Language
Standard:
discovering the power to influence tone, mood, style, voice, and meaning
L.11-12.3; L. 11-12.1; L. 11-12.2
R. 11-12.4; R. 11-12.6; R.11-12.9
To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions of standard English. At the same time, they must
come to appreciate that language is as at least as much a matter of craft as of rules and be able to choose words, syntax, and punctuation to express
themselves and achieve particular functions and rhetorical effects. (CCSS, 51)
Featured Skill:
Grade Level: 11-12
Students will understand the use of semicolon, as
well as other forms of punctuation, to impact
meaning within a text.
Suggested for Grade 11
Theme and/or Essential
Question
Featured Text
Primary Text:
 “Resistance to Civil Government” by Henry David
Thoreau (pg 211)
Secondary Text:
 “My Walden, My Walmart” by Crispin Sartwell, NY Times
 “Keep Ya Head Up”—Tupac (music video)
 Occupy Wall Street Movement—(Youtube clip)
Instruction
Process



What is transcendentalism?
What are past and present
examples of non-violent
opposition?
Why is advocating for a personal
belief important?
Activity
Instructional Steps
Modeling
and
explaining
the featured
grammar
skill
1. Background: Students should, in grades 6-8, learn about the function
of a semicolon. Students may not have explored in depth their use in
terms of purposeful inclusion in order to impact meaning. Students
may not have an understanding of the choices they have in punctuation
and how those choices ultimately create emphasis on a particular
element.
2. In this particular lesson, the teacher will not model the featured skill.
Students will engage in a close reading of Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil
Government” in order to determine the usage and impact of the
grammatical conventions (here, the semicolon). This lesson guides
students to discover the impact of usage in a piece of writing. For
students to become well acquainted with the text, multiple
opportunities to read the selection will be necessary.
Language  Page 1
Process
Activity
Instructional Steps
Reading 1: Student reading
3. We encourage the reading of the entire selection before the close study
in order to provide a context for the particular excerpt in this lesson.
Independently, students will read and annotate the essay.
Reading 2: Teacher or fluent reader reading
Practice
in Context
4. Teachers may want to read the excerpted section aloud. Students need
to hear all the words pronounced correctly; delivery includes deliberate
choices that could begin to rob students of the opportunity to make
meaning based on the word choice, word order, and punctuation.
Reading text
and
identifying
deliberate
use of the
featured
grammar
skill
Reading 3: Answering questions to engage in the text
5. Students will read “Resistance to Civil Government” independently.
Students should focus on Thoreau’s use of rhetorical devices while
likewise noting how he uses grammatical conventions to shape his
message. Have students seek to formulate a sentence that
encapsulates the piece’s theme.
6. Students should annotate the essay and answer questions. (See
handout). The questions are intended to promote understanding/
comprehension; however, these questions are not all ‘right there’ types
of questions. The questions all require students to return to the text
and potentially locate additional information to increase
understanding.
Analyzing and Evaluating : Rereading to discover
7. The teacher may choose to allow students to re-read the text a second
time with a partner. They may share their findings and discuss their
impressions.
Writing: Use the features skill(s)
Application
in Writing
8. Use the skills in a meaningful way. Evaluate the use of the skill in
other works.
Writing text
and applying
the featured
grammar skill
in a
deliberate
way
9. Students will, based on the multiple encounters with the focus skill,
determine the usage.
10. Students will choose one of the writing options available.
Language  Page 2
Process
Activity
Instructional Steps
For extension: (Students could be provided options for
extension activities)

Extensions and Interventions



Additional
Resources

Provide students with a copy of the Bill of Rights (accessible here). Ask
students to cut them into slips and put them in order of most to least
important. After ten minutes, ask students to share their order and provide a
brief explanation why they ordered the rights in that particular fashion. After
the groups have shared, ask students to discuss what they would do—and how
they would protest—were one or more of the rights taken away. Have
students brainstorm historical instances in which these freedoms were denied.
Later in the lesson, as the teacher and students learn about Thoreau and
others’ protests, revisit this discussion with students, drawing parallels
between the students’ answers and the actions of those people studied.
Have students view the follow clip explaining the Occupy Wall Street
Movement. Other current events of non-violent protests may be used instead.
Students should jot down 3 ways in which the movement mirrors Thoreau’s
piece. Follow with class discussion; for a more enriched discussion, tie into
earlier conversation about the Bill of Rights.
Students may journal about a time a law was passed (or a rule given by
parents/teachers/ admin) that they believed was immoral or unjust. They
should discuss the law, why this law displeased them, and how they sought (or
if they sought) to rectify it. If they did not seek change, prod further—ask
them why not.
Have students Read Gandhi’s “On Nonviolent Resistance” (pg 220) and/or
King’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” (pg 221) and note both the
thematic and grammatical parallels between the piece(s) and Thoreau’s
“Resistance.”
As students study and learn more about the core beliefs of transcendentalism,
the teacher may ask students to read “My Walden, My Walmart” and list the
various aspects of transcendentalism in the piece. This article would pair well
with “Walden” or “Self-Reliance). Have students pay attention to the author’s
semicolon usage to reinforce the grammatical skills.
For Intervention and support:


Teachers should review the questions for the excerpt carefully. The questions
are intended to help the students attend to the reading for comprehension.
The use of the questions should be determined by the students in the room. If
students are able to read and comprehend without questions that direct them
line by line, then these supports can be taken away. Always remember that
the purpose of the questions is to promote close reading of the selection; the
removal of the direct questions should not remove the opportunity to read
carefully and closely. The questions should only be reduced or removed once
students are equipped with the annotating and close reading skills necessary
to question the text naturally. (See the attached handout).
To support students, students should be encouraged to work collaboratively.
The first reading should be done by students independently—we want
students to have the opportunity to try to find some elements first. Reading
aloud is an opportunity for a second reading and to hear all the words
pronounced correctly. As students become more intimate with the selection,
working collaboratively allows them to build on the ideas of others and
negotiate the meaning of particular elements.
Language  Page 3
Process
Activity

Potential
Confusion



Teacher
Notes

Instructional Steps
The use of the semicolon is a matter of choice. Students, particularly those
who are rule driven, will recognize that other punctuation may serve the same
purpose. We need to help students understand that functionally the
punctuation can be replaced by another for correctness; however, function
alone does not always articulate intent and meaning.
Students may confuse a semicolon with a colon or comma.
Answer keys are not provided. The lessons are intended to create
opportunities for students to rely on the text to gain independence in reading
complex texts. In this instructional model, the only wrong answers are those
that are not well supported or engage in fallacious reasoning.
It is best for teachers to engage in conversations and make instructional
decisions with a PLT about this lesson, its content, and student outcomes.
You may have noticed that providing background information is not part of the
beginning of the lesson. Within the Language Lessons, students will need to
rely upon the words and punctuation to create meaning without the assistance
of the teacher or other background building activities prior to the learning
experience. As students progress through the activities, they will need
information and build the background that we typically provide up front.
When students enter the world of college and career, they will need to be
equipped with the necessary skills to determine context, question a text,
determine the information they will need to know to increase understanding,
and know where to locate that information.
Text: “Resistance to Civil Government”
Step One: Read the excerpt to yourself and annotate the text.
Read the excerpt to yourself. Make note of words, phrases, and punctuation (particularly semicolon usage) that
intrigue you in some way.
Look for irregularities, similarities, and unknowns.
Irregularity: I find it peculiar the way the author used this word.
Similarity: I am seeing a pattern here: in words, phrasing, or ideas. (Diction and Syntax)
Unknowns: I don’t know what that means. Or I don’t know what that means in this context.
Step Two: In this step your teacher or a classmate will read aloud.
Listen carefully to the words being read. If you read a word incorrectly, you may want to make note of that
change. Translate each line of the excerpt. As you learn more, you will want to adjust your translation.
Language  Page 4
Step Three: In this step, you will be asked to read Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government”
carefully. These questions are designed to promote understanding of the text.
*The teacher may find it helpful to have students read the background information detailing the factors leading
up to Thoreau’s night in jail. This information can be found on page 210.
1. Thoreau uses a semicolon in his first two sentences. Both sentences are parallel in structure. What is the
effect of using the semicolons? (Consider first the clauses they help join). What is the effect of using parallel
structure to open the essay?
2. “The standing army is only an arm of the standing government.” What literary device does Thoreau use here?
Why is this effective?
3. The second paragraph of the essay is rife with semicolons. Why might Thoreau have chosen to use the
convention so liberally? How would the flow change if he’d used simple, short declarative sentences instead?
4. Why might Thoreau have chosen to italicize “at once” on page 213?
5. Select one of the rhetorical questions Thoreau uses in the piece and, using the text, answer it how you believe
Thoreau might.
6. In discussing his night in prison, Thoreau states “if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen,
there was still a more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was” (214).
What rhetorical device does Thoreau make use of here? Explain his meaning.
7. In what ways is Thoreau’s night in jail “like traveling into a far country” (215) for him? Provide textual analysis
to support your claim.
8. What about his neighbor’s does Thoreau not like (look at his musings after being released from jail).
9. Thoreau asks his readers “is it not possible to take a step further toward recognizing and organizing the rights
of man?” (216). In what ways has the government done so since Thoreau wrote this essay? What shortcomings
still exist?
Step Four: This step will ask you to perform a close reading and viewing of Tupac’s “Keep Ya
Head Up” and evaluate and synthesis its connections to “Resistance to Civil Government.”
1. In many ways, “Keep Ya Head Up” is a female empowerment song, one that encourages females to demand
more from the world around them. Give two examples of hardships women face in the song.
2. Tupac warns that if women are not treated better, there will be generational effects. What are these effects?
3. “They got money for wars but can’t feed the poor” is a line in the song. In what ways does this echo Thoreau’s
sentiments in “Resistance to Civil Government”?
4. Find an example of a metaphor in the song and explain the comparison being made.
5. Tupac worries “there ain’t no hope for the future.” In what ways does this compare and contrast with
Thoreau’s feelings about the future?
6. What is the tone of the song? How do we know? Provide textual analysis to substantiate your answer.
7. Find an example of alliteration and explain how its use adds to the song’s meaning.
Language  Page 5
Step Five: Writing
Option 1: Using dialogue, have students write a conversation between Thoreau and Tupac (the teacher may
choose to let students work in pairs for this assignment with one student writing as and the other writing as
Tupac). Each should list the issues he sees within his own society (reference the texts for this) and provide
solutions as best he can. Students should use one correctly placed semicolon in the exchange.
Option 2: Have students write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the Occupy Wall Street protestors.
In the entry, the student should reference facts from the video clip and relate his experience to either Thoreau or
Tupac while also using at least one correctly placed semicolon.
Option 3: Students may write their own amendment to the Constitution and a brief explanation of why they
believe the change necessary. In either the amendment or the justification, there should be at least one correctly
used semicolon.
*Require students to submit a written explanation on WHY the semicolons they use are necessary and valuable
to the tone and meaning of the text they produce. Students should be able to justify their choice of semicolon use
for particular effect on the audience/reader.
Language  Page 6