Nonfiction Portfolio

The nonfiction unit will focus on individual work and partner work to create a portfolio
demonstrating your understanding and analysis of informational text. Using the guidelines
below, you will be responsible for finding your own texts to demonstrate your knowledge. There
are several different pieces you’ll need to be working on, so keep track of this sheet. The
portfolio you put together will be considered as a test grade (100 points).

Individual Work: During this unit, you will be analyzing six Newsela articles. Newsela has a
combination of informational and persuasive texts. For this part of the portfolio, you will need to
find 3 informational articles and 3 persuasive articles. To get started, you will need to create an
account (www.newsela.com) and join my class using the signup code I give you.

For each persuasive article, please complete the following steps:

1. Change the reading level to “MAX.” To do this, click into the article. On the right hand
side of the page, you will see a blue box with numbers. Click on “MAX.”
2. Favorite the article (click the heart) and Print
3. At the top of the article, label it “Persuasive”
4. Write the thesis of the article at the top of your article
- If you are using a PRO/CON article, please write the thesis for both the pro argument
and the con argument
5. Identify at least three pieces of evidence that supports the thesis you’ve identified. Use
brackets [ ] around these sections
- For each piece of evidence/support you identify, jot a note down in the margin that
explains how it supports the thesis. Why is this important? What does this say that
helps support the thesis?
- If you are using a PRO/CON article, identify two pieces of evidence/support for each
side (instead of 3 for each)
6. Take the quiz (on paper) or write your own quiz
- Some Newsela articles already have a quiz with the article. If yours printed a quiz,
please answer the four questions and complete step #7.
- If a quiz did not print with your article, please write four of your own multiple choice
questions and complete step #7.
7. For each of the four questions, highlight the specific sentence(s) in the article that support
your answer Then, in the margin, write the question number next to the part you highlighted.
- You may use different colored highlighters and create a key, if you prefer.
8. Complete the writing question that goes along with the article
- To access the writing question, select “Write” from the list of options on the right hand
side of your article on Newsela
- Type this up in Pages or Google Docs—include the question and article title
- I’m looking for a short paragraph (6-8 sentences) that uses evidence/support from the
article to back up your answer
- Print and staple to your article

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For each informational article, please complete the following steps:

1. Change the reading level to “MAX.” To do this, click into the article. On the right hand
side of the page, you will see a blue box with numbers. Click on “MAX.”
2. Favorite the article (click the heart) and Print
3. At the top of the article, label it “Informational”
4. Write the thesis of the article at the top of your article
5. Paraphrase each section and explain how each section relates to the overall topic/thesis of the
article: What does this say/tell about the topic?
- It might be easier to write a short paraphrase next to each paragraph instead of a longer
chunk next to each section title. You may also chunk smaller paragraphs together.
6. Take the quiz (on paper) or write your own quiz
- Some Newsela articles already have a quiz with the article. If yours printed a quiz,
please answer the four questions and complete step #7.
- If a quiz did not print with your article, please write four of your own multiple choice
questions and complete step #7.
7. For each of the four questions, highlight the specific sentence(s) in the article that support
your answer Then, in the margin, write the question number next to the part you highlighted.
- You may use different colored highlighters and create a key, if you prefer.
8. Complete the writing question that goes along with the article
- To access the writing question, select “Write” from the list of options on the right hand
side of your article on Newsela
- Type this up in Pages or Google Docs—include the question and article title
- I’m looking for a short paragraph (6-8 sentences) that uses evidence/support from the
article to back up your answer
- Print and staple to your article

Partner Work: You will be working with a partner to find, annotate, and analyze different types
of informational texts. Each component is slightly different, so look at the requirements below
carefully and follow the instructions for each one.

1. Speeches: You will need to find 4 speeches; if you are working alone, you will need three
speeches. Each speech needs to have at least five rhetorical devices in it (not different terms,
different examples). Skim through your speech before you pick it; if you are struggling to
find any rhetorical devices in your speech, pick a different one. Pick speeches given by
historical leaders that have become (or will become) historical documents. Please make sure
one of your speeches is recent enough to show up on YouTube (see #5). Examples:
Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Michelle Obama’s
speech given at the Democratic National Convention.
1. Print the speech or photocopy it if it is from a book
- If you are using speeches from Newsela, you must select the Max reading
level and use the original speech
2. At the top of the speech, label it “Speech”
3. On the speech itself, please highlight and label all of the rhetorical strategies the
speaker uses to get his/her point across. Use the list I gave you.

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 4. On a separate page, please include the following information (type this up):
- Thesis of the speech (the overall argument)
- At least three key arguments the speaker makes to help support his thesis.
• On the speech itself, put brackets around the sentences where this
argument is developed and put the number next to it in the margin.
- What is the author’s purpose in writing this text?
- What is the tone of the text? That is, what is the author’s attitude toward the
subject/audience? How do you know? Give examples from the speech.
- Context of the speech
• You’ll need to google information to find out what was going on
historically and politically when the speech was given
• I’m looking for about a paragraph here (6-8 sentences) that explains the
historical/political background of the speech.
• Questions to think about to help you answer this: What was going on in
the world? What prompted the speech? What change/influence does the
speaker hope to accomplish?
- What impact does this speech have today? Is it still relevant/important? Why or
why not? Explain your answer. (I’m looking for 6-8 sentences.)
- Analyze the speaker’s use of rhetorical devices to answer the question: How
effective is the speaker?
• Use examples of rhetorical devices from the speech to support your
answer. Also make sure to think about the purpose of using a rhetorical
device and the effect those devices have. How do these influence the
meaning or purpose of the speech?
• This should be a short paragraph (6-8 sentences).
5. Pick two of your speeches from above; if you are working alone, you only need to
pick one speech. Watch a video of your speaker delivering the speech.
- Answer the following questions. Each question should be a short paragraph:
- What nonverbals does the speaker use? How do these add to or affect the
purpose or message?
- How does the speaker’s inflection, vocal variety, or style of delivery affect
(positively or negatively) the speech/message?

2. One Topic/Multiple Sources: You and your partner will pick a single, specific topic (i.e.,
Fisher Space Pens) and then look at several different accounts of the topic in both print and
multimedia forms.
1. Pick a topic
2. Find information about your topic:
- Find an article (PRINT) and a book about your topic
- Find at least two other print sources about your topic (i.e., blog post, tweet,
magazine article, comic, graphic novel) —PRINT






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 - Find at least one non-print source about your topic (i.e., video clip, film,
documentary, infographic, music, radio show, interview) — If you have a
visual image, please PRINT; otherwise, provide the URL for your source and a
description (e.g., YouTube film clip - www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-
RP6AHnnco)
- **If you’d like, you can find two non-print sources and one other print
source (in addition to the book and article)
- **Use a binder clip to keep all of your articles together
- **Label the top article “Multiple Sources”
3. On a separate page, please include the following information (type this up):
- For each of the five sources you’ve found, use bullet points to identify the
details/information each source gives about your topic
• Make sure to label each source by including the article title or a
description of the source
• For the book, all you need to look at is the Table of Contents
• You will have the most bullet points for your book, about half that amount
for your article, and the same or fewer for your other sources depending
on the type
- Look at all five of your sources and compare which details are emphasized in
more than one source. Make a list of these and answer the question below.
• Example: Fisher Pens on the Apollo Mission (in the article “Fisher goes to
space” and the article “NASA to use Fisher Space Pens”)
• Why do these details show up in more than one source? (Your answer
should be more than just “it’s important”)
- Which details are left out of multiple sources? Why do you think this is? What
effect does it have on the article or the information provided?
- Which medium or source does the best job providing information on your
topic? Why?
- What can non-print sources do that print sources can’t? What advantage do
print sources have?

3. Fallacious Reasoning: For this piece of your portfolio, you will need to find examples of ads
to illustrate logical fallacies. In addition, you will also need to find two political ads to
analyze.
1. Logical Fallacies
- From the list below, pick six logical fallacies. Do a Google search to find an
example illustrating the fallacy.
• Fallacies to Pick From: ad hominem, authority fallacy, bandwagon, black
and white fallacy, euphemism, fallacy fallacy, false comparisons,
generalities, glittering generalities, hominem toquoque, loaded words,
moving the goal posts/raising the bar, name calling, no true scotsman
fallacy, plain folks, snob appeal, stacking the deck, straw man argument,
testimonials, texas sharp shooter, transfer

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 • **Use the document I gave you with help defining the fallacies OR
watch these YouTube videos:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb-h0sXkH4
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybOvddwpJAg
- Put your image in a word processing document, label it with the fallacy, and
then explain how it illustrates the logical fallacy.

Stacking the Deck - This shows this

fallacy because the ad just focuses
on one side of the issue. It’s only
presenting the good things about the
daycare, not problems/issues/
complaints people have had with this
facility. Furthermore, it doesn’t list
the services they don’t provide.

2. Political Ads
- Find at least two political ads; one, if you’re working alone.
• These can be video clips or posters (PRINT)
- On a separate page, please include the following information (type this up):
• If you watched a video clip, please provide the URL
• What is the purpose of the political ad?
• What logical fallacies does the advertisement use? Give examples.
• How effective is the advertisement? Explain your answer using examples
from the advertisement and your knowledge of logical fallacies. This
should be a short paragraph (6-8 sentences).