9th Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria of anchor texts being of publishable quality, worthy of especially careful reading, and considering a range of student interests.

Throughout the year, students have the opportunity to read about a broad range of subjects of interest, such as education in America, issues of terrorism, and more. Students are also exposed to highly engaging, theme-rich fiction pieces, such as Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

Anchor texts in the majority of chapters/units and across the yearlong curriculum are of publishable quality. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1 contains multiple texts of publishable quality from reputable publishers. Unit 1, Part 1, incorporates the first four texts to introduce the focus, Reading Closely for Textual Details. Helen Keller’s personal narrative, The Story of My Life, is a commercially published text. The remaining texts serve as an introduction to the content of the main texts; each is a different text type, including a photograph, the previously mentioned personal narrative, multimedia video, and website.

• Unit 2's anchor text, Plato’s Apology of Socrates, supports the purpose of the unit of making evidence-based claims. Apology is Plato’s account of the defense Socrates gave at his trial in Athens in 399 B.C..

• Unit 5 texts offer many perspectives and positions on the topic of terrorism and allow students to study the issue from a variety of angles. Since terrorism is currently an issue of global concern, this may be a topic of interest for Grade 9 students.

Anchor texts are well-crafted, content-rich, and include a range of student interests, engaging students at the grade level for which they are placed. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 3, students are asked to read one of three challenging texts in preparation for the culminating task: Eleanor Roosevelt’s "Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education," Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, and Arne Duncan’s "The Vision of Education Reform in the United States." These texts are grade-level appropriate, challenging, and require close reading.

• Unit 3’s anchor text is Ernest Hemingway’s short story, ”The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” This piece is well-crafted and appropriate for the grade level. It encourages close and multiple readings because it explores several themes such as courage, violence, gender roles, and marriage; these could be used to discuss similar themes in other stories. This story also has an interesting plot, engaging characters, and unusual shifts in perspective that Grade 9 students will find engaging.

• Unit 4 explores the theme “Music: What Role Does it Play in Our Lives” and consists of five text sets. Texts are selected not only to appeal to students’ interests, but also to “provide many ideas about how music plays an essential role in our lives, including its impact on leisure, self-expression, and culture.” Texts are chosen for their ability to introduce various subtopics within the general topic area and include texts such as “What is Online Piracy?”, “Why Your Brain Craves Music," and “The Evolution of Music: How Genres Rise and Fall Over Time.”

• Unit 5 contains multiple texts of publishable quality from established publishers. For example, students read Major Terrorism Cases: Past and Present from FBI.gov and Events of 9/11. To increase student engagement and understanding, the curriculum also provides information about terrorism via timelines, political cartoons, and videos.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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 9-10. Some texts exceed the band for grades 9-10, but are structured in a way that make them accessible to Grade 9 students. The few texts that do not have Lexiles provided qualitatively meet the requirements for this grade level because they serve as introductory pieces for a unit, provide for the exploration of several themes or multiple meanings, allow for the analysis of narrative structure, or are easily accessible sources that offer different perspectives on an issue.

Most anchor texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task. While many of the texts are challenging, texts are chosen to engage student interest and promote inquiry, which make them worthy of students’ time and attention. Texts support students’ advancement toward independent reading. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1 contains an extensive set of texts for students to practice close reading for details and more than half are accompanied with a Lexile score. Of the identified texts, only one falls far below grade-level, an excerpted transcript of Colin Powell’s TED Talk, “Kids Needs Structure.” The speech was given a 900L, putting it in the 4th-5th grade Stretch Lexile Band. Although this text measures only 900L, it is appropriate for the grade level because it provides strong description and narration. Powell's ideas and supporting details also allow students to “explore his perspective, which developed during his days in the military.” Unit 1, Part 1 incorporates the first four texts to introduce the focus, Reading Closely for Textual Details. Helen Keller’s personal narrative, The Story of My Life, has an identified Lexile score of 1250. This set of texts includes a photograph that connects to the previously mentioned personal narrative, multimedia video, and website. In Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 3, students are asked to read one of three challenging texts in preparation for the culminating task. Eleanor Roosevelt’s “Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education” measures at 1250L, Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia measures at 1410L, and Arne Duncan’s “The Vision of Education Reform in the United States” measures at 1200L which falls within the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 9-10. These texts are challenging and allow for close reading, questioning, analysis and summary. While Jefferson's text is above grade level, it provides teachers the opportunity to assign a more complex text based on individual student's reading comprehension levels. This one would be reserved for more capable students.

• The core text for Unit 2 is Plato’s Apology with a 980L, which falls within the 9th grade Current Lexile Band of 960L to 1120L. Students use a question-based approach to read and analyze the text. Qualitatively, this text is challenging since requires familiarity with Greek leaders such as Chaerephon, Anytus and Lycon, as well as Greek mythology allusions such as Minos and Rhadamanthus. Other vocabulary will also challenge students such as words like “impetuous” and “odious.” At the end of Unit 1, the teacher’s edition provides “media supports” with various editions of Apology on Audiobooks, YouTube, ebooks, and PDFs. Each edition gives a description. For example, “2. Socratic Citizenship: Plato’s Apology” is described as a lecture from Yale University on the political and philosophical contexts of Socrates’ trial. Although this is an advanced analysis of Plato’s Apology, students can benefit from watching how an expert discusses an important text in Western civilization.”

• In Unit 5, the curriculum provides a variety of texts in the form of text sets. Lexile levels are provided for texts within the Text Notes sections of the teacher’s edition. For example, In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, students read “What is Terrorism?”; this text measures at 1200L which exceeds the Current Lexile Band for grades 9-10, but falls within the Stretch Lexile Band. Students also read “Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: What’s the Difference?” which measures at 1070L which falls within both the Current and Stretch Lexile Bands for grades 9-10. The final text in this activity is “Militant Extremists in the United States” which measures at 1470L. This text is very complex and its Lexile level is higher than the top measurement for the Stretch Lexile Band for 11-CCR. The text does state that “the headings and subheadings help organize the information into sections” (459), making it more accessible to 9th grade students. The other texts within the unit are timelines, political cartoons, and videos. The curriculum indicates that these texts are readily accessible to 9th grade students. Text 4.1 “Authorization for Use of Military Force” is Public Law 107-40 has an estimated Lexile level of 1270L which falls in the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 9-10. All the texts in Unit 5 were appropriately chosen as resources for the unit’s final assignment where students develop a supported position on the issue of terrorism. These texts offer many perspectives and positions on the topic and allow students to study the issue from a variety of angles.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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.

As the year progresses, students read increasingly difficult texts. In the Grade 9 curriculum, the writing skills build on one another, as well as the complexity of the texts to support the thinking and literacy skills. In the units with the texts sets, there is a breadth and depth of choices in the full range of the Lexile stretch band providing opportunities to challenge students by giving them complex texts, but also by providing more reachable texts as they are working on analysis and synthesis skills in writing.

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. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the overview for Unit 3, the Teacher’s Edition states that “this unit extends students’ abilities to make evidence-based claims into the realm of literary analysis.” All reading, discussion, and literary analysis focuses on Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”
• In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students read “A Brief History of the Music Industry,” which measures at 1500L; this measurement places it outside even the Stretch Lexile Band for Grade 11-CCR. However, the text is written in a student-friendly way with short paragraphs making it easier to read which allows students to access this much more complex text.

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. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 2, includes a speech by Colin Powell which has a Lexile of only 900 but is credited for the strong description and narration from Powell which provides the opportunity for students to explore his perspective. Unit 1, Part 3, Activity 1, introduces a passage by Maria Montessori and measures at 1270L which “should be challenging but accessible for most students with the scaffolding and support of the close reading process”. The final three texts in Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 2, all focus on the purpose and value of education in society. They range from a piece by Thomas Jefferson (1410 L) to FDR (1250L) to Arne Duncan (1200L).

• In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 3, students read “Why Your Brain Craves Music” which measures at 1350L; this measurement places it within the Stretch Lexile Band for Grade 9-10. In Unit 4, Part 3, Activity 2, students read “Why I Pirate” which measures at 1200L; the curriculum suggests that due to the complexity of the text that it be used for teacher modeling. Students also read the article, “Are Musicians Going Up a Music Stream without a Fair Payout?” This article measures at 1180L which falls within the Stretch Lexile Band for Grade 9-10.

The instructional materials meet the expectations that texts and lesson materials are accompanied by a text complexity analysis and rationale for purpose and placement in the grade level. 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. The Teacher Edition explains the purpose and value of the texts in the Text Notes. 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, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students read an excerpt from Helen Keller’s autobiography. Its Lexile Level is 1250L. The curriculum states, “This is a good first text for close reading because it is vivid and challenging, but it is also relatively short and accessible for most students” (17). It goes on to provide rationale for its purpose stating that the text can be used to show students how writers can use similar literary techniques in nonfiction that are found in fiction pieces with a focus on figurative language and characterization.

• In Unit 5, the curriculum provides the following rationale for text selection: “The texts...are offered in the form of text sets, in which texts are grouped together for instructional and content purposes” (443). Since students are not required to read every text, the curriculum also provides flexibility for teachers to make decisions about text selection based on student reading levels as the selections have different complexities. For this unit, Lexile levels are provided within the Text Notes for each text set (excluding photos, videos, and websites). For example for Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, students read “What is Terrorism?”; the curriculum describes this piece of writing as, “The text measures at 1200L and should be accessible to most ninth grade students” (455).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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 read a variety of texts including nonfiction personal narratives, fictional short stories, and nonfiction articles. 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.

Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in reading a variety of text types and disciplines and also to experience a volume of reading as they grow toward reading independence at the grade level. For example:

• Unit 1 is based on numerous non-fiction texts related to education in the United States and how it is changing. In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students read Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life. The curriculum provides support for this reading via the Questioning Path Tool. This tool provides four levels of both text-dependent and text-specific questioning which include questioning, analyzing, deepening, and extending (page 18 of the Teacher’s Edition).
• Unit 3 is based on the close reading of Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” In Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 1, students are provided a Questioning Path Tool that not only guides them through the close reading, but it is a question from this tool that will serve as the basis for the writing of an Evidence-Based Claim.
• Unit 4’s reading includes a Common Source Set (virtual texts) that focuses on a particular area of investigation, “Music: What Role Does it Play in Our Lives?” This is given as a model of how a teacher can create source sets and recognizes the ever-changing nature of websites. Within the source sets are YouTube videos, internet-based articles, as well Gale Reference Library articles..

Materials also include checklists, rubrics, and student conference suggestions to assist in evaluating the development of literacy proficiency.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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 Questioning Path 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.

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 1, Part 1, Activity 2, The Questioning Path Tool shows initial text-dependent questions that engage the surface level details, identifying the what: “What details stand out…?” and “What do I think this image is mainly about?” Students are then allowed an opportunity to deepen their understanding by moving toward text-specific questions that analyze the how: “How do specific details help me understand what is being depicted in the image?”

• The Questioning Path Tool templates and Reading Closely: Guiding Question handouts are provided with the materials to encourage students to create their own questions in four categories: questioning, analyzing, deepening, and extending. These tools are included in each unit.

• The materials also include text-specific questions.
  • In Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 1, the Questioning Path Tool for the text, “The Story of My Life,” provides text-specific questions. One example is, “What does the figurative language phrase ‘a little mass of possibilities’ in the first paragraph suggest about how Keller at first saw herself as a student?”
  • In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 2, there are text-specific questions to accompany Plato’s Apology: “In Paragraph 3, Socrates says he is on trial because of a ‘certain kind of wisdom’. According to Socrates, what kind of wisdom does he not have? What does this suggest about the wisdom he does have?”
  • In Unit 4, Part 3, Activity 2, students are asked to analyze a source’s perspective and bias as they develop sources for their research portfolio. The materials direct students to use the Guiding Questions handout from previous units for guidance. Specifically, the materials point to the “P” of the “LIPS” domains--Language, Ideas, Perspective, and Structure--in the Guiding Questions handout. The Perspective domain presents text-dependent, evidence-based questions for students. The question, “What details or words suggest the author’s perspective?” is a strong example of a stand alone text-dependent question. Other questions, such as, “How does the author’s perspective influence my reading of the text?”, rely on the provided follow-up instructions in the Deepening section of the Guiding Questions handout. This section asks students to support and “explain why and cite [...] evidence” from the text.

Students are supported in their literacy growth over the course of a school year. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1 culminates in a text-centered discussion in the Reading Closely for Textual Details: Developing Core Literacy Proficiencies Literacy Toolbox. The Instructional Notes explicitly ask students to “point out key words that indicate the author’s perspective,” as well as “ask the other participants to reference the texts in their comments.”
• In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, students are asked to question the text without the typical modeling by the teachers, thus placing more of the responsibility on the student. The teacher Instructional Notes for this task indicate: “(The students) should be bringing useful questions from such handouts as the Guiding Questions and Assessing Sources handouts into their reading process, and they should not require prescriptive scaffolding. However, students will also be reading, analyzing, and evaluating complex arguments in this unit, perhaps for the first time. They may need the support of text-dependent questions that help them attend to the elements and reasoning within arguments.” The Instructional Notes include further information for the teacher to assist with “abbreviated versions of the model Questioning Tools found in other units.”

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

• Teacher Instructional Notes across the units include reminders to teachers to consistently direct students to use the text to support responses. These notes also encourage teachers to generate questions to model for the students.
• In Unit 3, Part 5, Activity 5, the Instructional Notes provide the following teacher instructions for a task so that students are provided with proper modeling. The notes read: “Return to the literacy skills criteria students have been using in Part 4: Forming Claims and Using Evidence. Talk through how you might apply these criteria in reviewing a draft evidence-based claims essay—beginning with general Guiding Review Questions, such as “What is the claim and how clearly is it expressed and explained? Is there enough, well-chosen evidence to support the claim?” Then model how a writer might develop a more specific text-based review question to guide a second review of the draft.”
• In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, the Instructional Notes reference the EBA (Evidence-based Argument) Toolbox, which includes “a few model text-specific questions for deepening students’ understanding of specific aspects of the arguments they will read closely.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria for materials containing sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent and text-specific questions and 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. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the tasks focus on Reading Closely for Textual Details which is a prerequisite skill and foundation for the work done in the following units. Each unit introduces a skill, such as making evidence-based claims and researching to deepen understanding, which is necessary for Unit 5 Building Evidence-Based Arguments: “What is the Virtue of Proportional Response?”

• In Unit 2, Part 5, Making Evidence-Based Claims (EBC), the culminating activity is a writing task, students compose “a rough draft of an evidence-based claim essay on their global claim.” The materials suggest that this task is “used as evidence of Literacy Skills associated with close reading…” To this point, close reading activities have been driven by the Questioning Path Tool - a handout utilized throughout the curricular materials with general text-dependent questions to text-specific questions. To describe the relevance of the tasks, the teacher’s edition addresses the materials by using the analogy of “practitioners in various fields are able to analyze and understand [works] because their training focuses them on details… [and this] often involves using questions to direct their attention.” This analogy is included to help students understand the process of building an EBC and completing the Forming EBC Tool. This is just one step in the process of completing the culminating task.

• In Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 7, students are tasked to use notes and annotations taken from previous activities to compose a culminating essay to demonstrate mastery of analyzing an argument. Student work is text-dependent; they use notes and annotations collected on the Delineating Arguments Tool practiced with the included text set or other materials as determined by the teacher. The Delineating Arguments Tool is preceded by the use of the Guiding Questions handout, remaining consistent with the text-dependent and text-specific basis of the entire curriculum.

Evidence that sequences of text-dependent questions and tasks throughout each unit prepare students for success on the culminating tasks includes, but is not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students are asked to read nine texts focusing on the theme, “Education is the New Currency.” In Unit 1, Part 5, Activity 3 of this unit, students are asked to participate in a text-centered discussion about how education is the great equalizer of the conditions of humans. To prepare for the culminating activity, students work collaboratively to review each other’s text-based explanations, discuss their assigned text to other texts within the unit, and write a comparative text-specific question for the discussion.

• In Unit 4, Part 5, students are asked to create a culminating research portfolio or produce an alternative research-based product. The activities leading up to this culminating task include the consistent Questioning Path Tool to explore a topic using various texts and to develop an Inquiry Question. The student- or class-generated Inquiry Question determines the texts used with the text-dependent Research Evaluation Tool. When using the Research Evaluation Tool, which consists of three checklists with guiding questions, students present materials gathered and studied to include in their portfolio and receive feedback from the teacher and peers about the credibility, relevance, and sufficiency of the evidence gathered.

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 3, the Unit Overview includes an Outline describing the five parts of the unit. The Outline describes Part 5: Developing Evidence-Based Writing: “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.” Students are expected to reread the texts in the unit and discuss with the class the development of Evidence-Based Claims (EBCs). They are also expected to create their own EBCs about literary technique and work collaboratively throughout the writing process. Finally, students participate in a class discussion of final evidence-based essays.

• In Unit 5, the culminating task consists of an argumentative essay. In preparation for this final task, students write short essays analyzing an argument. In Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 7: Writing to Analyze Arguments, the teacher’s Instructional Notes read: “Students use their notes, annotations, and tools (such as the Questioning Path Tool) to write paragraphs analyzing one of the arguments they have read thus far in the unit.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 3, Activity 2, students discuss how the author’s use of language reflects his or her perspective on the subject. Students have to present evidence and connect their comments to the ideas of others. Students practice listening skills as they take notes, annotate their texts, and capture what peers say. The curriculum supports the development of listening and speaking skills with the formal and less formal versions of the Reading Closely Literacy Skills and Discussion Habits Rubrics.
• In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 2, the teacher guides students to share ideas during a “brief discussion in which students volunteer something they learned about the speaker (Socrates).” Further guidance is offered in the Instructional Notes to assist the teacher in leading the discussion with follow-up questions to the students’ independent reading and to prepare them for the next step. An example of one such question is: “What words or sentences in the paragraph tell you this information?” Then, students transition into “the second guiding question: ‘What details or words suggest the author's perspective?’”
• In Unit 3, Part 2, Activity 2, students read aloud, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and continue to engage with the same guiding questions to elicit evidence of the author’s language, ideas, and use of supporting details. Support is provided by the Making EBC Tool and text-specific Questioning Path Tool.
• In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students explore a research topic. Students watch a video and read a common text to stimulate thinking about what makes the topic interesting and to open up possible areas to investigate. After watching the video, small groups, and later the entire class, will summarize what they have learned through the video. Students will compare notes and note-taking strategies. Students then work in small teams to read an internet-based text and discuss what they already know about the text before they read it. Students will listen and participate as the class discusses how the source they just read relates to the topic and the video they have previously previewed.

• In addition, students are expected to exhibit the following behaviors during the Text-Centered Discussion:
  • “Listening: Listen fully to what readers have observed; Consider their ideas thoughtfully; Wait momentarily before responding verbally.
  • "Remaining Open: Avoid explanations or justifications for what they as writers have tried to do (no 'yes, but . . .' responses); Frame additional informal, text-based questions to further probe their readers’ observations.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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. Throughout the units, the instructional materials require students to produce on demand short, informal writings and longer, independent process writing tasks and essays.

On-demand writing tasks can consist of completing the worksheets/handouts/tools from the Literary Toolboxes and evolve into students composing sentence-length, evidence-based claims and paragraphs. Students compose initial on-demand writing in pairs to become accustomed to the material’s Academic Habits or approach to revisions through informal collaborative small group and class discussions in Unit 2 to more formal Research Teams in Unit 4. Examples of on-demand writings include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 4 is focused on increasing students’ close reading skills. In Part 1, students demonstrate their proficiency through discussions closely guided by their on-demand writing that occurs in the Questioning Path Tool handouts included in the Literacy Toolbox. For example, Activity 4 tasks students to follow the Guiding Questions provided in the tool to analyze details in a multimedia text, a TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson. There are multiple text-centered questions and the materials assign students to “write a few sentences explaining something they have learned.”
• 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 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students summarize their observations and understandings of a topic discussed in class and brainstorm potential areas of investigation as well as details about the topic to expand or increase understanding.

Opportunities for process writing tasks include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Part 5, Activity 5, “students used a criteria-based checklist of feedback from peers in a collaborative review process to revise and improve their evidence-based claim essays.” Once students have completed the first drafts of their essays, they work in writing groups to complete two review and revision cycles. The first cycle focuses on the essay’s content or on evaluating and improving the content or quality of claims and evidence; the second cycle focuses on improving organization and expression and clarity of their writing.
• In Unit 4, Part 2, Activity 3, students are directed to “consult a librarian or media specialist and conduct web- or library-based searches” for additional sources to complete the culminating research writing assignment. The process writing for this is sequenced out beforehand with the Common Sources and Literacy Toolbox handouts specific to this unit. The peer-feedback, revision processes practiced in previous units is implemented again to develop and improve the students’ research essays. Part 5 focuses on research skills for the summative purpose of creating a research portfolio, written research narrative, or research-based product to present.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 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 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.

All units provide students the opportunity to engage with texts to compose evidence-based writing for the purpose of research, argumentative, or explanatory/informational writing. Optional activities are provided for the teacher to expand and include more writing opportunities and modes.

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 include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 4, students are tasked with writing a multi-paragraph essay with a central idea and explain how it is developed using text-based evidence gathered in previous activities with the Analyzing Details Tool.

• In Unit 2, Questioning Path Tools connect the reading to the writing students will do and the Deepening portion of this tool is strongly text dependent.

• In Unit 2, the Evidence-Based Claims (EBC) Tool helps students find evidence in the text to support the claims they are creating by providing a place for students to record the details they find. This tool is tied to the targeted Literacy Skill of Using Evidence. Part 1, Activity 4 tasks the teacher with modeling the Forming Evidence-Based Claims handout from the Literacy Toolbox. It is designed for students to “first note details that stand out” and then relate details to each other, explaining any connection between the text and another text, or the text and a reader’s experience. This activity leads students to begin developing claims that are supported by evidence. It is modeled first by teachers using the Supporting Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

• Unit 4 connects reading with writing by asking student to draw connections among key details and ideas within and across texts.

Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with texts and sources to provide supporting evidence. Instructional notes are very specific with regards to helping students develop clear claims beginning with the definition of what a claim is and the explanation that a claim is only as strong as the evidence that supports it. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 5, “students write a short paragraph explaining their analysis of the text and reference (or list) specific textual details.” Students are asked to write a short paragraph of several clear, coherent, and complete sentences. Students are to explain their analysis of Text 5.

• In Unit 2, Part 5, Activity 5, “Students use a criteria-based checklist of feedback from peers in a collaborative review process to revise and improve their evidence-based claim essays.” Once students have completed the first drafts of their essays, they will work in writing groups to complete two review and revision cycles. The first cycle focuses on the essay’s content or on evaluating and improving the content or quality of claims and evidence; the second cycle focuses on improving organization and expression and clarity of their writing.

Materials provide opportunities that build students’ writing skills over the course of the school year. The teacher 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.” (xxxviii). 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. Writing opportunities are varied over the course of the year. Examples of varied writing opportunities that build students' skills over the course of the year include, but are not limited to:

• Unit 1 focuses on increasing students’ abilities to read for detail and increase understanding of the text. Most of the frequent writing opportunities occur in completing the Literacy Toolbox handouts. The guiding questions provided by the handouts are text-dependent and require students to reference details from the text to support their understanding and explanation about the central idea of the text. This is not necessarily evidence-based; students are merely focused on explanatory or informational writing in this unit. In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 1, students are introduced to the topic through an analogy from another field.

• All the activities in Unit 1, build to a two-stage culminating activity. Students will do the following: 1) Analyze one of three related texts and draft a multi-paragraph 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.

• Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 4 is an optional activity for students to compose a multimedia presentation or formal essay to communicate a perspective. The materials suggest various opportunities for writing modes to be addressed using EBCs--informational presentation, a research-based explanation, a thesis-driven argument, or Op-Ed piece. The summative writing assignment for the unit is a reflective research narrative. This unit incorporates much of the expectations for this indicator.