Students will work through a series of three tasks, beginning with an open discussion, moving to their QAR "on my own" questions, and then moving to the teacher-provided journal questions.  Each of these tasks requires students to cite evidence from the text while encouraging student-led discussion. The teacher has strategically scaffolded the questions to provide ample work while allowing students the independence to manage their conversations. 

In this interaction, the students display persistence in providing textual evidence to support their understanding of the end of the section they had just read.  The students negotiate that the big idea is about the decision made by the Board of Education, rather than Black Monday.

In this interaction, students persevere in determining what brought Emmett Till to Mississippi.  Each student is immersed in the text, sharing evidence to better understand the circumstances for Emmett's fateful trip, using page numbers and referring to page numbers and specific vocabulary. 

In this interaction, students draw evidence from the text to deepen their understanding of Emmett Till's character.  Students reference multiple details from the text in their discussion, directly read and paraphrase the text, and make inferences steeped in textual evidence. 

Students persevere in their discussion of complex concepts about racism.  Students draw multiple pieces of evidence to discuss and deepen their understanding of Jim Crow laws.

In this interaction, the students cite textual evidence to assist their peer in understanding her question about why violence increased with desegregation.

Well into the class period, the students continue to raise questions to clarify understanding.  In this interaction, students are figuring out why Emmett Till needed to make money, with all students drawing evidence from the text to contribute to the discussion.  

The teacher supports students in making sense of key vocabulary, guiding students to use context clues to understand the term "taboo." Students make guesses as to the denotative and the connotative meaning of the word, using context and evidence from the text. 

In this interaction, students demonstrate progress towards independence in their discussion, and continue to delve into the text after a long period of discussion. They move into the third phase of their discussion, drawing from the journal questions to help move their discussion along.