10th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and for considering a range of student interests. The anchor texts are of publishable quality and provide opportunities for rich analysis and modeling of the literacy skills focus for each unit. The materials consider a range of interests by providing a variety of text types--multimedia video, audio, visual, and printed text--to engage multiple learning styles in the topic focus for the content. Once students are engaged with the topic, the materials have a clear purpose identified in the introductory activities of each unit to demonstrate they are worthy of investing time and attention to careful reading of their content.

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

• Unit 1 contains a wide variety of texts and text types--including visual, multimedia video, and printed text. The variety of text types allows for multiple entry points to the subject matter of this unit--World War I. The multimodal literacies allow for a wide range of students to find interest in the materials’ content for the purpose of developing close reading skills. In Unit 1, Part 4, Activity 2, students are given three texts with rich language, and a mixture of emotions to discuss in collaborative groups in later activities and develop a text-based multi-paragraph essay by Activity 4. The skills developed in the activities can be transferred to a wide variety of topics.

• Unit 3 focuses on two poems with rich uses of poetic devices and figurative languages worthy of close reading. The activities focus on developing students’ abilities to develop Evidence Based Claims (EBCs) after a close reading analysis of each poem. The poems focus on the topic of death which many students will find pertinent.

• Unit 5 provides a wide range of text types exploring the Fourth Amendment. Students analyze the texts to develop an evidence-based argumentative essay. The materials state that students are not required to read all the included texts. Texts use a high amount of domain specific language citing laws and civil rights. Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 3, provides students with a government document published by the Department of Justice, heavy in linguistic jargon, but “accessible [for students] through its clear organization, bold lettering, and numbered paragraphs.” At this time, the topic is prevalent in media and culture and would engage a range of student interests.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 Grade 10 texts have the appropriate level of complexity according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task. Anchor texts are placed at the appropriate grade level. Texts that are quantitatively above the stretch band are accompanied with appropriate supports (e.g. close reading and instructional notes to guide the teacher) and are appropriate for grade 10. Texts that are quantitatively within the grade level stretch band are paired with tasks that require students to use higher order thinking skills. Qualitative analysis of the texts supports placement at this grade level. According to CCSS, by the end of grade 10, students will need to be able to read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1964 acceptance speech is listed as 1400L by the publisher (219). The Lexile level is slightly above the CCSS stretch band of 1080-1305. Students are guided through the process of using a text to make evidence-based claims. Throughout the activities in relation to the text, students will listen to the speech, utilize guiding questions to read a part of the speech independently, and the teacher will lead a class discussion guided by a series of text-dependent questions deepening students’ understanding of the text. The supports in place and guiding questions will assist students in accessing the complex text. To conclude Part 1, the teacher will model the forming of EBCs. The materials prompt the teacher to use the Attending to Details Handout (introduced in the Reading Closely unit) to help students think about the types of details they might be looking for and to introduce a three-step process for making a text-based claim, as represented on the Forming EBC Tool. Qualitative analysis of the text indicates it is appropriate for the grade level; for example, there are a variety of sentence structures and complex vocabulary which is woven into the ideas for discussion. For example, in Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 2, a question can be posed for consideration, such as the following: “What is the ‘genuine civilization struggling to be born’ King has the ‘audacity’ to believe in?” and “How does King use figurative language to describe the ‘creative turmoil’ that will lead to this civilization?” (173).

• Unit 3 targets poetry as the central text type for students to practice developing EBCs about literary technique. The materials use Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and Robert Frost’s “Home Burial.” Because these works are poems, a Lexile level is not available. The students’ activities associated with the texts are appropriate--students analyze the poems in order to develop EBCs about the literary techniques with a focus on Frost’s and Dickinson’s use of meter, imagery, and symbolism. The poems are appropriately complex for the grade level and activities. Each text offers abstract and symbolic concepts driven by dialogue. Dickinson’s narrator is conveying a complex and abstract fictional concept of death. The poem personifies Death and the narrator describes settings that provide multiple interpretations for the reader to infer. The archaic vocabulary provides an added layer of complexity for students to decipher. Frost’s poem is organized in a narrative style and driven by the narrator’s description and recounting of a dialogue that drives the narrative using poetic devices. The sentence structure is a diverse departure from Dickinson’s--longer sentences and dense stanzas--and less archaic vocabulary to decipher. Unit 3, Parts 1 and 2, has teachers model the EBCs reading and writing skill using Dickinson’s poem. Unit 3, Parts 3 and 4, has students practice the skills with increasing independence using Frost’s poem. Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 1, begins to bring the works together, tasking students to “reread the poems while thinking about elements they might compare between the two” still focusing on literary technique.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 materials include texts that appropriately represent the range of complexity and variety over the course of a school year to meet expectations for college-and-career readiness. Texts are chosen to align with specific literacy skills and achieve the learning goals set by the materials. The texts provided include a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band. Guidance is provided to teachers and students to allow all readers to access the texts at a higher level of complexity through the use of a Questioning Path Tool and discussions. The materials provide opportunities for student growth and to support students in reading independently at grade level by the end of the year as required by the CCSS.

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 2, Part 5, Activity 4, the students’ final draft of a multiparagraph essay is used to assess a student’s ability to develop evidence-based claims (EBCs). The assessment is connected to the texts analyzed in previous activities. Teachers assess the students’ use of the texts in their writing to determine an “accurate reading and insightful analysis” and development of “a supported claim that is clearly connected to the [texts]”

• Unit 4, Part 5: Summative Assessment Opportunities are centered around students’ research-based products--all centered around extensive close reading and analysis of common source texts. The texts are suggestions to be used for modeling and chosen to align with a specific topic for research, “Computer Technology: What Is Its Impact on Society?”

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:

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students will engage in a close read of their first print text, “Kings, Queens, and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front” by Mary Roberts Rinehart. The Teacher’s Edition includes Text Notes, stating that the text “provides an opportunity to move from close reading of details in visual images to close reading of visual details presented in a highly descriptive text.” The first text is listed as 870L, which places it below the grade level band and the text is placed to ensure all students can access successfully. (17)

• In Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 2, students will begin an independent reading of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” using a question-based approach. The materials include a Questioning Path Tool, including text-specific questions to encourage students to think more deeply about the text while they are reading. Following the independent reading, in Activity 3 the teacher will read the first three stanzas aloud or play an audio recording. A discussion will follow the read aloud. The activities will support all readers to access the text.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 10th 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 2, Part 1, Activity 4, students actively listen and discuss Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech" which has a Lexile level of 1400L. In the TEXT NOTES, the teacher is provided with the rationale for selection of the piece and its value and purpose. The curriculum states, “This powerful interplay of words is characteristic of King’s rhetoric and provides an opportunity for students to note how he uses language to dramatize his claim about the importance of a nonviolent stance.” It also points out that once students can identify King’s descriptive words, they will be able to discuss how King “juxtaposes the idea of nonviolence” with his descriptions of racially driven violence located in the first paragraph of the piece.

In Unit 4’s Unit Overview, the curriculum briefly explains how it provides a text sequence focused on a particular Area of Investigation. These texts were chosen to “build background information, for teacher modeling, and as the focus for skill development lessons” (362). Later in the unit, the curriculum provides a Researching to Deepen Understanding Common Source Set. While these reference section provides a brief description, the location of the common source, an overview, and discussion questions, it does not provide Lexile levels for these sources because they are websites, blog posts, and internet-based articles.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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. Units include a wide range of text types addressing multiple learning styles of students--including video, audio, interactive websites, and printed texts. Texts present diverse experiences and the literacy skills associated with each activity recursively build on each other as the year progresses. Text complexity also adjusts and increases as students continue through the curriculum and materials provide opportunities for teachers and students to incorporate additional texts.

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. Evidence includes, but is not limited to:

• Unit 1 covers a range of texts regarding World War I. The combined anchor texts and optional extended reading texts include multiple formats of Informational nonfiction and literature. The aligned activities and accompanying texts allow for a blend of experiences to grow reading stamina. For example, Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 2, allows students to practice close reading skills using visual texts and authentic photographs of World War I. In Unit 1, Part 3, Activity 2, students continue using close reading skills to comparing analyses of speeches. The sequence of units and activities is intended to develop students’ ability to independently read, analyze, and, by Unit 1, Part 5, Activity 3, lead a text-centered discussion.

• In Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1, students read paragraphs 1-17 of “President Obama’s Nobel Lecture” independently. A Questioning Path Tool is provided to guide students to question and investigate the text, analyze the details, and deepen their understanding of the text. The teacher’s edition includes text notes to guide the teacher to facilitate the task: “Students will use the final question (#9) as a starting point for reading and analyzing the second section of the speech (paragraphs 18-26) as an independent activity at the end of Part 3 and the start of Part 4” (181). In Activity 4, a class discussion will take place utilizing the text-specific questions, and the teacher will facilitate.

• Unit 5 includes a wide range of text types and lengths, including short video clips, political cartoons, blog posts, online articles, and political texts.

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

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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.

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. The following are examples of this evidence:

• Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 1, begins with a clear step-by-step process for students to follow. Textual support is key to this unit as it is how students will support their claim. Included in the steps are to “organize your supporting evidence” and “paraphrase and quote.”
• The materials include the Forming EBC (Evidence-Based Claims) Tool that has students record specifics from the text to support their emerging ideas.
• In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 2, the Questioning Path Tool, the Deepening, and Analyzing focus is where students have to usually return to the text to answer questions. For example, “What do I notice about the verb tenses used throughout the poem? How are they compared throughout the stanzas and what do they tell me about the speaker’s perspective?”
• The materials also include text-specific questions.
  • In Unit 2, Part 1, Activity 3, the Questioning Path tool for Dr. King’s "Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech"provides text-specific questions. One example is, ”What do the examples and claims in the first section of the speech suggest about Dr. King’s view of the Nobel Peace Prize and what it recognizes?”
  • In Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 2, the teacher models a text-centered review process. Students practice reviewing a model reflective research narrative using guiding questions, such as, “What is the writer’s perspective? How does the narrative tell the story of arriving at this perspective?” The materials provide instructions for the teacher to explicitly require students to “share text-based responses to the questions.” Students answer questions in review teams.
  • In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, there are text-specific questions to accompany the text, “Your Digital Trail: Does the Fourth Amendment Protect Us?”, such as, What details from the article best describe the words ‘persons, houses, papers, and effects’ as used in the Fourth Amendment?” An additional Extending Question is posed as an example: “What evidence does this text provide that builds my understanding of the issue of government surveillance and personal privacy?”

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

• In Unit 1, Reading Closely for Textual Details, Part 1, Activity 2 focuses on the skill of attending to details, using visuals as the text. The activity provides student small groups a completed Questioning Path Tool to start discussions with text-specific questions that task students with locating and considering the purpose of details in the visual text. Students work toward developing original text-specific questions about the visual text. The activity is intended to demonstrate how “question-based examinations of texts leads to new questions.”
• In Unit 2, Making Evidence-Based Claims, Part 3 sequences three activities around the use of the Questioning Path Tool with the Forming EBC Tool. Students read with the support of the Questioning Path Tool and, if appropriate, are guided to use the Forming EBC Tool, which begins with a student-generated guiding question to direct their reread and annotation of the text for evidence.
• Unit 5 repeats the literacy skills that have been worked on throughout the school year: Identifying Relationships, Making Inferences, Summarizing, Questioning, Recognizing Perspective, Evaluating Information, Forming Claims, Using Evidence, Presenting Details, Organizing Ideas, Publishing and Reflecting Critically.

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

• At the beginning of each part of a Unit, the objective of the Unit is clearly stated, along with materials, targeted Literacy Skills, Academic Habits to be developed, and an overview of the activities.
• In Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 1, the teacher models how the use of the Approaching Texts Tool guides initial reading by thinking aloud and talking through how he or she would approach the text and focus on ideas and details. It also suggests why thinking about the author, type of text, and source can influence one’s reading and analysis of the text. Students then practice in pairs.
• In Unit 4 the materials outline the continuing role of the Literacy Toolbox by providing specific guidance for teachers in Researching to Deepen Understanding regarding the tools students will begin to use independently and new additions for upcoming activities, including the continued use of the Questioning Path Tool to focus their reading--now applying [it] more independently "to texts and discussions.” It also introduces research-specific tools and includes supplemental guides for teachers. The Student Research Plan outlines expectations for the unit, but can extend to additional research tasks and includes a comprehensive listing of the tools and handouts specific to research skills. The Teacher Research Guide includes notes and tasks specific to the responsibilities of the teacher, including time for introducing concepts and evaluating student work, to facilitate the planning in a school schedule.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Part 2 of the Final Assignments students are asked to write a multi-paragraph explanation of something they have come to understand by reading and examining the unit’s texts. The culminating writing task asks students to return to the text and use quotations and paraphrased references. To complete this extended writing, students will use the Guiding Questions and student-generated text-specific questions for each text in the unit as a resource. Like Unit 1, each unit’s culminating task is rooted in the reading of texts, the analysis of texts via text-dependent and text-specific questions, and students writing to show mastery of skills.

• In Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 2, students are asked to explore a topic to culminate in the form of a completed Exploring a Topic Tool to be used in subsequent activities. It is preceded by work with the text-dependent Questioning Path Tool and Analyzing Details Tool to guide students or a whole class to a topic worth exploring. The guidance provided by the teacher Instructional Notes includes general text-dependent questions to guide students’ summarization and analysis of the text: “What new ideas or information do I find in the text?” and “How do the text’s main ideas relate to what I already know, think, or have read?”

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

• In Unit 2, the culminating task is to communicate EBCs in writing. In order to achieve this objective, students must reread the texts in the unit and review their previous work. Both the answers to the text-dependent and text-specific questions and the students’ annotations are the basis for this final assignment. In Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1, students prepare for the comparative discussion by rereading and considering a key quotation from Dr. King’s speech. Students also revisit the texts in Activity 4 as they prepare their final analysis of two Nobel Peace Prize speeches.

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 Units 1, 2, and 3, the varied culminating tasks are summative assessments requiring students to engage in discussions about texts and include drafts of their writing. Unit 1 focuses on text-centered discussions demonstrating a student’s ability to lead and participate in a text analysis. Students present their comprehension and provide evidence-based supports for claims. Discussions can be more question-focused through the inclusion of the Guiding Questions handout from previous build-up activities. The culminating summative task for Units 2 and 3 is focused on students presenting their evidence-based essays and using this as the text to center discussions. Students follow a student edition rubric to question and provide feedback demonstrating their academic habits and the teacher also makes notes using a rubric focused on academic habits promoted over the course of the unit.

• In Unit 5, Part 5, the culminating task is to develop, write, and revise an evidence-based argumentative essay. Information regarding Summative Assessment is provided in the teacher’s edition and includes Assessing Literacy Skills: “Having gone through peer review and revision, students’ final argumentative essays should provide evidence 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 building an evidence-based argument.” Unit 5, Part 3 focuses on the analysis of Text Sets 3-5 so that students can evaluate arguments, determine which arguments are most convincing, and synthesize texts to establish positions. Students are asked to go back into the text as they work with the Evaluating Arguments Tool for each text. The tool asks questions such as, “Does the supporting evidence come from a range of credible sources? Is it believable?” and “How logical and reasonable are the conclusions drawn by the author?” Students are then asked to provide text-based observations. This process is designed to help students prepare for the final writing assignment by guiding them in an in-depth analysis of the text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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:

• In Unit 1, Part 5, Activities 1-3, students understand, prepare, and lead a text-centered discussion. The end goal of these activities is to participate in a discussion with other students who have read and analyzed different texts. In 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, summarize what the text is about, and share their explanations of key ideas. Students will also ask other students questions, reference the texts, and share new understanding.

• In Unit 2, Unit Overview relating to Academic Habits, “students will have opportunities to further develop habits associated with productive text-centered discussion and will begin working on habits applied when generating and revising their writing.” The focus of the academic habits developed include engaging actively, collaborating, communicating clearly, listening, revising, understanding purpose and process, and remaining open.”

• In Unit 5, Part 5, Activity 1, students participate in a Text-Centered Discussion and will have an opportunity to work in review pairs. Discussions follow this process:
  • Reading partners initially listen to each draft as it is read aloud by the writer.
  • Partners then exchange papers with no additional discussion of what they have written.
  • Readers analyze the draft, looking especially for textual evidence that expresses the writer’s understanding of the issue, perspective, and position. Readers do not evaluate or make suggestions for improvement at this stage.
  • Readers share their analyses with writers, striving to be non-evaluative and specific, constructive, and text-based in their observations. (Model observations that either meet or do not meet these criteria for a good response, which will become even more important in later activities.)

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 short, informal on-demand and longer process writing tasks and essays. Instructional materials include opportunities for students to conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating an understanding of the subject under investigation. In addition to the longer, summative writing tasks throughout the instructional materials, students are presented with opportunities for shorter writing tasks.

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. Several tools are available for on-demand opportunities, including the Approaching Texts Tools and the Analyzing Details Tool. Examples of on-demand writing tasks include:

• In Unit 1, Part 3, Activity 3, students participate in on-demand writing in an explanatory paragraph using a question from the Deepening section of the Questioning Path or a self-generated, text-specific, comparative question. This on-demand writing asks students to explain their analysis of Text 5 and Text 6 and identify a connection between the two texts that answers their comparative question. Students are asked to introduce the topic, organize their information clearly, and develop the topic with appropriate supporting details. Students are also asked to use transitional words, precise language, and an academic writing style.
• 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 5, Part 2, Activity 1, to build background knowledge, students are asked to analyze and write about political cartoons using the Guiding Questions Handout.

Opportunities for process writing tasks include:

• In Unit 1, Part 5, Activity 3, the teacher’s edition explains how students are tasked with constructing paragraphs that address their comparative questions and the elements that they need to include in these paragraphs. Then, in small groups, students engage in peer review activities with their comparative paragraphs. Questions are included to guide their reviews and revisions.
• In Units 2 and 3, students are tasked with writing an evidence-based interpretive essay. Teachers and students follow the same collaborative criteria-based process to develop and improve essays. The activities are focused on process writing through peer review protocols guided by the Literacy Toolbox handouts. Units 2 and 3 make the claim that this “may be the first piece of more formal writing that students have done in the Developing Core Literacy Proficiencies sequence.” This claim is a result of the materials’ organization. The materials are organized in such a way that teachers do not have to follow it in a linear way, but can choose the skills, or Academic Habits, that need to be focused on.

• In Unit 5 tasks, students are to write an evidence-based argumentative essay. Tasks leading up to the writing are appropriately sequenced with practices with common sources, leading up to extended sources not provided in the texts. Opportunities for peer-revision to develop and improve writing is consistent with previous units and grades.

Materials include digital resources and 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.

• For example, in Unit 5, a table includes digital sources available for free on the Internet. Electronic sources include both introductory videos and informational texts, such as “Dark Knight Cell Phone Surveillance” by Christopher Nolan (posted by Critical Commons Manager as an introductory video), and “Your Digital Trail: Does the Fourth Amendment Protect Us?” by Daniel Zwerdling, published by National Public Radio as an informational text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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.

Activities are not stand-alone tasks. Each is intended to follow a gradual release model and builds upon literacy skills to accomplish the development and refinement of a culminating writing task. Units dedicated to specific modes--research and making evidence-based analysis--include opportunities for students to engage in other evidence-based modes. For example, the argumentative unit (Unit 5) includes the opportunities for students to first write an analysis about other writers’ arguments.

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:

• Unit 1 tools support students in linking their reading with their writing. These tools include the Questioning Path Tool with specific questions about the text, the Analyzing Details Tool, and the Supporting Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

• Unit 4 provides multiple opportunities focused on research-based writing tasks through the inclusion of the ongoing research journal and portfolio. The evidence-based collection of sources is used for the culminating writing, a reflective research narrative. The supporting Literacy Toolbox handouts strengthen this unit’s score; each handout is focused on an aspect of the research process and students complete handouts by composing EBCs attributed to sources read for the research narrative.

• Unit 5 activities contain evidence-based reading, and therefore, writing skills. In Part 2, students compile evidence from common sources provided by the materials to evaluate arguments. In Activity 7, students compose an essay analyzing the arguments with EBCs.

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:

• In Unit 1, Part 2, Activity 5, students write an explanation of their analysis of a text and reference supporting textual details. The details support an explanation of a student's analysis, but it is not being used to support an evidence-based argument or persuasive piece. The students are reading for details to increase understanding and to identify a central idea, but not to conduct research.

• In Unit 2, Part 2, the objective states, “Students develop the ability to make evidence-based claims through a close reading of a second section of text.” The activities center around King’s "Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech;" Activity 5 asks students to write an original EBC.

• In Unit 3, Part 5, “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 writing will be based on the two poems, “Because I could not stop for Death” and “Home Burial”. At the end of Part 5, students write a final essay that can be used by the teacher as an assessment of their reading and writing skills.

• In Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 3, “students read and analyze an additional background text from Text Set 2 to expand and deepen their understanding of an issue.” Students are asked to read additional nonfiction sources that provide information about government surveillance and specific government policy. Students are encouraged to annotate and make notes as they read, analyze, and discuss the texts.

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” (xxxiii). 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.

• In Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 1, the “teacher presents the purpose of the unit and explains the proficiency of making evidence-based claims about literary technique” (264). The activities 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.”

• Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 4 connects the exploration of perspective by referring back to a model argument used for instruction and guidance.

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 process 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, then assign specific images to groups or individuals for closer analysis.”
• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students are presented with a descriptive excerpt from war correspondent Mary Roberts Rinehart during World War I, which will be used for close reading and exploration and to assist students in furthering their understanding of the topic.
• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 4, students “look closely for details in the multimedia text, “1916 Battle of the Somme,” by the History Channel.
• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 5, students explore a multimedia website and answer guiding questions.
• 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.