unsound. In four or five sentences, decide whether what is left is enough to support Tessa's request, and name the one piece of evidence the board should ask for.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to SL.8.3: 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.