Lesson Plan: Approaching Difficult Topics from Multiple Angles Ignites Students’ Passion

Lesson Plan Approaching Difficult Topics from Multiple Angles Ignites Students’ Passion What makes an effective argument?

This is the central question explored by students in AP English Language and Literature, taught by Peggy Judge Hamilton ‘85. They delve into the study of rhetoric to learn what creates effective arguments and then employ those strategies in their own writing.

The curriculum issued by the College Board focuses on non-fiction, but Peggy has put her own stamp on the class to ensure it is quintessentially Visitation (all junior English students study American literature) and that the girls walk away with a deeper understanding of the conflicts that have shaped our nation.

When she started teaching this class, Peggy saw the opportunity to go beyond the College Board’s narrow curriculum and broaden the educational impact of the class. She introduced a research paper on the Vietnam War after students read Tim O’Brien’s stirring fiction account of the war, The Things They Carried. The project helped girls explore a historical event through fiction. Later, Native Son, Richard Wright’s classic novel on race, poverty, and hopelessness in 1930s Chicago, was added as an option, prompting students to explore racism.

After the school’s release of our report on The History of Enslaved People at Georgetown Visitation last year, Peggy, who is also a Diversity Co-Coordinator along with Raynetta Jackson-Clay, saw the opportunity to deepen students’ understanding of race in America through a focused series of fiction and non-fiction works.

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VISI.ORG

Peggy Judge Hamilton ’85

This year, in addition to The Things They Carried, students read Just Mercy, a non-fiction account of lawyer and author Bryan Stevenson’s work to exonerate a convicted murderer who professed his innocence. The work explores the themes of justice and mercy and the role race plays in our modern court system.

They also read Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, in which he asserts the individual’s mandate to actively work against injustice perpetrated by the government; Martin Luther King Jr.’s

Letter from Birmingham Jail, a defense of non-violent resistance to unjust laws; and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the memoir of former slave turned abolitionist leader. In addition, the young women in Peggy’s class watched the documentary 13th, which looks at the criminalization of African Americans. The title refers to the Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery except as punishment for crime.

This new syllabus prompted girls to

The girls are really making connections. The blend of fiction and non-fiction offers them so much more to delve into. The overlap among the worlds prompts rich discussion and deep thought.

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE TEACHER PEGGY JUDGE HAMILTON ‘85

delve into a diverse range of topics at the intersection of race and justice, from the war on drugs to bail to Black athlete activism to slaveholding and Christianity.

As Peggy notes, “The girls are really making connections. The blend of fiction and non-fiction offers them so much more to delve into. The overlap among the worlds prompts rich discussion and deep thought.” This fall study segues seamlessly into the rest of the year’s curriculum, which explores the tension between individual and society, self-reliance and conformity through such classic American novels as The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye,

The Scarlet Letter, and Huck Finn. It also complements what the girls are learning in other classes, like AP U.S. History, taught by Patrick Kelleher, and Religion III. Junior Bridget Newell shared, “What I love about junior year is that AP Lang, religion, and AP U.S. History come together and look at the same topics from different angles, especially diversity. We read the Martin Luther King letter in religion and AP Lang, but from different angles. In AP Lang, we looked at the rhetoric he used and then we learned the history behind why he was there. In religion, we learn Catholic

social justice teaching, so there we applied what King was saying and how the times were violating Catholic teaching. [When we] … look at the structure, the values, and the history, it becomes a more full topic.”

Her classmate Mae Schwab added that in these classes, “We’re focused on justice, on issues we can do something about, things we can apply to the world.

We learn what we can do now. That makes it more interesting.” Her examination of the criminal justice system—she wrote her AP Lang research paper on how bail impacts the poor—has sparked her interest in studying law.

A selection of books read by students in AP English Language and Literature.

SPRING 2019

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