10th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic(s) or themes to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend complex texts proficiently. The materials are structured to build on to Literacy Skills and Academic Habits which provide students practice in learning to read closely a variety of high-quality and challenging literary and informational texts over the course of a school year. This cycle begins with close reading for details, transitions into using this skill to analyze supporting details for research essays, and culminates into reading for details to support opposing sides of an argument in the final unit. The texts are chosen to specifically address the skills and each unit organizes anchor texts around a topical focus.

The materials provide five units with a different topical focus and appropriately aligned texts for each. Within each unit, students work toward independence in their work and using texts to complete increasingly complex tasks. Evidence that the materials meet the criteria are as follows:

• In the Unit 1 Overview, the materials include information in the teacher’s edition relating to Topic and Texts. The Grade 10 materials in Unit 1 specifically include a series of texts for students to read closely for textual details relating to World War I. The series of texts includes “a range of texts including personal narratives, history websites, and poems. Students also read speeches by American President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister Lloyd George” (2). In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students read closely for details utilizing guiding questions included in the Questioning Path Tool for textual details with the text, Kings, Queens and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. The tool includes both text-dependent and text-specific questions as well as an opportunity to pose their own questions, such as “What was Rinehart’s overall impression of the war?” (18). The materials and texts scaffold students to reading more complex texts independently.

• Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1 provides a compare and contrast between the two anchor texts read and analyzed in the unit. The texts are Nobel Peace Prize recipient speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Barack Obama. The materials explicitly state that the speeches touch on similar themes addressed with different styles and perspectives. Dr. King addresses the theme of peace by discussing the Civil Rights Movement and nonviolence. President Obama addresses the theme of peace by referencing American history and supporting the “necessity of war.”

• The topical focus for Unit 4 is the impact of technology on society. The materials provide text sets to be used as Common Source Sets for teachers to model the inquiry-based research process. The material’s use of Common Source Sets provides students and teachers appropriate guidance when moving into independent research tasks. Teachers and students can peer- and self-assess more accurately if common sources are being evaluated. The materials also state that other texts can be incorporated into the unit and provides a vetting process through the Assessing Sources Tool and Potential Sources Tool to maintain consistency with the topical focus.

• The Unit 5 Overview includes information in the teacher’s edition relating to Topic and Texts. The Grade 10 materials in Unit 5 include text sets that “focus on the governance of upholding the Fourth Amendment and more specifically on the issues and controversies."

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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. The materials recursively use inquiry-based tools and habits to analyze texts, outline writing tasks, and self- and peer-assess writing. Questions and tasks are consistently presented in a way to inform the next step of the process to culminate in a final essay for each unit. For example, students continue to utilize similar questioning techniques introduced in Unit 2 to incorporate into the research process on which Unit 4 focuses. The questions help students increase and clarify their understanding of concepts within and between texts. In the evidence documented, students applied the inquiry process during multiple activities to analyze and understand language, ideas, and the details informing such concepts. Inquiry was also used for students to plan and understand the expectations of craft and structure for their individual culminating writing task.

By the end of Grade 10, most items are embedded in students’ work rather than taught directly, increasing student independence. Finally, the questions and tasks will assist students to make meaning and build an understanding of texts and topics. Evidence that supports this rationale:

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 3, students read closely for details relating to Text 2, Kings, Queens, and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Text-dependent questions are included to assist students in analyzing key ideas and details, such as the following:
  • How are key ideas, events, places, or characters described?
  • What do the author’s words and phrases cause me to see, feel, or think?
  • What details or words suggest the author’s perspective?
  • What seems to be the author’s (narrator’s) attitude or point of view? (18).

• In Unit 2, Part 3, Activity 1, students independently utilize the close reading skills modeled and practiced in preceding activities with the guidance of the Questioning Path Tool. Students independently close read a portion of the second anchor text and respond to the questions about ideas, perspective and then consider the language choices. Questions are designed to move student analysis from concrete details to more deeply embedded ideas. The question responses are also intended to provide evidence to fulfill the demands of follow-up tasks in this activity and future units. This is evident in the questions that contain multiple parts. For example, question 8 contains four sub-questions sequenced with the intention for students to analyze President Obama’s claims and make a comparison to the previously analyzed text. By the end of this activity, students demonstrate their understanding by using their analysis of language, ideas, and perspective to record connections between the evidence and claims presented in the speech.

• In Unit 3, Part 3, Activity 1, students read lines 1-47 independently in Robert Frost’s “Home Burial” and analyze both the language and the poem’s structure using the Questioning Path Tool. Examples of questions to assist students in analysis are as follows:
  • How does context define or change the meaning of key words in the text? [L]
  • What words and phrases are used to represent something else such as an idea or character?
  • What do I notice about how the poem’s lines are organized and developed? [S]
  • What is the poem’s meter?
  • How does the poem’s rhythm and meter affect how it is read?
  • How does the structure bring out or stress specific language?

In addition, students have the opportunity to develop an initial EBC independently before moving into a comparison of those EBCs with partners during Activity 2 and modeling by the teacher during Activity 3 (290-291).

• In Unit 4, Part 5, Activity 2, students develop a “multipage reflective research narrative” utilizing evidence and work from their research portfolios. Over the course of the unit, students are “recording not only what they find but also what they did to find it” to inform their narrative. At this point, students are analyzing and crafting the structure of their writing with guidance from the activity. The materials include explicit expectations to be addressed in the writing and a series of questions to guide students in organization and development. The questions begin by addressing the impression of the topic and the sequence taken by students to study it. The questions conclude by addressing whether or not the students’ perspective changed and students reflect on the research process, including points of struggle and success. The materials intend for the responses to the questions to culminate into a draft basis for their essay. This sequence of inquiry allows students to clarify understanding of their topic and build understanding of the expectations for the culminating research product.

• In Unit 5, Part 2, Activity 5, students delineate and compare arguments utilizing Texts 4.2 and 4.3. Text 4.2 is a Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder by Representative James Sensenbrenner. Text Notes suggest, “As a part of their reading, students might compare the authors’ backgrounds and relationship to the issue prior to or while reading these texts. Either or both can provide an interesting text for students to use in analyzing and comparing perspectives” (537). The Questioning Path Tool will assist students to deepen their understanding of the text by posting the following questions:
  • "According to Sensenbrenner, what are the 'implications' of the government’s interpretation of Section 215?
  • How does Sensenbrenner’s use of the word apparently in the last sentence of paragraph 4 help you understand his position?
  • How does Sensenbrenner use logic to come to his opinion?"

Students are also presented with the opportunity to extend and pose their own questions. An example of one such question is the following: "What evidence does this text provide that builds my understanding or perspective of the issue of government surveillance and personal privacy?" (539).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 materials are designed with a formulaic, inquiry-based approach centered around the included texts and this can be applied to texts not included in the materials. Every task begins with a question or set of questions to guide reflective thinking and discussion about a topic that is connected to the texts. Questions move from general, broad sharing to text-centered to text-specific in order to guide students’ thinking and develop extended written essays to demonstrate understanding. The inquiry process is guided by multiple handouts and documents included in the Literacy Toolbox. Although the basis for each remains consistent throughout each unit: the Questioning Path Tool is used in every unit. Tools are adjusted to meet the increase in complexity of tasks and texts: the Evidence-based Claims Tool is adjusted for students to format their original EBCs through writing. In addition, the materials provide guidance to teachers in supporting students’ literacy skills. By the end of Grade 10, integrated knowledge and ideas are embedded in students’ work. Finally, the questions and tasks included in the instructional materials provide opportunities to analyze across multiple texts as well as within single texts. Evidence that supports this rationale:

• In Unit 1, Part 1, Activity 2, students approach Images of World War I by focusing on ideas and supporting details; students utilize a Questioning Path Tool to allow students the opportunity to investigate the text and guide students’ analysis, such as the following text-dependent questions:
  • "What details stand out to me as I examine this collection of images?
  • What do I think these images are mainly about?
  • How do specific details help me understand what is begin depicted in the images?" (14).

Instructional Notes are provided to assist teachers in supporting students’ literacy skills. Teachers are asked to “Lead a discussion on what the groups noticed about the images and the questions they had. Introduce them to text-specific questions for each image set...Discuss how these questions are text specific and do the following: Emerge from looking closely at the image; Prompt a reader to look for more details; Lead to a greater understanding of the image” (15). Examples of text-specific questions the teachers will introduce are as follows: "What do I notice about the conditions of the men and their surroundings? What sort of men do they appear to be?" (14).

• Unit 2, Part 5, Activity 1 begins a culminating task of students reviewing both texts analyzed over the course of this unit to inform a class discussion. The unit focuses on texts that model the development of a global EBC. Students draw from the now completed previous tasks of analyzing the two texts using guidance documents from the Literary Tools. To lead the discussion, the materials direct students to reread two excerpts from the speeches and use this analysis as a comparative “backdrop” to setup discussion. The materials encourage sharing to start with open-ended, broad observations to allow the integration of multiple perspectives and then become more text-centered with the question, “What evidence can you point to in the text(s) that is the basis for and supports your observation?” Follow-up questions intentionally provide the opportunity for students to compare and analyze literary elements present between the two texts. The questions are very explicit in this goal; one such question (“How does the author’s perspective and presentation of the text compare to the other?”) requires students to incorporate details from both texts and some elaboration beyond a single sentence response.

• In Unit 3, the Making Evidence-Based Claims About Literary Technique, the Unit Overview section in the Teacher’s Edition shares the following: “This unit extends students’ abilities to make evidence-based claims into the realm of literary analysis. The unit explicitly focuses on teaching students to attend to the ways authors use literary techniques to shape textual meaning and reader experience” (256). The questions and task included in each activity of Unit 3 build to the culminating task included in the Literacy Toolbox; students will develop and write an EBC and write a final multi-paragraph Global Evidence-Based Claims Essay relating to the reading they have completed. The notes provided circle back to the goals introduced at the beginning of the unit, explaining, “In this unit, you have been developing your skills as a reader who can make text-based claims about literary techniques and prove them with evidence from the text” (335) The specific skills students have practiced throughout the unit are included and the instructional materials share that the final writing assignments will require students “to use all of these related skills and to demonstrate your proficiency and growth in making evidence-based claims about literary technique” (335).

• In Unit 4, Part 3, Activity 3, students use their original Inquiry Questions to analyze research sources. This activity incorporates skills developed in the previous units and adjusts each for research work. In order to appropriately sequence the research process, the materials provide common source texts to model thinking and inquiry associated with research analysis. The Literacy Tools provided in the materials are flexible for students to incorporate with other sources and remain text-centered. This process is guided by the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Research Tool. It is designed to be driven by an overarching Inquiry Question, developed after students explore topics and the provided source sets in previous activities, and guided by the text-centered Questioning Path Tool and Guiding Questions first introduced in Unit 1. The Tool provides guidance for analyzing resources by looking for key details based on words or phrases, then interrelated ideas or concepts between the sources, and summarizes the work by tasking students to develop a “conclusion” or “claim” that can be supported by evidence from the texts.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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).

The instructional materials are designed from grade-to-grade with the same goals and intended outcomes based on standards for college-and-career readiness addressed at the onset of each unit. The materials state that the units do not necessarily require a linear following, but the skills between units do build upon each other and lead to culminating tasks within the unit and across the overall curriculum. For example, Unit 1 is focused on the development of students’ abilities to close read for details. This Academic Skill is honed further in each succeeding unit to accomplish specific culminating tasks. In Unit 3, students close read for evidence-based claims (EBCs) and imitate it in their own writing. In Unit 5, students add another final layer by close reading for EBCs and then incorporating this as support for an argument. Speaking and listening is also prevalent in each unit as a way for students to demonstrate knowledge of the topics in the materials. It is frequently used for class discussions about the findings from close readings and is an essential stage in the collaborative writing process fostered by the materials.

Questions and tasks provide the teacher with usable information about the students’ readiness to complete the culminating tasks. The culminating tasks are multifaceted, requiring students to demonstrate mastery of several different standards at Grade 10; in addition, these culminating tasks provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge of a topic through integrated skills and throughout the course of each unit. Evidence to support that the materials meet the criteria include:

• In Unit 1, Part 5, the Summative Assessment Opportunities section focuses on explanation and discussion-based culminating tasks. In Unit 1, Part 5, Activity 3, the main culminating task is a student-led, text-centered discussion. Unit 1, Part 4 includes prerequisite Activities leading up to this task including the development of a final multi-paragraph explanation of a text. The essays are used to guide the text-centered discussion during the culminating task and provide an opportunity for students to self- and peer-assess writing and ideas. This culminating task is designed for students to develop and demonstrate close reading, analysis, and inquiry Academic Habits and Skills that will build upon each other in later units. The Academic Habits and Skills promoted by the materials are sequenced in separate Parts of the Unit. Unit 1, Part 1 models close reading with the guidance of the Questioning Path Tool and this is further developed in succeeding Parts. In Unit 1, Part 2, students develop inquiry skills and work independently with the Questioning Path Tool. In Unit 1, Part 3, the Activities incorporate more discussion and task students to “work in pairs to discuss, annotate new information” with new, increasingly complex texts.

• In Unit 2, the Making Evidence-Based Claims Developing Core Proficiencies Literacy Toolbox asks students to demonstrate skills they have been practicing throughout the unit “to make text-based claims and prove them with evidence from the text” (237). The final culminating tasks require students to complete the following: 1) Developing and Writing an EBC and 2) Writing and Revising a Global or Comparative EBC Essay. The skills students are expected to demonstrate include the following:
  • Attend to Details
  • Interpret Language
  • Identify Relationships
  • Recognize Perspective
  • Make Inferences
  • Form a Claim
  • Use Evidence
  • Present Details
  • Organize Ideas
  • Use Language
  • Use Conventions
  • Publish

Finally, teachers can provide an opportunity for students “to reflect on how well you have used and developed the following habits of text-centered discussion when you worked with others to understand the texts and improve your writing” (239). The learning sequence of Unit 2 moves from “teacher modeling to guided practice to independent application. The Literacy Skills that are targeted and the Academic Habits that are developed are assumed to be in early stages of development for many students, and thus extensive scaffolding is provided” (149). Students are provided with guiding questions in the Questioning Path Tool to assist in deepening understanding regarding the texts, and teachers can use the Deepening questions for class discussion to ensure student understanding of the text. For example, students read President Barack Obama’s Nobel Lecture and answer text-specific questions, such as the following:

• • “What claim about ‘our actions’ does Obama make in paragraph 2, and how might you paraphrase that claim?
  • How does the additional claim that precedes this statement—about ‘all the cruelty and hardships of the world’ and ‘fate’—relate to Obama’s claim about our actions?
  • What details and examples from history does Obama include in paragraphs 4-6 to elaborate and support his opening claims?” (182).

The questions and tasks students complete throughout Unit 2 allow them to practice skills that will be required when completing the final culminating task. Teachers can utilize the questions, instructional notes, and organizers provided to ensure students are progressing in their skills to produce an EBC.

• Unit 3 builds students’ skills in reading and writing EBCs about literary technique. The culminating tasks for the unit include the development of an evidence-based essay and follow-up class discussion about literary techniques analyzed in the anchor texts. Leading up to these culminating tasks, students use similar approaches to reading, writing, and discussion as in previous units. The materials sequence modelings and tasks for skills to build on to the next with the intention of incorporating the entire skill set in the culminating task. In Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 2, students close read with the guidance of the now familiar Questioning Path Tool. The Questioning Path Tool is now focused on close reading through an inquiry-based approach for EBCs about literary techniques. This provides the opportunity for students to develop and demonstrate a knowledge of EBCs through independent reading and focusing on the first five questions or first three levels of inquiry within the Questioning Path Tool. Unit 3, Part 1, Activity 3 integrates speaking and listening expectations as students and the teacher share their responses to increasingly complex questions in the Deepening section of the Questioning Path Tool. In Unit 3, Part 5, the Summative Assessment integrates the completed evidence-based written essay and a class discussion into a cumulative assessment.

• Unit 4 states, “the instructional focus of this unit is on building student proficiency in a process for conducting research, developing and refining Inquiry Questions; finding, assessing, analyzing, and synthesizing multiple sources to answer those questions; and organizing and using evidence from those sources to explain understanding in ways that avoid plagiarism” (360). As the culminating task, students create a research portfolio to demonstrate skills practiced throughout the unit and aligned with CCSS for ELA and Literacy. For example, W.9-10.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question...; W.9-10.8: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively…; W.9-10.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. (360). Throughout Unit 4, students are provided with guiding questions and tasks to assist them in practicing skills to be successful with the culminating task. For example, in Unit 4, Part 2, Activity 2, guiding questions are provided for the teachers to frame the discussion relating to Source 2:
  • "What ideas stand out to me as significant or interesting?
  • How do the text’s main ideas relate to what I already know, think, or have read?
  • What more have we learned about the topic that might move us forward in our research?
  • What have we learned about using questions to frame our independent reading of possible sources?
  • How does the type of question we consider influence how we read and what we find in a source?" (374)

• Unit 5’s culminating assessment is a final written argumentative essay. The materials integrate speaking and listening as a phase in the writing process and incorporate this phase as an Academic Habit starting in Unit 5, Part 5, Activity 1 and continuing through to the end of the unit. The discussion phase, referred to as a multistage collaborative review and revision process, sequences the assessment of various requirements for the final essay. Activity 2 focuses on the ideas and information contained in written drafts. Activity 3 focuses on Organization. Activity 4 focuses on the use of textual evidence as support for a student’s argument.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 text-centered and evidence-based writing and speaking and listening from sources. The mode of writing they practice, the process they use, and the independence 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 evidence-based, 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 freewrite, experiment, draft, revise, and edit their writings. Students engage in discussions surrounding their writings and ask and answer questions about their writing choices, including the textual evidence used to support a claim. 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, organization, evidence, connecting ideas, expression, final editing, and publication.

In Grade 10 the yearlong plan of writing instruction builds from Unit 1 where students are writing a text-based explanation focused on the topic of World War I to Unit 3 where students write an evidence-based claims essay based on Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and Robert Frost’s “Home Burial.” Unit 5 ends the year with an evidence-based argumentative essay focused on the governance of upholding the Fourth Amendment.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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.

Students are provided multiple opportunities to recursively use elements necessary to conduct research and synthesize information in speaking and listening activities and writing. For example, students close read and evaluate sources to the purpose of a task and identify details that will support a summative writing task in each unit. Each step is facilitated by the Literacy Tools resources used repeatedly in each unit. The processes are intentionally designed for students to also incorporate texts not included in the instructional materials. At points, the included texts are intended only for modeling purposes and the materials provide the opportunity for students to independently use the Habits in outside texts.

Teacher guidance is provided to assist in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge of different aspects around a topic. Students are provided opportunities to apply reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language skills to synthesize and analyze multiple texts and source materials about a topic. The instructional materials provide resources for student research to aid instruction, and projects are varied throughout the course of the year.

In Unit 1, Part 3, Activity 3, students work in groups to compare multiple texts and to independently synthesize their understanding into an explanatory essay. The materials provide guidance documents for students to individually analyze separate texts in previous units’ activities. Students use these completed notes to discuss the two texts guided by text-specific, comparative questions from the material’s Questioning Path Tool. The materials provide the Analyzing Details Tool at this point for students to record their responses during discussion and prepare to write. The materials outline expectations for the students’ writing using the following paraphrased framework:

• an introduction sentence addressing a comparative question, an analysis of the first text,
• an analysis of the second text,
• and an analysis of a connection made between the two texts.

The comparative question can be taken from the provided Questioning Path Tool or a student-generated, text-specific question. The materials note that responses should also include textual evidence to support explanations. The writing follows up with an additional opportunity for students to engage in listening and speaking by having students read and receive feedback for their writing in small groups.

In Unit 2, Making Evidence-Based Claims: “An Audacious Faith in the Future of Mankind,” students read two texts, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1964 acceptance speech, and President Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel Lecture. Throughout the unit, students are provided an opportunity to write EBCs after modeling by the teacher and engage in a class discussion relating to their final EBC essays. The Instructional Notes and the Questioning Path Tool provide guidance to consider the speaker’s use of language and how those words can reveal the purpose and perspective.

In Unit 3, Part 5, Activity 4, students independently draft their summative essays to demonstrate their proficiency of the targeted Literacy Skills for this unit. These skills include Using Evidence, Presenting Details, and Organizing Ideas, elements necessary for synthesizing information into research and writing work. At this point, students will have analyzed an author’s literary techniques and developed an EBC. This summative assessment is intended to “demonstrate an accurate reading...of the text” and the materials refer to previously completed Writing EBCs Handout for support during the independent writing phase. There is also the Student Making EBC Literacy Skills Checklist provided as an additional resource to guide students’ writing. The work is synthesized using the Organizing EBCs Tool while students draft their final essay.

In Unit 4, Researching to Deepen Understanding: “Computer Technology: What is Its Impact on Society?”, students choose a topical area of interest to research, conduct a research process, compile a Research Portfolio, and communicate a researched perspective. In the Unit Overview, information is provided relating to Terms and Definitions Used in This Unit and include the following:

• Topic
• Area of Investigation
• Inquiry Questions
• Inquiry Path
• Research Frame
• Research Plan
• Research Portfolio

In Activity 2, Instructional Notes are provided to assist students in progressing in their research skills, such as introducing inquiry questions, and then utilizing those inquiry questions when conducting pre-searches in Activity 3. Students are provided an opportunity to explore a topic independently and further guidance is provided to vet areas of investigation and review student progress. For example, in Unit 4, Part 1, Activity 4, “Schedule an in-class conference with each student individually...Begin each conference by introducing the Area Evaluation Checklist. Show students how this tool will guide the conversation. Explain the different criteria. Work through the checklist with the student, probing and discussing the area based on the criteria” (385).

In Unit 5, Part 1, Activity 2, students develop an understanding of an issue by close-reading a series of texts providing “multiple entry points” that the students will synthesize into a textual evidence-based argumentative essay. The materials provide three texts total, and the teacher models the close reading process with one and directs students to jigsaw the remaining. However, the materials also state that “all students should not be required to read all texts.” For this activity, the provided texts serve as a model and the teacher or students may substitute texts with “similar background” for independent analysis. After close reading, students practice speaking and listening skills by discussing each text’s “relationship to the unit’s problem-based question” to facilitate synthesis that builds to writing claims. Student writing in this activity provides the opportunity to synthesize their understanding of the issue after analyzing multiple perspectives and develop an original claim “that explains something they have learned about the issue.” It is noted that this is intended to be an explanatory claim and specifically not evaluative or argumentative. The development of this claim did require students to actively seek out and research additional texts from what was provided. Their evaluated sources are kept in a Student Portfolio and will be used later in the unit when independently writing their argumentative essay.