Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A president praises reporters who expose corruption, but warns them to be 'absolutely truthful.' Is that support for a free press, or pressure on it? What would you need to know before you decided?"

   Give students three minutes to write, then collect what they said they would need to know: who the president meant, what the press was publishing, and what he did afterward. Read the opening of Roosevelt's speech aloud while students follow on paper, and share the context card. Students number the paragraphs 1-3 and mark one sentence of praise and one of warning.

   1In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.

   2In "Pilgrim's Progress" the Man with the Muck-rake is set forth as the example of him whose vision is fixed on carnal instead of on spiritual things. Yet he also typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing. Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck-rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck-rake, speedily becomes, not a help to society, not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil.

   3There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man, whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander, he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does not good, but very great harm. The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.

   Context card: reform journalism and Roosevelt, 1902-1913 (dates compiled for this lesson)

   Date	Event
   1902-1904	Ida Tarbell's history of the Standard Oil Company runs as a series in McClure's Magazine (book, 1904)
   1905-1906	Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, about Chicago's meatpacking plants, is serialized, then published as a book in early 1906
   March 1906	Cosmopolitan begins David Graham Phillips's series "The Treason of the Senate"
   April 14, 1906	Roosevelt delivers "The Man with the Muck-rake" at the laying of the cornerstone of the House office building
   June 30, 1906	Roosevelt signs the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act
   1913	The Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the election of senators by popular vote, is ratified

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Show Diagram 1. At grades 11-12 the audience has four sides: what readers know, what they fear, what they value and what they may want to believe. The same argument changes form for a historian, a school board or an engineer. Then work through the five examples below, which show the demands that are new at this level: knowledgeable claims, significance, the most relevant data, audience values and varied syntax.

   • Knowledgeable, cautious claim (history)

     Draft: Phillips's articles changed the Senate. The claim sounds informed but skips the evidence that would link the articles to a change.

     Result: Revision: Phillips's series appeared seven years before the Seventeenth Amendment provided for the popular election of senators, so a claim that the series caused the change needs evidence that connects the two.

   • Establishing significance (technical)

     Draft opening: This memo is about buses.

     Result: Revision: Route 4 would be the district's first electric route, so its results will guide every later decision about replacing diesel buses as they age.

   • Choosing the most relevant data (technical)

     Draft: Electric buses save a lot of money. The claim is about cost, but it gives no figures.

     Result: Revision: At $0.21 a mile for electricity against $0.56 for diesel, one electric bus on Route 4 would save about $5,300 a year in energy over 15,120 miles.

   • Anticipating values (history)

     Readers who admire Roosevelt as a reformer may resist any criticism of him.

     Result: Revision: Readers who admire Roosevelt's reforms need not give up that view to see the problem: the same speech that praised exposure also claimed the right to judge it.

   • Varied syntax (history)

     Draft: Roosevelt praised exposure. He also warned reporters. The warning got more attention.

     Result: Revision: Roosevelt praised exposure, but it was his warning, not his praise, that gave reporters their name.

   Read the model argument once for meaning. On the second reading, students mark the claim and its significance in one color, the reasons and evidence in a second, and the counterclaim, its evidence, its weight and its limitation in a third. Point out the history conventions it follows: the date and occasion of the source, exact quotations, the past tense for events, a clear line between what Roosevelt said and what the writer concludes, and an admission of what the source cannot show.

   1On April 14, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt used the laying of a cornerstone for a new House office building to address the nation's press. The occasion was ceremonial, but the timing was not: that spring, Cosmopolitan magazine had begun David Graham Phillips's series "The Treason of the Senate," which accused senators of serving corporations rather than voters. Because the speech gave investigative reporters the name they still carry, how it is read matters beyond 1906; it shapes how Americans remember the relationship between reform and the press. Two readings are common. One treats the speech as an attack on the muckrakers; the other treats it as praise that reporters misheard. The text supports neither fully. Roosevelt defended exposure in principle while reserving for himself the authority to judge which exposure was truthful, and that reservation, more than any insult, is what reform journalists had reason to fear.

   2The strongest evidence against the attack reading is the speech's own language of approval. Roosevelt calls for "relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man, whether politician or business man," and he declares, "I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker" who makes such an attack "with merciless severity." A president who wished to silence the magazines would hardly offer them the title of benefactor.

   3Yet every endorsement arrives with a condition attached. The benefactor is praised "provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful." The standard sounds unobjectionable; no reporter defends lying. The difficulty is who applies it. When the most powerful official in the country warns against "hysterical exaggeration," and does so weeks after a magazine began accusing the Senate, readers could reasonably conclude that he had particular writers in mind. The condition turns a principle into a warning.

   4The most serious objection to this reading is that Roosevelt acted on muckraking more than he resisted it. In the same year, after Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle described conditions in Chicago's meatpacking plants, Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, both on June 30, 1906. On this view, the speech merely separated careful reporting, which he rewarded with legislation, from careless reporting, which he criticized. The objection has real weight: it rests on the historical record rather than on tone, and it explains why the speech praises exposure so often. Its limitation is that it judges the speech by what Roosevelt did in June rather than by what his words told journalists in April. A reporter who read that the man who "never does anything else" but rake muck becomes "one of the most potent forces for evil" had no way of knowing which reports the president would later reward.

   5This claim has a limit of its own: the speech shows what Roosevelt said, not how each journalist received it, and some reporters later wore the name "muckraker" with pride. Even so, the speech is best understood as neither attack nor praise but as an attempt to set the terms of exposure. That attempt is its significance. A free press depends on reporters, not officials, deciding what deserves exposure, and Roosevelt's speech shows how easily a reasonable standard, stated by a president, can become a limit.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs complete the map below for the model argument, then compare the sequence with the diagram. Ask: why does the counterclaim come after both reasons, and why does the writer's own limitation come last?

   Argument map of the model argument (T3)

   Part of the argument	Paragraph	What the writer does (students fill in)
   Context, significance, claim and alternate claims	1
   Reason 1 with evidence (approval)	2
   Reason 2 with evidence (the condition)	3
   Counterclaim: evidence, weight and limitation	4
   Limit of the claim, conclusion and significance	5

   Now switch disciplines. Pairs read the weak recommendation below and the invented Route 4 data table, then circle the one figure in the table that most changes the argument. They list the draft's problems: the data it chose, the source of that data, the counterclaim, the audience, the tone and the syntax. They revise it in Activity 3.

   To: School Board
   From: Student Transportation Committee
   Re: Electric buses for Route 4

   Electric buses are the future and the district should buy two of them for Route 4 now. The manufacturer's brochure says the bus goes 138 miles on a charge. Route 4 is 84 miles a day. So range is not a problem. Electricity is cheaper than diesel. Diesel exhaust is gross. Some people complain about the price. But you can't put a price on kids' health. Everyone agrees electric buses are better. In conclusion, the board should buy the buses.

   Route 4 data (invented for this lesson)

   Measure	Electric bus	Diesel bus	Source
   Purchase price per bus	$375,000	$125,000	District bid
   Clean-bus grant per electric bus (applied for, not yet awarded)	$200,000	none	State program
   Rated range	138 miles	not applicable	Manufacturer's brochure, tested at 70 °F
   Average range, October pilot	121 miles	not applicable	District pilot on Route 4
   Average range, January pilot (mornings near 20 °F)	88 miles	not applicable	District pilot on Route 4
   Energy cost per mile	$0.21 (1.4 kWh at $0.15)	$0.56 (7 mpg at $3.90 a gallon)	District records
   Route 4 distance	84 miles a day: two runs of 42 miles, with a 5-hour midday layover at the depot	84 miles a day	District schedule, 180 school days

4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Read the later paragraph of Roosevelt's speech below, in which he explains what happens to a public that hears only attacks. Students plan the homework argument: they write a knowledgeable claim, a sentence of significance, and a list of the most relevant evidence for their claim and for the strongest counterclaim, drawing on T1, T2 and the context card. Each piece of evidence gets a note saying why it is more relevant than an alternative.

   At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is, not for immunity to but for the most unsparing exposure of the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself. It is because I feel that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that I ask that the war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution. The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them, to the crown of worthy endeavor. There are beautiful things above and round about them; and if they gradually grow to feel that the whole world is nothing but muck, their power of usefulness is gone. If the whole picture is painted black, there remains no hue whereby to single out the rascals for distinction from their fellows. Such painting finally induces a kind of moral color-blindness; and people affected by it come to the conclusion that no man is really black, and no man really white, but they are all gray. In other words, they neither believe in the truth of the attack, nor in the honesty of the man who is attacked; they grow as suspicious of the accusation as of the offense; it becomes well-nigh hopeless to stir them either to wrath against wrong-doing or to enthusiasm for what is right; and such a mental attitude in the public gives hope to every knave, and is the despair of honest men.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name your intended reader for the homework and one value or bias that reader may bring. (2) Write the sentence you will use to acknowledge it. (3) Write one sentence that combines a reason and its evidence using a structure other than a simple sentence.

   Teacher note on historical language: Roosevelt speaks in the moral vocabulary of 1906 ("scoundrel," "knave," "filth"), refers to "every man" as if all writers and officials were men, and uses the terms black, white and gray as metaphors for guilt, innocence and uncertainty. Keep his words exactly as printed, and discuss with students how these terms reflect the time and the speaker.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which claim about "The Man with the Muck-rake" is the most precise and knowledgeable?

   ATheodore Roosevelt gave a speech about journalists and muck-rakes in Washington in the spring of 1906, while he was president. BDelivered weeks after Cosmopolitan began "The Treason of the Senate," the speech praised exposure in general while warning against sweeping attacks of the kind that series made. CRoosevelt's speech is a famous and important example of an American president criticizing the press, and it is still discussed today. DRoosevelt disliked journalists because they had criticized his friends and allies in the Senate, so he used a public ceremony in Washington to take revenge on the magazines that printed the attacks.

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence in paragraph 1 of the model argument (T3) establishes the significance of the claim?

   A"The occasion was ceremonial, but the timing was not: that spring, Cosmopolitan magazine had begun David Graham Phillips's series 'The Treason of the Senate.'" B"Two readings are common." C"Because the speech gave investigative reporters the name they still carry, how it is read matters beyond 1906; it shapes how Americans remember the relationship between reform and the press." D"One treats the speech as an attack on the muckrakers; the other treats it as praise that reporters misheard."

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does the model argument (T3) distinguish its claim from the alternate claims?

   AIt quotes Roosevelt's harshest phrases first, such as his warning about "forces for evil," so that readers will reject the view that the speech was praise before they read anything else. BIt lists the two common readings, says "The text supports neither fully," and then states a third position that explains what each reading misses. CIt avoids naming any other reading, so that its own claim is the only one readers consider. DIt agrees with both readings in turn and then leaves the choice between them to the reader in the conclusion.

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does the model argument (T3) place the counterclaim about the 1906 food and drug laws after both of its reasons?

   AThe counterclaim answers the whole claim, so readers need to see both the approval and the condition before they can judge it. BCounterclaims must always be placed in the second-to-last paragraph of an argument, whatever the claim is. CThe laws were passed before the speech was given, so the counterclaim comes later to keep the events in time order. DThe writer wants to hide the counterclaim near the end, where readers will pay less attention to it.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which feature of paragraph 4 of the model argument (T3) shows that the counterclaim is developed thoroughly, not just fairly?

   AIt uses the word "objection" and then moves quickly to the writer's own view in the next paragraph. BIt states the objection in a single sentence and then answers it with one quotation from the speech, which shows that the objection is simply wrong about what Roosevelt meant. CIt supports the objection with the historical record, explains why the objection has weight, and only then names its limitation with evidence from the speech. DIt repeats the evidence from paragraph 2 so that the reader remembers Roosevelt's praise of reporters.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The weak draft (T4) says, "So range is not a problem." Which data point from the Route 4 table is the most relevant evidence for judging that claim?

   AThe January pilot average of 88 miles, compared with Route 4's 84-mile day BThe rated range of 138 miles from the manufacturer's brochure CThe October pilot average of 121 miles, the district's own measured figure DThe purchase price of $375,000 for each electric bus before any grant

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A writer wants the most relevant evidence from the speech for this reason: Roosevelt did not oppose exposure itself. Which quotation should the writer choose?

   A"the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand" B"The liar is no whit better than the thief" C"one of the most potent forces for evil" D"my plea is, not for immunity to but for the most unsparing exposure of the politician who betrays his trust"

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 4 of the model argument (T3), what limitation of the counterclaim does the writer point out?

   AThe food and drug laws did not really pass in 1906, so the objection rests on a mistaken date. BThe objection judges the speech by what Roosevelt did in June, while journalists in April had only his words to go on. CThe objection relies on a novel, and a work of fiction cannot be used as historical evidence of any kind. DThe objection ignores the fact that Roosevelt never praised any journalist anywhere in the speech.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Your readers belong to a parent group that values children's health above cost. Which sentence addresses their values while keeping an objective tone?

   AAnyone who truly cares about the children of this district would buy electric buses at any price, so the board has no real choice to make here and should approve the purchase tonight. BElectric buses emit no exhaust at the stop, a real benefit for riders; the board's task is to keep that benefit without leaving the route short of range in January. CDiesel exhaust is gross, and parents are right to be angry that the district has not already replaced every bus. DHealth is a personal value, so a technical memo should leave it out and report only the numbers.

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which source behind the Route 4 data has the clearest possible bias, and how should the memo handle it?

    AThe district pilot test, because the district wants to save money; the memo should leave out the district's own figures. BThe parent group, because parents care about children; the memo should not mention health at all. CThe school board, because it votes on the purchase; the memo should avoid telling the board any figures it might dislike. DThe manufacturer's brochure, because the seller benefits from a high range figure; the memo should report its test conditions and compare it with the district's pilot.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Your readers are the School Board's budget committee. They know the bus fleet well and worry about long-term cost. Which sentence fits both their knowledge level and their concern?

    AElectric buses save money on fuel every single school day, so they will pay for themselves very quickly, and the committee does not need to worry about the much higher purchase price. BAn electric bus is a bus that runs on a battery instead of diesel fuel, which is a newer technology than most people know about. CEven with the $200,000 grant, each electric bus costs $50,000 more than a diesel bus; energy savings of about $5,300 a year would recover that in roughly nine and a half years. DMoney should not be the main concern when the health of students is at stake, so the committee should approve the purchase.

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which revision of these sentences from the weak draft (T4) uses varied syntax to show how the ideas relate? Diesel exhaust is gross. Some people complain about the price. But you can't put a price on kids' health.

    ADiesel exhaust is bad and some people complain about the price and kids' health matters more. BDiesel exhaust exposes riders to pollution at every stop, a real cost to their health; the price, however, is also real, and a sound decision must weigh both. CDiesel exhaust. The price. Kids' health. These are the three issues for the board to consider. DIs diesel exhaust bad? Yes. Is the price high? Yes. Is kids' health important? Yes. The board should think carefully about all three of these questions together before it votes.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which words in the model argument (T3) clarify the relationship between the claim and the counterclaim?

    A"The strongest evidence against the attack reading is" B"The difficulty is who applies it." C"On April 14, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt used" D"The most serious objection to this reading is that"

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence about Roosevelt keeps a formal style and an objective tone and follows the conventions of a history argument?

    ARoosevelt totally lost it at the reporters in 1906 because he could not handle any criticism at all of the senators and business leaders who were around him. BIn his April 1906 address, Roosevelt warned that exposure is of use "only if it is absolutely truthful," a standard he did not say who would apply. CRoosevelt is a hero of reform, and anyone who questions his speech does not understand the Progressive Era at all. DRoosevelt tells reporters that they are bad, and you can tell he means it from the way he talks about muck.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write a knowledgeable claim that answers this question: Did Roosevelt's speech help or hurt the reform journalists it described? Use at least one fact from the context card, and add one sentence that establishes why the question matters.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write a counterclaim to this claim: The district should buy electric buses for Route 4. Support it with the most relevant data from the Route 4 table, then state one strength and one limitation of the counterclaim.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    The district's transportation director has run diesel buses for twenty years and may be inclined to trust familiar equipment. Rewrite the draft's sentence "Everyone agrees electric buses are better" so that it anticipates this reader's possible bias without insulting him.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Roosevelt writes, "It is because I feel that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that I ask that the war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution" (T2). Explain how the structure of this sentence clarifies the relationship between his request and his reason. Then write a sentence of your own about the Route 4 data that uses the same structure.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Using T1 and T2, explain one way Roosevelt links the major sections of his speech so that his praise of exposure and his warning read as one argument. Quote the words that make the link.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write the concluding section (three or four sentences) for a revised version of the Route 4 memo. It should follow from the data, fit the norms of a technical recommendation, and state what the board should do next.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to WHST.11-12.1: 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.