The Contract is your plan — your question, how you'll prove you learned, and what a great result looks like. Get it right and the next five weeks have a map. No digging until it's signed.
We move through Parts 1–5 one at a time. Watch the example, then write your version in your Contract doc. When Parts 1–5 are done, bring it to me for sign-off.
A student — call her Maya — will build a Contract alongside you. Same six texts, her own angle. Steal the shape, not the content.
"Who should govern, and what gives them the right?"
Angle: "Athens called itself the most democratic city in the world. Using the Funeral Oration and the Melian Dialogue, is its democracy a model to follow — or a warning?"
Why: "People today call the U.S. 'the greatest democracy.' I want to test what that claim is actually worth."
The skill you're proving. Write the code + pick a type: ELA-primary, SS-primary, or crosswalk.
Find codes on your Launch Reference or a skinny.
Primary: 9-10.R.9 (analyze & compare arguments)
Crosswalk: WH.6_12.3 + Era 1
Type: Crosswalk — she's proving a reading skill AND a governance-history standard.
Pick a mode, then describe exactly what you'll make. Not "an essay" — the real thing.
Mode: Extended Writing.
What it'll look like: "A 600–900 word argument essay answering whether Athens' democracy is a model or a warning, using at least 3 quotes across the Funeral Oration and Melian Dialogue, and addressing one counterargument."
List 1–3 skinnies that match your standard & mode. Read their 2.0 and 3.0 lines before Part 5.
• R.9 Informational / Argumentative
• W.4 Argument Writing
She'll read the 3.0 descriptions to write her targets next.
Don't copy the skinny. Say what each level looks like for your angle, your texts, your demo. 3.0 is the target — and 3.0 = an A.
"I can identify the claim and the appeals in the Funeral Oration and in the Melian Dialogue, one at a time."
"On my own, I can compare how Pericles builds his case for Athens and how Thucydides undercuts it in Melos — and argue which is stronger, with specific evidence." ← target
"I can name what Athens assumes about power that it never argues for — and connect it to how democracies still talk about themselves today."
The public thing you'll share in Week 6.
Maya: essay published to the SDA Commons.
One real checkpoint per week.
Maya, Wk 1: "angle chosen, contract signed."
2+ Reading Library texts + 1 you find yourself.
Maya: Pericles, Melian + a modern op-ed.
When your angle, standard, demo, skinnies, and targets are written, bring it to me. I'll approve it — or hand it back with notes. That's normal.
A signed Contract means your plan is solid enough to build six weeks on. That's the whole point of today.