Teacher Note: This activity is designed at the Analysis or Knowledge Utilization level of Marzano's Taxonomy. Students are asked to classify, analyze errors in reasoning, generalize, apply to new situations, or make evidence-based decisions — not simply recall information.
Name: _________________________ Date: _____________ Class: _____________
Marzano Level: Analysis (Classifying & Generalizing) + Knowledge Utilization (Decision Making)
Part 1 — Build a Resistance Typology (12 min)
Both texts in this lesson show resistance, but in very different forms. Using evidence from the story "What the Rain Remembers" AND the poem "Joy Is the Resistance," classify the following acts into categories of your own design (suggested: Quiet/Daily, Communal, Artistic, Political, Educational). Then place each act:
Acts to classify:
- Maya's grandmother walking back through the same threshold for three weeks
- Six students arriving together in solidarity
- Leaving with composure and dignified posture after being refused
- A cookout on the corner where someone plays music so loud the block two-steps
- Grandmother humming hymns passed down through generations
- Building jazz — creating a culture so powerful "the whole world tries to wear it"
- Maya pulling the school counselor's letter out of her backpack
- The grandmother framing the act as leaving a legacy for whoever came next
For each act, note: Who benefits? What does it cost? What does it resist?
Part 2 — Evaluate and Defend (8 min)
Grandma Rose says: "Resistance is incremental. Most of the time it doesn't look dramatic."
The poet says: joy — celebrating, dancing, living fully — is itself "a revolutionary act."
Write a 4-5 sentence argument defending ONE of these claims as the stronger model of resistance. Your argument must:
- Take a clear position (which claim is more powerful?)
- Use specific evidence from BOTH texts
- Acknowledge the strongest point of the view you're arguing against
Part 3 — Generalize (5 min)
Looking at your typology and your argument, write a 2-3 sentence generalization:
*"Effective resistance takes many forms, but what all forms have in common is __________. Systems of oppression are most vulnerable to __________ because __________."*
Does your generalization hold up against all the examples in your typology? If not, revise it.