Harrison Bergeron Short Story Unit - Argumentative Writing Task - 36 Task Cards

This 8 day short story unit for "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut contains scaffolded close reading activities and a no-prep argumentative writing task that will engage your middle school students. These reading comprehension resources are designed to support struggling readers, ELL/ESL, and special education students, such as differentiated activities, and chunked text and guided reading questions. This bundle includes a scaffolded reading unit and 36 CCSS-Aligned task cards to accompany this thought-provoking short story.

Students will LOVE that they are engaged in an ongoing discussion of equality and given the opportunity to voice their opinions. Teachers will LOVE that this unit contains scaffolded and differentiated close reading activities that are designed to help students deeply analyze the characters and events in this short story as well as the big question of “Is everyone truly equal?”. This will help students not only tackle complex texts and skills, but also create a logical argumentative writing response that is based upon what they have learned from reading the short story. In addition, everything that teachers needs to implement this unit, from teacher models, teacher tips, and a detailed presentation, is included in this download.

☞☞ Product #1: “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Close Reading Unit & Argumentative Writing Task

This resource covers the following Common Core Standards:

•RL.6-8.1 •RL.6-8.2 •RL.6-8.3 •RL.6-8.4 •RL.6-8.5 •W.6-8.1 •W.6-8.4 •W.6-8.5

The following files are included in this download:


• “Harrison Bergeron” Probable Passage (1 Page): Students are given several words from the short story and must categorize them into one of five categories: Setting, Character, Conflict, Outcome, or Unknown Word. Once students have categorized their words, they will develop questions that they have based on the words or the story. The final step in this pre-reading activity requires students to use their categorization to create a prediction on what they think will happen in this short story.

•••Teacher Model has been provided.”•••

• “Harrison Bergeron” Differentiated Vocabulary and Context Clues Activity (4 Pages): Students will use context clues to identify unfamiliar words from the short story. The activity uses the actual text from the story where the word is used. After students select the correct multiple choice answer, they are required to write a one sentence justification using text evidence. The final task in this activity is to categorize the words into either positive, negative, or neutral connotation. Students will use this information to make predictions about what they think this short story will be about. •••Context Clues bookmarks have also been included to help guide students through this task. •••

• “Harrison Bergeron” Close Reading Activity (9 Pages): During this scaffolded close reading activity, students will first read the story to get the gist of what is happening and will use this information to write an objective summary of the short story. In the second read, students will dig deeper into the story using some guiding questions. Next, they will analyze the methods for creating equality in the society to gather information to determine whether they think everyone is truly equal in the society. This activity culminates with students creating an extended writing response where they use the information they have gathered to create a claim on equality in the society and use textual evidence from the story to support their claim. A PEEL Writing Organizer and Self/ Peer Assessment are included.

•••Teacher Model has been provided.”•••

• “Harrison Bergeron” Assessment (2 Pages): This assessment contains six multiple choice questions that cover context clues, theme, story elements, and the role of tone/mood in the story. Students must write a one sentence justification to support their answer choice. In addition, there are two constructed response questions. This allows students the choice of which constructed response they want to answer.

•••Answer Key is provided.•••

• “Harrison Bergeron” Argumentative Writing Task (12 Pages): The Argumentative Writing Task contains everything needed for both teacher and students to complete this task. Students will create a claim about equality in the society and use strong evidence and explanations to support it.

→ Task #1- Prewriting: There are three different pre-writing options included for this task to best fit the needs of your students/classroom.


→ Task #2- Rough Draft: Students will use the teacher models as well as the criteria that they have created to guide them as they write the rough draft of their narrative.

→ Task #3- Self/Peer Assessment: Students will use the Self Assessment Guide to help them self-assess their rough draft and identify anything that their essay may be missing. Once students have finished the self-assessment, they will switch essay with their writing partner and complete the Peer Assessment guide to give academic feedback to their partner.

→ Task #4- Final Drafts: Once students have finished editing/revising their rough draft using the feedback from the self and peer assessment, they will begin to write the final draft of their narrative.

• “Harrison Bergeron” Argumentative Writing Reference Sheet (2 Pages): The reference sheet includes criteria, a writer’s checklist, and transition words/phrases.

• “Harrison Bergeron” Argumentative Writing Task Rubric (1 page): This 7 point rubric can be used to evaluate the essays. It also includes a section for teachers to leave written academic feedback for students.

• “Harrison Bergeron” Choice Board Activity (2 Pages): This activity can be used as an alternate assessment activity or as an early finisher for students who finish any part of this unit before other students. It includes four tasks for students and clear specific criteria for each task. In addition, teacher models for each task have been included to help students know what their work should look like to be high quality.

•••Teacher Models for each task have been provided.•••

• Teacher Models and Answer Keys (11 Pages): Teacher models and answer keys have been provided for each step/task in this unit.

• “Harrison Bergeron” Lesson Presentation (95 Slides): This presentation comes in PDF and Powerpoint Versions. It is designed to help guide both teacher and students through this week long unit. There are 23 blank/editable slides that you can us to customize the presentation to better suit the needs of your students/classroom.

• “Harrison Bergeron” Lesson Outline Notes (41 Pages): This lesson outline is a PDF version of the activities from this unit. It includes suggested modifications/explanations, teacher tips, and more to help guide teachers through setting up and effectively organizing this unit.

• “Harrison Bergeron” Annotated Teacher Text (4 Pages): This annotated teacher guide includes guiding questions, highlighted answers, and teacher notes/tips that can be used during the Close Reading Activity.

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☞☞ Product #2: “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut CCSS-Aligned Task Cards

This resource covers the following Common Core Standards:

All Common Core State Standards for Reading Literature 6th-8th Grade

The following files are included in this download:

"Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Task Cards: This file contains the PDF and PowerPoint version of this product. There are 36 different tasks includes in this product. Each task comes with two options for criteria: Option #1-Specific criteria has been included for the task that will allow students to know their expectations and be able to self-assess their product or response. Option#2-This is a blank card that allows you to modify or create your own criteria for success to best fit the needs of your students.

** The following skills/tasks are included in this product:

☞ Task #1- Author’s Purpose

☞ Task #2- Central Idea

☞ Task #3- Theme

☞ Task #4- Characterization

☞ Task #5- Point of View

☞ Task #6- Time Period

☞ Task #7- Real Life Influences

☞ Task #8- Figurative Language

☞ Task #9- Conflict/Resolution

☞ Task #10- Setting

☞ Task #11- Theme & Development

☞ Task #12- Painting a Picture

☞ Task #13- Plot

☞ Task #14- Objective Summary

☞ Task #15- Compare and Contrast

☞ Task #16- Context Clues

☞ Task #17- Movie Poster

☞ Task #18- Be A Critic

☞ Task #19- Picture It

☞ Task #20- Interview the Author

☞ Task #21- Interview a Character

☞ Task #22- Comic Book

☞ Task #23- Instagram

☞ Task #24- Facebook

☞ Task #25- Twitter Feed

☞ Task #26- Trading Places

☞ Task #27- Likes/Dislikes

☞ Task #28- Rewrite

☞ Task #29- Prequel

☞ Task #30- Sequel

☞ Task #31- Diary of a Character

☞ Task #32- Cover Artist

☞ Task #33- Dear Abby

☞ Task #34- Music to My Ears

☞ Task #35- Morning Announcements

☞ Task #36- Word Cloud Collage

•••It would be a great idea to laminate these task cards for durability or so that students can use a dry erase marker to check off the criteria while they are self-assessing their work.

Please be sure to download the preview file to see exactly what you are getting when you purchase this product!

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Created by Stephanie M. Icenogle, The Creative Classroom © 2016

All rights reserved by author.

Permission to copy for single classroom use only.

Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.

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