The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 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 6 students. Texts consider a range of student interests including (but not limited to) ancient Greece, early to late 20th century experiences, and 19th century rural America and London. Some included texts are reflected in the CCSS appendices as possible exemplars for the grade level.

Some examples of texts that represent the overall quality include the following:

• Unit A: Boy: Tales of a Childhood, Roald Dahl
• Unit B: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
• Unit C: "The Chocolate Collection," a research collection of informational texts focused on the evolving economic and cultural significance of a product (chocolate) in society
• Unit D: The Greeks: Prometheus and Odysseus
• Unit E: M.C.Higgins, the Great, Virginia Hamilton
• Unit F: The Titanic Collection, a research collection of texts focused on 20th century

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

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 fully meet the expectations of indicator 1b, 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 text within the modules are also a mixture of literature and informational texts. Texts illustrating the mix of informational texts and literature include the following:

Literature

Unit A:

• Boy: Tales of a Childhood, Roald Dahl

Unit B:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
• "The Red-Headed League," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Unit C:

• "Chocolate," Rita Dove
• The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac
• Chapter 7, "Monseigneur in Town," from A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Unit D:

• "Prometheus," from Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths, Bernard Evslin
• Book 9 from The Odyssey, Homer, translated by E.V. Rieu
• "Arachne" from Tales from Ovid, Ted Hughes

Unit E:

• M.C. Higgins, the Great, Virginia Hamilton

Informational:

Unit C:

• "Prehistoric Americans Traded Chocolate for Turquoise?" Christine Dell'Amore from National Geographic News
• More Chocolate. Win More Nobels?" Karl Ritter and Marilyn Marchione from Associated Press
• Letter from Lord Rothschild to Laurence Fish
• "Pilot Dropped Candy Into Hearts of Berlin," ABC News
• Appendix C Statement from Labour in Portuguese West Africa, William A. Cadbur
• "The Tropics" from The Story of Chocolate by National Confectioners Association's Chocolate Council
• "Good Harvest," Karen E. Lange from All Animals magazine/The Humane Society of the United States
• "Dark Chocolate: A Bittersweet Pill to Take," Mary Brophy Marcus from USA Today

6F:

• Sinking of the Titanic, Most Appalling Ocean Horror, Jay Henry Mowbray
• A Night to Remember, Walter Lord
• Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, edited by Logan Marshall
• Testimony of Olaus Abelseth
• "Letter from the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers Union of Great Britain and Ireland," Ben Tillett
• Telegraphic transmissions to and from the Titanic
• "The Iceberg Was Only Part of It," from The New York Times

Other Media:

6C:

• Act I, Scene Eight from Cosi fan tutte: English National Opera Guide 22, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Nicholas Joh (Book editor), Marmaduke E. Browne (Translator)
• Several paintings and photographs from the history of chocolate

Throughout the instructional materials, a wide distribution of genres and text types is found including the following examples:

• Novels: Autobiography and Adventure (i.e., Boy: Tales of a Childhood, Roald Dahl; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain)
• Primary Sources (i.e., "Can Chocolate be Good for My Health?" Answers from Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D from Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Epic Poetry (i.e., The Odyssey)
• News Articles (i.e.,"Dark Chocolate: A Bittersweet Pill to Take," Mary Brophy Marcus from USA Today)
• Myths (i.e., "Prometheus")
• Letters (i.e., Letter from Mary Lines, 1912, Letter from Lord Rothschild to Laurence Fish)
• Short Stories (i.e., "The Speckled Band")

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 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. There are a few texts which fall above and below the band in terms of rigor and complexity; however, the overwhelming majority of texts are within appropriate levels for 6th grade students.

Texts increase over the course of the year in reading levels starting in this range and building through the year, starting in the range 955–1155, and building. For texts with lower reading levels, associated tasks are more challenging for students.

Unit A, Dahl and Narrative, includes Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. Although starting at a lower range for reading, students are introduced to a text that is vividly written and the story allows them to get connected.

In Unit B, Tom and Sherlock, a main text isThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. This text is listed in the CCSS as an exemplar for grades 6-8. The quantitative measure for this text (970 Lexile), which falls within lower ranges of the CCSS stretch band of 955L–1155L. Set within the second unit, this would seem to be an appropriate quantitative measure to use early in the school year. The qualitative complexity of this text would seem to be “very complex." Vocabulary is unfamiliar and archaic and the sentence structure is complex. Although the text would seem to be topically easy for students in Grade 6 to understand, Tom Sawyer’s experiences and his simple life are so culturally disconnected with those of most modern adolescents that it would increase the knowledge demand component of qualitative complexity.

Example text: While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity offered, Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and very deep—for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning. Said she:“Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn’t it?”

He got home pretty late that night, and when he climbed cautiously in at the window, he uncovered an ambuscade, in the person of his aunt; and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in its firmness.

The Reader and Task considerations would indicate that this text is appropriately placed for Grade 6. Even though students may not connect with the specifics of Tom’s experiences, there is a universality to his relationships and antics. The humor with which the story is written is engaging and would likely motivate a student to work through their gaps in understanding, especially when they are presented by the difficult language. Tasks presented provide ample scaffolding (sentence starters for discussion, lessons on characterization) to support student participation and success with tasks, however it is not without challenge (ex. Students select quotes from the text as evidence of character traits).

In Unit D, The Greeks, there is included Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Mythsby Bernard Evlsin and William Hofmann. The Lexile level is 800. which is low for Grade 6 students; however, in using a qualitative rubric, the text structure, language features, meaning and knowledge demands is very complex. The language is difficult with difficult vocabulary, irony is included and sub-plots. The interest level for students is high. The tasks include analyzing the text, making connections, read and respond, making arguments, and writing using the text to support.

Example text: More interesting, perhaps, but infinitely more dangerous. For there is this in man too: a vaunting pride that needs little sustenance to make it swell to giant size. Improve his lot, and he will forget that which makes him pleasing—his sense of worship, his humility. He will grow big and poisoned with pride and fancy himself a god, and before we know it, we shall see him storming Olympus. Enough, Prometheus! I have been patient with you, but do not try me too far. Go now and trouble me no more with your speculations.”

An outlier for the program includes a text in Unit E, Reading the Novel: M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton. The Lexile Level is 630 which puts it in the 2-3 grade level band, far below the 6-8 band. Using a qualitative rubric the text structure and meaning is slightly complex, and language features and knowledge are moderately complex. The tasks that the students are asked to do with the text include the student to identify character traits, write about them, make meaning and connections with/from the text.

Example text: He remembered childhood, when he was the only one small on the mountain. Watching, sucking his fingers in his mouth. His father, struggling with stones, rounded, man-hewn. Jones, wrenching them from the soil dug away from their base. And looking fearfully at Banina standing over him, as if he hated, despised, what he had to do, but doing it because she said he must. The stones?

The instructional materials for Grade 6 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 6, students have support and opportunities to read and comprehend texts that meet the requirements for the end of the Grade 6 and possibly beyond.

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.

There is a clear progression of complexity throughout the Grade 6 year seen as the tasks require that students engage with increasingly challenging texts in challenging 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 6 starts with a writing sub-unit, then goes into a close read of Roald Dahl’s Boy with writing about the text. 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 finding evidence in the text to supporting a point in Unit A, students move to looking for motivations and points of view in Unit B, Tom & Sherlock. Texts in Unit B are more complex, as are the associated tasks.
• In Unit C students are engaging in debates and including in-text citations in their evidence-based writing. Most texts in Unit C fall into the midrange of the quantitative measures.
• The Greeks, Unit D in the series, asks students to write essays that explore issues beyond their personal lives, asking bigger questions about the human experience such as, “Are humans destroyed by pride?”
• The novel read in Unit E, M.C. Higgins, the Great, is read in its entirety following a model to select, describe, and connect evidence. The novel itself is quantitatively lower than other texts, but the application of careful study makes it more qualitatively rigorous.
• In Unit F, The Titanic Collection, students are called on to synthesize many documents in order to write an essay and create a multi-media project. The final unit is Beginning Story Writing where students create a believable character and a supporting character to write a short story.

The materials for Grade 6 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 6-8 grade band.

The materials reviewed use an aggregate score for a unit based on text complexity. They use 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 6C Chocolate, 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, in The Greeks Unit 6D, 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.”

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 6 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, dramatic readings in Tom Sawyer establish “voice” for each character and indicate phrasing and speech patterns.)

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 6 materials include the examples listed here:

UNIT A: For the Roald Dahl piece, the text dependent questions are more on the level of short answer responses yet require students to understand the text on multiple levels. Many of the questions prepare students for a writing task, such as the following:

• Write about one candy that sounds really appealing or repulsive to you and why. Describe 2–3 details from the text in your response.
• Dahl says earlier in the chapter that Mrs. Pratchett was “a horror” (page 24). Do you agree or disagree? Describe 2–3 details from the passage to show why.
• Consider the three passages you read from “The Great Mouse Plot” and “Mr. Coombes” and the emotions you identified Dahl feeling. Did Dahl’s emotion change a little or a lot throughout the three moments? What are some of the things you notice and the ideas you have about Dahl or his friends when you put these moments together?
• Choose another moment where Dahl’s description gives you a clear idea about the type of person the Matron is. Does this moment present a similar or different idea about the Matron than the soap moment?

UNIT A: In Unit A, students are asked to look for evidence from the text to identify Tom's character from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Students begin by locating text evidence of Tom’s character. Quotes from the text are used on a character matrix.

Students paraphrase dialect from the text, and many of the questions and activities include both comprehension checks which use multiple choice text dependent questions as well as highlighting and discussing text as it relates to characterization. Examples include:

• Choose one text excerpt you highlighted from one of the skits,and describe everything you noticed about that excerpt, and tell what it shows about Aunt Polly, or Tom, or both.
• Compare how Twain and Dahl show the reader the character's traits in each text.
• How would you compare the reasons Tom is tricky in the jam scene and swimming scene with his reason for being tricky in the fence scene?

UNIT C: Unit C contains a scavenger hunt where students comb texts by doing close reading to answer a number of text-dependent questions. These questions range from low level ("How did Gail Halvorsen get the nickname 'Uncle Wiggly Wings'?") to higher level ("What arguments does Cadbury make to convince plantation owners to stop using slave labor?") In addition, there are several opportunities for constructed response where students are applying the knowledge gained through the scavenger hunt to new questions:

• Read the excerpt where Benjamin Franklin lists supplies that he ordered for the soldiers of Colonel unbar’s regiment. After reading the list of the supplies that were delivered, what can you conclude about the fact that chocolate was among these items? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
• Read the passage from Mark Twain’s memoir, Life on the Mississippi. How does Twain use chocolate to portray the Mississippi?

UNIT D: Unit D focuses on the Greek Myths. Prometheus requires students to answer text-dependent multiple choice and constructed response questions Some questions focus on students’ opinions and are not text-dependent, but others direct students back to the text, such as:

• What are the two strongest points Zeus makes? Give a reason that explains why each one is strong.
• Think like Prometheus: In your own words, list two reasons that fire might make humans more interesting.
• Think like Zeus: In your own words, list two reasons that fire might make humans more dangerous.

UNIT E: Students are required to answer both multiple choice text-dependent questions that check comprehension as well as constructed response questions, such as:

• Describe one trait that stands out to you about M.C., the Great, in Chapter 1.
• Use textual evidence to support your answer.
• Does M.C. feel comfortable or uncomfortable on Sarah’s Mountain?
• Describe 2–3 details from the text to show how he is comfortable or uncomfortable.

Work with the novel focuses on the idea of connection and change as students work through a series of text-dependent questions and discussions.

UNIT F: Unit F mirrors the format of Unit C with scavenger hunts, close reading, and answering text-dependent questions. The solo in the first lesson expands the students' “text” dependent questions to the use of images to which students answer constructed responses such as:

• What luxuries does the first-class room have that the second-class room doesn't have?
• What luxuries does the second-class room have that the third-class room lacks?
• Compare this image with the Max Beckmann painting, "The Sinking of the Titanic." What are the similarities and differences between these two images?

The Grade 6 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 that is required within the culminating tasks.

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 1 is an essay: "Who does Dahl describe as causing more trouble: the boys or the adults? Use details from one moment in the book to show who is really causing more trouble." 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. Students discuss Dahl’s emotions and identify possible large themes and small, concrete connections to practice synthesizing ideas in Lesson 6.

The culminating task in Unit 2 is an essay: "In his stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle includes false clues (or “red herrings”) that are either not important or that point you in the wrong direction. Write an essay in which you identify one of the false clues or red herrings Doyle uses in “The Red-Headed League” and do the following: Explain why this detail seemed important and what it led you to predict. Explain what in fact was true about this detail." This task builds on the emphasis of finding clues/suspicious details which took place while working with the text earlier in the unit.

The culminating task for Unit 3 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 throughout the unit, the prior lessons in the unit support this culminating task. Students focus on organizing their thoughts and preparing for a debate in Sub Unit 4. There is a “Pro-chocolate” group and an “Anti-chocolate” group that present their opening statements and counter arguments. All students complete a Peer Evaluation Form during each group’s debate. A post-debate reflection allows students the opportunity to consider their own work and comment on how to improve it.

In Unit 4 students write a culminating piece after working with the texts: "Using two of the following characters—the humans from 'Prometheus,' Odysseus from the Odyssey, or Arachne from 'Arachne' and answer the following question: Are humans destroyed by their pride? Why or why not? Use your answer to make a claim about whether or not these characters have been destroyed by their pride. Be sure to support your claim with textual evidence from the stories and the poem."

In Unit 5, students write a culminating paper in response to the prompt: "What is one way M.C. has changed since the beginning of the book, and who is one person who influenced that change?" This is supported by the work done while working with the text, which focuses on the idea of connection and change as students work through a series of text dependent questions and discussions. An emphasis is placed on making and supporting a claim.

The 6th grade 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. 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: Using text clues to “act out” these characters helps students study how dialogue and narration work together in a text.
• Unit D: Prometheus; assign or have students determine their roles and spend a few minutes reviewing the text and gathering details to use in their scene. As they work, they should focus on the different characteristics of fire and how humans react to those qualities.
• Unit F: Students assume the identity of an actual Titanic passenger. They search through primary and secondary source materials to determine their passenger’s class of travel. Students synthesize this information and write a first-person narrative from the point of view of their passenger, incorporating language from the texts. This lesson is most successful when students are separated into groups according to their class of travel and allowed to role-play. The issues of discrimination based on gender and class become apparent as students work together to flesh out their personas.

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 6 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, lesson 1: Students discuss passages from Boy to engage with the liveliness of Dahl's writing and to recognize his use of focus and showing (This is a whole class opportunity). In lesson 4 students work with a partner to have a brief discussion with a partner about the question, "What are some of the things you notice and the ideas you have about Dahl or his friends when you put these moments together?"

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, T 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 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 E, M.C. Higgins, the Great, Lesson 1: Students listen to a recording of the first few passages of M.C. Higgins to consider this first image of the main character.
• Working with Text as Theater
  • Students are given opportunities to perform and interpret the text on their own, and they are asked to construct meaning for the audience
• Using Text as Referee
  • In Unit B, "Tom and Sherlock, Lesson 3: Who Is This Guy, Really?" students rehearse a scene between Tom and another character to get more comfortable with Twain’s language and to make the characters come alive in the classroom.
• Debate
  • 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. (An example: "Tom Sawyer Treasure Hunter," in which each leg of the competition requires students to work in groups. The collaboration and competition creates a highly social atmosphere.)

The instructional materials meet the expectation of a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects appropriate for Grade 6. 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 support this type of student demonstration in a low-stakes environment. Higher-stakes essay prompts are also employed throughout the materials. Some examples of on-demand writing includes:

As students read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain in Unit B, they will encounter these on-demand writing tasks:

• Lesson 3: Choose one text excerpt you highlighted from one of the skits, describe everything you noticed about that excerpt, and tell what it shows about Aunt Polly, or Tom, or both.
• Lesson 5: Find a moment when Tom shows his trickiness at work. Describe what is happening.
• Lesson 7: Do the lines you highlighted show you something about Tom that you didn’t know before? Explain your answer.
• Lesson 8: Describe the way Tom acts in response to Aunt Polly’s accusation, and explain what his response shows about him.
• Lesson 11: Compare the way Tom acts in the scene with Huck to how he acts with another character in an earlier scene. Explain whether Tom is showing the same traits in each scene.

As students read "The Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle, they will encounter these on-demand writing tasks:

• Lesson 2: What details about Helen and her story does Holmes think might be suspicious? How do you know he finds them suspicious? Use textual evidence to support your answer.
• Lesson 5: Write about 2 details: 1. Pick one detail and describe how it turned out to be a useful clue for Sherlock Holmes. 2. Pick another detail that you or someone else once thought might be important, but it turned out not to be, and explain why..

Process Writing is evident throughout the program. Some examples that illustrate this include:

In Unit E, MC Higgins, the lessons target the character and development of M.C. Higgins in order to streamline what students focus on and students practice both the small- and large-scale analysis involved in novel reading and written response. Students select details (about the character) from a specific moment in the novel, describe what those details reveal about the character in that moment, and then must connect particular moments and details and explain which aspects of the character remain consistent, which become more complex, and in what ways the character is changing.

Over the course of five lessons, students will explore and describe how M.C. Higgins changes over the course of the novel and which character most influenced that change. The unit lessons have prepared students to identify and analyze one of these changes by providing them with many opportunities to identify connections between the things M.C. has done or said or thought and to describe details that point to a contrast or change in this boy. Once establishing a claim, The remaining four lessons take them through the essay writing process: Develop evidence into structured paragraphs, Refine a claim statement to best express the drafted argument, Revise to strengthen use of evidence, Craft an introduction to engage the reader, Practice writing a conclusion, Polish for conventions

In Unit F, Titanic, students spend six lessons researching and writing a four-paragraph essay. They choose from an argumentative essay: Who’s to blame for the loss of life on the Titanic? and An informative essay: the Titanic Orphans. 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 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. 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:

• Arachne: Lesson 2: Pick one of Arachne's behaviors or actions and describe the character trait that motivates it. Cite 2–4 details that support your claim, and make sure those details come from at least two moments in the passage.
• Arachne: Lesson 4: Does Minerva treat Arachne fairly? Why or why not? Give three reasons based on the text to support your answer.

Informative/Explanatory Examples:

• Boy: Tales of Childhood: Lesson 2: Write about one candy that sounds really appealing or repulsive to you and why. Describe 2–3 details from the text in your response.
• Unit 6; Who were the Titanic orphans? Who was responsible for the sinking of the unsinkable ship?
  

Narrative Examples:

• Boy: Tales of Childhood: Lesson 7: Look at the dialogue you filled in for the photo of the students standing in the cafeteria line. Write 5–7 sentences describing this moment. Use dialogue and narration, including precise details, to show what people are saying, doing, and how they speak and look.
• Arachne: Lesson 5: Using your answers to the previous questions as a guide, write your own version of the Arachne myth, making sure to give Arachne a different talent than she had in the Hughes version. Use specific details to help show readers what Arachne's talent is and how she shares it. For example, if Arachne's talent is singing, don't just tell readers that she is good at it. Instead, include details that show what her voice sounds like or what songs are her favorites. As you write about Arachne's punishment, think about Arachne's five senses. What does she feel when she is punished? What sounds does she make? What does she touch or see when she is punished? Does she taste anything? Describing some of these details can help your readers understand what Arachne experiences. If you finish with time to spare, add two more details to help readers understand Arachne’s attitude.

The Grade 6 materials 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 A Dahl Essay Prompt: Who does Dahl describe as causing more trouble: the boys or the adults? Use details from one moment in the book to show who is really causing more trouble.
• Reread this moment from the book. Highlight 3–4 details from this moment that show either Dahl and the boys or the adult(s) causing trouble. For each highlighted detail, add a note labeled "Essay Evidence." (Before completing the essay students examine a sample essay.)
• Unit C Chocolate: Lesson focuses on writing a claim and supporting that claim with textual evidence. The chocolate sample essay is deconstructed as students work in pairs to highlight claims and evidence. The Elements of a Research Essay are discussed and students begin to see that this essay will be similar to the essays they wrote in other units earlier in the year. Students write their claims and work on their body paragraphs, keeping track of where in-text citations will be inserted during a later lesson.
• Unit D The Greeks: Students review the use of textual evidence in the sample essay. How do you know that this sentence is giving textual evidence, “He gets the Titans to chase him up Mount Olympus, and when he gets halfway, he whistled for his cousins, the Hundred-handed Ones, who had been lying in ambush."
• Unit F, Titanic: Write the claim from the sample essay on the board: First-class and second-class passengers had a much better chance of survival than those in third class on the Titanic. Today you’re going to use the evidence from your research to write two body paragraphs for your essay. To do that, you first need to decide on the claim you will make for your essay. To help with this process, we’re going to read this sample claim and a sample research essay written about it.

The Grade 6 materials include daily writing instruction and practice, end of unit writing, and digital platform writing work.

Materials meet the requirements of indicator 1n as they 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 1: Write about one recent moment you noticed from lunch.
• Lesson 6: Write about a recent moment when you were doing something with friends or a friend. Show, don’t tell, the emotion you felt in that moment.

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 1: Unit 1, Lesson 5: Defining and Identifying Pronouns
• Flex Day, Grammar 9: Unit 3, Lesson 20: Introducing Reflexive Pronouns

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 is 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: