The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the expectations for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of careful reading. Anchor texts include rich language and topics and stories engaging for Grade 7 students. Texts consider a range of student interests including (but not limited to) Chinese Revolution, American Gothic literature, 14th Century Renaissance Italy, Mid-20th Century urban America and small-town American South, the Gold Rush and neuroscience.

Anchor texts that have won awards or are written by award-winning authors include the following:

• Unit A: Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Ji Ji Jang
• Unit B: A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
• Unit C : Brain Science. A research collection of informational texts focused on the science and research of the nature of the brain.
• Unit D: “The Tell-Tale Heart," “The Cask of Amontillado," and “The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe, a text set of poetry and short stories
• Unit E: Romeo and Juliet highlights, William Shakespeare, Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia Mccall
• Unit F: The Gold Rush Collection, a comprehensive text set on the central topic, the Gold Rush. The various works that make up the text set are a mix of informational (historical) and literary texts. They include articles, letters, journal entries, journalism, correspondence, essay, with a strong representation of primary source materials. Included are "The Gold Rush Diary" by Ramon Gil Navarro, California: The Great Exception by Carey McWilliams, “Pioneers! Oh, Pioneers!” from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, and Roughing It by Mark Twain.

Anchor text sets include a mix of genres, including novels, informational texts, autobiographies, poetry, speeches, letters, historical documents.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 fully meet the expectations for reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards. Anchor texts and text sets include a mix of informational texts and literature. Supplemental texts within the units are also a mixture of literature and informational texts. Text sets include a mix of genres, including novels, informational texts, autobiographies, poetry, speeches, letters, historical documents. Text sets illustrating the mix of informational texts and literature include the following:

Literature

Unit A: Red Scarf & Narrative

• Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Ji-li Jang

Unit B: Character and Conflict

• A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
• "Harlem," Langston Hughes
• "Huge Success" press release

Unit D: Poetry and Poe

• "The White Horse," D.H. Lawrence
• "El Silencio"/"The Silence," García Lorca
• "A narrow fellow in the grass," Emily Dickenson
• "The Tell-Tale Heart," Edgar Allen Poe
• "The Raven," Edgar Allen Poe (animated adaptations)

Unit E: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

• Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
• Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Unit F: The Gold Rush Collection

• "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" from Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

Informational:

Unit C: Brain Science

• Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, John Fleischman
• "Demystifying the Adolescent Brain," Laurence Steinberg
• "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," Oliver Sachs

Unit D: Poetry and Poe

• "The M'Naghten Rule," Queen M'Naghten
• Mark Twain's and Rufus Griswold's reviews of Poe's work (in Quest)

Unit F: The Gold Rush Collection

• "California Culinary Experiences," The Overland Monthly, Prentice Mulford
• "Oh My Darling Clementine," Percy Montrose
• "The Magic Equation," from California: The Great Exception, Carey McWilliams
• Roughing It! Mark Twain
• "Letter the Tenth: Amateur Mining-Hairbreadth 'Scapes, &c.," from The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-1852, Dame Shirley

Other Media:

Unit A: Red Scarf Girl and Narrative

• Propaganda Art/Posters

Unit B: Character and Conflict

• Photos: Chicago in the Early 1950's, Jacob Lawrence paintings
• Film, A Raisin in the Sun

Unit E: Romeo and Juliet

• Clips from Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo and Juliet; 1968 Romeo and Juliet
• Illustrations

Unit F: The Gold Rush Collection

Photos and Artwork

• Gold Mining at Sutter's Mill, Coloma, California, Unknown Artist (19th century)
• The Last War-Whoop, A.F. Tait (1856)
• California Gold Diggers. Mining Operations on the Western Shore of the Sacramento River, (1849-1852)
• Westwards of Course of Empire Takes Its Way, M.J. Morgan & Co. (Lithographer) (19th Century)

Throughout the instructional materials, a wide distribution of genres and text types is found, including, but not limited to the following examples:

• Travel Journal (i.e., Mark Twain)
• Poetry (i.e., "A narrow fellow in the grass," Emily Dickinson)
• Short Story (i.e., "The Cask of Amontillado")
• Artwork (i.e., Head of Auburn Ravine, Unknown Artist (1852))
• Play (i.e., Raisin in the Sun)
• Novel (i.e., Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Ji-li Jang)
• Letters (i.e., "Letter the Tenth: Amateur Mining-Hairbreadth 'Scapes, &c.," from The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-1852, Dame Shirley)
• Animation (multimedia), "The Raven," Edgar Allen Poe
• Primary Source (i.e., M'Naghten Rule, Queen M'Naghten, 1843)

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 fully meet the expectations of indicator 1c. Texts are appropriately rigorous, meeting the text complexity criteria for the grade. Materials support students’ advancing toward independent reading. The majority of texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task. Following are some representative examples of how the program meets the requirements of indicator 1c in terms of overall rigor and complexity. Some examples are above or below the quantitative band, but are appropriate for 7th grade when accounting for qualitative measures and the associated tasks:Unit A, Red Scarf Girl and Narrative includes the text Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji Li Jang. The quantitative measure for this text (780 Lexile) falls below the lower ranges of the CCSS stretch band of 955L–1155L. As the initial read in the first Unit of Grade 7, this would seem to be an appropriate quantitative measure to use early in the school year when quantitative and Reader and Task complexity are considered.

The qualitative complexity of this text would seem to be “moderately complex." While the organization of the text structure is only slightly complex due to the clear chronology and predictability, remaining qualitative indicators fall within the very complex range. Conventionality of language features are “moderately complex.” Though mostly explicit and easy to understand, the underlying abstract nature of the political backdrop may be challenging for some students. Vocabulary is generally familiar and contemporary, and the conversational nature of the memoir is written as a young girl would speak. The subject specific vocabulary relating to the Chinese culture and politics would move it to the moderately complex level. Sentence structure in primarily simple and compound, with some complex construction (e.g., "And a performer, just like my mother used to be, touring the country, the world, to tell everyone about the New China that Chairman Mao had built and how it was becoming stronger and stronger"). The meaning, on the surface appears to be slightly complex. Some aspects of the text would seem to be topically easy for Grade 7 students to understand because they could easily relate to many of the life experiences and feelings of the main character; however, there may be a disconnect due to the unfamiliarity of the cultural and political values presented during the Chinese cultural revolution which would cause an increase in the knowledge demand component of qualitative complexity to the moderately complex level.

Example text: "Seventeen years after Liberation, the newspapers told us, our schools were not bringing us up to be good red socialists and communists, as we had thought, but revisionists. We thanked heaven that Chairman Mao had started this Cultural Revolution, and that the Central Committee of the Communist Party had uncovered the mess in our schools. Otherwise we would not even have known that we were in trouble. What a frightening idea!"

The Reader and Task considerations would indicate this text is appropriately placed for Grade 7. Even though students may not connect with the specifics of Ji-Li’s experiences, there is universality to her relationships with family. Tasks presented provide ample scaffolding (sentence starters for writing about the main character’s feelings, portions read aloud by students/acted out, background knowledge provided through study of visuals) to support student participation and success with this unit. The text is clearly used to get students into close reading and responding to questions with text-based evidence.

In Unit B, Character and Conflict, a main text is A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The quantitative measure for this text is 860 Lexile, and the qualitative measures are very complex in meaning, vocabulary life experiences and cultural knowledge. It is moderately complex in text organization, conventionality, and sentence structure. Reader tasks require students to look deeply at race and human struggles. This can be difficult content for young readers but because of a lower quantitative measure students can access the text with more analysis. Activities are associated through the Quest to provide more context for students who may not be familiar with the hardships discussed in the play.

Unit C, Brain Science, includes Phineas Gage: A Gruesome, but True Story About Brain Science. Quantitatively, Phineas Gage falls squarely in the middle of the ranges of the CCSS stretch band of 955L–1155L at 1030 Lexile. The qualitative measures are slightly complex for purpose, text organization and conventionality. It is moderate complex for sentence structure and subject knowledge, and complex for vocabulary. Qualitative Measures would place the text at a “Very Complex” level. The biographical story of Phineas Gage is used as a lead in to explore challenging scientific content. This leads to a comparison of two more complex scientific theories of the Phrenologists and Whole Brainers. While text features are not extensively used, there are extensive graphics that range from primary source photographs, to intricate scientific diagrams. Conventionality, and sentence structures are very complex and vocabulary is dense in academic language. The discipline specific subject matter, coupled with intertextual reference to outside theories makes knowledge demands very complex.

Example Text: "Until Professor Macmillan turns up solid proof, we can’t say for sure if Phineas drives a Concord stagecoach in Chile, but the driver’s job would be much the same on any six-horse coach—hard, tiring, and sometimes exciting."

"There is always a tiny gap between the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of the next. The gap is called a synapse. It is bridged by signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters. A message travels as an electrical impulse through the axon, down the body of the nerve cell, to the axon terminal. There the electrical impulse is converted into a chemical neurotransmitter to float across the synapse to the next neuron."

The Reader and Task considerations indicate lower level tasks such as sequencing, explicit comprehension questions, and students use paired discussion to clarify understanding of scientific content. The use of sentence stems support citing text evidence in written response to the reading. In later lessons, the students compare and contrast information and synthesize information from the text to support a claim.

Unit E includes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which has a quantitative measure of 880 Lexile, which puts it in the 4-5 grade span. However, the qualitative measures are very complex for meaning, text organization, and subject knowledge. It is exceedingly complex for vocabulary, and conventionality, as well as antiquated structures employed by Shakespeare.

The instructional materials for Grade 7 fully meet the expectations of indicator 1d, supporting students as they grow their literacy skills over the course of the school year. By the end of Grade 7, students have support and opportunities to be reading texts that meet the requirements for the end of the Grade 7 and possibly beyond. The aggregate score assigned the reading selections in the Grade 7 curriculum appears to increase over the course of the year in complexity.

The program starts with texts at the beginning of the grade band in terms of rigor and complexity. Texts "maintain" the grade band complexity and toward the end of the year, students are presented with increasingly complex texts. During instruction there are many formative assessment opportunities to help a teacher guide decisions about their students' learning, and there are summative benchmark assessments that are to be given after three weeks of instruction then after 20 weeks of instruction. The online library offers opportunities for students to select independent reading texts that are on their level of reading along with differentiated opportunities embedded in the program, to support their building stamina with reading alongside being presented with the increasingly complex texts.

Over the school year, students are engaging with challenging texts in increasingly sophisticated and rigorous ways. Following is a sample of how the program organizes tasks and texts to support growing students' skills over the school year:

• Unit A in Grade 7 starts with a writing sub-unit, then goes into a close read of Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Ji Li Jiang. The high quantitative level combined with a fairly uncomplicated narrative structure and simple reader tasks starts off the year. Tasks and reading grow more complex through the following units, with higher demands on the student to work through text.
• From examining differences in characters thoughts and actions to revising to strengthen elaboration in a narrative writing task in Unit A, students move to analyzing character’s unconscious motivations and themes in Unit B, Character and Conflict.
• In Unit C, Brain Science, students are engaging in research and case studies on different theories related to the unit topic. In the end, producing evidence-based writing to support an argument.
• Poetry and Poe, Unit D in the series, requires students to evaluate the credibility of a fictional author in multiple medias and genres, including film, poetry and prose.
• In Unit E, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, read in selected scenes provides an opportunity to explore Shakespeare’s language and connect characters’ development to a conceptual idea. Paired with a less demanding novel, students are exposed to difficult concepts in text as they navigate multiple texts to build knowledge.
• In Unit F, The Gold Rush Collection, students read various historical and cultural documents examining social, political and economic issues. Students take a research topic from beginning to end, starting by developing a question, conducting research, debate ideas and synthesize multiple ideas and documents in order to write an essay and create a multi-media project.
• The final unit is Intermediate Story Writing where students create a believable character and write an original short story.

The materials for Grade 7 fully meet the expectations of indicator 1e. How the publisher identifies text complexity is laid out at a glance in the Teachers Program Guide (TPG) on page 33, with specific measures given for qualitative, quantitative, and reader and task considerations. There is also provided a complexity index that places the text holistically within the 6th-8th grade band. The materials reviewed use an aggregate score for a unit based on text complexity.

The program uses quantitative, qualitative, and reader and tasks measures to place the unit within a 6-9 grade band. The visual of this is the familiar triangle with each section providing information for each component’s complexity. Alongside this triangle is a grid that uses the Amplify formula to present an overall complexity score. On pages 44, the analysis and rationale are presented which states that texts are sequenced for text complexity as well as to intentionally build content knowledge and skills through each grade and throughout the program.

With this method, Amplify has placed units in an order that shows increasing text complexity. This ordering also creates increasing complexity of the skills students require to meet grade level Common Core standards. This is seen within units when, for example, Unit 7C, Brain Science, students begin with learning about informational literacy, and begin constructing an evidence-based argument. The culminating research project builds on the skills previously learned. Also, Poetry and Poe Unit 7D requires students to evaluate the credibility of a fictional narrator moving to a compare and contrast essay on different perspectives.

Lexiles are used as the quantitative measure, a scale of .5-5 is used for the qualitative measure and reader and task are identified within a scale of .5-5. The complexity index was developed by Amplify to “reflect aggregate scores as a guideline to present appropriate curriculum materials and track the students’ path through each grade.”

Page 241-244 of the TPG discusses the rationale for the selection of text for the core units. It calls out “stair casing” the text complexity, explains how the digital environment was designed to help students “tap into the power” of the selected texts, the importance of student engagement in selection of the texts and activities, and the importance in including traditional texts.

Pages 246-318 of the TPG provide a unit by unit discussion of where the texts fit in the sequence of knowledge building by describing both prior knowledge and future learning that will build upon the texts. Additionally, recommendations for enrichment activities, independent reading, and interdisciplinary connections are provided.

The Appendix to the TPG lays out the research foundations for Evidence in indicator 1c and 1d reflect that the texts in the program are of quality and meet the text complexity ranges for the Grade 6 level. The program also has a digital library which allows students to choose from a range of simpler texts to more complex texts for independent reading purposes. There is a teacher edition guide (3-ring binder, page 33) that gives an overview of each unit. It lists the genres and the qualitative measure, quantitative measure and reader and task measure to give an overall text complexity range. It does not list this for each text within the unit. On pages 44-47 of the teacher guide the progression of content and skills is explained. It addresses text complexity. On pages 323-336, in the teachers guide the approach to research is given that explain the selection process for the texts in the program.

The instructional materials for Grade 7 fully meet the expectations for indicator 1f, providing opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade level reading over the course of the school year. There are many opportunities outside of the core coursework that supports students to practice with different texts in and out of the topics being studied at the time.

The Amplify Library provides more than 600 texts including a range of genres and texts of varying complexity. The online texts come in a format with the ability for students to highlight and annotate text supporting students' engagement with different texts. The Reading Tracker encourages students to read broadly, following students year to year and can be accessed to provide a view of the breadth of independent reading that is being done by a student over time. To assist students with book selection there are starter lists by genre/subject (page 680-700 of TPG), independent reader’s guides that group works around each unit of study (page 710-736 of TPG), books encountered on Lexica (a game embedded in the library), and peer recommendation lists.

Oral reading is addressed primarily through the “Working with Text Out Loud” and “Working with Text as Theater” learning experiences within the program. Students regularly read along while they listen to a dramatic reading as well as performing themselves with the text orally. Page 95 of the TPG specifically addresses Foundational Skills. Among the areas discussed here are that there are Teacher Tips that are embedded in the lessons that provide purposeful attention to oral reading skills and offer ways for teachers to be more explicit and intentional with reading strategies for students who struggle with phonics and phonological awareness. Differentiation strategies give specific information about how to use the audio and video recordings and how to provide additional fluency work for students who struggle with this foundational skill. There is access to a resource www.freereading.net that is to be used for Tier III intervention activities that can be used in conjunction with Amplify’s supplemental reading intervention program Burst: Reading.

Students regularly listen to professionally read audio versions of the reading while following along with the text. Students often act out sections of dialogue within texts that are not written as plays, in order to capture different characters’ speech patterns and reveal traits. (For example, the dramatic reading in “The Tell-Tale Heart” allows students to hear the quickening pacing of the plot indicated by the switch to shorter sentences and before practicing a small section of Red Scarf Girl to read aloud, students listen to a comically monotonous read-aloud to encourage them to put expression into their reading.

Flex Days are built into the curriculum to provide extra time to revisit or expand on the curriculum. Reading assessments are built into the program and are short quizzes to check understanding. Checks occur throughout the week in the lessons as independent or "solo" tasks. Each of the units provides time for students to be read to, to read aloud and with partners at times. The audio is another tool used by the program to support the development of reading skills.

The Grade 7 instructional materials fully meet the expectations of indicator 1g. The majority of questions and tasks students complete are text-dependent and/or text-specific, engaging students in going back to the text. The Grade 7 unit has several opportunities for students to respond to text-dependent questions in the form of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ). Throughout all of the units, there is a combination of text-dependent and non-text-dependent questions. Non-text dependent questions are used to build knowledge and connections for students in the readings they will encounter. Some of the more difficult readings (e.g., those with more complex language and/or content) are supported by asking students questions that help them make connections for better understanding. Students are required to provide evidence from the text to support their responses in almost all of the questions throughout the unit. Several of the questions require longer responses that a short written responses and ask students to make inferences as well.

The units in the Grade 7 are dense with text- dependent questions in the form of multiple choice questions used to assess reading comprehension as well as constructed responses that delve more deeply into the texts. Students are required to provide text evidence throughout the units in responding to questions and prompts. Most often, responses show an understanding of the text at an inferential level. Each unit, focuses on how the writer has crafted his/her narrative and students are examining the text for examples.

Some text-dependent questions and tasks that students will encounter in the Grade 7 materials include the examples listed here:

Unit A- For Red Scarf Girl, the text dependent questions are combined multiple choice text dependent questions to check comprehension and constructed responses with short answer responses. Both types of questions require students to understand the text on multiple levels. Many of the questions prepare students for a writing task, such as the following:

• How hopeful do you think Ji-li is at this moment in her story?
• Which details in the Prologue lead you to think so?
• Compare how Ji-li felt in her home at the beginning of the story to how she felt after the Red Guards searched her home. Use details from the setting to show your thinking., Why didn’t Ji-li go through with her plan to change her name?
• Think of one or two reasons and explain them using details from the text.

UNIT B: In the Character and Conflict unit the text dependent questions combine multiple choice questions to check comprehension with constructed responses that focus on characterization and author’s language.

• What is one thing that your character (Travis or Beneatha) wants right now?
• What obstacle gets in his or her way, and how does he or she react? Make sure you cite textual evidence to support your answer.
• Describe how your character reacts to Mama’s choice to buy the house. Does this reaction surprise you? Why or why not? (If you are following Beneatha, use what you know to imagine how she would respond). Make sure you cite textual evidence to support your answer.
• Choose one simile from “Harlem” and one character from “A Raisin in the Sun” whose actions connect to that simile. Why did you connect that simile to that character? What does this character do or say that makes you connect the character to the simile? Make sure you cite textual evidence to support your answer.

UNIT C: Brain Science combines multiple choice text dependent questions to check comprehension with constructed responses to further understanding of the materials. Much of the emphasis in this unit is for students to track their misunderstandings within the text, and then to work through those misunderstandings. Questions in this unit require students to not only use text, but to formulate their own responses leading to argument and informative writing. Some examples are:

• Fleischman writes, "Phineas should have been dead long before this" (17). Argue for or against Fleischman's claim, using textual evidence.
• Drivers who are under 25 years old get in more car accidents than drivers over 25 years old. Using textual evidence, explain why.
• How are Phineas and Mrs. B similar? Describe 1–2 symptoms/behaviors of frontal lobe damage and show how both Mrs. B and Phineas exhibit these behaviors.

UNIT D: Poetry and Poe combines multiple choice text dependent questions to check comprehension with constructed responses, which combines multiple choice text dependent questions to check comprehension with constructed responses. Some questions tap prior knowledge and experience, but then build to deeper text-dependent questions. Some examples are:

• In what ways do the images in the poem make snakes seem not scary? In what ways do images in the poem make snakes seem scary? Why might Dickinson have included both types of images? Use specific images from the poem to make your arguments.
• Do you agree or disagree with the narrator’s description [“Tell Tale Heart”] of what is happening? Use details from the text to explain your answer.
• Could Fortunato have figured out what Montresor’s plan was before he was chained to the wall? Use two details from the text to explain your response.

UNIT E: Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and The Summer of the Mariposas includes multiple choice text dependent questions throughout the unit to check comprehension, however, there are only a couple of opportunities for constructed responses within “Romeo and Juliet.” While the constructed response questions do not explicitly state that students are to use text evidence, this expectation has been established in prior units. There are numerous SOLO multiple choice comprehension checks that contain text dependent questions. Here are a few examples of questions in this unit:

• Although Tybalt, a Capulet, is the one who stabs Mercutio, Mercutio curses both the Montagues and the Capulets. Explain why he blames both the Montagues and the Capulets for his death. Cite textual evidence to support your answer.
• First, describe how Romeo has changed during the entire Fight Scene. Then, explain why he first refuses to fight Tybalt but is later eager to kill him.
• What is this hero’s special characteristic or source of strength? Explain how this characteristic helped the hero succeed on the journey.
• Does Odilia’s family become whole by the end of the story?
• Is transformation or change positive or negative in Summer of the Mariposas?

UNIT F: The Gold Rush Collection contains a scavenger hunt where students comb texts by doing close reading to answer a number of text dependent questions. In addition, there are several opportunities for constructed response where students are applying the knowledge gained through the scavenger hunt to new questions.

• Read chapter 11, “Danger,” in Murphy, Gold Rush Dog. Select one of the texts or the images from The Gold Rush Collection and compare it to Sally’s experience. Choose two similar details and two different ones. Describe the details you selected and explain why they are similar and why they are different.
• Read chapter 12, “There’s Gold in Them Hills,” from A History of US 5: Liberty For All? 1820–1860 by Joy Hakim. List three new details about the California gold rush that you learned from Joy Hakim’s chapter. How do these details support or refute what you learned so far?).

The Grade 7 instructional materials fully meet the expectations of indicator 1h, as sequences of text-dependent questions and tasks to build to culminating tasks to support students' literacy learning. All units end with a writing task that requires students to take what they have learned and evaluated throughout the unit and apply to the task, citing evidence from the associated texts. There are different types of writing required within the culminating tasks. Questions, as evidenced in 1g, build their knowledge to a deeper understanding of text and the craft of writing through multiple questions addressing character, setting, and other writing elements.

The writing tasks require evidence based arguments, narratives, and information research. From Unit A to the last unit, students are building their writing skills in addition to the text dependent questions they are challenged to address. Samples from the materials that represent this indicator include the following:

The culminating task in Unit A is an essay: "Choose one moment from the text that shows what she was like before this change. Use details from this moment to describe what Ji-li is like before the change." This prompt is supported by the tasks done while reading the text which also focused on a moment in time and the changes in the main character over time. Students refer back to work done while reading the text when they identified “moments” on a personal chart or on the class chart. The text-dependent questions throughout the unit highlight either the adults or the students and set up the context for the culminating essay.

The culminating task in Unit B is an essay: Identify the theme and its effect on the development of one of the characters. Be sure to cite evidence (quotes and inferences) to support your claim. Choose to write about either Walter or Mama. Begin by describing one way your character changes from the beginning to the end of the play. Compare this...1. How does this character act in the beginning of the play when obstacles get in the way of what he or she wants? To this...2. How does this character act in the end of the play when obstacles get in the way of the same thing that he or she wants? Walter and Mama want many things, but for this essay, focus on: Mama wants to improve life for her family. Walter wants to be the head of the family. NOTE: Focus on just one thing that each character wants in both scenes so that you can focus your comparison on the change in actions across two scenes.

The culminating task for Unit C is to develop a research question, research to find information, and then write a short piece in response to the question. With the scavenger hunt format emphasizing close reading of a variety of sources to answer specific questions. Brain Science has students writing a culmination essay: Compare Phineas's behavior and brain to those of an adolescent. This requires that students pull information from multiple texts. The quest that is incorporated into this unit, Perception Academy, is provides opportunity for debate, however this was not clear from the descriptions in the guides. It did say, “The Quest is structured like a good thriller: First, students recognize that something is amiss, but they don’t understand what it is; next they read Oliver Sacks’s excerpts to learn about and explore what is 'happening' to them; and finally they widen and deepen their understanding of brain disorders by working collaboratively.”

In Unit D students write a culmination essay: "Choose a narrator from one of Poe’s texts that we’ve read and answer the following question: Can you trust that the narrator is accurately describing what’s happening in the story or poem? Why or why not? Use your answer to make a claim about whether or not you can trust the narrator’s account of events, and support your claim with textual evidence." After providing the M’Naghten Rule, students debate—as courtroom lawyers—whether the narrator is legally sane or whether the narrator is legally insane in two of the poems.

In Unit E, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, students write a culminating essay: Essay prompt: "Did the power of love contribute more to Romeo’s death or were the forces of hatred more of an influence on Romeo’s death, or both?"

In Unit F, The Gold Rush Collection, students write a culminating essay from among two choices:

• Research Option 1: Argumentative Essay, "Was the gold rush good for the state of California?"
• Research Option 2: Informative Essay, "Who was John Sutter? Who was Elsa Jane Guerin? Go to My Work to see your Evidence Chart in the Independent Work: Conduct Your Research activity from the previous lesson. What idea are you trying to explain in your research essay? Write a claim statement that answers the question for the research option you chose. Your claim statement should be written as a complete sentence, and make a clear point that can be supported by the evidence you have gathered."

The unit concludes with a media project and presentation. Students will create an interactive timeline using myhistro.com. This project requires students to revisit their research to find relevant information for the timeline. Within Sub Unit 4 there is an opportunity for a Socratic seminar. Students create open-ended questions from the texts in the unit to form the seminar content.

The materials fully meet the expectations for indicator 1i, providing students frequent opportunities to practice academic vocabulary and syntax in their evidence-based discussions. Each unit/lesson is set up in the same manner, beginning with a vocabulary lesson. Then it poses a class discussion topic and offers other opportunities for students to work in pairs or small groups to have discussions. On pages 134-141 in the teacher guide, the vocabulary words for each unit/lesson are listed.

Frequent oral language opportunities to do Think-Pair-Share, peer questioning in groups, and partner talk. Sentence frames are provided to support students who need more help applying new vocabulary and syntax.

Samples of how students get practice in modeling academic vocabulary include work with Socratic seminars and debates. Some examples of this are listed here:

• Unit C: Brain Science 101- Students work with a partner to examine their answers, look again at the text to consider sources of misunderstandings, and try to choose the right answer again. Students discuss why they chose specific passages in order to generate additional language that describes how the text grabs their attention, highlighting specific word choices and structures.
• Unit D: Tell-Tale Heart-- students discuss evidence and revise storyboard panels to reflect their interpretation of what is happening.
• Debates: In the Poetry and Poe unit, lesson 5, students work in groups argue that the narrator of the story is either legally same or insane. Students work together to orally discuss their observations and thoughts while finding evidence in the text and recording it on their evidence sheet. In the “Tell Tale Heart” lessons, students from opposing sides of debate practice the same piece of text to each defend their position.

Examples of different listening and speaking activities that support students' development with practicing language over the course of the school year include the following:

• Unit A: Students act out the scene in which townspeople destroy a fourolds shop sign, in order to experience the scene’s intense mix of excitement and violence.
• Unit B: Students use the new information from the play’s long opening stage directions to show more about each character as they act out the first part of the first scene again.

Lessons typically begin with discussion and end with sharing. Some of these discussions are around the text and others focus on things like crafting writing. Teachers and students are given vocabulary and terms with which to work in these sections.

The Grade 7 materials fully meet the expectations of indicator 1j. Students have multiple opportunities for text-dependent discussions in each unit. Each lesson has an opportunity for the teacher to pose a question and have the class discuss it. In addition, each lesson provides opportunities for students to share with partners.

For example: in Unit 1 subunit 3 lesson 1: Students point out specific details in the poster and explain how each might have shaped how people felt about Chairman Mao. (This is a whole class opportunity). In lesson 3 students work with a partner to act out the scene in which townspeople destroy a four olds shop sign, in order to experience the scene’s intense mix of excitement and violence.

Each Unit/lesson is set up in the same manner generally, starting with a vocabulary lesson, then posing a class discussion topic. The materials offer other opportunities for students to work in pairs or small groups to have discussions. The discussions are always text-dependent and the students are instructed to answer questions citing evidence from the text. Videos, audio recordings or photos/images are sometimes used to promote/start the discussion. The materials include dramatic readings, debates, and other protocols for teachers to provide students multiple opportunities and ways to build their speaking and listening skills while using the texts as anchors.

In the teacher guide, questions are provided as models for teachers to move student discussions and listening skills. Pedagogy for the program include three areas that address speaking and listening. Daily Lesson Patterns include 15-25 minutes at the beginning of each lesson for collaboration and interpretation. Included are the following:

• Working the Text Out Loud
  • (Page 78, Teacher Program Guide): Early units have students listening to, and sometimes watching a dramatic reading of the text.
  • This includes follow-up discussions that ask students to consider how the performer interprets the texts, students are asked to interpret and make meaning out of the texts.

Some examples of these materials meeting the expectations of these indicators include:

• Reading the Novel: In Unit B, Raisin in the Sun, students are introduced to the play by reading a passage from Scene One so that they can understand the format and basic relationships in the play.
• Working with Text as Theater
  • For example, in Raisin in the Sun, students use the new information from the play’s long opening stage directions to show more about each character as they act out the first part of the first scene again.
  • Romeo and Juliet: Students practice memorization strategies they will use to learn the Prologue

• Debate
  • Unit D Poetry & Poe, Sub Unit 2, The Tell-Tale Heart, Lessons 5 & 6, students work in groups to prepare and present an argument in a debate. Evidence for how this work meets the standards is shown here, “They can use evidence from anywhere in the story, but they must be able to explain how that piece of evidence demonstrates 1 of the conditions.
  • Students are engaged in activities that require debating ideas and push to use language purposefully and respond to other students and what they say

Quests

Students must participate in speaking and listening when engaging in the Quests, which are interactive and collaborative. Quests create multiple opportunities for students to work in pairs, small groups, and as a class. The discussions, both “in character” and “out of character” within the contexts of the works they read are critical to each lesson. As an example from the Brain Science unit, students move through the periods of a school day as though they have one of the perception disorders detailed in the Oliver Sacks book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Students master excerpts from this difficult non-fiction text, building on the work they’ve done during the neurology unit so far.

The instructional materials meet the expectation of a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects. Students write both "on demand" and "over extended periods." On Demand Writing is included in multiple lessons within a collection. Students are required to write 10-15 minutes a couple times a week on different topics. Culminating writings are built from the regular writing tasks completed in the context of reading and writing instruction.

On-demand writing activities happen almost daily, with students answering text-specific questions and prompts. Notebook structures (such as the Misunderstanding Notebook used in Unit C) support this type of student demonstration in a low-stakes environment. Higher-stakes essay prompts are also employed throughout the materials. One Unit selection of on-demand writing includes:

• For Unit B: A Raisin in the Sun Lesson 3: What is one thing that your character (Travis or Beneatha) wants right now? What obstacle gets in his or her way, and how does he or she react? Refer to your chart for ideas.
• Lesson 9: Describe how your character reacts to Mama’s choice to buy the house. Does this reaction surprise you? Why or why not? (If you are following Beneatha, use what you know to imagine how she would respond.)
• Lesson 11: Describe exactly how your character reacts to Lindner’s visit, and then explain why Lindner represents an obstacle for your character.

Process writing builds over the school year. The lessons usually start with a focus on the body of the essay before considering its other parts. As the year progresses, each essay assignment adds a new structural element on which students focus. By the end of the year, students are writing essays that flow from their internalized understanding of argumentative structure, rather than adhering to the rules of a formula. Each Lesson Overview for the first essay lesson explains the logic behind its sequencing of elements and provides details about writing an essay on each unit’s text. Revision is addressed in the context of authentic writing. An example that sums up how process writing is employed:

Unit F: Students spend six lessons researching and writing a five-paragraph essay. This lesson sequence reinforces skills learned in earlier units including writing a compelling introduction and a strong conclusion. Students also learn how to create in-text citations, frames for quotes, and a Works Cited page. The unit concludes with a media project and presentation where students create an interactive timeline using myhistro.com.

The materials meet the expectations providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Materials provide opportunities that build students' writing skills over the course of the school year. Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources.

Some examples that show how the materials meet the expectations of these indicators include, but are not limited to:

Argument Examples:

• Unit A: Build your claims from the up: draw the claims you make straight from the text.
• Unit C: Choose a narrator and make a claim about whether or not you can trust that narrator’s account of events. Include 2–3 reasons why you can or cannot trust that narrator.

Informative/Explanatory Examples:

• Unit B: Identify the theme and its effect on the development of one of the characters. Be sure to cite evidence (quotes and inferences) to support your claim.
• Unit C: Compare Phineas's behavior and brain to those of an adolescent.

Narrative Examples:

• Unit A focuses on students writing about how they feel. They explore adding details and giving feedback. This unit focuses on the details and really painting a picture in a readers mind. Example: Choose one brief moment from the last time you ate lunch at school. Zoom in on that moment and write at least five detailed sentences about it. At the end of the unit the students are expected to write an essay using the text to make a claim. In addition they must respond to:
• Unit G: Intermediate Story Telling: This unit is consistent with grade 6 and grade 8 in that is provides an opportunity for students to write narrative and incorporate the elements of the narrative studied for the year. Each year builds on the previous writing tasks and narrative elements.

The materials for Grade 7 fully meet the expectations of indicator 1m, providing frequent opportunities for students to practice evidence-based writing. Students write throughout the year with support to use text in careful analyses, using text-specific evidence to support their thinking. The program addresses evidence-based and evidence-supported writing in varied assignments. One of the highlighted learning experiences in the program involves choosing the best evidence. This is addressed through the themes (making meaning, language development, effective expression, and content knowledge):

Making Meaning: After students find a piece of evidence to support their claim or their answer to a text-dependent question they are asked to write 1-2 sentences to explain how this evidence led them to this answer or connects to their claim.

• Language Development: Students will learn and practice “describing your evidence.” In other words, noting those aspects of your chosen evidence that best illustrate your idea. As they describe what they notice in those words, students are encouraged to comment at the word level, explaining how an author’s particular word choice impacts the meaning of a sentence or passage.
• Effective Expression: The lessons present multiple opportunities for students to compare how they are using the text to build a claim or develop an understanding. The structure around these moments allow students to learn how to express their ideas and listen to another perspective.
• Content Knowledge: Lessons present multiple opportunities for students to compare how they are using the text to build a claim or develop an understanding. As students review how they might support a particular claim based on the text, they share and become cognizant of the knowledge they are gaining through their close reading.

Some specific examples that represent this program's evidence-based writing include the following. All tasks require students to identify specific components of the texts read:

• Unit B has opportunities for students to write to prompts using the text and citing evidence throughout the whole unit. Here are two examples:
  • Identify the theme and its effect on the development of one of the characters. Be sure to cite evidence (quotes and inferences) to support your claim.
  • At the end of the unit the students are expected to write an essay on the following prompt: Students choose which of the 3 scenes they want to compare to the final scene and write more about.
• In Unit D, the essay focuses on trusting the credibility of a narrator. Students respond to the prompt based on the reading: Can you trust that the narrator is accurately describing what’s happening in the story or poem? Why or why not?
  • Choose a narrator and make a claim about whether or not you can trust that narrator’s account of events. Include 2–3 reasons why you can or cannot trust that narrator.
• Unit E includes a technology component to the writing:
  • Students highlight evidence that supports the ideas that the power of love, the forces of hate, or both, are responsible for Romeo’s death.
  • Review each of the passages you've studied. You can find each excerpt by clicking NEXT.
  • Highlight in red the places where Shakespeare shows the power of love.
  • Highlight in blue the places where Shakespeare shows the forces of hate.
  • Make sure to click HAND IN on the final passage when you have completed your highlights.
  • Stake a claim about the forces of hatred vs. the power of love.
• Unit F: Students research and gather information to write an essay.

The Grade 7 materials include daily writing instruction and practice, end of unit writing, and digital platform writing work.

Materials include explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of context. Opportunities for grammar instruction are built into the program. The program includes three PDFs named Mastering Conventions with over 1,000 pages of exercises for grammar skills. The program has embedded grammar throughout the curriculum and in each unit.

In Unit 1, the Getting Started sub-unit focuses on jump-starting student writing by developing their focus and stamina. Continuing throughout the unit with regular opportunities for writing and connections to selected texts, students develop their idea and build their sense of syntax. The lessons start with practice in communicating ideas effectively and develop ideas before formal grammar instruction begins.

Examples:

• Lesson 4: Write about a moment when you were nervous.
• Lesson 5: Write about a recent moment that took three minutes or fewer.

Revision Assignments are provided and provide time for students to practice revising their own writing. Revision assignments are provided as part of the Flex Days. Each revision assignment focuses on one of the following five areas:

• Complete sentences
• Pronoun use
• Subject-verb agreement
• Verb tense
• Sentence combining

Teachers are encouraged to review each student’s work for the skill they need to work on and provide the lesson appropriate and most beneficial for the student.

Flex Days and Over-the Shoulder conferencing (OTSC) with targeted feedback allowing teachers to “regularly instruct students on grammar” and focus on individual skills for individual students. Flex days are designed to pace the grammar instruction and contain a regular time for review, reinforcement and/or extension activities to help all levels of students. Lessons include short drills and revision assignments to practice the skills. Flex Days examples:

• Flex Day, Grammar 2: Unit 1, Lesson 3: Defining and Identifying Nouns
• Flex Day, Grammar 8: Unit 3, Lesson 14: Keeping Verb and Tense Consistent in Complex Sentences

The OTSC is targeted feedback for students. Each grade level provides models of how a teacher would respond to specific concerns in a text. Teachers are instructed to “point to the sentences, name the skill, and comment on it.” A few examples of the types of feedback provided include, but not limited to;

• “This subordinate clause makes it clear how truly strange his behavior appeared.”
• “These three complete sentences clearly illustrate your idea, and make it easy to follow.”

Rubrics are provided in the TPG to track student progress with their control of grammar in the writing prompts. For example, a conventions rubric has the following language to guide teachers and students: