Question

Targeted activity: compare informational texts
read the following two texts about Rosa parks and Claudette colvin. note how they interpret the fact in different ways to support different positions.

Create: write a paragraph
level 1: to show your mastery of the unit goals, write an analytical paragraph. compare and contrast the positions, claims, and evidence in the two informational texts.

level 2: consider what you have learned about arguments in this unit. write an effective argument about which text's position you find more convincing and why. refer to specific positions, reasons, and evidence from both texts. write it as a 6th grader

Answer 1

Paragraph 1 (analytical):
Both texts use the same historical facts but push different ideas about why the Montgomery bus protests happened and who deserves credit. The Rosa Parks text argues that Parks was a respected, experienced activist whose arrest became the right spark at the right time; it supports this by pointing to her NAACP work, leaders’ statements, community organizing, and how her arrest led quickly to the mass boycott. The Claudette Colvin text argues that Colvin actually refused to give up her seat earlier and was punished and then ignored because she was young and didn’t fit the image leaders wanted; it backs this with Colvin’s arrest record, her testimony, and later participation in the court work that helped end bus segregation. In short, the Parks text emphasizes strategy, respectability, and a chosen leader who brought people together, while the Colvin text emphasizes overlooked activists, bias in who gets remembered, and legal documents showing Colvin’s role. Each text selects different pieces of evidence and tone to support its point about who mattered in the movement.

Paragraph 2 (argument, 6th-grade voice):
I think the Claudette Colvin text is more convincing because it shows facts that the Rosa Parks story leaves out. The Colvin text says Colvin refused to give up her seat before Parks did and gives arrest records and her own testimony as proof. It also shows that Colvin later helped in the court case that challenged bus laws, which shows she mattered even if leaders didn’t use her as a symbol. The Parks text is strong because it explains how Parks’s arrest helped start the big boycott and it has quotes from leaders, but it doesn’t fully explain why someone like Colvin was ignored. Because the Colvin text uses legal records and personal evidence to explain both what happened and why leaders made a choice, I find it more convincing and fair.