7th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and consider a range of student interests.  The texts are authentic and timeless and include a mix of classic and contemporary selections written by both male and female authors. Topics are relevant to students’ lives and experiences; texts are worthy of students’ time and attention to support the thematic focus of the units, and expose students to a variety of text types/genres. The texts include excerpts from novels, nonfiction works, poetry, magazines, journal articles, memoirs, essays, and biographies. They are rich in vocabulary and structure and align well with content areas such as science and social studies appropriate to Grade 7. Examples of anchor texts that meet the criteria include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students read the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. This is a challenging text with a lot of figurative language, imagery, and complicated themes that will challenge students to consider choices.
• In Unit 2, students read the article “What Could Be Better Than a Touchdown” by Kelefa Sanneh. This challenging non-fiction text explores a topic that many students already have an interest in from a different standpoint and offers an argument that will engage students in consideration of the point.
• In Unit 5, students read an excerpt from Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington. This compelling novel uses rich language conventionality.
• In Unit 7, students read an excerpt from The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. The subject matter is thought-provoking and includes cause-and-effect structure and academic vocabulary. Students need some background knowledge for comprehension.

The instructional instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level. The texts include a variety of informational and literary texts so students are exposed to different modes of writing. A sample of text types include short stories, poems, articles, novel excerpts, autobiographies, editorials, and dramas.

The following are examples of literature found within the core instructional materials:

• Unit 1: from Call Me Maria, an excerpt from the novel by Judith Ortiz Cofer
• Unit 1: “The Road Not Taken,”a poem by Robert Frost
• Unit 2: “Casey at the Bat,” a poem by Ernest L. Thayer
• Unit 3: from Twelve Angry Men, an excerpt from the play by Reginald Rose
• Unit 3: “Democracy,” a poem by Langston Hughes and Sara Holbrook
• Unit 5: from The Diary of Anne Frank, excerpts from the play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
  

The following are examples of informational text found within the instructional materials:

• Unit 1: “Essays That Made a Difference,” college admissions essay by Christina Mendoza, James Gregory, and Hugh Gallagher
• Unit 1: from “A Homeless Girl’s Dream,” an article from Essence by Jeannine Amber
• Unit 3: “Ain’t I a Woman,” a speech by Sojourner Truth
• Unit 4: from The Perfect Storm, an excerpt from the creative nonfiction book by Sebastian Junger
• Unit 4: from “In Deference to Crisis, a New Obsession Sweeps Japan: Self-Restraint,” and article by Ken Belson and Norimitsu Onishi
• Unit 5: from Behind the Beautiful Forevers, an excerpt from the narrative nonfiction by Katherine Boo
• Unit 7: from The End of Poverty, by Jeffrey Sachs

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria that anchor and supporting texts provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade level reading proficiency.

Throughout the materials, students engage in a range and volume of texts to achieve grade level reading. The materials facilitate reading using the range of texts to help students build knowledge, vocabulary, and proficiency with reading selections of varying lengths and genres. The texts range in complexity and Lexile from at grade level to above grade level that allow students to read at both their independent level as well as stretching to texts above grade level with support. Texts provided also span from classic literature and cannon material to contemporary material written and published in the last ten years. Each unit contains 2 Unit texts and one or more additional (optional) texts for further study of the topic. Each reading is designed to be taught under a typical 45-50 minute class period, but does offer some guidance for a 90 minute block. The unit texts are to be used daily via multiple close readings, discussions, and writings about the literature. There is a Literature Circle option to complement the units. These Literature Circle texts are “Leveled” books that students choose. To help students select books for Literature Circles, teachers are encouraged to take into consideration each student’s On Demand Writing responses, conferences, and Lexile measures. Students are to have 4-8 monthly Literature Circle meetings during each unit or before or after each unit. Additionally, teachers can provide “Accountable Independent Reading Books” that are also leveled. With these, students use Daily Reading Logs and H.O.T. resources and Reading Counts Quizzes. Lastly, the Code X materials offer grade level novel studies that are to be completed after Units 3 and 7.

Examples of anchor and supporting texts that provide opportunities to achieve grade level proficiency include, but are not limited to:

• Across the units, text types include novels, poetry, sports articles, informational articles, excerpt from plays, and science articles. In the independent reading section at the end of each unit, there are additional titles provided in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, novels, films, TV, websites, and magazines. There is a strong emphasis on nonfiction.
• In Unit 2, the first anchor text is a sports article, “What Could Be Better Than a Touchdown?” by Kelefa Sanneh with a Quantitative Lexile of 1080 and an overall Text Complexity of Complex 1. Next, students read an excerpt from an informational text, Why We Run by Bernd Heinrich with a Quantitative Lexile of 1190 and an overall Text Complexity of Moderate 2. The third text is a science article, “Confessions of a Doper” by Jonathan Vaughters with a Quantitative Lexile of 1050 and an overall Text Complexity of Complex 1. The fourth text is a poem, “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest L Thayer with an overall Text Complexity of Moderate 1. The teacher is instructed to use a Reading Routine to read the entire text aloud or ask students to read in pairs or independently. In the second reading, the teacher is to model close reading, and close reading questions are embedded in the margins of the text.
• In Unit 4, the first anchor text is a science article, “Telling Americans to Vote, or Else” from the New York Times with a Quantitative Lexile level of 1220 and an overall Text Complexity of Complex 1. Next, students read an excerpt from an informational text, “Super Disasters of the 21st Century” from Science World with a Quantitative Lexile of 1000 and an overall Text Complexity of Moderate 2. The third text is an excerpt from the novel The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger with a Quantitative Lexile of 1100 and an overall Text Complexity of Complex 1.  First and second readings follow the same pattern as Unit 1.
• In Unit 6, students read and compare several poems. “I hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes both have a qualitative level of Moderate 1. The next poem, “I, Too, Sing America” by Julia Alvarez has a Moderate 2 complexity level. Next, students read an excerpt from the novel Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata with a Quantitative level of 660L and an overall qualitative measure of Moderate 2. Finally, students read “One Today” a poem by Richard Blanco with a qualitative measure of Moderate 2.
• In each grade, students read two full-length novels to build reading volume and stamina. For 7th grade, these novels are  Monster by Walter Dean Myers and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. The novel topics are different from the Unit texts, which allows students to practice close reading skills with new content.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

The student materials contain close reading questions in the margins of each anchor text. These close reading questions are text-specific, directing students to key areas of the text, often naming paragraphs. Questions are identified by skill, such as key ideas and details, academic vocabulary, writing, and text structure. After the reading selection, students complete a scaffolded exercise called “Identify Evidence,” during which they must provide text evidence and an explanation that supports a question connected to the text. Students fill out a chart with the headings, evidence, source, page, and explanation. In most of the charts, there is some modeling in the evidence category, and then students have to find additional evidence on their own. The next exercise is called “Key Ideas and Details.” Here, students are presented with additional open-ended, text-dependent questions. Finally, there is a section of “Craft and Structure” questions. Teacher materials provide support for planning and implementation by providing exemplar answers as well as scripted instruction for the teacher to use.

Examples of the text-dependent questions include, but are not limited to:

In Unit 2, students read an excerpt from the novel Why We Run by Bernd Heinrich and answer text-dependent questions. Examples include, but are not limited to: .

• While reading, students answer text-dependent questions and tasks found in the margins: “What is the author’s “antelope” in paragraph 2? Why will Heinrich “never, never forget” the 100-km race in Chicago? What is the effect of the author’s descriptions of the national park in Zimbabwe? How does the description tie into the key ideas he is exploring in this text?”
• In the “Identify Evidence” section, students are asked to find and explain evidence for how the author introduces, illustrates, and elaborates claims about the connections among running, biology, and human evolution.
• Additional text dependent questions related to this selection include: “What recurring metaphor does the author introduce in the first paragraph? How did the author’s experiences lead him to write Why We Run?. Discuss the claims the author makes and develops in paragraphs 5-7.”

In Unit 3, in the “Collaborate and Present” part of the unit, students work with a partner to plan and write a two-minute speech justifying their perspective on democracy, supporting it with reasons and evidence from multiple texts. They are instructed to consider the following questions in their planning:

• How does each author view democracy? How does text evidence reveal his or her perspective?
• In what ways does text evidence support -- or differ from -- your perspective on democracy?

In Unit 6, both poetry and novel excerpts offer questions that support explicit and implicit understanding through text-dependent questions. Examples of explicit understanding include, but are not limited to:

• In the poem, “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman, question 4 asks, “What words or phrases support the idea that Whitman celebrates Americans doing their various jobs?”
• In the novel excerpt, from Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata, question 1 asks students to Identify the point of view of the story.

Examples that support inferential understanding include, but are not limited to:

• In the poem “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, question 6 asks, “Explain who Hughes refers to when he says ‘darker’ in line 2 and ‘they’ in line 3.”
• In the poem “I, Too, Sing America” by Julia Alvarez, question 11 asks, “Explain why the author writes in Spanish and English.”

In Unit 6, in the culminating writing task, the prompt says, “These writers all claim a specific vision of what it means to be an American. Compare and contrast their perspectives, referencing their literary devices and figurative language.” This task requires students to use both explicit and inferred understanding in order to pull evidence from multiple texts in the unit. Students are instructed: “Examine the evidence you collected from both texts...that describes each author’s perspective.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for having sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent/specific questions and tasks build to a culminating task that integrates skills (may be writing, speaking, or a combination).

In addition to this, the speaking and listening task at the end of every unit is practice for the culminating writing task linked to the texts in the units. Students may present speeches or debates in the Collaborate and Present section of each unit, and they perform some research tasks (after reading Text 3 and 4). Throughout each unit, speaking and writing tasks include questions that focus on key ideas and details and craft and structure in texts. These questions require short, on-demand written responses. Performance Tasks are presented in a variety of modes (argumentative, informative, literary analysis, fictional narrative/short story). The culminating tasks and activities often ask students to compare/contrast texts that have been presented as sets or series or to synthesize the meaning, themes, or central ideas of the text sets. Overall, the culminating activities and the tasks and activities that lead to them allow students the opportunity to demonstrate what they know using both writing and speaking skills.

Examples of sequenced questions and tasks that build to a culminating task include, but are not limited to:

In Unit 1, the Writing Performance Task states, “Write the story of an important event or decision: it can be real or imagined. What understanding or insight did this experience reveal?” The anchor texts are the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, and an excerpt from the novel, Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer. In the Collaborate and Present section just prior to the Performance Task, students begin their thinking about decision making and are instructed to work in groups: “The narrator of the poem “The Road Not Taken” must choose between two paths. Work in groups to debate which path was the right choice, the road taken or the road not taken.  Present your claim using reasons, and support your reasons with the evidence from the poem.” Questions while reading the novel excerpt, Call Me Maria, focuses students on perspective how that point of view affects the story and characters. Examples include:

• What point of view does the author use? Find words in the text to support your answer.  What is the effect of using this point of view? (this is an On Demand Writing Task)
• Find details in the text that the author uses to describe Mami’s appearance. What tone does the author create with the details she gives about Mami?
• What is the significance of the phrase “her eyes were looking past me, looking for her future” in paragraph 34? How does this sentence indicate that Maria’s relationship with her mother will be like in the future?
• The Identify Evidence task asks, “How does the author introduce, illustrate, and elaborate on individuals, events, and ideas that show how setting affects character?”
• The Craft and Structure section has students do the following: “Describe the different perspectives in paragraph 15. What are the advantages and disadvantages of first-person point of view? Why might the author have chosen the first-person point of view?”

In Unit 2, the Writing Performance Task prompts students to “Use evidence from two texts in the unit to develop or refute the claim that mental strength and agility are just as important as physical prowess in sports.” The anchor texts for this unit are “What Could Be Better than a Touchdown” by Kelefa Sanneh and an excerpt from Why We Run by Bernd Heinrich. Questions and tasks while reading the texts include:

• In the Identify Evidence section for “What Could Be Better than a Touchdown,” students identify reasons and evidence that Sanneh cites to introduce, illustrate, and elaborate the claim that a touchdown isn’t always the smartest play in a football game and explain how the evidence supports the author’s claim.
• In the Craft and Structure section, students analyze the structure of the essay by identifying how does it begin, what is the argument, how is it introduced and supported, and how does the author conclude his argument.
• In the Read the Model section, students read and analyze the example argumentative essay and identify the thesis, topic sentences, reasons and evidence, and the conclusion. Students are provided with the example. Then, they apply their practice to their writing using the same graphic organizers, and they practice writing thesis statements to develop their argumentative essay.

In Unit 5, the Writing Performance Task is to “Analyze which author conveys the challenges faced by the people or main characters most successfully. Consider the narrative techniques and the strategies that the authors use.” In Collaborate and Present, students work with a small group to create a character map for one of the people depicted in the texts. The anchor texts are excerpts from Rabbit- Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington and Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine. Questions and tasks while reading include:

• Describe one challenge faced by Aboriginals. Provide textual evidence.
• Describe the challenges faced by the Aboriginals. How did the use of narrative techniques and strategies reveal those challenges?
• Discuss a couple of challenges that Annawadians face.
• Describe one technique or strategy Boo used to convey the challenges faced by Abdul.
• Students create a T-Chart listing examples of dialogue and descriptive details that portray challenges faced by the  Aboriginals.
• Students create a T-Chart listing examples of descriptive details and observations that help them infer that the Annawadians live in poverty.

In Unit 7, the Writing Performance Task prompts: “Trace the authors’ lines of argument regarding effective ways to fight poverty. Evaluate the specific claims, distinguishing which claims are supported by reasons, facts, and evidence, and which are not.”  In The Collaborate and Present activity prior to the Performance Task, students collaborate to research a charity and present on the success of the charity’s efforts. The anchor texts are an excerpt from The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, the article “Saving the World One Click at a Time” by Renee Carver, and an excerpt from The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer. Questions and tasks while reading include::

• How does the author explain the claim that giving more money to ‘solve the crisis of extreme poverty’ would ‘provide for U.S. national security?
• The author mentions that he has “spent the past twenty years” visiting and working with people “in more than a hundred countries with around 90 percent of the world’s population.” Why does he do this?
• How does the information about FreeRice support the author’s claim in paragraph 3 about charities and the Internet?
• Students complete a chart in the Craft and Structure section to analyze the structure of an informational article and examine the author’s purpose.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

Speaking and listening instruction is applied frequently over the course of the school year. Students have multiple opportunities over the school year to demonstrate what they are reading and researching through varied speaking and listening opportunities in tasks labeled Close Reads, Identify Evidence, Key Idea and Details, Craft and Structure, Collaborate and Present tasks, Writing tasks, and Extended Reading instruction. Students are provided opportunities to work with partners, small groups, and large groups; to practice sharing information they have summarized and synthesized; and to present research they have conducted individually and/or in groups.

Each unit includes a speaking and listening task in which students either research and present a project, present a speech, hold a class debate, participate in a Socratic Seminar, or present a poem. Discussions tied to reading selections require students to marshal evidence from the texts and sources. Teacher guidance includes routines and sentence frames to guide students in increasing skills over the year. All of the speaking and listening opportunities throughout the text require students to go back into the text or to utilize their understanding from the text to build upon it through outside research in order to participate in the small-group, pair, and whole-group speaking activities.

Examples of speaking and listening activities that are connected to what students are reading and/or researching include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, after reading the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, students work in groups to debate which path was the right choice, the road taken or the road not taken. They are instructed to make their claim using reasons and support their reasons with evidence from the poem. Students are given questions to consider as they examine details in the poem and the effect of those details on the reader. Students use a presentation checklist to self-evaluate their presentation skills.
• In Unit 3, students plan and deliver a speech. In the assignment, students work with a partner to plan and write a two-minute speech justifying their perspective on democracy, supporting it with reasons and evidence from the texts. Students are given questions to consider as they complete a chart of reasons and text evidence that supports and justifies their perspective. Students use a presentation checklist to self-evaluate their presentation skills. Teacher guidance includes sentence frames to facilitate partner work using the Think (Write)-Pair-Share routine.
• In Unit 4, students plan and deliver a research presentation on one of the disasters they read about in the unit in greater detail. Students work in small groups to describe the effects of the disaster on the country, city, or community. Students are given prompts to guide their research: “Which natural disaster was the most interesting to you? Why? What else do you want to know about the natural disaster?”
• In Unit 5, after reading excerpts from Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington and Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, students work with a small group to plan and deliver a presentation. They create a character map for one of the people depicted in the texts. They are to choose three actions, descriptions, and relationships that helped them gain a deep understanding of the character and present this to the class using the map as a visual.
• In Unit 7, after reading the article “Saving the World One Click at a Time” by Renee Carver, students work with a group to research two non-profit organizations, either Heifer International or FreeRice. They use multiple resources to determine the success of the charity’s efforts. Students are given questions to consider as they complete a chart with claims, reasons, and evidence. Students use a presentation checklist to self-evaluate their presentation skills. Teacher guidance includes sentence frames to facilitate group work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g., multiple drafts, revisions over time) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

The materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects which are aligned to grade level standards. A range of writing activities and tasks are provided with writing instruction, including shorter, on-demand writing routines to help students build stamina and increase rigor that lead to extended writing tasks. There are a variety of short, on-demand writing responses within texts and text sets. Occasionally, the on-demand writing occurs as a Wrap-Up question and is used to synthesize key content-area ideas. The Wrap-Up responses connect to one or more selections in the text sets. The written responses throughout the units vary in mode and do occasionally offer opportunities for revision and peer feedback. The materials also include a specific Writing Process Routine protocol that is used in each unit’s writing Performance Task and includes purpose, description of the routine, and implementation support. The student materials include models, prewriting graphic organizers, peer review rubrics to revise and edit, and steps to publish. Digital resources are used in both the publishing step of the extended writing and in some of the writing tasks.

Examples of process writing tasks and instruction include, but are not limited to:

The Performance Task section in each unit starts with Analyze the Model in which students are provided a model of the writing task and a process to analyze how the model fulfills the assignment. After this step, they are walked through a multi-stepped process to write the task:

Step 1 - Generate Ideas: students are provided with a graphic organizer that fits the needs of the task and supports providing information to write about for the task.

Step 2 -- Organize Ideas: students are provided with a graphic organizer to help them organize the ideas specific to the task they are writing.

Step 3 -- Draft: students are provided with processes to look at Language Study and Conventions Study.

Step 4 -- Revise and Edit: students are provided with a checklist for both themselves and a partner to read their writing and to provide feedback.

Step 5 -- Publish

• In Unit 1, the writing Performance Task is a narrative: ”Write the story of an important event or decision; it can be real or imagined. What understanding or insight did this experience reveal?” Students "Generate Ideas" while reading and analyzing a model narrative. They "Organize Ideas" using a graphic organizer to compare story elements from Call Me Maria with their own narrative ideas, and continue this process using another graphic organizer to plot their narrative. Students "Draft" completing a language study to use a variety of transition words to convey sequence of events, and use sentence frames to plot out the beginning, middle and end of their story. A rubric is provided to "Revise and Edit" their draft with a partner.
• In Unit 4, the writing Performance Task is an informative essay: “ Compare and contrast strategies and techniques that each author uses to describe the causes and effects of disasters. Consider text structure, choice of vocabulary, and use of data and details.” Students "Generate Ideas"while reading and analyzing a model essay. They "Organize Ideas" using graphic organizers to gather evidence and organize their ideas. They "Draft" by completing a language study to practice combining and rewriting sentences, and continue this using sentence frames to help them combine sentences about the causes and effects of the authors’ strategies. A rubric is provided to "Revise and Edit" their draft with a partner.
• In Unit 7, the argument writing Performance Task states: “Trace the authors’ lines of argument regarding effective ways to fight poverty. Evaluate the specific claims, distinguishing which claims are supported by reasons, facts and evidence, and which are not.” Students "Generate Ideas" reading and analyzing a model argument. They "Organize Ideas"using graphic organizers to gather evidence and organize their ideas. They "Draft" by completing a language study in which they evaluate effective conclusions and use complete sentence frames to help them make and defend their claim. A rubric is provided to "Revise and Edit" their draft with a partner.

Examples of on-demand tasks and instruction include, but are not limited to:

In the Instructional Routines section of the Teacher Edition, the On Demand Writing Routine provides a four-step frame to support student analysis of a prompt:

1. “Analyze the prompt: Provide tasks and sentence frames to help students unpack the writing prompt.  As students to orally restate the prompt using the frames below.
2. Identify Audience: Determine the audience for this assignment.
3. Find Evidence: Select the evidence necessary to address the prompt.
4. Write Response: Allow students approximately ten minutes to write their responses.”

• In Unit 1, students read an excerpt from Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer and the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Students use the On Demand Writing Routine to answer questions: “What is the significance of the phrase ‘her eyes were looking past me, looking for her future’ from paragraph 34? How does this sentence indicate what Maria’s relationship with her mother will be like in the future? What decision does the narrator need to make? How can you tell this decision is difficult for the narrator? Find the phrase in the second stanza that lets you know the narrator has made a decision and acted upon it.”
  
• In Unit 4, students read a science article, “Super Disasters of the 21st Century” by Jacqueline Adams and Ken Kostel, and an excerpt from The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. They use the On Demand Writing Routine to answer questions: “Review paragraphs 10-17. Summarize the effects the levees had on the city of New Orleans. Does the author provide sufficient evidence to support the claim that ‘it’s economically and structurally impractical to construct every boat to hundred-year specifications’?”
  
• In Unit 7, students read an excerpt from The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs and the informational article “Saving the World One Click at a Time” by Renee Carver. They use the On Demand Writing Routine to answer: “The author mentions that he has ‘spent the past twenty years’ visiting and working with people ‘in more than a hundred countries with around 90 percent of the world’s population.’ Why does he do this? How does paragraph 11 help support the author’s claim that they internet ‘has made it easier for charities to reach people around the world- and for people around the world to support charities’?”
  

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

Materials provide multiple opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Students have the opportunity to write a narrative, one informative essay, one explanatory essay, a Literary analysis and three argumentative essays. At the end of each unit, students complete a writing Performance Task that is tied to the texts that are studied in the respective units. The writing instruction includes skill introduction, practice, application, and refinement, thus supporting students’ literacy development in writing.  

Examples of different types of writing include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students write a narrative, real or imagined, of an important event or decision. They are to select techniques used in the excerpt from Call Me Maria, such as descriptive details, sequence, and point of view, as they generate and organize their ideas.
• In Unit 3, students write an informative essay in which they compare and contrast two writers’ perspectives on democracy. They analyze the strategies the authors use to convey their perspectives.
• In Unit 4, students write an explanatory essay, comparing and contrasting strategies and techniques that each author used to describe the causes and effects of disasters. They are guided to consider text structure, choice of vocabulary, and use of data and details.
• In Unit 6, students write a literary analysis essay, examining three authors’ perspectives on what it means to be American. Students are to reference the authors’ literary devices and figurative language.
• In Unit 7, students write an argumentative essay. They are assigned to trace the authors’ lines of argument regarding effective ways to fight poverty. Students are to evaluate the specific claims, distinguishing which claims are supported by reasons, facts, and evidence, and which are not.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for materials including frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information appropriate for the grade level.

Students are offered multiple opportunities across the school year to learn, practice, and apply evidence-based writing in connection with the texts they are reading. Students are asked to provide evidence for all short response and long form writing. Each text is accompanied by close reading questions and an exercise called Identify Evidence where students complete a chart answering analysis questions about the text with evidence, source, page number, and explanation. In order to complete the summative Performance Tasks, students revisit one or more texts to find evidence. They complete various tasks that analyze the material and support a claim with evidence.  As students work through units, frames, sentence stems, and other supports are gradually removed, so students move toward independence at the end of the school year.

Examples of opportunities for evidence-based writing include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students analyze the content of the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and debate which path was the right choice. Students present claims “using reasons, and support [their] reasons with evidence from the poem.” To support students in writing and presenting their argument, a graphic organizer has them “choose one example of a detail in the poem that indicates which road is the right road.”
• In Unit 2, students read the article “What Could Be Better Than A Touchdown?” Sentence frames are provided to help students answer close reading questions requiring evidence from the text: “What does the author say is ‘impossible to contest’ without confirming ‘you guys are nerds’? Why does he end the article this way?”  In the Identifying Evidence exercise, students complete a chart citing reasons and evidence that the author uses to introduce, illustrate, and elaborate on the claim that a touchdown is not always the smartest play in a football game. Three pieces of evidence and explanation are provided to support students, then students must find more evidence and provide an explanation. In the Performance Task, students are given an exemplar argumentative essay and are asked to identify the parts of the essay. Parts include: thesis, topic sentence, reason/evidence, and conclusion. After examining the exemplar, students must use evidence from the two anchor texts to develop or refute the claim that mental strength and agility are just as important as physical prowess in sports.
• In Unit 7, students read From “Saving the World One Click at a Time” by Renee Carver and answer a close reading Craft and Structure Wrap-Up question: “Describe Renee Carver’s purpose for writing this article. Cite text evidence to support your response.”  In this unit, there are no sentence frames or examples guiding students.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the criteria for materials including 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.

The grammar instruction and support are presented in an increasingly sophisticated sequence consistent with the demands of the standards. While grammar and conventions are rarely addressed within the reading instruction, each of the seven units does contain one grammar and conventions lesson. The conventions lesson is taught prior to and is linked to the culminating Performance Task, and the Performance Task rubric often references the grammar lesson.  Throughout the year, previous grammar lessons are revisited in later grammar lessons. The Teacher Edition includes instructions to guide students through conventions lessons. These instructions often refer to additional resources that are only found in the online edition. Conventions lessons follow a See It, Try It, Apply It sequence and are taught both in and out of context. In the Revise and Edit step of the Performance Task, the student checklist refers to the conventions skill so that students’ attention is called to the application of the new skill. Conventions lessons build upon each other and require students to practice in isolation, in a model essay, and in their own essay.

Examples of conventions instruction include, but are not limited to:

• In the Performance Task at the end of every unit, a Conventions Study connects to the mode of writing required in the essay. The convention skills are as follows:

Unit 1:  Using Phrase and Clauses

Unit 2: Vary Sentence Patterns

Unit 3: Transition Words and Phrases

Unit 4: Using Sentence Variety

Unit 5: Clarify Relationships

Unit 6: Domain Specific Vocabulary

Unit 7: Use Phrases and Clauses Correctly

• In Unit 1: Using Phrases and Clauses, students are given explicit instruction on phrases and clauses and then have a practice paragraph in which they identify phrases and clauses. They follow up by revising their narrative story and adding phrases and clauses that identify a cause and effect relationship and to signal time.
• In Unit 2: Vary Sentence Patterns, students learn that sentence patterns describe how the parts of a sentence are organized and and that writers should vary their sentence patterns in order to add variety and avoid repetition in their writing. In the See It and Try It sections, students examine an example paragraph and note how the author varies sentence length, uses clauses, and avoids repetition. In the Apply It section, students read through their rough draft and analyze sentence patterns. They revise two sentences to add variety and avoid repetition using the following questions as a guide: “Can I add more descriptive details? Can two or more sentences be combined? Could I provide extra information using dashes or commas? Can I use pronouns to avoid repetition?” Students use the checklist to evaluate how they varied ”sentence patterns for meaning, reader interest, and variety”.
• In Unit 4: Using Sentence Variety, students are given explicit instruction on simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. Then, they are asked to identify the sentence type in a sample sentence. Students follow up by revising one of their body paragraphs using a variety of sentence structures to make their writing more interesting and to signal different relationships among ideas.
• In Unit 7: Use Phrases and Clauses Correctly, students learn that phrases and clauses can add more information about the words they describe. In this lesson, there is no See It, Try It, Apply It pattern. Rather, students look at excerpts from the model essay and “find the words that the underlined words modify.” Then, they are instructed to rewrite sentences from their own draft to avoid dangling or misplaced modifiers.  As students revise their writing, they use the checklist to evaluate how they “placed phrases and clauses appropriately in a sentence to avoid misplaced and dangling modifiers.”