Katelyn Toledo

Interrogating Texts
8th grade
Time Frame: 50 minutes
- Learning Context: Class of 25 6th graders
- Residents of Long Island
- 60% Caucasian, 20% African American, 10% Hispanic, 10% Asian
- 1 inclusion student with disability (accompanied by aid)
Background Knowledge/Skills:
- Students will have read the 1971 childrens book by Dr. Seuss, The Lorax.
- Students will have watched the 2012 film adaptation.
- Students will possess basic knowledge of how to navigate certain technologies such as
computers and iPads.
Essential Questions:
- How will we use social media-based websites to help us locate relevant and reliable
resources for our research? (unit)
- How will we use online services to interrogate texts based on their relevance and
reliability for our research? (unit)
- How will we use Hootsuite to help us locate relevant and reliable resources for our
research? (lesson)
- How will we use Diigo to interrogate texts based on their relevance and reliability for our
research? (lesson)
Learning Objectives and Understandings:
- Students will be able to use and navigate Hootsuites search features that allow for
finding articles based on a search keyword that provides results from any and all social
media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Students will be able to use Hootsuite to locate relevant and reliable resources for their
research based on The Lorax childrens book and film adaptation.
- Students will be able to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant resources, and use
suggested methods (such as reading the search bar .gov, .edu, etc.) to filter out unreliable
resourcesall on social media-based websites.
- Students will be able to use and navigate Diigo.
- Students will be able to use Diigo to interrogate and annotate texts based on their
relevance and reliability to The Lorax childrens book and film adaptation.
- Students will be able to read/watch texts, and know the appropriate questions to ask
regarding author/director intent (for what purposes would the author create this?), a/d
audience (who was this piece intended for? How would that serve the author?), a/d bias
(what would complicate the authors intent/audience?), etc., to allow for the most
effective text annotation.

Rationale:
- When students perform research, they must be on constant lookout for relevant and
reliable texts to support whatever research question they have. With exciting and
innovative new web resources, students are now able to learn the skills involved with
being able to identify the most helpful resources, as well as filter out the ones that are not
helpful to them. One of the most important parts of researching is being able to make a
conversation for the community about your research, as well as figure out what
conversation was taking place about your research question beforehand. One of the
easiest and most relevant ways to accomplish the above tasks is to incorporate social
media into research, especially given its rise within the last decade. Websites such as
Hootsuite allow students to use their several social media accounts to enter the
conversation, and have easy access to popular opinion. Students are also encouraged to
interrogate the texts they encounter, and in order to organize their thoughts, they should
learn to correctly annotate. Given resources such as Diigo, this becomes quick, easy,
accessible, and efficient.
Standards:
- 3.2.1: Create opportunities and develop strategies that permit students to demonstrate,
through their own work, the influence of language and visual images on thinking and
composing.
- 3.2.5: Use a variety of ways to assist students in creating and critiquing a wide range of
print and nonprint texts for multiple purposes and help students understand the
relationship between symbols and meaning.
- 3.6.2: Use a variety of approaches for teaching students how to construct meaning from
media and nonprint texts and integrate learning opportunities into classroom experiences
that promote composing and responding to such texts.
- 3.6.3: Help students compose and respond to film, video, graphic, photographic, audio,
and multimedia texts and use current technology to enhance their own learning and
reflection on their learning.
- 4.6: Engage students in critical analysis of different media and communications
technologies and their effect on students learning.
Academic Language Needs:
- Annotate: add notes to (a text or diagram) giving explanation or comment
- Interrogate (a text): assess for relevance and validity
- Reliability: ability to be trusted for accuracy
Procedure:
- Students will visit the school library, where the librarian(s) will explain what it means to
interrogate a text, and will give brief tutorials on Hootsuite and Diigo.
- Students will have free time in class to navigate Hootsuite, and learn aspects of the site
such as how to add feeds to the account, and how to know which social networking sites
would best fit their particular searches. They will mostly be using the search bar section
that allows them to search key terms, and Hootsuite will scan all of their social media
accounts for the most relevant results.

Students will also have free time to navigate Diigo, learn how to upload documents, how
to create folders and groups, how to organize their research and results, and how to
annotate (highlight and add comments about what they read).
Students will practice annotating designated texts (random articles, etc.) so that they
understand how to use Diigo.
Students, after understanding how to use both of these websites to conduct research and
annotate texts, will search for relevant articles, statuses, etc., having to do with The Lorax
picture book as well as its film adaptation.

Differentiation For Students With Special Needs:

Materials/Resources/Handouts:
Assessment/Rubrics:
Reading/Writing Assignments: