12th Grade - Gateway 3

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing. 

The materials in Grade 12 contain six different units which are all designed around an essential question. The units are titled: Origin of a Nation, A Celebration of Human Achievement, Tradition and Reason, Emotion and Experimentation, An Era of Rapid Change, and New Ideas, New Voices. Each unit contains a section called “Analyze and Apply” with a variety of different text genres to explore the question, a section titled “Collaborate and Compare” which has students comparing two pieces, a selection of independent reading and a culminating writing task. Within each unit there is also one text that is identified as the “Mentor Text” for that unit. At the beginning of each unit in the Teacher's Edition there is a page titled “Instructional Overview and Resources”. On this page there is the suggested pacing for the unit along with the pacing for each text and the culminating writing task. Each unit launches with an explanation of the essential question and a specific quotation that connects to this point as well. After the unit begins, teachers are able to guide their students through each text which is followed by a “Check Your Understanding” activity that asks students multiple choice questions on the text, “Analyze the Text” which asks students more thoughtful questions on the passage, a “Research” section that asks students to research something in connection with the text and “Create and Present” which asks students to apply what they have learned. 

• In the Teacher's Edition,  Unit 1: Origin of a Nation, students are asked to read the short story “Chivalry” by Neil Gaiman. Before reading the text, students are asked to “pay attention to how Mrs, Whitaker reacts to Galaad and the fantastic objects she comes across in the story”. After reading the text, students are asked three questions to “Check Your Understanding” and then five analysis questions. Next, on page 78 they are asked to “conduct an Internet search to discover more about the legend of Sir Galahad”. Finally, they are given instructions for writing a fantasy scene and presenting that scene with a partner. 
• In the Teacher's Edition, Unit 3: Tradition and Reason, students are asked to read the poem “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope. Before reading the poem students are asked to “look for ways that Pope makes fun of the aristocracy through his description of this incident, including his use of elevated language and other characteristics of epic poetry”. After reading the text, students are asked three questions to “Check your understanding” followed by five analysis questions. Then on page 176, students are asked to find a partner and “do research to learn more about fashions and trends in Britain at the time Pope wrote the poem”. Next, students are asked to write a rhymed satirical poem and then discuss the poem along with Pope’s work.
• In the Teacher's Edition, Unit 6: New Ideas, New Voices. Students are asked to read the short story “My Daughter the Racist” by Helen Oyeyemi. Before reading the text, students are given the instructions that they should “notice how the narrator’s wish to support her daughter’s independent spirit comes into conflict with the need to protect her”.  Following their reading of the text, students are asked three questions to “Check Your Understanding” followed by five analysis questions. Then, inspired by issues in the short originality.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that the teacher and student can reasonably complete the content within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding.

Within the textbook, there are six units of study. Per unit, the suggested pacing is thirty days, and the days allotted to certain lessons, for pacing, depend upon the text, text type, tasks, etc. required of students. Larger texts such as Shakespearean plays, novels, excerpts from novels, epic poems, and larger short stories are text selections with tasks that instructors will need to spend more time with their students on, and this is reflected in the pacing guide. The “Collaborate & Compare” section, where students are comparing two texts, usually require the longest time period of focus; this is so that each text and task allows students to gain the maximum understanding of content. For Grades 11 and 12, students experience two “Collaborate & Compare” sections where each are three to five days--totaling similarly with Grades 9 and 10. What stays consistent in terms of pacing, regardless, is the Independent Reading and End of Unit sections--two and three days. The Unit Introduction also is consistent totalling one day. The suggested pacing and overview of unit can be found in the “Instructional Overview and Resources” section. 

Within Unit 1, the texts are consistent with the following days: 

• Unit Introduction: 1 day
• From Beowulf: Grendel, Beowulf, The Battle with Grendel: 6 days
• From The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath’s Tale: 3 days
• From Le Morte d’Arthur: 3 days
• “Chivalry”: 3 days
• From The Paston Letters / from My Syrian Diary: 4 days
• “The Wanderer” / “Loneliness”: 5 days
• Independent Reading: 2 days
• End of Unit (task): 3 days

Within Unit 2, the texts are consistent with the following days: 

• Unit Introduction: 1 day
• The Tragedy of Hamlet: 6 days
• From Hamlet (film clip): 3 days
• “Hamlet’s Dull Revenge”: 2 days
• “Sonnet 30 / Sonnet 75”: 3 days
• “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”: 2 days
• “To His Coy Mistress” / "Twenty-One Love Poems (Poem III)": 4 days
• From “Speech Before the Spanish Armada Invasion” / “For Army Infantry’s First Women, Heavy Packs and the Weight of History”: 4 days 
• Independent Reading: 2 days
• End of Unit (task): 3 days

Within Unit 3, the texts are consistent with the following days: 

• Unit Introduction: 1 day
• From The Rape of the Lock: 3 days
• “A Modest Proposal”: 3 days
• “Satire Is Dying Because the Internet Is Killing It”: 3 days
• From The Journal and Letters of Fanny Burney: An Encounter with King George III: 4 days
• From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman / “Education Protects Women from Abuse”: 5 days
• From A Journal of the Plague Year / from Inferno: A Doctor’s Ebola Story: 6 days
• Independent Reading: 2 days
• End of Unit (task): 3 days

Within Unit 4, the texts are consistent with the following days: 

• Unit Introduction: 1 day
• Poems by William Wordsworth: 5 days
• “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: 3 days
• From Frankenstein: 5 days
• “Frankenstein: Giving Voice to the Monster”: 3 days
• “Ode to the West Wind” / “Song of a Thatched Hut Damaged in Autumn Wind”: 4 days
• From Songs of Innocence / from Songs of Experience: 4 days
• Independent Reading: 2 days
• End of Unit (task): 3 days

Within Unit 5, the texts are consistent with the following days: 

• Unit Introduction: 1 day
• From Jane Eyre: 5 days
• “Factory Reform”: 3 days
• “The Lady of Shalott” 3 days
• From Great Expectations: 5 days
• “The Victorians Had the Same Concerns About Technology As We Do”: 2 days
• “Dover Beach” / “The Darkling Thrush”: 3 days
• “My Last Duchess” / “Confession”: 4 days
• Independent Reading: 2 days
• End of Unit (task): 3 days

Within Unit 6, the texts are consistent with the following days: 

• Unit Introduction: 1 day
• “A Cup of Tea”: 3 days
• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”: 4 days
• “Shooting an Elephant”: 4 days
• “My Daughter the Racist”: 5 days
• “The Second Coming” / “Symbols? I’m Sick of Symbols”: 3 days
• “Budget 2016: George Osborne’s Speech” / “Will the Sugar Tax Stop Childhood Obesity?”: 5 days
• Independent Reading: 2 days
• End of Unit (task): 3 days

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that the student resources include ample review and practice resources, clear directions, and explanation, and correct labeling of reference aids (eg. visuals, maps, etc.)

The grade 12 materials are organized into a consistent structure with careful attention to lesson design. Students move from an introduction to the essential questions and focus elements of the text instructions into a close reading with significant scaffolding and support included, to post-reading instruction to deepen knowledge and develop skills. The textbook, whether print or digital, includes prompts or live links to an accompanying digital resource that provides an opportunity for independent learning or intervention instruction. This can be selected by the student or assigned by the teacher. 

Each unit in grade 12 begins with an introduction to the essential question for the unit, an introduction to the essential academic vocabulary, and a brief reminder to use Notice & Note strategies (learned and practiced in previous grades, but no longer supported with direct instruction) while reading in the unit. Each text is structured similarly. 

• Get Ready provides students with a Quick Start to connect prior knowledge, instructions for analyzing the mode or genre of text, a preview of critical vocabulary within the text, and an opportunity to focus on language conventions demonstrated within the text. 
• While reading, students are prompted in the margins to annotate the text including elements of Notice & Note strategies, use of selected conventions, elements of the essential focus of analysis. Critical vocabulary is also defined in the margins. 
• After reading, students respond to constructed response prompts in the Analyze text section. Research suggests areas to explore further. Create and Present asks students to write and present analysis, research, and synthesis of ideas from across the text or multiple texts. Critical Vocabulary and Language Conventions are also reviewed at the end of the reading.
• Students with access to the digital texts are prompted to visit the appropriate Studio (i.e. the Vocabulary Studio or Writing Studio) for specific support including explanation of a topic with examples and practice. This may be suggested in a margin note in the printed text or with a live link in the digital text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and in the ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning..

Within the paper materials delivered to teachers, the following supports are included: 

• Teacher’s Edition textbook
• Student Edition textbook
• Digital Sampler: A New Comprehensive Literacy Solution
• Assessment Guide
• Social-Emotional Learning with Learning Mindset
• Novel & Trade Book Brochure
• Table of Contents Brochure
• Research Foundations: Evidence Base
• Common Core State Standards Correlation

And, while each of the above has a separate booklet to inform instructors on how each is used throughout HMH, within the Teacher's Edition of the textbook, each of the above is touched on, again, at the very front of the textbook. Also consistent within the beginning of the book, instructors are presented with a condensed overview of the online platform.

Instructions within the Teacher's Edition give specific supports on Dr. Kylene Beers and Dr. Robert E. Probst’s text Notice & Note and how to implement the text holistically throughout each textbook via the sections at the beginning of the Teacher’s Edition; “The Perspicacious Reader (And yes, you want to be one)” and “Reading and Writing Across Genres.” Throughout the textbook, Notice & Note strategies are applied explicitly at the beginning of each Notice & Note Reading Model--an identified text that students are required to practice specific Sign Posts with. Also, throughout both the Teacher's Edition and Student Edition, there are annotation supports for the Sign Posts and what students should be identifying while reading.

Within each unit in the paper materials, instructors are given an “Instructional Overview and Resources” section that previews instructional focus, online Ed resources, English Learner support, differentiated instruction, online Ed assessment, and suggested pacing. And, at the beginning of each unit, instructors and students alike are given a unit introduction where the essential question (EQ) is reviewed. During this section, there is a plethora of teacher notes within the Teacher's Edition along the sidebar to assist students to reach maximum understanding and comprehension of the concepts of the unit, including but not limited to the following sidebar sections in the Teacher's Edition: Connect to the Essential Question, Discuss the Quotation, Academic Vocabulary, Respond to the Essential Question, Learning Mindset, and English Learner Support.

Before every text read and deconstructed, instructors are presented with a “Plan” section that usually includes genre elements, learning objectives, a text complexity analysis, online Ed resources, summaries (in English and Spanish), and small group options. Before each text instructors are also presented with Text X-Ray: English Learner Support: "Use the Text X-Ray and the supports and scaffolds in the Teacher’s Edition to help guide students at different proficiency levels through the selection.” Within this section there are supports for listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Also, the Teacher's Edition is an exact replica of the Student Edition with the exception of all additional teacher notes located within the sidebar--for which there are many. For every section that students encounter, there is an equal teacher note that includes instructions or dialogue to students, directions, answers, and higher order thinking prompts/questions to push students further. Within the Teacher's Edition, there are also ample ELL supports as well as challenges for students that master the material the first time. Also, expressed within the answers located in the side bar for corresponding sections in the Student Edition, instructors are presented DOK levels.

Within the Teacher's Edition, like the Student Edition, there are colored tabs at the top of the pages that indicate different sections for easy moving throughout and within the textbook; these match the Student Edition so that instructors may see and empathize with what students are seeing to make instruction and learning more meaningful and seamless.

The sections within each unit within the Teacher's Edition, for individual texts, are as follows:

• Plan
• Teach
• Apply

Lastly, within the online Ed application, the following supports are included for instructors, some of which mirror the student portal access:

• Professional Learning
• Speaking & Listening Studio
• Student Edition
• Graphic Organizers
• Current Events
• Reading Studio
• Grammar Studio
• Teacher’s Edition
• Text Library
• Media Projects
• Writing Studio
• Vocabulary Studio
• Assessment
• Intervention, Review, & Extension
• State-Specific Resources

Also located within the Teacher's Edition of the online portal is the “Data & Reports” tab that includes an assessment report, standards report, and growth report. These tools inform instructors on their next steps with students to inform instruction.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition that contains full, adult-level explanations and examples of the more advanced literacy concepts so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

Instructors are presented with a large body of supporting materials to improve knowledge of the subject. At the beginning of each unit, educators are provided with an “Instructional Overview and Resources”. This outline contains the instructional focus as well as the reading, writing, speaking & listening, vocabulary and language convention targets for each individual text. In addition, they provide online resources, English learner support, differentiated instruction as well as a suggested pacing guide for the texts in this section. Before each text, they provide detailed notes for educator support including how-guides, example scripts for teacher-student interaction, detailed explanations of the content, and the learning objectives. In addition, they explain the genre elements, provide details on the text complexity including qualitative measures and a brief summary of what students will be reading. In more specific detail they are provided a Text X-Ray for English Learner Support, this gives educators detailed information on how to introduce the selection, cultural references and how to support students’ at various levels of proficiency. At the end of each unit, students are tasked with writing a Culminating Writing Task. Educators are given student exemplars as well as a rubric to help support and assess students’ writing. Throughout each text there are sidebars that provide additional support for teachers, a box that is titled When Students Struggle that gives additional insight to educators for any issues that may arrive and even social-emotional support for students which are the boxes labeled Learning Mindset.  

• In Unit 2, students are asked to read the play The Tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. While reading the play the Teacher's Edition give instructions to educators under the heading “To Challenge Students” that provide additional assistance to teachers. Specifically, the directions explain that educators should have students “analyze the character of Hamlet as he is presented through the eyes of Laertes and Polonius. Have them identify words and phrases that reveal these characters’ views of him. Then ask students to discuss these questions in small groups: Does the portrayal of Hamlet by Laertes and Polonius match your impression of his character as seen so far in this act? And considering Hamlet is the future king of Denmark, why would Laertes and Polonius oppose his attentions to Ophelia? What might their underlying motives be?" 
• In Unit 4, students are asked to read the poems from Songs of Innocence by William Blake. Before beginning the poems, in the sidebar it explains that educators should “ask students what ideas come to mind when they hear the word symbol. Challenge them to provide examples of what they have heard or read about and to explain what these symbols represent. Remind students that a symbol can have multiple representations or interpretations--it may mean one thing in one context and another in a different one. Ask students to think of symbols that might have different interpretations. Provide an example to stimulate their thinking…Encourage students to think of the different representations a symbol might have and how meaning might shift as a result of how it is used.” 
• In Unit 6, students are asked to read the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. As students are reading the text, the Teacher's Edition sidebar explains that educators should “discuss the two metaphors in lines 55-61….ask students who Prufrock imagines will ‘pin’ him to the wall. Then, tell them to make an inference about his relationship with women at parties based on these images.” For each of these prompts, an answer is provided that educators can explain or share with students.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition that explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum.

The instructional materials are available in two forms, print and digital. The print version of the Teacher's Edition includes annotated student edition materials that explain the design of the materials, pacing, instructional strategies, assessment, and how the approach fosters a growth mindset and independence. A separate standards alignment document is included as well as an assessment guide.

The digital teacher materials include professional learning modules that introduce all of the materials and allow a teacher to explore the concepts presented in the student materials. These modules are primarily videos with brief activities that allow teachers to learn at their own pace. Through the teacher materials and learning modules, the approach to teaching reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language components are clearly explained and demonstrated.

The Professional Learning Modules include:

• Introduction: understand the organization of the materials
• Exploration: dig deeper into the specific expectations and strategies within the units of study
• Reflection: synthesize information and record learning
• Application: begin planning classroom use
• Getting started: demonstrate application

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials contain explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research based strategies.

The Teacher's Edition begins with an introduction to the consultants who created the program. Each is respected across the English Language Arts/Literacy community and represent widely published strategies based on research and documented success. The materials also include a handbook of the research foundations that underpin the entire program.  Topics supported by the research include student-centered learning; the integration of reading, writing, speaking and listening; data-driven growth demonstrated through a balanced assessment system; and blended professional learning and services that support modeling and coaching of instructional strategies and practices. 

Program consultants are:

Kylene Beers Nationally known lecturer and author on reading and literacy; coauthor with Robert Probst of Disrupting Thinking, Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading, and Reading Nonfiction; former president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Dr. Beers is the author of When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do and coeditor of Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, as well as articles in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Former editor of Voices from the Middle, she is the 2001 recipient of NCTE’s Richard W. Halle Award, given for outstanding contributions to middle school literacy. She recently served as Senior Reading Researcher at the Comer School Development Program at Yale University as well as Senior Reading Advisor to Secondary Schools for the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College.

Martha Hougen National consultant, presenter, researcher, and author. Areas of expertise include differentiating instruction for students with learning difficulties, including those with learning disabilities and dyslexia; and teacher and leader preparation improvement. Dr. Hougen has taught at the middle school through graduate levels. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, curricular documents, and presentations, Dr. Hougen has published two college textbooks: The Fundamentals of Literacy Assessment and Instruction Pre-K–6 (2012) and The Fundamentals of Literacy Assessment and Instruction 6–12 (2014). Dr. Hougen has supported Educator Preparation Program reforms while working at the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin and at the CEEDAR Center, University of Florida.

Elena Izquierdo Nationally recognized teacher educator and advocate for English language learners. Dr. Izquierdo is a linguist by training, with a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and Bilingual Education from Georgetown University. She has served on various state and national boards working to close the achievement gaps for bilingual students and English language learners. Dr. Izquierdo is a member of the Hispanic Leadership Council, which supports Hispanic students and educators at both the state and federal levels. She served as Vice President on the Executive Board of the National Association of Bilingual Education and as Publications and Professional Development Chair.

Carol Jago Teacher of English with 32 years of experience at Santa Monica High School in California; author and nationally known lecturer; former president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Ms. Jago currently serves as Associate Director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. With expertise in standards assessment and secondary education, Ms. Jago is the author of numerous books on education, including With Rigor for All and Papers, Papers, Papers, and is active with the California Association of Teachers of English, editing its scholarly journal California English since 1996. Ms. Jago also served on the planning committee for the 2009 NAEP Reading Framework and the 2011 NAEP Writing Framework. 

Erik Palmer Veteran teacher and education consultant based in Denver, Colorado. Author of Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students and Digitally Speaking: How to Improve Student Presentations. His areas of focus include improving oral communication, promoting technology in classroom presentations, and updating instruction through the use of digital tools. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado.

Robert E. Probst Nationally respected authority on the teaching of literature; Professor Emeritus of English Education at Georgia State University. Dr. Probst’s publications include numerous articles in English Journal and Voices from the Middle, as well as professional texts including (as coeditor) Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice and (as coauthor with Kylene Beers) Disrupting Thinking, Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading, and Reading Nonfiction. He regularly speaks at national and international conventions including those of the International Literacy Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Association of Supervisors and Curriculum Developers, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. He has served NCTE in various leadership roles, including the Conference on English Leadership Board of Directors, the Commission on Reading, and column editor of the NCTE journal Voices from the Middle. He is also the 2004 recipient of the CEL Exemplary Leader Award.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress.

Each unit includes an abundance of formative assessment opportunities that provide teachers an opportunity to quickly and regularly adjust instruction as needed to continuously support progress. Items represent a variety of forms and measures including on-demand and process writing, comprehension as well as analysis, and various modes and media. 

Formative assessment opportunities within each unit occur daily and include;

• Check your understanding
• Selection tests
• Writing tasks
• Independent reading
• Usage data
• Online essay scoring
• Teacher observations
• Research projects 

Unit assessments identify mastery of skills covered during the course of the unit across all literacy strands and occur six times per year - at the end of each unit. 

Adaptive growth measures occur three times per year and allow teachers to gain an understanding of where students are on the learning continuum and identify students in need of intervention or enrichment.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that assessments clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

The Teacher's Edition includes an opportunity to see all standards addressed and assessed with each lesson. Individual standards are not noted for each item; rather, standards are presented en masse in the alignment materials and addressed in an integrated manner within the materials. The standards for Common Core State Standards as well as several states are listed. 

It is possible for teachers to determine which specific standard(s) is assessed but item-level alignment is left to teacher judgement. 

In both the student edition and Teacher's Edition, standards are listed directly under the title of the instructional element for each text. Clicking on the “show details” link provides a detailed list of all standards before opening the link to the activity or materials. 

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that assessments provide sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow up

Unit assessment identify mastery of skills covered during the course of the unit across all literacy strands and occur six times per year - at the end of each unit. 

Adaptive growth measures occur three times per year and allow teachers to gain an understanding of where students are on the learning continuum and identify students in need of intervention or enrichment. Actionable reports are available in the digital resource. Teachers can review student performance then assign specific texts, tasks, or supports such as elements of a Studio as needed. Tutorials in the form of videos are available for professional learning and can be accessed any time.  These tutorials explain how to create and access class and student reports to monitor progress. 

Formative assessment opportunities within each unit occur daily and include;

• Check your understanding
• Selection tests
• Writing tasks
• Independent reading
• Usage data
• Online essay scoring
• Teacher observations

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials should include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress.

Teachers can monitor student progress through formative assessment analysis and provide actionable feedback or select appropriate instructional strategies consistently.  Each text is structured to develop routines such as annotating text for literary elements, Notice & Note strategies, vocabulary development, and instructional focus as introduced before reading. Each unit ends with a writing task, presentation or collaboration, and a reflection on learning across the unit which gives the student a voice in determining next steps based on identified needs or interest. 

Routine structures include analysis of a mentor text as well as reference to the mentor text when assigning the end of unit task. 

Guidance often takes the form of a reminder to reference a topic in a Studio to support learning as needed. For example, after reading “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne, students are assigned an essay. In the margin, students are directed to Writing Narratives in the Writing Studio. Also, there is the Assessment Guide presented to instructors that captures growth measure, diagnostic assessments, interim assessments, and etc. All of these components display measurable tracking per individual student online when students complete assessments through the online platform. Instructors are able to check student progress, view diagnostic skills-based assessment results, view the student growth report, and diagnostic screening(s).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding the grade-level standards.

The teacher’s edition includes a plan or roadmap for the unit at the beginning of each unit. The plan includes the instructional focus aligned to grade-level standards, resources to support whole class instruction, specific resources to support English learners, and strategies for differentiated instruction. This includes resources to support students who struggle and resources to provide further challenge. 

Also included within each unit, throughout the unit, strategies and sections such as Learning Mindset, English Learner Support, Plan, Text X-Ray: English Learner Support, Notice & Note, To Challenge Students, Applying Academic Vocabulary, When Students Struggle, etc. These strategies and sections assist instructors in helping students reach or exceed the grade-level standards. Most of these sections and strategies are located within the side-bar of the Teacher's Edition; however, there are supports located directly within the Student Edition for student assistance. These supports include online links to the online platform, for example: “Go to the Grammar Studio for more on noun clauses,” “go to the Vocabulary Studio for more on patterns of word changes,” “Research Tip,” “Academic Vocabulary,” among other helpful tips and strategies.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level, or in a language other than English, with extensive opportunities to work with grade level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards.

All students are expected to engage with grade-level texts. The text sets for whole class instruction and for independent reading include a range of complexities across the grade band with some just below and some just above. Strategies to scaffold complex text, access grade level learning targets, and support specific cultural references or contexts are provided in the teacher resource materials in print and online. The “Text X-Ray: English Learner Support” section, in the teacher materials, include suggestions for how to introduce the primary content or literary topics in the text, cultural references explained, and strategies for listening, speaking, reading, and writing relative to the text. During the reading of the text, a box labeled “When Students Struggle…” provide detailed explanations of intricacies within the text and how to provide support for understanding. Suggestions for assigning specific tutorials in one of the Studios is noted as appropriate. Margin notes accompany the text to provide “English Learner Support” to identify specific needs or topics relative to identified sections of text.

Also, located within the Teacher's Edition, before every text, there is a summary section with both English and Spanish summary translations.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 partially meet the criteria that materials regularly include extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level.

Each unit plan includes suggestions for periodically challenging students, and Challenge tasks build on whole-class activities to extend or deepen learning. However, these opportunities are in less than half of the texts with no opportunities in the others. Some of these tasks require students to do additional work rather than a differentiated task. For example, students may extend a research topic, make inferences across multiple texts, hold a staged reading, write a memoir, compare poems, identify allusions, or sketch and analyze the Globe Theater. Students can also select more challenging texts for independent reading, but the focus is more on adding tasks than growing literacy. 

Also, within and throughout each unit there are sections such as “To Challenge Students…”; goal setting sections such as “Learning Mindset” to challenge students; open ended response questions within the “Respond to the Essential Question” section; and, extension tasks/questions within Research sections.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria that materials provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.

At the beginning of each unit, specific strategies for small-group options are provided with detailed support for at least two methods of grouping students during class instruction. Also, throughout every unit, instructors are presented with various whole class questions located within the sidebar of the Teacher's Edition; there are also questions and tasks located within the sidebar of the Student Edition, that are up to instructor discretion for how they may be answered--individually, in pairs, groups, or whole class--along with the annotation models and tasks throughout each reading. Students may be paired or placed in groups to read.

• Within the Teacher's Edition, Unit 1, students read excerpts from Beowulf. The Small-Group options are as follows:
• “Review Literary Terms”: Students are given a list of literary terms and phrases; as students discuss, they must use the terms.
• “Jigsaw with Experts”: Students are designated a numbered section of the text; students are then to discuss the same numbered section as their number. Students then form a new group with a representative from each section, and “these groups should discuss all the sections and the selection as a whole.”
• Within the Teacher's Edition, Unit 4, students read “Ode to the West Wind,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and “Song of a Thatched Hut Damaged in Autumn Wind,” by Du Fu. The Small-Group options are as follows:
• “Three-Minute Review”: The instructor will pause during reading or lecture; students will then take three minutes to “work independently to reread material, review class notes, and write clarifying questions...then hold a brief discussion and clarification.”
• “Final Word”: Students give their impressions of “Song of a Thatched Hut Damaged in Autumn Wind” to the group, and other students off their impressions as well. Then, “return to the original student ask if he or she would like to revise his or her initial impression based on the responses of the group.”