1. Lesson 33: Culminating writing task: revising a claim and gathering evidence
About this lesson
Students begin the writing process to answer the prompt for the culminating writing task: What central idea or theme about human treatment of animals does The Call of the Wild convey? They draft a claim, revise a claim given peer feedback, and begin to gather evidence to support the claim.

2. We identified themes that London conveys about human treatment of animals in The Call of the Wild.
Let’s Review!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute
Directions:
Briefly review the previous learning.
Explain how students have prepared for the culminating writing task throughout the unit:
Say: “Throughout our reading of The Call of the Wild, you have analyzed Buck’s relationship with his various owners, and how each owner impacted him in different ways. You synthesized your thinking about Buck’s various owners during the previous lesson.”
Say: “In section 4, you practiced identifying reasons and relevant evidence to support a given claim.”
Say: “In section 7, you practiced developing your own claim, identifying reasons and relevant evidence to support that claim. You also wrote an intro and well-developed body paragraph.”
Say: “All of these steps have helped you prepare to write your essay for the culminating writing task.”

3. Draft and revise your claim for the culminating writing task.
Today we will:
Draft and revise your claim for the culminating writing task.
Identify reasons and gather relevant evidence to support your claim.
The Writing Process
Let’s Prepare!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute
Directions:
Read the slide.
Briefly explain how this lesson prepares students for another lesson and/or the end-of-unit assessments.
Throughout the lesson, compare students’ responses and work to the student look-fors. Determine the students who need additional support with reading, understanding, or expressing their understanding of complex, grade-level texts. During this lesson or before the next lesson, support those students individually or in a small group using the Additional Supports for Diverse Learners.

4. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
You will need:
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Your culminating writing task directions
The prepare to write your essay handout
Your Painted EssayTM handout
Your character relationships handout, incident chart, and other notes
Let’s Prepare!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~ 3 minutes
Directions:
Distribute the text.
Access and distribute the planning your essay handout.
Ask students to locate their culminating writing task directions handout, the character relationships handout, their painted essay handout, their incident chart handout and various notes from throughout the unit.
This lesson uses organizational frames. Access the strategy one-pager to learn more about organizational frames.

5. Review the culminating writing task directions.
Let’s Read!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~ 2 minutes
Directions:
Remind students to review the culminating writing task directions handout as a way to reground themselves in the task and the purpose for their writing.
Review the expectations of the writing task:
Ask: “What question will your essay address?”
Ask: What should the essay include?”
Ask: “Who is your audience?”
Student Look-Fors:
Students should state the essay should discuss a theme that is conveyed about human treatment of animals, and demonstrate an understanding of the text.
Students should also use text evidence, both quoted directly and paraphrased, and they should use appropriate grammar, conventions, and spelling.

6. Share your claim statement from the previous lesson with a partner.
Evaluate your partner’s claim using the SODA strategy:
Is the claim specific?
Is the claim original?
Is the claim defensible?
Is the claim arguable?
Make revisions based on the evaluation.
Task Prompt: What central idea or theme about humans’ treatment of animals does Jack London convey in The Call of the Wild?
Let’s Discuss!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~ 8 minutes
Directions:
Divide the class into pairs using an established classroom routine.
Purposefully pair together students with similar claim statements.
Direct pairs to select a partner A and B.
Establish norms for the partner work and explain that students will be held accountable for their learning by using the conversation stems learning tool during the discussion.
Ask students to locate their character relationships handout and turn to page 2, where they drafted their thesis or claim statement.
Direct partner A to begin the discussion by sharing their claim statement.
Allow 1 minute for partner A to share.
Then direct partner B to respond and share for an additional minute.
Direct students to follow the directions on the slide to evaluate their claims with a partner and make revisions as necessary.
Remind students that they will use the same strategy that they have used throughout the unit, the SODA strategy, to ensure their claims are specific, original, defensible, and arguable.
Prompt students to use the conversation stems learning tool during the discussion.
Student Look-Fors:
Is the claim specific? Students should make sure their partner’s claim addresses the question being asked, names a specific theme, and includes the reasons or ways the author develops the theme.
Is the claim original? Students should make sure their partner’s claim is his/her own idea.
Is the claim defensible? Students should make sure their partner’s claim can have relevant supporting evidence. For example, “The author conveys the theme that Buck is really a wolf and humans shouldn’t own wolves” would not be a defensible claim, but “Through Buck’s experiences with the man in the red sweater and Perrault and Francois, London conveys the theme that one can judge a person’s character by how he treats animals” would be a defensible claim.
is the claim arguable? Students should make sure there is another side or opinion that conflicts or counters the one stated in their partner’s claim. For example, “Buck’s owners treat him differently” is not arguable.
Additional Notes:
For students who did not write a claim in the previous lesson, they should use this time to draft their claim.

7. Painted Essay Structure: Introduction and thesis
Body Paragraph: Reason #1
Evidence and explanation
Body Paragraph: Reason #2
Conclusion
Let’s Discuss!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~5 minutes
Directions:
Direct students to review The Painted EssayTM handout.
Give students 2 minutes to review the handout.
Tell students that today, they will gather the evidence that they need so that they can write a well-developed body paragraph. Tomorrow, they will write an introduction paragraph and one body paragraph as a step to practice what they will do for their culminating writing task at the end of the unit.
Possible Supports During the Lesson:
As needed, review the Painted EssayTM structure as one way to help them plan and organize for their essay by talking through each of the colors of the essay. For example:
Say: “The first paragraph of your essay is the introduction. This is written in red because, like the color, it should grab your reader’s attention and prepare them for what they will read in your essay.”
Say: “The green underneath the red represents the thesis statement, which is made up of your claim and reasons. This will be the last sentence of your introduction. The thesis tells your reader the specific idea you will develop and support in your argument. Your claim should include two reasons, which will become the body paragraphs of your essay. These are represented by the yellow and blue boxes.”
Say: “Each body paragraph will include the reason (that comes from the thesis), relevant evidence (at least 2 pieces) and an explanation that shows how this supports the reason and connects to the thesis.”
Say: “You can see the first sentence of the second body paragraph has a yellow box around it. This represents that you will need a transition statement that connects ideas between body paragraph #1 and body paragraph #2.”
Say: “Finally, an essay will have a conclusion paragraph that should restate the claim, and flow from the essay to leave a lasting impression with the reader in support of your argument.”
As needed, provided model student writing and have students color code the models to see how this structure is applied to writing and can be adapted.
Student Look Fors:
Students should review and discuss the Painted EssayTM handout and what it visually represents about how they should structure their essays.
Additional Notes:
Students were introduced to this structure earlier in the unit. The Painted EssayTM format is intended to provide a structure to support students who need help organizing their essay, not be a formula or the only way to structure an essay. For example, students may only provide one reason and have one body paragraph. If students are capable of organizing and writing a strong essay by adapting this structure or without this structure, they should be encouraged to do so.

8. Why should a reader agree with my claim?
My claim: Buck is able to survive in the wild because he changes the way in which he relates to man and other animals.
Reason #1: Buck must depend on himself - and not other people - in order to survive the wild.
Evidence: “When he saw Pike, one of the new dogs, a clever malingerer and thief, slyly steal a slice of bacon when Perrault's back was turned, he duplicated the performance the following day, getting away with the whole chunk.”
REASON:
Why should a reader agree
with my claim?
EVIDENCE:
What specific example supports my reason?
Let’s Discuss!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~ 3 minutes
Directions:
Note: This slide is for review only. If students do not need this review, skip this slide.
Remind students of the difference between reasons and evidence, and how both are needed to support a claim by drawing upon the example from section 4 when students identified reasons and gathered evidence related to what enables Buck to survive in the wild.
Say: “Earlier in our unit, you had the opportunity to identify reasons and gather evidence to support a claim that you were given about what enables Buck to survive in the wild. The claim and one reason and piece of evidence is on the slide.”
Say: “Remember: a reason should answer the question ‘Why?’ as in ‘Why should someone agree with my claim?’ In this example, the reason given is that Buck must depend on himself - and not others - to survive. This is one reason that shows why he changes the way he relates to people and how that helps him.”
Say: “Once you have your reason identified, the next step is to find relevant evidence to the reason and help make a compelling argument in support of the claim.”
Say: “Evidence serves as support for the reasons you offer, and can be presented in different forms (e.g., an argument on scientific matters might include statistics or data, whereas an argument about a character in a text will include examples of what the character does/says to support the claim).”
Say: “When looking for text evidence, you want to find specific examples that support the reason. For this reason, the evidence shows the way that Buck changed because he is willing to steal food from his owners. This shows what he does - steals - to demonstrate that he depends on himself for survival.”
Student Look Fors:
Students should listen and follow along during the review.

9. Prepare to write your essay.
Gather and select the best evidence to support your thesis (claim and reasons).
Record notes about how each piece of evidence supports the thesis.
Brainstorm ideas to hook your reader and conclude your essay.
Let’s Practice!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~15 minutes
Directions:
Ask students to follow the directions on the slide.
Direct students to draw upon their character relationships handout, incident chart handout, and any other handouts or notes from the unit, and refer to the text to gather textual evidence for their essay.
Monitor student work time, providing support to students as needed.
Possible Supports During the Lesson:
If students are not writing answers similar to the Student Look-Fors:
Ask: “What from the text best supports that reason? Why/how?”
Ask: “Can you think of another incident in the text that demonstrates that idea? How does it do so?”
Student Look Fors:
Access a culminating writing task student exemplar response.

10. Share your handout with a partner.
Review your partner’s handout and provide feedback for the first body paragraph:
How well does the selected evidence support the reason and claim?
What questions or suggestions do you have?
Let’s Express Our Understanding!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~10 minutes
Directions:
Students should remain in pairs.
Direct students to share their handout with their partner for quick peer feedback. Students should review the evidence/explanation that their partner has gathered for each reason to support the claim and write any positive or constructive feedback.
Monitor student work time, providing additional support to student pairs as needed.
Direct students to review their partner’s feedback and make any necessary revisions.
Then have students do the same analysis for their second body paragraph independently.
Student Look Fors:
Students should provide quick written feedback to their partner.

11. In this lesson, you considered what London conveys about human treatment of animals.
You also analyzed and revised your claim and prepared to write your essay by gathering relevant evidence and brainstorming ideas for your introduction and conclusion paragraphs.
Let’s Close!
Teaching Notes
Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute
Directions:
Read the slide.