This is a process students can use to systematically record the key arguments of nonfiction books and articles that they read. Students who use this method will often improve their ability to compose their own persuasive essays when they do not have access to research.

1. The Scholar Pack
A guide on the Scholar
Pack, how it works and
why it works.
Developed as a collaboration between Phoebe Kelleher,
former Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School student, and
Mr. Sharkovitz, English department chair.
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2. The Scholar Pack
The scholar pack was designed to help students develop a repository
of knowledge that they can draw upon to write argumentative
essays, especially in timed circumstances such as the A.P test.
It helps students understand a complex text through using not only
their own summarization but also analyzing the text at hand.
The scholar pack requires that students select and memorize four
quotes from each text. These quotations should be selected
because the student feels they reflect some of the most important
ideas in the text.
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3. The Scholar Pack Note cards
Each Note card contains: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
-Frederick Douglass
“Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no
precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.”
 Side One “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red
with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of
 Title harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a
demon.”
 Author
 Important Quote
-When he was denied education, he was unaware of what he lacked. But
 Side Two once he begun to learn and use his mind to it’s full potential, his
determination to learn was stronger than any oppression from his master.
Once the mind has sampled literacy and education, it desires it most of
 summary of central all.
arguments - Slavery is the most cruel of practices; it poisons the kindest of persons
with cruelty. Where there is slavery, there is both ignorance and injustice.
 Brief analysis of text
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4. Scholar Pack Assignment
 Each student must complete 12 scholar note
cards per quarter.
 Students are required to memorize the quotes
and have a strong knowledge of the central
arguments in the text.
 The nonfiction books students choose to read
must be approved in advance by the teacher.
Approval will be based upon the book’s
appropriateness for the Advance Placement
Language and Composition curriculum.
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5. Examples of Useful Texts for
the Scholar Pack Include:
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6. Tips for remembering note card
quotes and summaries.
 Recite material out loud.  Type/write material in big
letters and post it in the
 Sing it. shower so you can read
 Read (aloud) in context. or recite it in a relaxed

state.
Write it.
 Make the beginning letter
 Assume different roles of each.
while reciting material argument/quote/note to
aloud. the first letter of each
 Read it before you word in the title.
sleep.  Ask someone to quiz
you.
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7. Scholar Note Card Examples
- The best kind of government is one which exercises the least
Civil Disobedience amount of control and intervenes only when necessary.
-Only one person is needed to initiate change in a corrupt
-Henry David Thoreau
society,
-It is every person’s responsibility to critique the government’s
“Government is best which governs least or not at all.” actions and laws and take action against any that are unjust. If
the punishment for doing this is imprisonment, then jail is the
proper place for a responsible honorable person to be.
“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at - Only when a person denounces the government’s unjust laws
and accepts the punishment willingly is he or she free.
any time what I think is right.”
- The wealthier a man, the less virtuous he is.
From: Civil Disobedience
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8. Letter from Birmingham Jail -Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and
-Dr. Martin Luther King jr. foster such a tension that a community which has constantly
refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given up by the oppressor, it -When a people, such as African Americans during this time,
must be demanded by the oppressed.” suffer intense oppression for a long enough time and their
government refuses to amend society’s discrimination, these
“It is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends.” people must take direct action to peacefully protest.
-It is a person’s responsibility to disobey unjust laws for they
are not true laws.
From: Letter From Birmingham Jail
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9. -Many people are in a state of mental captivity. They have not been
The Allegory of the Cave shown the true ways of humanity–the light.
-Plato -After people have reached an enlightened intellectual state, they will find
it difficult to return to their previous land of intellectual darkness and pity
others who have never ventured out of this darkness. When they argue
with others who have not reached this enlightened state, the others will
“He would rather suffer anything than entertain these false think the enlightened ones to be crazy and worthless because their ideas
notions and live in this miserable manner.” seem alien and bombastic.
-People are born with the knowledge and ability to understand
“Will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in enlightened ideas of the soul and self, they need only to be educated to
virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life.” find this enlightened understanding.
-Wisdom is divine, but people do use it for both good and evil.
-Enlightened people of the government must descend to serve the lower
people, as well as the more the fortunate enlightened and wealthy,
because it is their duty to serve all classes equally.
From: The Allergory of the Cave
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10. Meditation: The Path to Enlightenment
-Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching -To get rid of evil, remove good.
Lao-Tzu -The government or leader should lead passively and subtly
so that the people are unaware of it’s presence.
-Not striving for fail, lawfulness, or righteousness and
“Because he believes in himself, he doesn’t try to convince
others. Because he is content with himself, he doesn’t need simply being who you are, is they way to achieve balance
other’s approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world through the Tao.
accepts him.” -Do not attempt to control nature for it is not an object. Do
not attempt to control a person for people are part of nature.
“The World is sacred.
It can’t be improved.
If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you’ll loose it.”
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11. -Europeans did not discover the New World.
-Between the years 1421 and 1423 the Chinese built a fleet of 800
1421 massive ships called junks. The fleet’s orders/ goals were to reach
every continent and trade peacefully with the natives in the new lands.
-Gavin Menzies They accomplished these goals.
“The emperor. . . has ordered us [Zheng He] and others -Remnants and evidence of their journey can be found on every
[Zhou Man, Hong Bao, Zhou Wen and Yang Qing] at the continent.
head of several tens of thousands of officers and imperial -The Chinese, during this time, discovered how to accurately measure
and navigate by longitude and latitude using the stars.
troops to journey in more than a hundred ships. . . to treat
- “[The Chinese fleets] had sailed through sixty-two island
distant people with kindness. . . We have gone to the archipelagos comprising more than seventeen thousand islands and
western regions . . . altogether more than three thousand charted tens of thousands of miles of coastline. Admiral Zheng He’s
countries large and small. We have traversed more than a claim to have visited three thousand countries large and small
hundred thousand li (forty thousand nautical miles) of appeared to be true. The Chinese fleets had voyaged across the Indian
immense water spaces” Ocean to East Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope to the Cape
Verde Islands, through the Caribbean to North America and the
Arctic, down to Cape Horn, the Antarctic, Australia, New Zealand and
across the Pacific.”
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12. All Africa and Her Progenies -Mitochondrial Eve is one woman who, through the
-Richard Dawkins female’s only gene path, is the most recent common
ancestor of every human alive today. She lived between 150
thousand and 1/4 million years ago.
“ The story of African Eve is a parochial, human microcosm -The Focal Ancestor, the most recent common ancestor of
of a grander and incomparably more ancient epic.” all modern people through any gene path, was probably a
“As we follow our genetic river back through remote man.
antiquity, there were probably lots of Eves and lots of -Both lived in Africa, therefore, all people originated in
Adams.” Africa. Our ancestors were living in Africa only about a few
hundred thousand years ago.
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13. -No prince possesses all of the good or necessary qualities a
leader should have, but it is his job to appear as though he
The Morals of a Prince does. A prince should always appear virtuous.
-Niccolo Machiavelli -A prince should not distribute his money to the poor
throughout his country for he will be left with empty
coffers. Instead, he should steal money from other countries
“It is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his (so it is not his own money he gives away) and publicize his
position to learn how not to be good.” generosity as much as possible.
-He should not reveal all of the truth, he should only reveal
“ For one can generally say this about men: that they are what he thinks the public should know. But he should
ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of convince the public that they know all.
danger, greedy for gain.” -It is better to be a feared leader than a loved leader. No one
would cross a cruel leader but they might take advantage of
a compassionate one.
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14. The Mystery of Zen
-Gilbert Highet - Zen is being present within the space and the world.
- It is not thinking or feeling but letting the thing happen.
“Do not try to use words. Do not think. Make no efforts - It is not expecting to find success at the end of every
toward withdrawal from the world. Expect no sublime struggle.
ecstasies. Live. All that is the ultimate reality, and it can be - It is responding to impulses passively without judging or
understood from the motion of a finger...” analyzing actions.
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15. Existentialism
-Jean-Paul Sartre - People control themselves and are fully responsible for every
action they take.
- People are free because an individual’s personal morals and
restrictions do not exist when they are born.
“They envisage a number of possibilities and when they - People have the freedom to explore any choice they wish. Any
choose they realize that it has value only because it’s decision an individual makes is the right decision because it
chosen.” was the one he or she ended up making.
“Thinks will be as man will have decided they are to be.” - People have no responsibility to follow the laws of religion.
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16. -Young people can achieve the wisdom and cautious skill
of experienced elders if they waste no time with impulsive
Of Youth and Age decisions and spend all their time learning good judgment.
-Francis Bacon But this rarely happens. In business, the young bring their
bold energy and grand ideas but often fail because they are
not fit to make decisions with good judgment, serve counsel
“A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have or advise, or settle business.
lost no time.” -Elders have the experience and wisdom but can fail
“The errors of young men are the ruin of business.” because they are too cautious. Some lack the spontaneity to
take risks and so their businesses floats below success.
-A successful business is most likely to be built of a
collaboration between the young and the experienced. The
elders will ground the business with their good judgment
and wisdom and the young will provide the catalyst to make
the business unique.
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