Using Complex Text to Build Content Knowledge (Motter)

1A, 2A, 2B, 3B: Students are re-visiting a complex text that they have already read twice about women's suffrage. The questions require them to attend to the specific language of the text and use context to identify the central figures discussed in the text. The teacher asks a series of questions that require students to examine their understanding of the document, identify textual evidence to support their point of view, or to take a different point of view. She encourages them to find the antecedents of "them" and "their" which are central to students understanding both the text and the historical context. This task requires critical analysis and the teacher provides support to probe students' understanding. 

2D, 3A, 3B, 3C: Students are working in heterogeneous groups on a task that requires them to dive deeper into the text and create meaning about the important details. They are asked to examine items in the text and group them according to their similarities and differences. They are examining vocabulary and grouping the grievances contained in the text into similar categories. As the students work, the teacher provides feedback, refers students back to the text, expects precision from all students, and asks students to interact with each other.  

2B, 3C: During this segment, the teacher coaches the group to identify the categories found in the text by referring students back to specific evidence and helping the first students find multiple sections of the text that refer to the category of marriage. The teacher supports the second group of students in identifying multiple correct ways to categorize some of the specific grievances contained in the text.  

1C, 2A, 2C: The teacher refers students to a quote in order to identify specific vocabulary terms that identify the different categories of ways that women have been mistreated. The teacher probes the students for their analysis of the words and the overall text. This particular task helps students to decipher the multitude of examples of how women were oppressed. The teacher probes students to examine unexpected things from the text, to continue using academic and domain-specific vocabulary, and to refer specifically to relationships found between examples. 

 3A, 3B, 3C: The teacher has allowed students to collaborate with assigned partners in heterogeneous groups. As the student shares their categorization, the teacher asks for specific evidence about that particular claim. The teacher then probes by asking for specific evidence and focusing on the vocabulary term "elected franchise." 
As students who have differing viewpoints share their claims, the teacher supports them in sharing their thoughts and in clarifying vocabulary. The teacher honors the differing ways that students name the categories while continuing to probe for clarity and common threads.

1C, 2A, 3C: The text supports students in both gaining content knowledge about women's suffrage and making comparisons and contrasts to previous historical examples. The students are comparing the example from this text to the example of how colonists were declaring independence from Britain. The teacher allows students to share their opinions and encourages them to both use evidence and precision while building upon each other's ideas.