This learning module is designed as an application of rhetorical analysis and argument skills. It is useful to conduct this module over a Learning Management System such as Google Classroom, Schoology, or CG Scholar. Over the course of this learning module, students will:

• Practice the art of “seeing” photographs.
• Learn from a variety of perspectives regarding a single subject.
• Explain how an argument demonstrates an understanding of an audience’s beliefs, values, or needs.
• Explain how writers’ stylistic choices contribute to the purpose of an argument.
• Identify and describe the overarching thesis of an argument, and any indication it provides of the argument’s structure.
• Write a thesis statement that requires proof or defense and that may preview the structure of the argument.
• Develop a paragraph that includes a claim and evidence supporting the claim.

The key to this update is to emphasize the patience students need to exert in order to be able to “see” and understand this image well.

In addition, it is useful for students to note their assumptions and conclusions from their observation in a way that they can return to later so that they can see just how vastly different the image in this update is from the image in the next update. They may need some encouragement to keep making observations and make it all the way to 20 observations.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

This update is an example of “Experiencing …

the known – learners reflect on their own familiar experiences, interests, and perspectives.

the new – learners observe or take part in something that is unfamiliar; they are immersed in new situations or contents” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a).

In this update, students participate in “Activities that bring in the students’ own experiences and existing knowledge” because they are asked to note their observations about this image using only what they presently know (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021b). It is a great way to activate background knowledge while “immersing students in new experiences or information” because this is likely an image they have not seen before (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021b).

AP Language & Composition Course and Exam Description (CED) Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge:

NONE

This is more of a preparatory Update. Enduring Understanding and Essential Knowledge standards will begin with Update 3.

As the instructor, make sure to provide enough time to emphasize the details of comparison. It is clear that both images are similar, but the small changes truly show the differences in argument. It is also useful to ask them why they think there are differences or what impressions those differences give.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Students are again “Experiencing the new” because they will “observe or take part in something that is unfamiliar; they are immersed in new situations or contents” when they encounter the sculpture paired next to the photograph (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a).

AP Language & Composition Course and Exam Description (CED) Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge:

NONE

This is more of a preparatory Update. Enduring Understanding and Essential Knowledge standards will begin with Update 3.

It may even be a good idea to ask students to read and listen to the podcast twice: once for understanding and a second time to analyze rhetoric, rhetorical choices, and choices in craft.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

In addition to observing, students are “Conceptualizing by naming” because they are “group[ing] things into categories, apply[ing] classifying terms, and defin[ing] these terms” because they are not only encountering Gladwell’s text; they are learning terms to describe rhetorical choices (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a).

AP Language & Composition CED Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge:

• RHS-1 Individuals write within a particular situation and make strategic writing choices based on that situation.
• RHS-1.C - The purpose of a text is what the writer hopes to accomplish with it. Writers may have more than one purpose in a text.
• RHS-1.D - An audience of a text has shared as well as individual beliefs, values, needs, and backgrounds.
• CLE-1 - Writers make claims about subjects, rely on evidence that supports the reasoning that justifies the claim, and often acknowledge or respond to other, possibly opposing arguments.
• CLE-1.A - Writers convey their positions through one or more claims that require a defense.
• CLE-1.B - Writers defend their claims with evidence and/or reasoning.
• CLE-1.C - Types of evidence may include facts, anecdotes, analogies, statistics, examples, details, illustrations, expert opinions, personal observations, personal experiences, testimonies, or experiments.
• CLE-1.D - Effective claims provoke interest and require a defense, rather than simply stating an obvious, known fact that requires no defense or justification.
• CLE-1.E - Writers relate source material to their own argument by syntactically embedding particular quoted, paraphrased, or summarized information from one or more sources into their own ideas.

In the past, I have also paired this text with common famous photographs to discuss what Sontag describes as the “indelible sample”. It might be an additional element to explore if students are struggling to connect Sontag’s text to their own relationship with photographs.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

With Sontag’s text, this update is now asking students to “Conceptualiz[e] by naming – learners group things into categories, apply classifying terms, and define these terms” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a) because it is an “activit[y] that get[s] students to group and classify things, form concepts and define terms” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021b). Gladwell’s argument focuses on our understanding of history. Sontag delves more deeply into photographs. Learners are also “Analyzing functionally” when they “analyse logical connections, cause and effect, structure and function” because they are looking at the growth and development of text through strategic rhetorical choices (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a). Although the two texts are different, there are connections to be identified and delineated.

AP Language & Composition CED Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge

• RHS-1 Individuals write within a particular situation and make strategic writing choices based on that situation.
• RHS-1.C - The purpose of a text is what the writer hopes to accomplish with it. Writers may have more than one purpose in a text.
• RHS-1.D - An audience of a text has shared as well as individual beliefs, values, needs, and backgrounds.
• CLE-1 - Writers make claims about subjects, rely on evidence that supports the reasoning that justifies the claim, and often acknowledge or respond to other, possibly opposing, arguments.
• CLE-1.A - Writers convey their positions through one or more claims that require a defense.
• CLE-1.B - Writers defend their claims with evidence and/or reasoning.
• CLE-1.C - Types of evidence may include facts, anecdotes, analogies, statistics, examples, details, illustrations, expert opinions, personal observations, personal experiences, testimonies, or experiments.
• CLE-1.D - Effective claims provoke interest and require a defense, rather than simply stating an obvious, known fact that requires no defense or justification.
• CLE-1.E - Writers relate source material to their own argument by syntactically embedding particular quoted, paraphrased, or summarized information from one or more sources into their own ideas.

In order to help students choose a text, remind them that they need to find a PHOTOGRAPH, not an artistic image. In addition, the article should contain a photograph. However, the article should not be about the photograph. If students are struggling, I have also pointed them to this website (cited) in the past, which shows the front page of hundreds of newspapers, each of which contains articles paired with photographs.

If students choose to analyze an up-to-date article, make sure to have them download a PDF of it. In the past, I have had students use a news article where the image, the headline, and the writing change overnight when it is updated with new information.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

In this update, students are learning to “analyze critically – learners evaluate their own and other people’s perspectives, interests and motives” because have to evaluate their experience while reading the article (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a). In addition, they must “explore motives, purposes and interests” in both the text and the photograph that was paired with the text (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021b).

Additionally, students are learning to “Apply appropriately – learners apply new learning to real-world situations and test their validity” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a). They have studied Sontag’s ideas only within the bounds of her own text. Now, they are applying “knowledge to actual problems and real-world situations” by looking at the relationship between text and photographs in action (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021b).

AP Language & Composition CED Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge

• CLE-1 - Writers make claims about subjects, rely on evidence that supports the reasoning that justifies the claim, and often acknowledge or respond to other, possibly opposing arguments.
• 3.B Reading – Identify and describe the overarching thesis of an argument, and any indication it provides of the argument’s structure.
• 4.B Writing – Write a thesis statement that requires proof or defense and that may preview the structure of the argument.
• 4.A: Develop a paragraph that includes a claim and evidence supporting the claim.

No notes for instruction.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Lastly, students will “Apply creatively – learners make an intervention in the world which is innovative and creative or transfer their learning to a different context” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2021a). In the sharing of their analysis, the assignment “require[s] the transfer of knowledge to new situations and different contexts” Cope & Kalantzis, 2021b).

AP Language & Composition CED Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge

• CLE-1 - Writers make claims about subjects, rely on evidence that supports the reasoning that justifies the claim, and often acknowledge or respond to other, possibly opposing, arguments.
• 3.B Reading – Identify and describe the overarching thesis of an argument, and any indication it provides of the argument’s structure.
• 4.B Writing – Write a thesis statement that requires proof or defense and that may preview the structure of the argument.
• 4.A: Develop a paragraph that includes a claim and evidence supporting the claim.