Lesson Overview 

Quiz

As usual, there is a quiz here.  Because it precedes a partner work you will want to grade the quiz - right away, before students get too far into the lesson.  However - given the nature of both of these possible lessons - I did let students work on this during class, even if they didn't do the reading, with the following catch:  I put students who did not do the reading together (these are partner works).  There is an incredible fairness in that choice - not having done the reading will slow them substantially down - and it wouldn't be fair to partner with someone who DID do the reading.

NOTE: It is also possible to do these two in-class assignments without having done the reading.  In some ways, that replicates doing research in the field.  However, keep in mind that it will make things go much slower - but it will also add another layer of skill sets to the activity.

Partner/Solo Work 1 - The Life of Johnson - The Words of Boswell

This is the more recent of the two activities.  After an initial questions that gets the students to recall all the way back to September, and the research methods of The Venerable Bede - the students are asked to find a quote from Johnson's famous biographer: Bowell - that supports a fact about Johnson's life that was written by the text book's authors.

After that activity - if they have time (they should - this assignment is designed to be completed in one class period) the students are given two blank Samuel Johnson Memes, that they can contemplate and fill out to their hearts' delight.

Partner/Solo Work 2 - Taking Notes for a Background Study Paper

This handout (and exercise) asks  the students to imagine that they are working on a research paper.  A "Background Study Paper" - the kind of research paper that I would never allow the students to actually do because it lacks a strong controversial thesis.  It is essentially a "history" of a given subject or person.  I give the students a topic: "Samuel Johnson's Dictionary"

It has the students
1. Go through the text looking for areas that they would want to take notes on.  They are asked to use all of the formatting and conventions that we have been studying for the research paper.
2. For each note "area" (this is on the second page of the handout) they are asked to find a direct quote - again taking down all of the pertinent MLA information.
3. Now, the students are asked to imagine they've narrowed their topic to "The Writing of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary" and they are asked to look at a certain page of their text book that includes Johnson's letter to Lord Chesterfield - and they are asked to come up with a thesis - based on that reading.  A kind of reverse-engineered thesis.
4. They repeat questions 1 & 2, using their newly found thesis.
5.  They then are asked to write ONE paragraph based on the quotes and text - using their thesis to guide them.
6. Time permitting, they are to write a Works Cited List for their imagined Background Study Paper.

Remote Enhancements 

Both of these can  be done remotely of course - I've actually had great success with Partner  Work remotely - it does take some planning though.