11th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and for considering a range of student interests. Throughout the year, students have the opportunity to read about interesting subjects such as the food industry in America and first-person reflections of what it is like to be an African-American at the turn of the 20th century. The challenging aspect of the chosen texts requires students to read closely and/or read the text more than once. The texts also allow students to build knowledge about current and historical events.

Anchor texts in the majority of chapters/units and across the year long curriculum are of publishable quality. Evidence is as follows:

• Within Unit 1, student read a series of texts related to the Civil War. These include photographs, letters, video, academic essays (“American Civilization” by Emerson and “Civil War Anniversary: The Emancipation Proclamation”), a personal narrative, an excerpt of a poem, and a song.

• Unit 3 contains two texts, Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien.
• Unit 4 includes multiple texts of publishable quality from reputable publishers. For example, students read “Shut Up and Eat: A Foodie Repents” from The New Yorker, “The History of School Lunch” published by PBS, and “Gut Reaction: Morality in Food Choice”, which can be found on the Arizona State University Research Matters website.

• In Unit 2, the anchor text is the first chapter of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk entitled “On Our Spiritual Strivings”. This text explores the complex themes of slavery, racism, exclusion, and education. This text is well-crafted and provides students the opportunity to engage with complex figurative language, vocabulary, and sentence structure. The complex themes and language require both close and rereading of the text throughout the unit.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task. Most texts fall within either the Current Lexile Band or the “Stretch” Lexile Band for grades 11-CCR. Some texts exceed the bands for 11-CCR but have value in that they provide teachers with options for higher performing students or are structured in a way that make them accessible to eleventh graders. The few texts that do not have lexiles provided qualitatively meet the requirements for this grade level because they provide for the exploration of complex themes, use complex language features, model evidence-based writing, and include graphics as necessary support for understanding.

Grade 11 contains a range of texts that has an appropriate level of complexity and close consideration of the relationship to their associated student tasks. In many units, more texts than a teacher could use are provided so that they have variety to meet the needs of their students’ reading levels. Texts are chosen to appeal to students’ interests making them worthy of students’ time and attention, texts are very rigorous leading to high level thinking skills, and each unit’s worth of reading build toward students’ reading independently.

• Unit 1 opens with three visual texts, all photographs from the Library of Congress of the Civil war. They are used to “build curiosity about the unit’s topics, create context for reading the texts, and provide initial practice in looking closely.” The next text is a letter written by Walt Whitman with a 970 L, which falls within grade level Lexile bands and is used in Part 1, Activity 3 to focus on close reading and attention to how an author uses language to convey his perspective. Texts continue to be varied including a PBS video, an interactive website, and an Atlantic Magazine article from 1862 written by Ralph Waldo Emerson with a 1210L which is used with the literacy skills of Part 2, Activity 2. Each text has clear qualitative measures explaining the purpose of its inclusion in the curriculum, as well as the connection to the overall theme. An example of this is an article by Dr James Burran, “Civil War Anniversary: The Emancipation Proclamation” which was chosen so students could analyze a contemporary newspaper article that is also a more academic text. According to the text notes, this historical analysis, lexile 1320, has “strong claims, multiple perspectives, background evidence and complex sentence structures” and the TE gives teachers ideas how they might incorporate this challenging text within the larger discussion (Part 3, Activity 1, page 48). The remaining three texts range from lexile 630 to 1430 but “all three texts coincide well with the previous texts from the unit and offer varied literary genres, styles, and points of view, as well as varying degrees of complexity (TE 63).

• In Unit 2, the anchor text is the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk entitled “On Our Spiritual Strivings”. This text measures at 1300 which falls above the Current Lexile Band but within the “Stretch” Lexile Band for grade band 11-CCR. This curriculum acknowledges that this text is a challenging read. This text is also qualitatively appropriate for grade 11. It explores the complex themes of slavery, racism, exclusion, and education. This text is also very complex in regards to figurative language, vocabulary, and sentence structure. For example, lines 9 through 11 read, “It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me” and lines 30 through 31 read, “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and the Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, but with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world…” (pages 192-193 in the Teacher Edition). This text was appropriately chosen to serve as the basis for students developing and writing EBCs because Du Bois’s work “provides many opportunities for high school students to find, interpret, and form claims.” Du Bois does what students are expected to do in their own writing. He “develops his claims using a variety of evidence” from his own life and from history (Text Notes page 135 of the Teacher Edition).

• In Unit 4’s Unit Overview, the curriculum explains that the provided Common Source set “can be used to build background information, for teacher modeling, and as the focus for skill development lessons.” Teachers and/or students determine which Common Texts to use and how to use them. The curriculum does not include these texts in the materials but indicates that they can be easily accessed online. In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students begin exploring the topic through research. In this activity, students watch National Geographic’s video “Future of Food: Why Food Matters Now More Than Ever” which can be found on YouTube. Since this is a video, a level of complexity is not provided. The video does have qualitative value in that the video connects a wide range of ideas such as food, soil, climate change, fossil fuels, and population growth (page 369 in the Teacher Edition). This video also contains fairly complex and/or subject-specific language, such as conundrum (1:08), biofuels (1:13), fracking (1:21), harbinger (3:26), and mid-latitude (5:10), that would be unfamiliar to students in grade 11. Graphics, such as charts about feed conversion ratios (7:43), are necessary to understanding the message. In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 3, students read “Shut Up and Eat: A Foodie Repents” with a Lexile level of 1130L which falls within the Current Lexile Band for grade band 11-CCR. Students also read "Gut Reaction: Morality in Food Choice" with a Lexile level of 1210L; this levels falls within both the Current Lexile Band and the "Stretch" Lexile Band for grade band 11-CCR (page 381 of the Teacher’s Edition). In Unit 4, Part 3, Activity 1, students read “The Ethics of Eating” which measures at 1380L which is at the very top of the “Stretch” Lexile Band for grade band 11-CCR (page 412-413 of the Teacher Edition). The texts in this unit were appropriately selected to serve as sources in the unit’s culminating task - Writing an Analytical Research Narrative.

• “Unit 5’s topic area and texts focus on the United States’ justice system and underlying questions regarding what makes punishment necessary, effective, and ethical.” Text sets are grouped together for instructional and content purposes but it is not required that students read all texts or even all text sets which gives greater flexibility to teachers as they make decisions about students’ reading levels. Many of the texts are very complex with lexiles from 1400 (“Crime and Punishment in America” Chapters 1 and 2, by Elliott Currie) and 1540 (“the High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration”). Along with these challenging texts, though, is a qualitative analysis. For example, text 1.3, “The Punishing Decade: Prison and Jail Estimates at the Millennium” has a lexile of 1490 but this is “primarily because of figures and formal names.” It is highly accessible at the eleventh-grade level and brings in graphical representations which help clarify trends” (505).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year. Series of texts are at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band.)

The curriculum provides for texts within the Current Lexile Band, within the Stretch Lexile Band, and above the bands for grades 11-CCR. Students begin the year reading texts with a variety of Lexile levels allowing the teacher some flexibility in regards to student reading levels. As the year progresses, students read increasingly difficult texts. This challenges eleventh grade students and helps them become more proficient at reading complex texts which will better prepare them for college or career,

Texts are chosen to compliment the writing and literacy skills and both increase in complexity throughout the year. When given a text set, there is a variety of levels that can both challenge students’ literacy skills and be accessible when they are working on an analytical skill.

The complexity of anchor texts students read provides an opportunity for students’ literacy skills to increase across the year, encompassing an entire year’s worth of growth. For example:

• In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, the curriculum provides not only Lexile levels, but also brief descriptions about text complexity. Text 1.1, “Crime and Punishment in America” measures at 1400L. The curriculum states this about Text 1.2, “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration”: “Though measuring 1540L, this text presents statistics in a straightforward manner, with graphic depictions to clarify trends.” Text 1.3 “The Punishing Decade: Prison and Jail Estimates at the Millennium” measures at 1490L but is accessible to eleventh grade students because it uses graphics to help clarify trends (pages 501-505 in the Teacher Edition). The remaining texts range in Lexile levels from 1190L to 1410L; these texts fall within the Current and Stretch Lexile Bands for Grades 11-CCR and provide for students’ literacy skills to increase throughout the year.

The complexity of anchor texts support students’ proficiency in reading independently at grade level at the end of the school year as required by grade level standards. Evidence of this is as follows:

• Unit 1 contains numerous texts at a variety of Lexile levels. Students read the personal narrative “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” which measures at 630L, falling well below the Lexile Bands for Grade 9-10 and Walt Whitman’s “Hospital Visits” which measures at 970L, falling at the lower end of the Current Lexile Band for Grades 9-10. To balance out these less complex texts, the curriculum also includes more complex texts such as Jefferson Davis’s “Letter to Franklin Pierce”, which measures at 1430L, and Dr. James A. Burran’s “Civil War Anniversary: The Emancipation Proclamation” which measures at 1320L (page 79-80 of the Teacher Edition).

• Unit 2’s core text, “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. DuBois is a collection of essays that was groundbreaking in the field of sociology and is often considered a foundational work in African American history. It measures at a 1300 lexile and is qualitatively complex in its ideas and style. It was chosen and placed in the curriculum as it “will cause students to need to slow down and read closely to unravel both its rich, figurative language and its complex theories about American society and sociological history of African Americans” (TE 135). Unit 2 breaks the text into four excerpts to assist students in the reading of this text.

• Unit 3’s Unit Overview explains that the basis for the entire unit is two related first-person fictional narratives: Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and Tim O’Brien’s “On the Rainy River” (page 224 in Teacher Edition). Lexile levels are not provided. However, Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 1, explains why each piece is considered complex and appropriate for the grade level. The curriculum says that “The Red Convertible” is complex because even though it is relatively simple and straightforward, it has a number of “qualitative characteristics that make it a complex and challenging read”. In regards to “On the Rainy River”, the curriculum points out that this text “illustrates the craft of narrative in an autobiographical but still fictional recollection and reflection” (pages 235-236 in the Teacher Edition).

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the expectations that anchor texts and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by a text complexity analysis and rationale for purpose and placement in the grade level. Texts and lesson materials are accompanied by an analysis of the associated metrics and rationale for determining text placement. Additionally, there are included tools and metrics to assist teachers in making their own text placements should they need to introduce a new text or text set into the materials. The curriculum provides quantitative information for both anchor texts and text sets excluding photographs, videos, and websites. In the teacher edition, the curriculum explains the purpose and value of the texts in the Text Notes provided for teachers. For example, some texts are chosen for their value in reinforcing literary techniques while others were chosen as appropriate introductions to a particular time period. All texts were chosen because they were appropriate for 9th grade students while still allowing some flexibly for a variety of reading levels.

Examples of how the materials explain how texts are placed in the program include the following:

• In Unit 2, the sole text used throughout the unit is the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk entitled “On Our Spiritual Strivings.” In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 1, the curriculum provides the lexile level for this piece and rationale for the selection of Du Bois’s work as the anchor text. In the Text Notes section, the curriculum states, “Measuring at 1300L, and qualitatively complex in its ideas and style, the Du Bois text is a challenging read, but also a seminal work in American letters. It will cause students to need to slow down and read closely to unravel both its rich, figurative language and its complex theories about American society and the sociological history of African Americans” (135).
• In Unit 5, texts are offered in the form of text sets. The Topic and Text section of the Unit Overview explains that they "are grouped together for instructional and content purposes.” It also explains that students are not required to read all texts in order to gain the skills associated with the unit. The curriculum intentionally provided a variety of texts at a variety of complexities so that teachers would have some flexibility in assigning texts and creating student groups. In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 1, the curriculum provides Lexile levels and rationale for text selection in the Text Notes section for teachers. For example, Text 1.1 Crime and Punishment in America, Chs. 1 and 2, has a Lexile level of 1400L and was chosen because it is easily accessible by students and serves as a good introduction to the unit. Text 1.2, “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration,” measures at 1540L but presents information in a very straightforward manner. It also provides graphics which help students clearly identify trends.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 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. Students process a variety of texts including nonfiction essays, non-fiction articles, and videos. Texts are accompanied by a Questioning Path Tool which provides both text-dependent and text-specific questions that guide them into a deeper reading of the text. Finally, each unit provides various student checklists and teacher rubrics that can be used to monitor progress throughout the year.

These materials have an appropriate breadth and depth of texts that also increase in the level of difficulty. Many texts are put within text sets and used in exploring a thematic question, which provides for rigorous and challenging reading opportunities. Evidence is as follows:

• The Unit 1 teacher’s edition begins with an overview of a series of texts included under the theme, “Lay down all my joys,” which are all related to the Civil War. “Students read academic essays, letters to friends and loved ones, and personal accounts of the war” (2). More specifically, within the nine text sets, there are visual texts, such as Library of Congress photographs, a PBS video by Ken Burns, an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the Atlantic, and letters from 1861 by Major Sullivan Ballou and Jefferson Davis. Extended reading opportunities include poems by Walt Whitman, a government document, “The Bonnie Blue Flag” song describing the South’s resentment toward the North, and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

• In Unit 2, the sole text used throughout the unit is the first chapter of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk entitled “On Our Spiritual Strivings”. In Unit 2, Part 2, Activity 2, students are provided a Questioning Path Tool to guide them as they independently read paragraphs 2-4 of DuBois’s work. In the Text Notes - Ideas for Discussion, the curriculum suggests that “students might begin their rereading and second discussion of the text by considering the question in the Analyzing stage of the model Questioning Path Tool: 'How do specific words or phrases influence the meaning or tone of the text?'” (148-149).

• Unit 4’s title is “Food: How do our decisions about what we eat affect our world?" Students read a variety of non-fiction texts including videos from National Geographic, articles from Smithsonian Magazine and The New Yorker, TED Talks, and documentary films. These texts are appropriately complex for 11th graders and provide opportunities for close reading and rereading. For example, in Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students begin to independently explore the research topic by closely reading “How the Potato Changed the World.” Once locating the article online, students are encouraged to record key details at the top of an Approaching Texts Tool. This Tool helps students organize details and helps them prepare to briefly compare annotations with another student and discuss what they already know before they begin reading the piece. The curriculum then encourages students to “independently and individually identify several guiding questions they will use initially to question and analyze the text” (371).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text dependent/specific and consistently support students’ literacy growth over the course of a school year.

The instructional materials include questions and tasks that require careful reading over the course of a school year, during which students are asked to produce evidence from texts to support claims. Materials introduce the text-dependent, inquiry basis called the Questioning Path Tool, which provides opportunities for students to ask and use questions to guide their close examination of the text. The Tool progresses from intensive practice and support in developing text-specific questions to gradual release of responsibility as students learn to develop high-quality questions on their own, deepening their understanding of the text. These questions require students to return to the text for evidence to support their answers to questions about the roles of specific details, the meaning of specific phrases, character development, and vocabulary analysis. The process supports a text-centric curriculum and approach to multiple literacy skills.

Students work independently and collaboratively to respond to and generate text-specific questions. Also, writing tasks provide the opportunity for students to conduct more text-dependent work. Models can be modified for existing content (i.e., novels) owned by a district.

Appropriate support materials for teachers to plan and implement text-dependent questions, tasks, and assignments are included in the curriculum.

The tasks and assignments asked of students are appropriately sequenced and follow a consistent routine. The materials require students to closely read the text, drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 2, the Making Evidence-Based Claims about Literary Technique builds off Unit 2 by addressing the writing style and use of literary elements and devices and how it impacts the author’s message of purpose. The materials continue to promote close reading through the use of the Questioning Path Tool with a focus on text-dependent questions about the author’s writing choices and text structure. For example, in Activity 2 “In what ways does the text begin, end, and develop?” and “How does the narrative unfold in time--chronologically or not?”, The Questioning Path Tool becomes increasingly text-specific: “Why might Erdrich have chosen to present this important narrative detail (paragraph 21) in such an understated way?”

• In Unit 2, Part 2, Activity 2, focused rereading of the text is centered on a passage from DuBois’s “The Souls of Black Folk” text, and a class discussion ultimately is about what evidence students can point to that supports their observations.

• In Unit 5, Building Evidence Based Argument, the student edition includes graphic organizers to help gather supporting evidence for the points in their research. Also included in the student edition is an Evaluating Arguments Tool which asks specifically for text-based observations. The materials also include text-specific questions:
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  • In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 2, the Questioning Path Tool for “Lay Down All My Joys” provides text-specific questions, such as “What details stand out to me as I examine this collection of images? What do I think these images are mainly about?”
  • In Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1, the Questioning Path tool for Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, provides text-specific questions, such as “In paragraph 5, how does Du Bois use figurative language to explain the “end of his striving” and the “powers of single black men?”
  • In Unit 3, Part 1 Activity 2, students work with an excerpt of Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and answer many text-dependent questions in pursuit of making evidence-based claims about literary works, such as “Paragraphs 9-20 present a short vignette, seemingly unconnected to the rest of the story. Why might Erdrich have chosen to include the incident with the girl and her long hair? What do we learn about Henry Junior as a character, and how is this revealed to us?”
  • In Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 2, the task builds on the teacher-led, text-centered review process and introduces the same concept to the revision phase of the writing process. Students evaluate each other’s texts using text-dependent, evidence-based questions. The materials require students to “articulate feedback…that is specific, constructive, and text-based.” Students are supported by the Peer Evaluation of Research handout in the Literacy Toolbox.
  • In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, the Questioning Path Tool for the text “The Punishing Decade: Prison and Jail Estimates at the Millenium” provides text-dependent questions. One example is, “This piece mentions the disproportionate impact incarceration has on minorities. What evidence does the text present to support this claim?”

Students are supported in their literacy growth over the course of a school year:

• The Learning Progression and Sequencing sections in Unit 5 provide teachers with guidance for approaching the culminating unit for this curriculum. It reviews how the skills and activities in previous units build upon each other to prepare students for the final unit. It also addresses vertical alignment considerations by addressing whether students have worked with this curriculum in previous grades or if this is a student’s first time engaging with the concepts in Unit 5, building an evidence-based argument. The materials are developed with the assumption it is a student’s first time experiencing these skills and noting this is beneficial for teachers to plan and schedule accordingly. If students are experienced and have worked consistently with the Literacy Toolbox, teachers can adjust time spent on the overall unit.

Evidence shows that teacher materials provide support for planning and implementation of text-dependent questions, tasks, and assignments. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 3, the Instructional Notes guide the teacher to lead a brief, open discussion of the students’ first impressions; it also suggests different options for grouping such as assigning questions based on reading readiness. Finally, it suggests follow-up questions such as, “What in the text makes you reach your observation or conclusion? Point to specific words or sentences?”
• In Unit 3, Part 5, Activity 1, the Instructional Notes direct teacher modeling, including, “Present students with a more global Guiding Question, such as this: What relationships do I discover among the themes, and details presented, the two author’s perspectives, and the language and structure of the text?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for materials containing sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent and text-specific questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding.

The materials include quality culminating tasks which are supported with coherent sequences of text-dependent questions and tasks and are present across a year’s worth of material. The following are examples of this evidence:

• In Unit 1, Part 5, Activity 3, students engage in the culminating task of leading a text-specific class discussion. Students conduct class discussions in jigsaw groups allowing for multiple texts to be studied and the opportunity for students to engage in discussions using original text-dependent and text-specific questions. These can be modeled from previous work with the Questioning Path Tool.

• In Unit 2, the culminating task is to express EBCs in writing. In order to achieve this objective, students must reread the first three sections of the texts unit and review their previous work. In Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1 of the unit, students prepare for the culminating task through independent reading of paragraphs 5-12 of DuBois’s text; students use both the Guiding Questions and Questioning Path Tool to move from simply examining details to analyzing how these details develop his central ideas. Both the answers to the text-dependent and text-specific questions and the students’ annotations are the basis for this final assignment.

• In Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 7, students engage in a culminating essay analyzing an argument. Students utilize the results of their culminating text-dependent work from previous activities, including written notes, annotations, and the completed Delineating Arguments Tools.

Evidence that sequences of text-dependent questions and tasks throughout each unit prepare students for success on the culminating tasks is as follows:

• The Questioning Path Tool is provided in the student edition consistently for each unit in Grade 11 and, with text-specific questions embedded throughout, will prepare students for success on the culminating task.

• In Unit 1, students are asked to read several texts related to the Civil War. In Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 1, students are introduced to the culminating activity. To prepare for the culminating activity, the teacher Instructional Notes says, “Students are introduced to the texts and choose one to read closely with a small, expert group. In small groups, students will work with their peers to compare their texts with other texts in the unit.” These texts are the basis for the culminating writing task. Each text has a Questioning Path Tool with both text-dependent and text-specific questions. These tools help students analyze the texts that they will later use in the culminating activity.

• In Unit 5, the Learning Progression is spelled out that shows the movement/progression of tasks and skills that ultimately culminates into a collaborative, question-based process. Within the first two parts of this unit, students use Questioning Path Tools to work with the texts that help them explore the issue and stir up both thinking and potential topics. Each Questioning Path Tool includes text-specific questions, especially in the Deepening portion.

• In Unit 5, the activities culminate in “the development of and evidence-based argumentative essay.” The students’ requirements for this task include demonstrating evidence of fourteen Literacy Skills and Academic Habits, according to the provided rubric in the Literacy Tool Box. The skills required to accomplish this cumulative task are appropriately sequenced with text-dependent and text-specific questions. For example, the rubric requires the culminating essay to includes Forming Claims. The student’s work “states a meaningful position that is well-supported by evidence from texts.” Leading up to this work, students first practice with evaluating model arguments presented in the text sets in Unit 5, Part 3, Activity 1. This activity requires students to use the text-dependent questions from the Evaluating Arguments Tool in their “reading teams” to determine if example arguments from the text sets are questionable, acceptable, or demonstrate a particular strength of the argument presented. Text-dependent questions include, “What is the author’s relationship to the issue?” in order to evaluate Perspective and “Are the claims supported by evidence?” in order to evaluate the strength of the claims. By following the Evaluating Arguments Tool, the materials continue to promote evidence-based, text-dependent questions because each requires a follow-up Text-based Observation in a separate section of the handout.

The culminating tasks are varied and rich, providing opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do in speaking and/or writing. The following are examples of this evidence:

• In Unit 2, Making Evidence-Based Claims: “One Ever Feels His Twoness,” students will write a final EBC essay and participate in class discussion, reflecting on the Literacy Skills and Academic Habits involved in making and communicating evidence. The Guiding Questions are designed to deepen understanding of the text and to assist students in developing another evidence-based claim. Questions included in the Questioning Path Tool will also assist students to deepen their understanding of the text, and to develop a claim based on the texts they have read independently, discussed as a class. Students will then create a claim based on the prior activities. For example, in Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1, relating to Du Bois’s "The Souls of Black Folk," paragraphs 5-12, students consider the questions of others to deepen understanding of the text: “In paragraph 5, what evidence and specific examples does Du Bois present to support his claim about ‘the contradiction of double aims?’”

• In Unit 4, Research to Deepen Understanding: Food: How Do Our Decisions About What We Eat Affect Our World?, students compile a Research Portfolio. Upon completion of the portfolio, students are asked to “organize their research and synthesize their analysis in order to develop an evidence-based perspective about their area of investigation. Students communicate this understanding in the form of an analytical research narrative and multimedia presentation.” In Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 2, the Instructional Notes relating to Activity Sequence include the following: “In this narrative, students report their findings and research process, including the following: Their initial understanding of the topic of food and how it affects the world and their reporting of the area of the topic they researched, including personal analysis of specific texts. Through the process of questioning various sources during the research process, it will assist students to be successful when writing the final narrative: 'How does the author’s perspective influence the text’s presentation of ideas or arguments? How does the author’s perspective and presentation of the text compare to others?'”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for the materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and evidence.

Materials embed evidence-based academic discussions focused on listening and speaking skills in reading and writing processes. Students are often asked to engage in discussions about texts through activities such as note taking, annotating texts, and capturing what their peers say. Students then transfer the practice to their own writing through collaborative revision workshops with peers.

Speaking and listening instruction is applied frequently over the course of the year and includes facilitation, monitoring, and instructional supports for teachers. Evidence of this is as follows:

• On page xxiii, the curriculum provides teacher guidance in how to integrate communication (listening and speaking) into the curriculum. The curriculum accomplishes this through text-centered discussions. Students are encouraged to share ideas and analyses with one another. Activities are designed to promote listening to others’ views so that students can revise their own thinking and to encourage students to articulate their own reading and thinking.
• In Unit 1, Part 5, Activity 3, students are placed into jigsaw groups so that each of the final texts is represented in each group by at least one student expert. As part of the discussion, students will take a turn presenting about their text, summarizing what the text is about, and sharing their explanations of key ideas. Students will also ask other students questions, reference the texts, and share new understanding.
• Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 3 is a culminating class discussion based on students’ independent reading and responses to the provided Questions Path Tool. The activity extends past the assigned independent reading paragraph and students’ listening is supported by the text-specific Questions Path Tool. The materials provide relevant text-specific follow-up questions intended for discussions. Questions require textual evidence to be answered.
• In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, students explore an issue for research. In this introductory activity, students read three texts in order to analyze and discuss them with peers. Small groups are formed so that students in each group can become experts on a particular text to later share in jigsaw groups to compare and share what they have learned.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 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.

Instructional materials for Grade 11 include a mix of on-demand and process writing. Students are required to produce short, informal writings and longer, formal essays. On-demand writing tasks consist of completing the worksheets/handouts/tools from the Literary Toolboxes and evolve into students composing sentence-length evidence-based claims and paragraphs. The on-demand writing tasks build skills for students to use in independent process writing tasks.

Students are continuously asked to work in writing pairs or groups of four to improve their work by reading aloud, analyzing each other’s pieces, and offering objective criticism and suggestions. During the editing process, students are asked to focus on evaluating and improving the content or quality of claims and evidence, and to focus on improving organization and expression and clarity of their writing.

The Aligned Literacy Skills and Academic Habits allow students to increase their writing skills, including revising and editing and incorporating digital resources where appropriate. In addition, the writing tasks within the instructional materials are aligned to grade level writing standards.

Opportunities for on-demand writing tasks include:

• In Unit 2, Part 4, Activity 2, students consider text-based review questions, and “articulate and share their text-based responses and constructive reviewers claims” that they have generated based on the reading.
• In Unit 3, Part 4, Activity 3, “in pairs, students develop a paragraph that communicates an evidence-based claim.” In this first phase, students should focus on getting their ideas down on paper so that others can review them. Students will work with peers and with the teacher on sentence structure and grammar “to effectively incorporate textual details while maintaining their own voice and style.”
• In Unit 5, Part 1, Formative Assessment Opportunities follow Activity 5. These include students writing a reflection on their synthesizing claim. The teacher’s edition includes specific questions to help them reflect on their writing and points to areas where revision may be necessary.

Opportunities for process writing tasks include:

• In Unit 2, Part 4, students develop evidence-based claims (EBCs) in writing. Students independently write in Unit 2, Part 4, Activity 5. The tasks leading up to this activity ask the teacher to model this writing, lead students through the collaborative, peer review process, and then students practice and present their writing in pairs.
• In Unit 3, Part 4, Activity 2, the teacher’s edition provides direction for the teacher to walk students through a focused revision of their claim statements by using text-based review questions. A process is emphasized, and it is stressed that effective EBCs cannot be done in one draft. Revision is fundamental.
• As part of Unit 5’s Final Writing Task, students plan and draft a multiparagraph essay that makes a case for their position. After drafting the multiparagraph essay that “explains, develops, and supports the argumentative position”, students are encouraged to use a collaborative process to review, revise, and improve their essays. Their revision is focused on their arguments, the unity and sequence or organization, the use of evidence, and the clarity of their writing.
• In Unit 5, Part 5, Activity 5, students publish their Evidence Based Arguments, for which they have been considering a specific audience and purpose.
• In Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 7, students work in collaborative review teams to review and improve their written analyses of arguments.

In the teacher’s editions, digital resources are incorporated where appropriate when students produce and publish writing as well as when gathering relevant information from digital sources and integrating the information into their writing. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 3, Part 5, Activity 2, students are given four different choices for their final written task. At the end of the unit, there are media supports listed that include videos, audio recordings, and a YouTube news report.

• In Unit 5, a table includes digital sources available for free on the Internet. Electronic sources include informational texts and political cartoons. For example, “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration” by John Schmidt, Kris Warner, and Sarika Gupta, published by Center for Economic and Policy Research, as an informational text and “Guillotine Justice,” by Chris Slane, published by politaclcartoons.com, is a political cartoon.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for materials including frequent opportunities for research-based and evidence-based writing to support analysis, argument, synthesis and/or evaluation of information, supports, claims.

Instructional materials include frequent opportunities for students to write evidence-based claims (EBCs) relating to various topics and in response to text sets organized around the topic. Students are asked to analyze text, develop claims, and support those claims with evidence from the text. Tools, such as Questioning Path Tools, Approaching Text Tools, and Analyzing Details Tools, are provided to help students analyze and organize text to be used in later writing. The checklists and rubrics also include criteria for Using Evidence which asks students to support explanations/claims with evidence from the text by using accurate quotations, paraphrases, and references. Opportunities for writing to sources include informal writing within the units and formal writing in the form of culminating tasks.

Grade 11 introduces a variety of writing opportunities that purposefully connect to the summative writing tasks at the conclusion of every unit. Writing tasks are never stand-alone activities. Students engage in more research skills to build their own stances in writing. The Literacy Toolbox materials provide instructional support for students to effectively self-assess and self-check with peers.

Texts include a variety of sources (print and digital). Materials meet the grade level demands of the standards listed for this indicator.

Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Examples of this are as follows:

• In Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 5, students write an explanation of their analysis of the text and reference supporting textual evidence. The Instructional Notes indicate that students will write a detailed explanation of a text they have read. After these explanations have been written, students will discuss what they read, the details they noticed, and the connections they made as they analyzed the various texts.

• In Unit 2, Part 3, the overall objective is for students to “learn to develop and explain evidence-based claims through the selection and organization of supporting evidence.”

• Unit 5, Part 3, Activity 4 asks students, in developing and supporting their chosen position, to reference others’ arguments related to the unit’s issue and use those arguments as evidence to support their own.

Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with texts and sources to provide supporting evidence. Examples of this are as follows:

• Unit 1, Part 5, Summative Assessment Opportunities provides two suggestions for formal summative writing for the teacher to assess using the provided rubric--a multiparagraph explanatory analysis essay and a reflective narrative. Both writings require students to incorporate supporting details from the text, although the materials do not recognize this as evidence-based or research-based. The assignment does fulfill the gateway requirement for analysis and evaluative writing opportunities.

• In Unit 2, Part 5, Activity 1, “students independently review the text and the class discusses the development of more global evidence-based claims.” The Instructional Notes section indicates that students will “move to thinking about the big picture presented to them” by analyzing the texts they have read both as a whole and by connecting the different sections of the texts they have read. This will require students to conduct a close reading; later in the activity, students are also prompted to consider the question, “What evidence can you point to in the text(s) that is the basis for and supports your observation?” The activity is a building block that helps student prepare for the formal writing of final EBC essays.

• Unit 3, Part 5, Activities 4 and 5 provide the opportunity for students to compose an evidence-based claim interpretive essay, a type of analysis or synthesis essay using evidence-based claims from the provided text sets. The materials provide two primary guidance documents to track growth and progress. The Student Evidence-based Claim Literacy Skills Checklist gives students guidance for peer and self-assessment during the collaborative review and discussion process. The Evidence-Based Claim Writing Task Rubric and accompanying instructions provide teachers with guidance and specific details to look for in students’ writings to assess their literacy skills.

• In Unit 3, Part 5, the objective states, “students develop the ability to express global evidence-based claims in writing through a rereading of the texts in the unit and a review of their previous work.” This part of the unit is structured for students to be able to write a final essay; they are required to develop, explain, and support a global or comparative EBC with evidence from the text. One of the targeted skills for Part 5 is Attending to Details which assesses whether or not the student can identify relevant and important textual details, words, and ideas.

• In Unit 5, Part 3, Activities 3 and 4, students read closely and understand arguments presented in the text sets. Students conduct research-based writing in order to find supporting evidence for their position. Students use the identified arguments from others to write EBCs about why or how it supports their stance.

Materials provide opportunities that build students’ writing skills over the course of the school year. Evidence is as follows:

• In the instructional materials, the teacher’s edition shares the Unit Design and Instructional Sequence: students are presented with a topic and “begin learning to read closely by first encountering visual images, which they scan for details, and then multimedia texts that reinforce the skills of identifying details and making text-based observations from those details” (xxxii). Therefore, students are provided an opportunity to learn about the topic before exposure to the more complex grade-level texts and then move forward to more challenging texts.

• Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 1 begins with the end product of Part 5 in mind—thinking about the big picture presented to them by considering the text they have read as a whole and also connecting or comparing the separate sections of texts they have read.

• In Unit 3, Activity 1, the “teacher presents the purpose of the unit and explains the proficiency of making evidence-based claims about literary technique.” The activities that follow assist students through the use of guided questions to focus their independent reading, read aloud and class discussion utilizing text-dependent questions, and teacher modeling of the forming of EBCs. Opportunities for formative assessment and collaborative partner/group work are included to ensure student understanding of creating EBCs prior to the culminating writing activity. In the Summative Assessment in Part 5, the teacher is provided guidance for Assessing Literacy Skills utilizing an EBC Writing Task Rubric: “Students’ final EBC essays, having gone through peer review and revision, should provide evidence of each student’s development of the Literacy Skills targeted in the unit—especially the reading and thinking skills that have been the focus of instruction and that are involved in making the evidence-based claim about a literary text.”

Writing opportunities are varied over the course of the year. Evidence is as follows:

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 1, students are introduced to the topic through an analogy from another field. Examples listed are as follows:
  • Compare the process of close reading to the analytical processes used by experts in other fields, such as musicians, scientists, or detectives.
  • Present a CSI video that demonstrates how a detective asks herself questions when first approaching a crime scene.
• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 2, students are presented with an opportunity to access the topic through the use of visual images. In the Instructional Notes, teachers are asked to “scan the images and then assign specific images to groups or individuals for closer analysis.”
• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students are presented with a collection of letters by Walt Whitman based on his experiences during the war in a military hospital, which will be used for close reading and exploration and to assist students in furthering their understanding of the topic.
• In Unit 1, Part, Activity 4, students “look closely for details in multimedia text, "The Civil War: Gettysburg” by Ken Burns.
• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 5, students explore a multimedia website and answer guiding questions.
• All the activities in the Unit, included but not limited to the aforementioned activities, build to a two-stage culminating activity. Students will do the following: 1) Analyze one of three related texts and draft a multiparagraph explanation of their text, and 2) Lead and participate in a comparative discussion about the three texts. Students are writing informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. In addition, students are drawing evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.