Course
Unit Title
Preliminary Preparation Phase
English 28 or English 101
Critical Thinking Foundation – # of class sessions/# of minutes each
• End of unit application: 1 session 60 minutes
Vocabulary for Paraphrasing
The student will use his/her own vocabulary choices to write an accurate
restatement of an original text.
Lesson’s Content Focus
Statement of conceptual or
procedural knowledge
Essential Question
Question for reflecting on essential
content presented at start of lesson,
but answered in Phase 4
Learning Outcome
Statement describing task requiring
students to demonstrate their
understanding by end of the lesson.
Task completed in Phase 3 below
How to select accurate language to restate information from text or
screen.
How can one transmit information accurately from text or screen
while using alternate language choices?
Students will read and linguistically decode vocabulary in college level
texts or screens for denotation ,connotation, formality and specificity to
restate information accurately with alternate vocabulary choices
Lesson Phases with Students
Phase 1: Introduction
Strategy to contextualize new content and activate prior knowledge:
Have students read an original excerpt and an inadequate paraphrase. Ask
students to select several phrases in the rewrite that are too close to the
original style. Ask them to discuss with their partner why the language is
too close to the original and/ or distorts meaning.
Phase 2: Presentation
a. Explain/demonstrate each new
content element to be learned.
Point
#1
b. Provide sufficient examples.
c. Insert “Quick-Thinks” that
function both as checks for
understanding and as brief student
engagement tasks.
a.
Words communicate at several different levels. Two
important considerations are the information content
or” denotation” and the emotional association about the
word or “connotation.” Also, vocabulary can have
differing levels of formality from the very informal to
the highly technical. Another important concern is how
general or specific the word is. General words indicate
a broader range of information while specific ones
restrict the information boundaries. In college writing,
students often need to “put it into their own words” or
choose alternate vocabulary –“ equivalent synonyms” to paraphrase the ideas from an original statement. For
this work, one needs to consider all elements –
specificity, formality, connotation and denotation - in
order to not distort the original meaning while
communicating it in one’s own language. This
language awareness will be needed mostly for nouns,
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Also, some of these
choices will be shaped by the full context of the
passage.
b. For example, let’s consider the word choices to accurately
restate “He was a fan of baseball.” First, it would be too general
to use “sport” for the more specific word “baseball.” Second, an
“adherent” of baseball might be too formal, whereas a “buff”
might be too informal. Third, the connotations of “addict”
(obsessive), “lover” (romance) and “groupie” (music) of
baseball might eliminate them as the best word choices. Perhaps
your two best equivalencies would be “admirer” or “enthusiast’
Phase 3: Independent Practice
Statement describing task requiring
students to demonstrate their
understanding by end of the lesson.
Matches Learning Outcome above.
Phase 4: Consolidation
Students answer Essential Question
using one of these strategies:
• Whole class discussion, then write.
• Partner discussion, then write.
• Write first then share with partner.
Materials Needed
of baseball. A second example with a noun and an adjective
would be to restate the sentence,” The teacher was impartial.”
For teacher, it would be too general to say” person” and too
specific to use “professor” so the best choice might be
“instructor.” Also, to substitute “cool” for impartial is too
informal while “non discriminatory” might be too formal. The
connotation for “non partisan” would be political and “on the
fence” or “middle of the road” might suggest not able to make a
decision. Perhaps the best equivalent synonyms would be
“unbiased,” “fair minded,” unprejudiced.” So we end up with
“The instructor was unbiased” as the best diction choice.
c. Ask students to select two of the four words - house, talk,
attractive and happily- a noun, verb, adjective, adverb - and for
both write down one less and one more formal synonym, a
synonym with a distinct connotation and a more specific and
more general word choice(Responses will vary).Ask them to
discuss in groups of three each one’s synonyms for specificity,
formality, connotation and denotation. Then return to class
discussion and call out each word asking for possible synonyms.
Discuss answers.
Independent practice task:
Ask students to read the following passage. Next, ask them to consider
denotation, connotation, formality and specificity of word equivalencies
to restate the main ideas generating several possibilities at times. Finally,
have them rewrite the main ideas of the passage in their own style while
maintaining the original intent of the author.
Strategy for answering the essential question: Partner discussion,
then write.
Each partner exchanges and reads the other’s restated passage. Each one
lists any inadequate synonyms and states a reason. Then they discuss
their individual choices and agree on the best ones. Finally, from their
best combined choices, they create and submit an accurate restatement of
the original passage.
College level prose passage from text or computer screen.
“I knew already that the mall of America had been imagined by its
creators not merely as a marketplace but as a national tourist attraction,
an immense zone of entertainments. Such a conceit raised provocative
questions, for our architecture testifies to our view of ourselves and to the
condition of our souls. Large buildings stand as markers in the lives of
nations and in the stream of a people’s history .Thus I could only ask
myself: Here was a new structure that had cost more than half a billion
dollars to erect—what might it tell us about ourselves? If the Mall of
America was part of America, what was that going to mean?”
Original statement and inadequate restatement:
“Conservation is a state of harmony between man and land. Despite
nearly a century of propaganda, conservation still proceeds at a snail’s
pace; progress still consists largely of letterhead pieties and convention
oratory. On the back forty we still slip two steps backward for each
forward stride.”
Restatement: Harmony between man and land is conservation. After a
century of talk, conservation still moves like a snail and progress is only
on letterhead promises or in speech. In the backyard we stumble when we
try to walk.