11th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics or themes to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend complex texts proficiently. Grade 11 materials are grouped around topics such as Unit 1’s focus on the Civil War, Unit 4’s focus on how food affects our world, and Unit 5’s focus on the United States’ justice system. This intense focus builds not only literacy skills but students’ content knowledge. Texts become more varied and complex throughout the instructional materials, as do the skills students are expect to execute. Since the texts are appropriately complex, these texts help increase students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts.

Evidence that the materials meet the criteria is as follows:

• The texts in Unit 1 all relate to the Civil War. Different types of texts are provided to increase engagement and address a variety of learning styles. Unit 1 texts include, but are not limited to:
  • Civil War Photos - Photography
  • "The Civil War: Gettysburg” - Video
  • Excerpt from “American Civilization” - Essay
  • Sullivan Ballou letter to Sarah Ballou - Letter
  • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Personal Narrative
  • “The Wound Dresser” - Poem Excerpt
  • “The Bonnie Blue Flag” - Song
  • Emancipation Proclamation - Government Document

• Unit 2 is developed around students’ abilities to make EBCs through activities based on a close reading of the first chapter of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Students will learn to make text-based claims by moving from literal understanding of the text’s details to simple conclusions or inferences to claims that arise from and are supported by close examination of textual evidence.

• Unit 3 is based on two anchor texts: Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and Tim O’Brien’s “On the Rainy River.” Both texts are first-person fictional narratives. Students use these texts to focus on how authors develop literary techniques such as character, setting, and plot.

• The texts in Unit 5 all relate to the topic, “Let the punishment fit the crime.” Different types of texts are provided to increase engagement and address a variety of learning styles. Unit 1 texts include, but are not limited to:
  • Crime and Punishment in America, Chs. 1 and 2 - Book Chapters
  • “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration” - Report
  • “Guillotine Justice” - Political Cartoon
  • “Lessons from death row inmates” - TED Talk
  • Miller v. Alabama - Syllabus and Dissenting Opinion
  • “Help Thy Neighbor and Go Straight to Prison” - NY Times Article

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced higher order thinking questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

Throughout the Grade 11 instructional materials, higher order thinking questions are consistently provided in the form of both text-dependent and text-specific questions. These questions are embedded into Questioning Path Tools that are used by students as guides when analyzing texts. These questions help students make meaning of what they are reading and build understanding of multiple, related texts as they prepare for each unit’s culminating task. The use of the plethora of tools, questions, and tasks not only provides evidence of student understanding of definitions and concepts, but also helps students make meaning and build understanding of texts.

Evidence that supports this rationale include:

• The Grade 11 Curriculum overview describes “A Question-Based Approach to Reading: Questioning Paths.” The instructional sequence for reading which forms the “iterative questioning process:
  • approaching a text and considering reading purpose and text information
  • initial questioning of the text using more literal Guiding Questions
  • further analyzing the text with more interpretive Guiding Questions
  • deepening understanding by attending to the text-specific questions
  • extending reading through additional questioning , reading, or research” (xxii).

• The overview also explains that “The text-centered framework aligns directly with the CCSS and national assessments so that as students learn to use and develop text-based questions, they also become strategic responders to text questions in domains such as main ideas and supporting details, language use, author’s or narrator’s perspective, text structure, and so on” (xxiii).

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 4, the instructional materials provide questions that require students to analyze key ideas, details, and structure of "The Civil War: Gettysburg.” The following questions help students analyze the video and gain knowledge of the unit’s topic, The Civil War:
  • "How does learning about the Battle of Gettysburg from this video influence my reading and thinking about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? What connections can I make?
  • What do the early details of the video suggest about how the Gettysburg Battle started and how unexpectedly gruesome it was?
  • What do I notice about how the text (video) is organized or sequenced?" (23).

• Unit 2’s focus is to develop students’ abilities to make EBCs using the first chapter of W. E. B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folks. In Part I, Activity 3, students follow along as they listen to the teacher read the first paragraph of the chapter. Using the Questioning Path Tool, students are to “deepen their understanding of the text” (139). Some of the questions on the Questioning Path Tool are “What details or words suggest the author’s perspective?” and “How might I summarize the main ideas of the text and the key supporting details?” (138). Later, in Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 6, students are to consider the final five paragraphs of DuBois’s piece and “are expected to develop and use their own Questioning Paths, selecting relevant Guiding Questions and framing one or more text-specific question after their first, guiding reading” (165).

• In Unit 3, Part 3, Activity 1, the instructional materials provide questions that require students to analyze language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of “The Red Convertible.” Questions include:
  • "Why might Erdrich have chosen the words and images Lyman uses to describe Henry in paragraph 49: 'His face was totally white and hard. Then it broke, like stones break all of a sudden when water boils up inside of them?'
  • What claim might a reader make about Henry’s state of mind in his last moments, based on evidence drawn from this and previous descriptions?
  • Where does the narrative end - with what details, events, or thoughts?" (261).

• Unit 4 focuses on the explorative proficiency, researching to deepen understanding, and uses a common source set focusing on the area of investigation, “Food: How do our decisions about what we eat affect our world?” The Unit 4, Part 1 objective is for students to learn the purposes and processes of using inquiry and research to deepen understanding. In Part 1, Activity 1, as an introduction to the unit, students view a video, “Future of Food: Why Food Matters Now More Than Ever,” and take notes related to the Guiding Questions on which they have selected to focus. In groups of three, students summarize what they have noted as they watched the video, later comparing notes with their small group. In Unit 4, Part 3, Activity 2, students analyze a source’s perspective and focus on:
  • Determining an author’s purpose for writing a text
  • Identifying the author’s relationship to a topic
  • Describing the author’s view of or perspective on the topic
  • Analyzing how that perspective is communicated through ideas, details, and language

• In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, the instructional materials provide questions that require students to analyze language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of “The Punishing Decade: Prison and Jail Estimates at the Millennium.” Questions include:
  • "What unfamiliar words do I need to study or define to better understand the text?
  • This piece mentions the disproportionate impact incarceration has on minorities. What evidence does the text present to support this claim?
  • What do I notice about how the text is organized or sequenced?" (506).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts. The curriculum provides both text-dependent and text-specific questions to support students analysis as they read texts. These questions are provided through Questioning Path Tools and the Guiding Questions Handout. These questions guide teachers as they support student growth in analyzing language, determining main ideas and supporting evidence, identifying author’s purpose and point of view, and analyzing structure of text. Both the student work with individual and multiple texts and teacher materials provide support in growing analytical skills of students.

Evidence that supports this rationale:

• The Grade 11 teacher’s edition overview of A Question-Based Approach to Reading Questioning Paths states, “The key to examining text closely is the strategic use—by teachers and students—of text-dependent questions. Students should learn not only to respond to text-dependent questions posed by others but also to generate and refine their own questions as they dig deeper into a text and expand their comprehension and their independence as close readers” (xxii).

• Unit 1 presents students with a series of texts related to The Civil War. In Part I, Activity 5, students use Guiding Questions to explore a multimedia website independently. The Questioning Path Tool includes both text-dependent questions (“What do I notice about how the website is organized?”) and text-specific questions (“What interesting details, examples, or ideas can I find that relate to the other texts we are studying?”) In Part 3, Activity 1, the Instructional Notes guide teachers through helping students analyze textual details. These notes walk students through questioning, deepening, and analyzing. In the analyzing section, the notes say to “Have students move from thinking about what they notice to what they think about it by recording and considering a Guiding Question, such as “How does the author’s perspective and presentation of the text compare to others?” (50). In Part 4, Activity 4, students write an evidence-based explanation. Using the Analyzing Details Tool they developed in Activity 3, students draft a multi-paragraph explanation using textual evidence that explains the following:
  • A central idea of the text and how it is developed through the ideas and details the text presents.
  • How the central idea is related to the text’s purpose and the author’s perspective on the topic.
  • What they have come to understand about the topic from the text.

• In Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 1, the Questioning Path Tool for “The Red Convertible,” paragraphs 1-25 provides text-dependent and text-specific questions, such as “How does the narrative unfold in time - chronologically or not?” and “Why might Erdrich have chosen to include the incident with the girl and her long hair?” (238). These questions, along with the other questions provided throughout the unit, prepare student for the unit’s final assignment where students use “The Red Convertible” and “On the Rainy River” to write an essay about literary technique.

• Unit 5 focuses on aspects of argumentation involving evidence, reasoning, and logic. It uses a common source set focusing on the United States’ justice system and underlying questions regarding what makes a punishment necessary, effective, and ethical. Part I includes the following activities:
  • Introducing the Unit
  • Exploring the issue - students read and analyze a background text to develop an initial understanding of the issue
  • Deepening Understanding of the Issue - students read and analyze additional background texts to expand and deepen their understanding of the issue
  • Questioning to Refine Understanding - students develop text-dependent questions and use them to refine their analysis
  • Writing an EBC about the nature of the issue - students develop and write multi-part, evidence-based claims about the nature of the issue.

• In Part 2, Activity 3, students delineate arguments by using text-dependent questions to attend to key details related to the argument's position, claims, structure, reasoning, and supporting evidence. The Questioning Path Tool to be used with “Treating youth like youth: why it’s time to raise the age in New York” to assist in delineating this argument includes text-dependent questions, such as “How does the evidence in the text influence my understanding of the issue of punishment and incarceration in the United States? In what ways? (529).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills (e.g., combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

Questions and tasks are specifically designed to lead up to the culminating task for each unit. A combination of reading, writing, speaking,and listening is woven throughout the units. While reading and writing tend to be the focus of the tasks, speaking and listening are incorporated not only into the culminating tasks but also the activities leading up to them. Students are provided multiple tools, such as the Questioning Path Tool and the Exploring a Topic Tool, which provide guidance as they read texts and begin writing about those texts. These Tools serve as formative assessments that help teachers determine whether or not students have the skills necessary to complete the culminating tasks. The instructional materials support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks both in this grade level, as well as cumulatively over the whole curriculum. Scaffolding is provided when students are introduced to new skills. Also evident is an increase in the rigor and intensity of previously learned skills to ensure that tasks remain grade-/ability-dependent.

Evidence to support that the materials meet the criteria follow:

• Unit 1 introduces a series of texts related to the Civil War. Students read academic essays, letters to friends and loved ones, and personal accounts from authors such as Whitman, Emerson, and Jefferson Davis. As the first unit, it instructs students in the process of close reading and helps students approach, question, and analyze texts, helping them focus on key textual characteristics and ideas. Part 1 activities use the Questioning Path Tools to assist students in reading closely. Parts 2 and 3 continue this process but deepen the analysis with the expectation that students work more independently. Part 4, Activity 1 introduces student to the culminating activities, analyzing one of three related texts and drafting a multi-paragraph explanation, as well as leading and participating in a comparative discussion about the three texts. In Part 5, Activities 1 and 2 prepare students for a text-centered discussion, while in Activity 3, students lead the discussion. The RC Literacy Skills and Discussion Habits Rubric is used by the teacher for evaluating performance and growth, and it includes a 4-point developmental scale from emerging to excelling.

• In Unit 2, the culminating task is to write a global or comparative evidence-based essay. Students begin the unit by independently reading the first paragraph of The Souls of Black Folk; students are provided a Questioning Path Tool to help them deepen their understanding of the text. These Questioning Path Tools are provided throughout the unit as students continue to read DuBois’s text.

• Unit 3 focuses on students making evidence-based claims (EBCs) about literary techniques using two related first-person fictional narratives, Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and Tim O’ Brien’s “On the Rainy River.” The unit begins with the introduction of EBCs in the realm of literary analysis and how that reading might vary from other readings/approaches students have used previously. Activity 1 gives students guiding questions about the literary techniques in a narrative before introducing the two texts. The Questioning Path Tool is used for support as students begin to read with this focus, and class discussion is used with text-dependent questions that focus on specific passages and narrative techniques. During Part 2, students form EBCs in pairs, and in Part 3, students read independently and form their EBCs independently. Formative assessment opportunities at the end of Part 3 give both students and teachers feedback about students’ progress. Part 4 focuses on developing students’ ability to communicate text-based claims and their supporting evidence through writing. The unit culminates in Part 5 when students develop and express global EBCs. While students independently draft their final EBC essay, Part 5, Activity 5 uses a collaborative, criteria-based process for student revision.
• Unit 5 is a culmination of the grade 11 instructional materials and combines high-level skills of argumentation involving evidence, reason, and logic. It asks that students form an opinion, take a stand, and convince others to agree. Part 1 introduces students to the concept of evidence-based argumentation through introducing the topic of the “United States’ justice system and underlying questions regarding what makes a punishment necessary, effective, and ethical” (498). Students read and write about a variety of informational texts to build an understanding of the topic. In Part 2, students employ close-reading skills and terminology used in delineating argumentation such as “perspective,” “position,” “implications,” “premises,” and ‘”evidence.” They apply these terms to several arguments associated with punishment, incarceration rates and the prison system” (489). Part 3 moves students into evaluation where they synthesize their analyses of other arguments to develop their own positions. In Part 4, they begin to craft their own argument, working on the sequence of claims and their supporting evidence. Finally, in Part 5, students work through a collaborative process to draft, revise, and publish their own argumentative essays.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain a yearlong, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts.

Within every unit, students practice writing and speaking from sources. The mode of writing they practice, the process they use, and the independence they are given varies based on the focus of the unit and where the unit is placed in the year. Students use graphic organizers to develop short sentences and paragraphs that communicate their thinking as they read texts. Students write formal paragraphs and short expository essays. Students then break claims into component premises and develop arguments. By the end of the year, students plan, write, and publish thesis-driven academic arguments, making the case for a position related to texts and their content.

The collaboration workshop is a question-based approach for developing writing. Students work through a process that is collaborative, question-based, and criteria-driven. Students are taught to think of essays as a process rather than a product, and that conversation, contemplation, consideration, and revision are part of the process.

The following learning principles are used to facilitate student writing development:

• Independence: Students are encouraged to be reflective and develop their own writing process rather than following the writing process in a rote and mechanical way.
• Collaboration: Students are encouraged to seek and use constructive feedback from others.
• Clear Criteria: Criteria is provided to describe the essential characteristics of a desired writing product.
• Guiding Questions: Students are expected to use guiding and text-based questions to promote close reading and developing their drafts.
• Evidence: Students use and integrate evidence through references, quotations, or paraphrasing.

Each writing activity includes a teacher demonstration lesson and class time is dedicated for students to free write, experiment, draft, revise, and edit their writings. Students engage in discussions surrounding their writings and ask and answer questions about their writing. Students are also given multiple opportunities to read aloud and share their writings throughout the process to receive feedback. The writing process moves through an increasingly focused sequence of activities, such as getting started, thinking, organizing, gathering evidence, connecting ideas, expressing ideas, final editing, and publishing.

In Grade 11 the yearlong plan of writing instruction builds from Unit 1 where students are writing a text-based explanation focused on the topic of The Civil War to Unit 3 where students write an evidence-based claims essay based on Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and Tim O’Brien’s “On the Rainy River.” Unit 5 ends the year with an evidence-based argumentative essay focused on the United States’ justice system.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials. Grade 11 provides many research opportunities through the year’s instructional materials that are built into a variety of contexts and culminating tasks. Scaffolded research skills that build independence in students are a particular strength of the instructional materials. Activities are designed to lead up to and support students as they prepare for the culminating tasks. In preparation for these final tasks, students read and write about texts and participate as both speakers and listeners in class discussions. Units 1, 4, and 5 provide multiple texts that give students access to a variety of sources about a topic. There are many resources available for students and teachers as they learn, practice, apply, and transfer skills.

Evidence to support this include:

• Unit 1 works as a skill-building unit for the rest of the Grade 11 instructional materials. It works to “integrate the development of explanatory communication skills into the close reading process” and culminates in text-centered discussions in which students explain and compare their textual analyses with those of their peers. To do so, students work with a series of texts related to The Civil War. Student reading is broken down in the Questioning Path Tool to Approaching, Questioning, Analyzing, Deepening, and Extending. Teachers walk students through this process in Parts 1-3 before giving students more independence in Part 4, where in Activity 3, students question and analyze texts independently and in Activity 4, write a text-based explanation. Finally, the whole unit culminates in Part 5, Activity 3, in which students lead a text-centered discussion.

• Unit 2 is focused on the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folks. The unit’s activities are designed to prepare students for the culminating writing task which is a global, evidence-based essay. In Unit 2, Part 4, Activity 6, students “discuss their new evidence-based claims from Activity 5 and students listen actively to the portions of the text being read or presented.” The teacher is provided with Instructional Notes to help guide students through the lesson. This activity asks students to transfer claims from the Forming EBC Tool to the Organizing EBC to help them organize and refine their evidence in preparation for writing the final essay (176-177).

• Unit 3 uses fictional narratives, Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” and Tim O’Brien’s “On the Rainy River,” to develop students’ abilities to make EBCs about literary techniques. While not traditionally research oriented, this unit exposes students to yet another kind of text and continues to work on the skills of critical reading and thinking, forming and supporting EBCs, organizing evidence and thinking, and communicating EBCs orally, as well as in paragraphs and essays.

• Unit 4 is focused on research and provides a Common Source Set that is centered around the unit’s title, “Food: How do our decisions about what we eat affect our world?”; however, this unit is intentionally designed that the unit can be used regardless of which texts are read (360). In Unit 4, Part 3, Activity 2, student practice analyzing a source’s perspective and relevance. This skill is necessary throughout the unit as students prepare to present a final research project. After the teacher models r close reading and analyzing a source’s perspective, bias, and credibility, student teams practice this close reading and analysis through independent reading and conversations about their annotations and observations.

• Unit 5 culminates in thinking/reading/writing/listening skills by working at the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, focusing on argumentation involving evidence, reasoning, and logic. It begins in Part 1 with “Understanding the Nature of an Issue” where Activity 1 presents an overview of the unit and its societal issue and stresses that students learn and think about a complex societal issue for which there are many explanations, perspectives, and opinions. The rest of Part I is in pursuit of thinking deeply about the issue of the United States’ justice system with regards to what makes a punishment necessary, effective, and ethical. Part 1’s Formative Assessment includes the target skills of forming claims and “Using Evidence.” Part 2’s focus is on Analyzing Arguments, Part II on Evaluating and Developing a Position. Finally, Part 4’s focus is on Organizing an Evidence-Based Argument and includes the skills of identifying supporting evidence (Activity 1) and organizing evidence to support claims (Activity 3), while Part 5 culminates in students drafting and writing their argumentative essays.