10th Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading.

The materials contain anchor texts that are well-crafted, content rich, and include a range of student interests, engaging students in careful reading. While skills-based Chapters 1-4 do not include an anchor text, the majority of the text excerpts included in the chapters are of publishable quality. All of the anchor texts included in the thematic Chapters 5-11 are published works.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Chapter 1: Reading the World, students read excerpts from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. The autobiographical graphic novel considers childhood in unstable times during and after Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Her coming of age novel is a high interest text with immersive illustrations and rich calls for empathy.
• In Chapter 4: Thinking about Synthesis, students read from “An Animal’s Place” by Michael Pollan. The excerpt is from a 2012 New York Times article that makes a case for Polyculture farming. The article is part of a series of texts that engage students on the ethics of eating meat. Diet and health is a relatable, interesting topic for students. 
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, students read “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. This Central Text has the relatable topic of peer pressure. It was written by a renowned author of several classic and widely-read novels. The story contains interesting primary source photographs to engage readers.
• In Chapter 7: Ethics, students read “The Case Against Perfection” (abridged) by Michael Sandel. This Central Text focuses on the thought-provoking and engaging idea of the potential of designing babies in the future. It contains rich, challenging language and complex ideas. 
• In Chapter 9: (Mis)communication, students read Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This Central Text is a classic story in which most students are familiar. It features interesting characters and relatable themes. The language is rich, and the text contains many cultural and historical references.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade level (according to quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis).

The materials include a majority of anchor texts that are appropriately placed for the grade level. Most anchor texts have the appropriate level of complexity according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and the relationship to their associated student task. Chapters 1-4 do not have anchor texts, rather text excerpts that are used to teach reading and writing skills. The excerpts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade level. In the thematic chapters, most texts are within the Grade 9-10 Lexile band. Those that are above or below the band have appropriate qualitative measure, and the related tasks are appropriately connected to the text. 

Examples of anchor texts that are within the Lexile band for Grade 10 include:

• In Chapter 5, students read “Shooting an Elephant” which has a Lexile of 960L.
• In Chapter 6, students read The Tragedy of Macbeth. Though the text does not have a Lexile rating, it is a classic text for Grade 10.
• In Chapter 7, students read “The Case Against Perfection” which has a Lexile of 1270.
• In Chapter 9, students read Cyrano de Bergerac. Though the text does not have a Lexile rating, it is a classic text for Grade 10.

Examples of anchor texts that are above or below the Lexile band, but are appropriate based on qualitative measures and related tasks include:

• In Chapter 8, students read “When the Emperor was Divine.” The quantitative measure is 680L. The text is not difficult to read; the diction and syntax are often reflective of the age of the boy, but the historical context and nonlinear plot line may cause some difficulties. The related task is questions about character, plot, and theme. The questions are not difficult but are on grade level and require analysis.
• In Chapter 10, students read “A Small Place.” The quantitative measure is 1490L. It is appropriate for students to be challenged with a text of this complexity by the end of the year. The related task is questions that analyze diction and purpose to further develop student’s ability to analyze texts rhetorically.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ literacy skills (understanding and comprehension) over the course of the school year through increasingly complex text to develop independence of grade level skills (Series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels).

The materials are intentionally designed and organized to encourage and support the development of specific skills for interacting with texts of increasing difficulty across chapters and throughout the year. To accomplish this, texts are grouped and structured to build knowledge and fluency. The organization of each chapter into Conversations and Workshops allows students to read and analyze increasingly complex texts while practicing discrete, identifiable skills. The range of text complexities, subjects, and types provides opportunities for growth. Additionally, the materials provide the necessary prompts and supports for students to become metacognitive and reflective about their growth as a reader, writer, thinker, speaker, and listener. 

The first four chapters “establish the core skills for college-level academic work: reading closely, thinking analytically, and writing persuasively. Each chapter uses brief and accessible texts to introduce key concepts, then provides multiple opportunities to practice those skills.” The skills that students learn in the first four chapters are woven throughout the rest of the chapters through instruction and assessment in reading and analyzing texts in a variety of genres and modes. The remaining chapters are organized into thematic readings that range in difficulty from approachable to challenging as the chapter and year progress.

Skills build on one another, as well as the complexity of the texts to support students’ literacy skills. In the genre/mode chapters, there is a full range of the Lexile stretch band providing opportunities to challenge students. The complexity of anchor texts support students’ proficiency in reading independently and analyzing text at grade level by the end of the school year, as required by grade level standards. The Teacher’s Edition of the materials includes teacher tips for organizing and differentiating instruction to meet the standards and the demands of a variety of learners.

Example of how reading skills are taught over the course of the year to meet grade level standards:

• In Chapter 1: Reading the World, students are introduced to the process of analysis: making observations, recognizing patterns, and drawing a conclusion. In a practice Activity, students practice analysis with a basic task: “Choose a topic that you know well or encounter often, such as a sports team you watch regularly, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your school, the weather in your hometown, your favorite singer or musician, or a video game you play often. Now, apply the analysis process to your topic, being sure to start off with a focused observation.” 
• In Chapter 6: Ambition, students read The Tragedy of Macbeth and practice more in-depth analysis skills. While reading Act I, Scene 5, students engage in a  Close Reading activity that is suggested in the Teacher’s Edition: “After reading the letter, Lady Macbeth ponders her husband’s character (ll. 11–26). She provides a number of observations about Macbeth and specifically mentions his level of ambition. Have students provide an analysis of Macbeth’s character as seen by Lady Macbeth, referencing specific details from her speech.” 
• In Chapter 10: Utopia/Dystopia, students complete a Reading Workshop at the end of the chapter where they analyze author’s choices of diction and tone. After instruction on how to analyze tone and how diction influences tone, students complete an Activity: “Look over the following excerpts from readings in this chapter and try to express the tone each writer takes in at least two words; be sure to identify the subject to which the author’s tone is directed. Then, point to what diction in the excerpt most reveals the author’s tone.”

Example of how writing skills are taught over the course of the year to meet grade level standards:

• In Chapter 6: Ambition, students read “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” by Martin Luther King Jr. and an excerpt from An Ideal for which I am Prepared to Die by Nelson Mandela (1330L). During reading, a Teaching Idea further helps students construct argument by analyzing the authors’ techniques: “Students could create an argument that would attempt to persuade Mandela to choose a course of nonviolence rather than violence, using specific evidence from Mandela’s speech as counterarguments. Or they could contrast Martin Luther King’s positions with Mandela’s and assess the effectiveness of their rhetoric. Or, they could assess how successfully Mandela addresses each of the charges against him, as enumerated in the Key Context.” After reading, students answer the following question: “How does opening with a counterargument help Mandela establish his overall purpose?” At the end of the chapter, students complete a Writing Workshop for an argumentative essay. Included in the assignment description is a detailed six-step process of writing argument. During Step 4: Writing Your Opening, students are reminded to “think back to rhetorical appeals discussed in Chapter 3, you can see that a successful hook often relies on an appeal to pathos—emotion.” Examples of sample steps of an essay are provided as models.
• In Chapter 10: Utopia and Dystopia, students complete a Writing Workshop at the end of the chapter where they write a rhetorical analysis of the text, “Free to Be Happy” by Jon Meacham. Using the three-step process of analysis they learned in Chapter 1 and have practiced throughout the year, students respond to an Activity: “Identify and analyze at least two strategies that Meacham uses to appeal to pathos. How do these strategies help him achieve his purpose of emphasizing the public and communal nature of happiness? Consider Meacham’s overall (‘big picture’) approaches, but also such elements of style as connotative language and allusions.”

The instructional 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.

Across the materials and within individual chapters, students have access to texts from a variety of genres and levels of difficulties that support students’ individual growth as readers. In addition to the core suggested texts, teachers have access to additional texts that can be assigned to developing grade-level readers. Throughout each chapter, students read a variety of text types and lengths from a range of disciplines with appropriate levels of support. The texts are arranged to increase in difficulty as the students progress through the chapter. The materials incorporate three text sections which include a volume of texts at increasing complexity: foundational, grade level, and challenging.  These scaffolded text sections encourage reading independence at grade level and beyond. Text types include personal narratives, short stories, magazine articles, poetry, excerpts from books, excerpts from essays, photo essays, classic texts, and short nonfiction pieces. 

Examples of the range and volume of reading that meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

•  In Chapter 1: Reading the World, students read informational chapter material, a variety of images, social media messages, diagrams, charts, a musical score, a menu, the poem “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand, an excerpt from the nonfiction text, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, and an excerpt from the autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. 
• In Chapter 6: Ambition, students read the anchor text, William Shakespeare’s, Macbeth, and supporting texts the poems “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden and “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams, an excerpt from Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII,” “Ambition: Why Some People Are Most Likely to Succeed” by Jeffery Kluger, “Rules of the Game”,  a short story by Amy Tan, speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, an excerpt from Thomas Paine’s, Common Sense, and a speech from George Orwell’s satirical novel “Animal Farm.”
• In Chapter 8: Cultures in Conflict, Conversation: Stories of War, students read an excerpt from “The Storytellers of Empire” by Kamila Shamsie, a poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, “The St. Crispin’s Day Speech” from Shakespeare’s Henry V, and the short story “The Man Who Stained His Soul” by Vu Bao. In Conversation: Displacement and Assimilation, students read an excerpt from Jean de Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer, a Newsweek article titled “A Quilt of a Country” by Anna Quindlen, a poem “For a New Citizen of These United States”by Li-Young Lee, a personal narrative titled “My New World Journey” by Nola Kambanda, and excerpts from a hybrid of print text and visuals by Maira Kalman titled And the Pursuit of Happiness.
• In Chapter 10: Utopia/Dystopia, students read the anchor text, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, and more than a dozen supporting texts: a short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin, a poem, “Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni, a nonfiction article, “Free to Be Happy” by Jon Meacham, short stories from “Robotic Dreams” by Isaac Asimov, an opinion article, “Are Humans Necessary?” by Margaret Atwood, and a nonfiction article, “Is It OK to Torture or Murder a Robot” by Richard Fisher.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the expectation that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text). 

The materials include questions and tasks that require careful reading over the course of a school year in which students must provide evidence from texts to support claims. Most questions, tasks, and assignments require students to answer literal and inferential questions and complete tasks with text evidence. Students also work independently and collaboratively to respond to and generate text-specific questions. In the first four chapters, lessons are focused on skills associated with one type of task per chapter: Starting the Conversation, Writing, Reading, and Using Sources. In these four chapters, students are not required to answer text-dependent questions about specific elements of text, rather they engage with texts by applying skills referring to the texts they read. The following seven genre-based chapters require students to regularly answer specific, text-based questions. During reading, students refer to the text to answer Close Reading and Check for Understanding questions. After reading selections, students refer to the text for Understanding and Interpreting questions; Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure questions; and end-of-chapter multiple choice exams.

Additionally, Culminating Activities are text-dependent. Test bank items are both literal and inferential text-dependent questions that require students to gather text evidence about the roles of specific details, the meaning of specific phrases, character development, and vocabulary analysis. The process supports a text-centric curriculum and an approach to multiple literacy skills.

While some questions are not text-dependent, they appropriately access prior knowledge, make text-to-self connections, and require reflection; most questions, tasks, and assignments require that students engage directly with texts. 

Examples of text-dependent questions, tasks, and assignments include, but are not limited to:

• In Chapter 1: Reading the World, students analyze a variety of texts. In the Culminating Activity, they read the poem, “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand, and answer Questions for Analysis: “Draw conclusions: Why does the poet have the speaker behave like he does? What evidence from the text supports your conclusion? What does this have to do with the title, ‘Eating Poetry’?”
• In Chapter 3: Thinking About Rhetoric and Argument, Section 2: The Rhetorical Situation of an Argument, Activity: Identifying Rhetorical Content, students read Ronald Reagan’s, “Challenger Speech” and answer Check for Understanding questions: “President Reagan addresses multiple audiences in this speech. You might call attention to the paragraph when he speaks directly to the schoolchildren who witnessed the tragedy. Why does he do that? Does addressing different audiences fragment and thus diminish the impact of the speech? Or is it an effective strategy? How does this shifting affect Reagan’s role as speaker?”
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, Section 1, students read the central narrative text, “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. After reading, students answer the following questions:
  "Understanding and Interpreting: George Orwell was stationed in Burma and left the police force soon after his time there. What specific evidence from the text can you find that might suggest why he left the police force? Identify the speaker’s attitude toward the inhabitants of Burma at the following three places in the text: the first paragraph, the paragraphs just before he shoots the elephant (pars. 9–10), and the last paragraph." 
• In Chapter 6: Ambition and Restraint, Section 2: Conversations, students read the poem, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams, and answer: “Seeing Connections: How does each painting reflect a different interpretation of the significance of myth? Base your response on details you observe. If Auden and Williams wrote poems about this painting, how would their poems have to change? Understanding and Interpreting: What effect does placing Icarus’ death in spring have on the ideas in the poem as a whole? What ideas about mythology as a whole does Williams offer by minimizing the significance of this event? What is the speaker’s conclusion about Bruegel’s interpretation of the fall of Icarus?” 
• In Chapter 9: (Mis)Communication, students read the Central Text, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. During reading, students complete a close reading according to these guidelines: “What are we supposed to understand about Cyrano’s character through the exchange with the Orange-Girl (who handles refreshments at the theater)? What can you conclude about his character based on how he spent his money and the pittance of food he accepts from the girl?”
• In Chapter 10: Utopia and Dystopia, Culminating Activity, students read either a speech or a letter and respond to the following prompt: “Write a rhetorical analysis of this text. Your essay should focus on the rhetorical strategies (including appeals, evidence, and style) that the writer employs to achieve his/her purpose. It should include a clear thesis statement and specific references to the text to support your analysis.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials containing sets of sequences of text-dependent/text-specific questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding.

The materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to culminating tasks. Each chapter has one or more culminating tasks that the Teacher’s Edition suggests be used as a formative assessment. The tasks provide opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do. Students follow a sequence of tasks that is text-dependent, such as using the text as model for writing or having questions that allow students to analyze rhetorical appeals of a nonfiction text. These sequenced activities lead to a culminating task which asks students to incorporate the skills they learned in the culminating activity and writing workshop. 

Chapters 1-4 include a culminating task that requires students to put into practice the skills they acquired throughout the chapter through readings, text-dependent questions, and activities. The thematic chapters include two Workshops that serve as culminating tasks - a reading workshop and a writing workshop that includes Summative Assessment Prompts that guide students through the writing process in the genre and analyzing writing in the theme. Workshops are designed to help students synthesize and apply their learning in an engaging and authentic way. The workshops require students to use integrated skills to read, discuss, and answer text-dependent questions. Specifically, the reading workshops require students to analyze elements of a reading selection; the writing workshops require students to write narrative, argumentative, synthesis, interpretation, and analysis modes. After each text, the Seeing Connections; Understanding and Interpreting; Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure; and Topics for Composing include text-dependent/specific prompts that provide many opportunities for students to learn and practice integrated skills specific to each genre.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Chapter 1: Reading the World, Culminating Activity, students answer the prompt,  “Read the following texts that are typical of the kinds of pieces you encounter in an English class, and respond to the questions that guide you through the analysis process. Before each text, you will see that some context has been provided for you, along with a focus for your initial observations.” Prior to the culminating task, students practice  analysis with three prompts, such as “a. Make a list of everything that you have read or written so far today. Consider all kinds of ‘texts,’ including videos, advertisements, text messages, cereal boxes, and so on. Then, try to categorize the texts you have encountered or created. What commonalities and patterns do you notice? How do these texts illustrate ‘literacy’ in the twenty-first century?”
• In Chapter 2: Thinking about Literature, Culminating Activity, students complete a three-part task similar to the free-response questions for the AP Literature Exam. In Activity: Literary Elements and Theme in Fiction, students work through the analysis process in preparation for their culminating activity: “Carefully read the following excerpt from The Scarlet Letter, the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne that Melinda, the narrator from Speak, was complaining about. For your focused observation, be sure to consider how Hawthorne uses point of view, characterization, plot and conflict, setting, and symbol. To recognize patterns, be sure to look for curiosities, repetitions, opposites, and links. Lastly, draw a conclusion about what Hawthorne might be suggesting about guilt and punishment in this excerpt.” 
• In Chapter 3: Thinking About Rhetoric and Argument, students complete tasks to identify and analyze rhetorical appeals and argumentative writing. Students answer text-specific writing prompts: “What potential bias or logical fallacies do you find in the following argument opposing granting voting rights (called suffrage) to women? How do Wiesel’s stylistic choices convey his challenge to take action, rather then remain silent, in the face of injustice?” In the culminating task, students read the article, “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone” by Lenore Skenazy, analyze the rhetoric, and create an argument for their position on nine-year-olds traveling alone in their community. 
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, Writing Workshop: Writing a Personal Narrative, students write a personal narrative throughout the workshop. Students generate ideas for a topic, develop the ideas, begin to draft their opening paragraph, character development, and constructing dialogue. These activities help students develop their personal narrative draft by exploring texts, such as analyzing quotes, examining works of art, comparing selections with and without dialogue, and synthesizing dialogue for the graphic novel, Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks. 
• In Chapter 6: Ambition, Reading Workshop, students use the skills they learned in the chapter to read and analyze figurative language in varied texts. They also complete a Writing Workshop where they use what they learned about presenting arguments to write their own argument essay on a chosen topic. 
• In Chapter 8: Cultures in Conflict, Summative Assessment Prompt, students read a text with a cultural conflict then write an essay where” cultural conflicts reveal one character’s values and lead us to a deeper understanding of the meaning of the work as a whole.” Earlier in the chapter, students read “In the Hot Zone,” students answer text-dependent/specific questions: “How does the section called ‘The Embed’ serve to establish Sites’s ethos? Why do you think Sites chooses to include this section early in the piece? How does it influence your understanding of what happens later?” Students gather information from reading multiple texts prior to the Summative Assessment Prompt.
• In Chapter 10: Utopia and Dystopia, students read and analyze how diction influences tone in a variety of selections. At the end of the chapter, a Reading Workshop requires students use the skills of analyzing author’s tone from earlier in the chapter. They also complete a Writing Workshop where they use what they learned about an author’s use of rhetoric to write a rhetorical analysis of “Free to Be Happy” by Jon Meacham.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking (and discussions) about what they are reading and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

The materials support students’ listening and speaking skills through working in pairs, small groups, and whole class discussion on shared readings and research. The Teacher’s Edition includes Teaching Ideas, Building Context notes, and Close Reading activities in the margin that often suggest ways the teachers can engage students in classroom discussion to enhance their understanding of a text. Discussions occur before, during, or after reading. In the Teacher’s Edition, most chapters provide suggestions for speaking and listening activities, such as Socratic Seminars, Think-Pair-Share, Synthesis Roleplaying, Philosophical Chairs, and Fishbowl. These activities require students to speak and listen about what they read and research and often require students to support with evidence from the text. They often present their findings to other students, either in a small group or to the whole class. A Speaking and Listening Appendix includes instruction for creating a speech, making a presentation, listening effectively, and using effective group communication. 

Evidence includes, but is not limited to:

• In Chapter 3: Thinking About Rhetoric and Argument, Section 2: The Rhetorical Situation of an Argument, students work with a partner to complete a close reading activity: “Pair up and find a recent short text that is an argument. Annotate the article to focus on SOAPS.” The text offers student supports on the structure of the SOAP activity in the text and information for the teacher on how to effectively use the SOAPS activity on the Teacher’s Resource Flash Drive: “Working in groups, have students focus on just one of the elements of SOAPS.  One group reads/listens to the speech and focuses on the occasion, another on speaker, an so on. Then each group, after some time to discuss, reports to the full group.” This supports developing student discussions on a shared project. 
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, Conversation: Changes and Transformations, students read “The Devils Thumb” by Jon Krakauer. Teachers are offered the suggestion: “You could have a Socratic Seminar on risk-taking following this reading: how should we manage risk in our lives? How have we seen people in our lives successfully and unsuccessfully manage risk?”
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, students read “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. The Teacher’s Edition suggests in a Close Reading supplement, “Have students pair up and decide, ‘Do you believe him?’ When Orwell writes, ‘A sahib has got to act like a sahib,’ does he make you stop and reflect or turn away? To what extent do you feel empathy for him?” This activity encourages students to discuss a shared text that was read by the class. Another Teacher Note states, “Students might feel comfortable (or at least familiar) with Orwell’s self-professed hatred of the British Empire, but might have difficulty with his attitude toward the Burmese. Descriptions like ‘the evil-spirited little beasts’ (par. 2) with ‘sneering yellow faces’ (par. 1) and others of the Burmese will likely raise some eyebrows. Working in groups or pairs, students might start listing out such unsettling references as the basis for a discussion of whether the narrator Orwell is himself racist—or the extent to which such rhetoric reflects his fear and discomfort with the unfamiliar.”
• In Chapter 8: Cultures in Conflict, Section 1: Stories of War, students read a selection from “The Storytellers of Empire” by Kamila Shamsie and participate in a Think-Pair-Share outlined in the Teacher’s Edition: “After they talk in pairs, rotate them to groups. The groups should develop their ideas and consider exactly how they want to present the range of ideas to their classmates. They could work to express their ideas visually.” The Teacher’s Resource Flash Drive also provides information on how to conduct a Think-Pair-Share activity, including an overview of the procedure with some examples of possible dialogue teachers may have with students. 
• In Chapter 10: Utopia and Dystopia, students read an excerpt from “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid. During the reading, a Teaching Idea gives a suggestion for discussion: “The ground shifts a bit in paragraph 5 as Kincaid acknowledges that the ‘ugly tourist’ is probably not so bad back home. To explore her reasoning here, have students read aloud: one student reads the main narrative, while another reads the parenthetical comments. Separating the two into separate voices offers a chance to hear Kincaid in her own head, as she asserts, then modifies the assertion. Engage students in discussion of whether she softens at all or, in fact, becomes more aggressive in her criticism.”
• In the Speaking & Listening Appendix, Part 4: Citing Sources in Speeches, students are instructed to provide evidence in discussions using relevant sources and include citation of sources within the flow of their speeches.  Students are provided the following sentence frames: “According to . . . ,” use another phrase for the next. “As reported by . . .”; “In the opinion of . . .”; and “Wired journalist Emily Dreyfuss writes that . . .”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing grade-appropriate writing (e.g. grade-appropriate revision and editing) and short, focused projects.

The materials include a mix of both on-demand and process writing that cover a year’s worth of instruction, including short, focused projects that incorporate digital resources where appropriate. Writing tasks and projects are aligned to the grade-level standards. The writing activities offer frequent opportunities for a variety of writing activities ranging in length and depth, though consistent opportunities are missed to revise and edit. Students are taught revision skills in isolation that are not applied to on-demand, process writing, or summative assessments. 

After reading the Central Texts of each chapter, students respond to Topics for Composing which include extended essay ideas in a variety of modes. In the Teacher’s Edition, these prompts are bolstered by pedagogical details for teachers. For example, Teaching Ideas throughout the chapters suggest that students participate in quickwrites, journals, brief responses, and reflections in order to deepen their understanding of texts. Teachers are also provided with teaching tips and close reading prompts to extend the embedded on-demand writing. 

Each thematic chapter includes a Writing Workshop that focuses on a particular mode of writing: personal narrative, argument, synthesis argument using multiple sources, interpretation of character and theme, close analysis of prose, and rhetorical analysis. Students develop and write detailed, multi-draft pieces of writing on academic topics. Also, in the Workshops, students practice the skills needed for the chapter's summative assessment, but the assessment is not a refined piece students work on through the entire project. 

Examples of short or on-demand writing activities include, but are not limited to:

• In Chapter 1: Reading the World, in the Thinking About Literacy section, students learn about “Literacy Communities” and complete an on-demand writing activity: “Describe the latest movie you saw, game you played, or song you listened to. Write one description directed to a close friend, one for a parent or grandparent, and one for your teacher who is going to grade you based on the level of detail you include in the description. Afterward, look back at the language choices you used and examine what is similar and different between the pieces. How do your language choices represent the differences among your literacy communities?”
• In Chapter 6, Ambition and Restraint, Connecting, Arguing, and Extending, after reading Macbeth, students answer, “Letters written from the battlefield have long been a part of how civilians at home learn about the events that soldiers experience in war. Imagine you were at the battle that Macbeth just fought. Using details from the Captain’s description in Scene 2, write a letter to someone at home about what you witnessed.”
• In Chapter 10, Utopia/Dystopia, Opening Activity 1, students complete an on-demand writing task: “On one side of a blank piece of paper, briefly describe your own utopia. What specific qualities of the society would make it “perfect”? Try to be as specific as possible. Then, sketch out a rough picture that illustrates your utopia. Leave the back of the paper blank.” 

Examples of longer, process writing activities include, but are not limited to:

• In Chapter 4: Thinking About Synthesis, Entering the Conversation, students read multiple texts on the topic of high school sports. After reading, students write a multi-paragraph essay: “Write a draft of an evidence-based synthesis essay explaining [their] view on whether the role of sports in American high schools should be re-evaluated.” 
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, Writing Workshop: Writing a Personal Narrative, students participate in various activities to help develop their personal narrative. Activities include, but are not limited to: In Activity 3, students choose a few of the topics they selected in a previous brainstorming activity and “write a line or two about what you would be likely to reveal about yourself in the story.” In Activity 6, students think about a person who may appear in their narrative and “write a paragraph about this person using details that will make the person come alive for a reader who does not know him or her.” In Activity 9, students return to their narrative and find a place to include dialogue: "Using the format and suggestions on pages 244-45, write a few pieces of dialogue and think about how the dialogue makes your narrative more effective.” The Summative Assessment Prompt states, “Write a narrative about an experience that you had in school—a positive or a negative one— that influenced some aspect of your identity.” The activities allow students to practice the skills of writing a narrative, but do not directly build to the summative assignment.
• In Chapter 7: Ethics, Writing Workshop: Using Sources to Write a Synthesis Argument, students write an essay using a ten-step process that guides them through all aspects of creating a multi-draft essay: “analyze the sources, put the texts in conversations, take a stand, and integrate the sources into your own argument.” Prior on-demand writing tasks build to the synthesis essay.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials provide opportunities for students to address different types/modes/genres of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Writing opportunities incorporate digital resources/multimodal literacy materials where appropriate. Opportunities may include blended writing styles that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

The materials provide multiple opportunities for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards for a whole year’s use. Types of writing include narrative, analysis, argument, research, and exposition.  Writing activities connect to Central Texts and accompanying text sets either as prompts, models, anchors, or supports. While journal activities are often metacognitive or reflective, the majority of opportunities are text-dependent and require text evidence. 

For each Central Text in the chapters, students complete Topics for Composing in response to reading selections that cover a variety of modes/types such as exposition, analysis, argument, synthesis, research, narrative, and multimodal. Each lesson offers a purpose for the writing, a teaching and modeling section, examples to help guide students, and independent writing time. The thematic chapters include a Writing Workshop with a step-by-step process on how to write a variety of academic essays (such as personal narrative, argument, synthesis argument using sources),  interpretation of character and theme, close analysis of prose, and rhetorical analysis. The Writing Workshops are intended to build upon the skills that students learn in the first four chapters: Reading the World, Thinking About Literature, Thinking About Rhetoric and Argument, and Thinking About Synthesis. In addition, the distribution of writing is apparent within individual chapters. For example, Chapter 10: Utopia/Dystopia, provides students with argumentative, expository, and narrative writing tasks throughout the chapter. Summative Assessments are included for Chapters 7, 9, and 10 and require students to write a synthesis, literary analysis, and rhetorical analysis, respectively. 

The Teacher’s Edition only offers some opportunities to monitor progress as indicated in the Chapter Overview skills development pathways, including writing rubrics, reflection sections of Workshops, and Checking Understanding and Teaching Ideas. However, rubrics are only provided for Summative Assessments, not for any of the other writing assignments. The Teacher’s Edition provides annotations for discussing the provided writing models with students. 

Examples include, but are not limited to: 

• In Chapter 2: Thinking About Literature, Culminating Activity 1, students read a poem and answer an on-demand questions: “Read the poem carefully. Then write a response in which you analyze how the tone of the speaker is developed through such devices as diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery.” The attached Teaching Idea states that the activity is styled like an AP Exam free-response question and suggests that teachers time the questions to determine if students are on track with literary analysis skills. There are two more analysis Culminating Activities, after which a Teaching Idea suggests students complete a reflection.
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, the Chapter Overview explains that the accompanying Writer's Workshop will lead students “through the entire process of writing their own personal narrative with a focus on effective narrative elements, such as details, dialogue, blocking, and reflection.” In the Unit Planner’s skills development pathway, the chapter offers opportunities to monitor students’ progress in writing: “Ask students to complete the Composing Q7 (p.123) for ‘Shooting an Elephant’ to determine how students’ skills in narrative writing have improved and where additional support is needed.” The skills development pathway also suggests that students use “Shooting an Elephant” and the accompany texts as models of narrative writing.
• In Chapter 7: Ethics, The Writing Workshop “leads students through the entire process of writing their own synthesis essay, balancing their voices with the ideas presented in outside sources.” Students start by brainstorming ideas then work through a four-step process that includes sentence starters for writing a clear thesis and student models for how to integrate sources.
• In Chapter 8: Cultures and Conflict, Chapter Overview, Unit Planner: Writing a Thematic Interpretation, the Skills Development pathway provides some evidence for opportunities to monitor progress and connect texts within the chapter to student writing as models. For example, in the Practice Text section of the Skills Development pathway the Tasks state, “Each of the following is an example of a literary text that students can use as an opportunity to practice their literary analysis skills,” and in the Formative Writing section the pathway states, “Ask students to complete Analyzing Q1 (p.556) for Paft 2 of When the Emperor was Divine to see how well students are doing in their ability to analyze theme.” 
• In Chapter 10: Utopia/Dystopia, Writing Workshop: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis, students complete a rhetorical analysis that focuses on “how the writer uses rhetorical strategies to achieve his or her purposes,” which addressed the genre of informative/explanatory writing. The Teacher’s Edition offers supports in the Check for Understandings and Teaching Idea, however, these supports do not directly connect to a writing task.  Only the Teaching Ideas suggest peer critiques, but on the topic of “specifics of paragraph development—topic sentence, examples, evidence—as well as analysis,” which is unclear on how this is acting as a support for the students’ writing.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials including frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support sophisticated analysis, argumentation, and synthesis.

The materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Students practice identifying claims and supporting with evidence through Activities, Teaching Ideas, Check for Understandings, Culminating Activities, and Workshops. Additionally, students answer a variety of evidence-based questions in the Understanding and Interpreting; Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure; and Connecting, Arguing and Extending sections. While these prompts could be used in discussion, the annotations in the Teacher's Edition support their use as routine evidence-based writing prompts. Activities that accompany Central Texts provide many opportunities for students to complete evidence-based writing in the Topics for Composing section. Summative assessments for each chapter require students to write argumentative, analytical, and synthesis essays. 

Student writing is focused on analyses and claims developed from close reading texts and working with sources. After close readings Central Texts and text sets, students routinely apply evidence collected from texts to support their responses and/or synthesized written products. As an additional support, teachers are provided with Close Reading prompts that ask students to analyze portions of the texts in detail.

Two of the introduction chapters, Chapter 2: Writing and Chapter 3: Using Sources, focus specifically on providing instruction and examples for developing evidence-based writing. Each thematic chapter includes at least one writing activity that requires evidence to support analysis, argument, and/or synthesis; a reading workshop and a writing workshop to practice analysis and argument; and two Conversation sections to practice synthesis through reading and analyzing a set of texts grouped by topic. In addition to text-specific prompts, at the end of each Conversation, students answer higher-level thinking prompts in the Making Connections and Synthesizing Sources sections where they take evidence from what they have read across multiple texts and practice evidence-based writing skills. Throughout the sections of a chapter, students read short excerpts that relate to the texts in the Seeing Connections component. These components include evidence-based writing tasks that prompt students to synthesize texts.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Chapter 2: Thinking About Literature, students learn that “the act of interpreting literature is about seeing how the details add up to a big idea; thus, the most important part of analyzing literature is that you build your interpretation using evidence from a careful observation of the text.” In Activity: Identifying Theme, students identify a theme and provide evidence from the text to support their interpretation: “Choose one text from the following list of fairy tales, fables, and films that you may have heard, read, or seen, or choose one of your own. Briefly summarize the plot of the text, identity the theme, or central idea of the work, and provide evidence that you remember from the text that supports your statement of theme. Remember, the theme may be explicitly stated, but it is more likely to be implied throughout the work.”
• In Chapter 5: Identity and Society, Synthesizing Sources, after reading the text set in the Changes and Transformation Conversation, six prompt options require students to demonstrate evidence-based writing and synthesize texts: “One of the key factors in shaping our identities is the role that parents, guardians, teachers, and other adults play in our lives. Write an essay in which you examine the influence — good or bad — that parents, guardians, or other adults have in the development of the identities of young people. Refer to two or more texts in this Conversation.” Another prompt states, “What is the most significant factor in determining one’s identity? Culture, family, friends, or something else? Refer to your own experiences, as well as at least two texts in the Conversation.”
• In Chapter 7: Ethics, Writing Workshop, students practice using evidence in an essay, and the materials “leads students through the entire process of writing their own synthesis essay, balancing their voices with the ideas presented in outside sources.” The three texts from the chapter focus on performance-enhancing drugs in sports. They analyze the sources, synthesize them, take a stand on the issue, and integrate the sources into their own argument with evidence. 
• In Chapter 8: Cultures in Conflict, Reading Workshop: Analyzing Character and Theme, Culminating Activity, students read a selection from “The Man Who Stained his Soul” by Vu Bao and “Make a claim about the two main characters—the narrator and Vinh—and support your claim with evidence from the excerpt. Then, explain what the characters reveal about a point the author might be making about war and bravery.” Students analyze the text, find supporting evidence, and apply it to their written response. 
• In Chapter 9: (Mis)Communication, Topics for Composing: Argument, after reading the Central Text, Cyrano de Bergerac, students respond to the following prompt by providing evidence from the text: “In most enduring novels or plays, a character (or characters) experience a change: we watch the arc of a journey the protagonist takes toward greater self-awareness, stronger character, more courageous actions, and so on. Which character do you believe changes most significantly in this play—Christian, Cyrano, or Roxane—and how does he or she change? Be very specific in your references to the text.”
• In Chapter 10: Utopia and Dystopia, Writing A Rhetorical Analysis, students analyze the text “Free to Be Happy” by Jon Meacham.  In Step 2: Choose Textual Evidence, Activity, students are instructed: “Using the thesis on Meacham’s use of pathos that you developed in the previous Activity (p. 957), write a body paragraph analyzing how Meacham’s use of pathos serves his purpose. After you develop your topic sentence, you might try using this graphic organizer as you plan your paragraph.” The organizer requires students to identify a strategy, provide text evidence from Meacham, and then provide an explanation of how that evidence links to his purpose.