The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 partially meet the criteria 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 provide a consistent format for students to engage with text-dependent questions and/or tasks. However, text-dependent/specific questions, tasks and assignments do not consistently support students’ literacy growth over the course of the school year. Many questions have students recall key details within texts and do not build to questions that ask students to analyze or infer based on what they have read. Questions do not grow in complexity across the course of the year.

Questions, tasks, and assignments can be found in Before and After Reading sections. The Before Reading section includes four subsections with questions embedded within the margins of the textbook: Build Background, Analyze Literature, Set Purpose, and Use Reading Skills. The After Reading section includes four subsections: Refer to Text, Reason with Text, Analyze Literature, and Extend the Text. The American Tradition curriculum also includes Differentiated Instruction, Common Core Assessment Practice, Meeting the Standards, and Exceeding the Standards guides that also provide text-specific questions. Each unit provides a variety of supports to text-dependent and text-specific questioning. Many questions that ask for student opinion require students to engage with the text directly as inferences are made, and students are required to provide support from the text in most of the work they complete within the unit.

In Unit 1, students read “The Osage Creation Account” and “The Navjo Creation Myth.” Within the Annotated Teacher Edition, teachers are assisted in posing questions that are text-dependent, text-specific in the Apply Reading Strategies section, such as: “Have students visualize what they are reading. Ask questions such as ‘What do you think the third world looked like?’ and ‘How do you picture the elk rolling around in the soft earth?’ Students can draw pictures to go with the stories.” Students must also answer questions in an After Reading Refer to Text and Reason With Text section, such as: “In ‘The Osage Creation Account,’ what problems did the Wazha’zhe encounter once they left their home? What effect might this myth have on the young Osage who listened to it? Support your answer with details from the myth.”

In Unit 2, students focus on Transcendentalism and read an excerpt from “Nature,” an essay, and the poem, “The Rhodora,” both by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Within the Annotated Teacher Edition, teachers are prompted to pose questions to students within the Apply Reading Skills section: “For the excerpt from 'Nature,' ask students to determine the main idea of each paragraph or section. To do so, have them locate the topic sentence and supporting details and then restate this information in their own words and record it on a chart.” Students then complete the After Reading, Refer to Text and Reason With Text section. Text-dependent questions within this section include: “According to Emerson, where does the power to delight in nature dwell (paragraph 3 of the essay)? Determine whether the speaker agrees with the sages that the flower’s charm is wasted because of its isolated spot.”

In Unit 3, students read the poem, “Ode to Walt Whitman” by Pablo Neruda, and answer questions in the Refer to Text and Reason with Text section, which include the following: “According to Neruda, what did Whitman send to the stroker? Why would this gift be unusual? Infer what Neruda is conveying about Whitman. Neruda begins his poem by speaking about Whitman. Look for the spot in the poem where Neruda begins speaking to Whitman. Suggest the reason for this shift in focus. How does Neruda describe his first encounter with Whitman’s poetry? Where did he often read the poet?”

In Unit 4, students read from “Song of Gold Mountain” by Marlon K. Hom. In the After Reading, Refer to Text and Reason With Text section, students are asked the following questions: “Recall what the first two speakers do as soon as they arrive in the United States. How do they feel about what happens to them shortly after they arrive? How does the third speaker refer to his captors? Judge what effect these poems had on the other detainees who read them.” In the Analyze Literature section, students are asked text-dependent questions, such as: “What did you infer about each speaker? For which one do you feel the most sympathy? Which do you feel has the most powerful way of expressing his situation? How is that achieved?”

In Unit 5, after reading an excerpt from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the After Reading, Refer to Text and Reason With Text section, students are asked to answer questions, such as: “What happens at Gatsby’s house on the weekends? Describe how Fitzgerald viewed the lifestyle described in this selection. Did he admire it or disapprove of it? Explain.” Students are also asked to respond to questions in the Analyze Literature section that focuses on setting and narration. Questions include: “Identify the time and place in which the novel is set. What details convey the setting? Why is the setting important to the story?Who is the narrator? What is his relationship to Gatsby? Why did Fitzgerald choose this person to narrate the story? Would Gatsby or another character have been a more effective narrator? Explain.”

In Unit 6, students read literary nonfiction by James Agee from Let us Now Praise Famous Men. In the After Reading, Refer to the Text and Reason with Text section, students are asked the following: “Who are the inhabitants of Cudger House and where are they going? Explain what Agee means when he writes that ‘this house itself, in each of its objects, it, too, is one lens.’ What details in the limited descriptions of the landscape confirm that the location is rural?” In the Informative Writing section, students are asked to “Go through the selection, paragraph by paragraph evaluating the order in which Agee describes specific aspects of the Cudger house and the people who live in it. What does he describe first, next and so on? Write a paragraph evaluating the organization of this excerpt. Is it effective in creating vivid images of the people and the house?”

In Unit 7, after reading the short story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor, students take a reading assessment. For the constructed response portion of the assessment, students are asked to respond to this prompt: “Explain the meaning ot the title ‘The Life You Save May be Your Own.’ It is featured in the story as a sign Mr. Shiftlet sees as he drives away, but why did O’Connor likely choose it for the title of the story? Use evidence from the text to support your ideas.”

In Unit 8, students read “A Letter from Birmington Jail,” by Martin Luther King, Jr., and “Dr. King Arrested at Birmingham,” by Foster Hailey. Students are asked in After Reading, Refer to Text and Reason With Text section the following questions: “Under what conditions might a protester be called an “outside agitator? Suggest why 'outside agitator' became a popular insult used by critics of the Civil Rights movement to common protesters. Identify the four basic steps in a nonviolent campaign. How does one step lead to the next?” In the Extend the Text, Argumentative Writing section, students are given the following prompt: “A friend has asked for your views on King’s Birmingham letter. Write a brief analysis of King’s arguments, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and explaining why you agree or disagree. Include and defend inferences and conclusions drawn from King’s ideas and the way he organized them.”

In Unit 9, students read Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, “What Is Supposed to Happen.” Students then respond to the Analyze Literature section: “Who is the speaker in ‘What Is Supposed to Happen’? What feelings is she expressing about being a parent? What does the title indicate about her feelings?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 partially 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.

After every text selection in the After Reading, Refer to Text and Reason with Text section, there are text-dependent questions, and throughout each reading, there are strategies and activities that build students’ skills to complete the end of unit activities. Each unit includes three types of culminating activities: a Speaking and Listening Workshop, Writing Workshop, and Test Practice Workshop. The performance tasks that the students are asked to complete in these culminating activities correspond to the questions, discussions, and writing prompts that students have completed throughout the unit as they read the various selections.The lessons are detailed, follow a step-by-step process, have checklists to support students, and the Language Arts Handbook and the Exceeding the Standards Speaking and Listening Resource Guides support students by providing additional lessons on the skills necessary to complete each task. However, skills are often not integrated. Students complete each workshop independently of one another. Some tasks are loosely connected to unit texts, while others are not connected to texts. Students are often demonstrating mastery of the unit skills rather than demonstrating understanding or knowledge.

At the end of Unit 1: Origins of the American Tradition to 1800, there are three culminating tasks for the unit:

• For the Speaking and Listening Workshop, students deliver an oral interpretation of a literary work. Activities throughout the unit that build to this culminating task include delivering a presentation on the Puritan lifestyle after reading “Huswifery” and conducting a talk-show interview with a partner after reading “Ben Franklin: Scientist and Inventor.” This task builds students’ presentation skills, but does not integrate skills to demonstrate understanding.

• For the Writing Workshop, students write an argument defending a viewpoint. Students select their topic; gather information; organize their ideas into an argument chart; write their thesis statement; draft their introduction, body, and conclusion; evaluate their drafts; revise their drafts for content, organization, and style; proofread for errors; publish and present their work; and reflect on their work. Activities throughout the unit that build to this culminating task include:

  • completing a piece of argument writing after reading “A Journey Through Texas”: “Write a letter to the King of Spain recommending or opposing appointment of Cabeza de Vaca to a governorship in South America. Consider what Spain stands to gain or lose from the appointment.”

  • completing a piece of argument writing after reading an excerpt from The Crisis No. 1: “Imagine you are Paine’s publisher. Write a paragraph supporting his decision to write anonymously or encouraging him to use his own name.”

• For the Test Practice Workshop, the first section asks students to practice using context clues through reading an excerpt from A Brief Account of the Devastation of the West Indies by Bartolome de las Casas; answer reading comprehension questions on the text; respond to a constructed response prompt on the text: “Using your own words (not quotations from the passage), write a detailed description of the ship owners;” and complete an extended writing prompt on an issue presented in this prompt: “In your opinion, is it better to read the book first and then watch the movie or to watch the movie first and then read the book?” This task asks students to write a description and an opinion. The task does not meet the requirements of grade-level standards.

At the end of Unit 3, in the Writing Workshop, students are asked to Solve a Problem: “In this assignment, you will explain and then solve the problem you are dealing with in your own life, proposing one or more reasonable solutions.” This task is not text-dependent and does not integrate skills to demonstrate understanding. Activities leading up to this task include:

• Students read “from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Seven Years Concealed” by Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent). In Writing Options, question two, asks students, “Write one paragraph explaining why Jacobs did not know she was a slave until she was six years old. How might that have shaped her personality and outlook on life? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.”

• Students read "from Preface to Leaves of Grass” and “from I Hear America Singing”by Walt Whitman. In Extend the Text, Writing Options, Descriptive Writing: “Write an essay describing how you feel about living in your country. Include what you like about living in this country and what you do not like. Use real life experience to support your opinions.”

In Unit 6, Annotated Teacher’s Edition, the culminating activity is a Writing Workshop, Write a Personal Essay, Narrative Writing. The assignment states: "Write a personal essay that captures an essential aspect of your character. Purpose: To preserve a picture of who you are now and to share your thoughts with others. Audience: A new friend who does not know much about you or perhaps a potential employer or college admissions officer.” This task is not text-dependent and does not integrate skills to demonstrate understanding.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 partially 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 provide the teacher with ample questions to engage students in thinking about and responding to the text; however, no explanation is given on how the students will share this thinking - be it verbal or written, individual, or in groups. There are few supports or follow up questions to support students' listening and speaking to deeper their understanding about what they are reading and researching.

Throughout the Annotated Teacher Edition there are many places that prompt teachers to have students discuss in the context of pre-reading. Since these discussion opportunities occur prior to actually reading the text, discussions aren’t evidence-based. For example, in The Launch the Unit section, questions for a whole-class discussion on the text type being studied in the unit are provided. The Speaking and Listening portion of the Exceeding the Standards resource provides opportunities for students to prepare projects, and to present information orally to the class through narratives, speeches, poems, dramatic scenes, and interviews, but these activities are not tied to the texts that are studied in the unit. In the Exceeding the Standards resource for speaking and listening, the majority of tasks are presentations--these supports tie to the speaking and listening requirements, but there are very few shared projects. Also, there are some relevant follow-up questions and supports, but the supports and follow-up questions are designed for students to respond to individually, rather than practicing through the Speaking and Listening standards with one another or in small and large groups.

Each unit includes a Speaking and Listening Workshop, but the emphasis is on the individual preparing for a particular presentation. There are collaborative research and discussion activities that can be found in the Teacher Edition, most notably as Teaching Note(s) that suggest activities for students to process the text they are reading through pair and small group work, often focused on generating questions about the text. Students may also take part in Collaborative Learning, which usually occurs in the After Reading section where students practice speaking and listening skills--this includes student planning for group activities, group skit presentations, short discussions, etc. There are other frequent questions and activities that are designed to have students speaking and listening, but they do not require the student to have interacted with the text being studied. Rather, they are based on personal thoughts and experiences and connections to themes.

The speaking and listening opportunities require students to provide evidence from what they are reading and researching. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 3, students read “The Gettysburg Address” and “The Second Inaugural Address,” both speeches by Abraham Lincoln. In the Extend the Text, Collaborative Learning section, students research the Battle of Gettysburg, “With two or three classmates, give a formal presentation to the class about one aspect of the Battle of Gettysburg, such as events during the battle, or the significance of the battle. Use rhetorical devices effectively to communicate your ideas.”

• In Unit 6, students read a selection from “No Ordinary Time” by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The Extend the Text Critical Literacy section prompts students to “Compare War Time Speeches. Find a famous World War II Speech in the library or on the internet. Write two paragraphs comparing and contrasting the themes and rhetorical techniques of that speech to Roosevelt’s speech. Present the speech and your findings to the class, making sure to use proper speaking rate and volume, as well as eye contact and gestures where appropriate."

Frequently, questions and activities provide speaking and listening opportunities about what students are reading and researching, but do not require students to have interacted with the text being studied. Discussions are based more on personal thoughts and experiences and connections to the themes. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, in the Speaking and Listening Workshop, Present a Literary Work, students give an oral presentation. “Many people enjoy listening to readings of poems or brief works of prose, such as stories and essays. Presenting a poem or brief work of prose to an audience can be enjoyable, as well. Reciting a work of literature is known as oral interpretation. Following the steps outlined here will help you make the most of an opportunity to present a favorite work of literature to an audience.” Students are given five steps to guide them with their oral presentation:

  1. Select a work

  2. Familiarize Yourself with the Work

  3. Practice Reading the Work Aloud

  4. Memorize the Work, If You are Asked To

  5. Present the Oral Interpretation. Students are evaluated with a Speaking and Listening Rubric on Content, Delivery and Presentation.

• In Unit 9, Speaking and Listening Workshop, Present an Argument, students are preparing to present an argument. “A common reason for giving a speech is to present an argument. In doing so, the speaker makes a case to the audience to accept or reject a proposition or course of action. For example, when political candidates give speeches, their goal is to convince voters to agree with their positions and elect them.” For your own persuasive speech, select a topic such as school or community issue. Then develop an argument on the topic, gather details in support of the argument, and deliver a convincing speech. Your purpose in delivering a persuasive speech is the same as that in writing an argumentative essay: to convince others of your point of view. Keep that similarity in mind as you complete this workshop.” Students are given three steps to guide them in preparing them to present an argument:

  1. Prepare an argument on a School or Community Issue

  2. Gather information and Organize Your Presentation

  3. Practice Your Delivery. Students are evaluated with a Speaking and Listening Rubric on Content, Delivery and Presentation.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 partially meet the criteria for materials including instruction and practice of the grammar and conventions/language standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application in context.

The materials contain several workshops in grammar and style, as well as vocabulary and spelling. Within each unit, students experience between two and six Grammar and Style Workshops; all workshops have students practice various grammatical and syntactical tasks that apply directly to the texts they read within the unit. However, there is inconsistent support for students to practice in increasingly sophisticated contexts. The skills instruction does not include opportunities for application both in and out of context. Additionally, the materials do not promote and build students’ ability to apply conventions and other aspects of language within their own writing. There are minimal opportunities to practice skills taught in the unit with the selected readings in the Teacher’s Edition, therefore limiting opportunities for increased sophistication of the addressed standards. While the resource workbook, Exceeding the Standards, includes “comprehensive skills development lessons," the same language standards are not necessarily addressed during the Writer’s Workshop task or other possible places within the unit of study. Therefore, students are not consistently given opportunities to apply the lessons on grammar and conventions in context.

In Unit 1, students experience two Grammar and Style Workshops. Within each Grammar and Style Workshop, students practice Understand the Concept and Apply the Skill sections.

• Within this particular Grammar & Style workshop, students are focusing on verb tenses; however, within the Grade 11 text, many supports are removed considering the material is more condensed within the Understand the Concept section. Students practice the skill within the Apply the Skill section: Identify the Correct Tense and Revise to Create Agreement. For example, when students practice identifying the correct skill they must do the following: “In each of the following sentences, identify the correct tense from the choices in parentheses.” An example of this is as follows: “5. Edwards’s style as a speaker (will be studied/is studied) by generations to come.”

• Subject-Verb Agreement: Within the Grade 11 text, many supports are removed considering the material is more condensed within the Understand the Concept section. Students practice the skill within the Apply the Skill section: Identify Agreement and Revise to Create Agreement. For example, within Revise to Create Agreement, students must “Revise the following paragraph to create agreement between subject and verb.” The paragraph that students see is as follows: “Modern-day readers of John Smith’s work probably responds according to their cultural background. For instance, either a deep faith or an interest in Native American history influence some readers. Neither the teacher nor students uneasy with a word like savages is likely to accept Smith’s account without some reflection. What has scholars learned, over the generations, about the impact of language on education?”

In Unit 2, Exceeding the Standards Resource, students practice five different lessons. Within Lesson 8, which has four exercises, students practice Pronoun Cases: The Nominative Case, the Objective Case, and the Possessive Case.” Students, within Exercise 3 practice the following exercise: “For the ‘Local Humor’ column in your student newspaper, write a brief description of an amusing event in which you and your friends were involved. Correctly use at least two examples of pronouns in each of the cases: nominative, objective, and possessive.”

Unit 4, Expanding Frontiers 1865-1910, includes three Grammar and Style Workshops: Irregular Verbs, Modifiers, and Verbal Phrases. It does not contain any vocabulary and spelling workshops.

• In the Irregular Verbs Workshop, students read about how to use regular and irregular verbs correctly. They then complete practice exercises such as replacing the irregular verb in parentheses with the correct form of the verb: “1. The dog Andrew Jackson (bite) the hind legs of the other dog last week.”

• In the Modifiers Workshop students read about using adjectives and adverbs effectively. They then complete practice exercises such as looking at a sentence and underlining the adjectives once and the adverbs twice: “1. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances.”

• The Vocabulary and Spelling section of The Exceeding the Standards booklet includes practice exercises to support the determining meaning workshop: detonation and connotation, literal vs. figurative language, and homophones.

In Unit 5 ,Grammar and Style, Understand the Concept, students learn the concept of coordination. In Applying the Skill, students "Identify Coordinating Conjunctions" in sentences. Students "Correct Coordinating Conjunctions" by correcting sentences with the appropriate subordinating conjunction. Students also "Use Coordination in Your Writing" by writing a summary and identifying the coordinating clauses used.

In Unit 6. Grammar and Style, Understand the Concept, students learn the concept of Possessive Nouns and Pronouns. In Applying the Skill, students "Identify Possessive Nouns and Pronouns" that function as modifiers in a sentence. Students "Improve the Use of Possessive Nouns and Pronouns" by correcting mistaken uses of possessive nouns and pronouns in a paragraph. Students also "Use Possessive Nouns and Pronouns" by writing a paragraph describing your favorite hobbies.

In Unit 7, Exceeding the Standards Resource, Grammar & Style, students are taught Punctuation and Capitalization. There are four lessons on Punctuation and three on Capitalization.

• Lesson 45: Semicolons and Colons. A semicolon joins two closely related independent clauses. Examples are provided, and then “Use a semicolon between independent clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb or a transitional phrase.” Examples are given and there are two charts provided for students: Common Conjunctive Adverbs and Common Transitional Phrases. Exercise 1, Understanding Semicolons asks students to “Combine each pair of independent clauses by correctly placing a semicolon between them."

In Unit 8, Exceeding the Standards Resource, Grammar & Style, Lesson 52, reviews Sentence Fragments. “A sentence contains a subject and a predicate and expresses a complete thought. A sentence fragment is a word or word group that does not express a complete thought but that has been punctuated as though it does. Examples are provided, Exercise 1, “Identifying Sentence Fragments in Literature, Identify each of the following items as either a sentence or a sentence fragment.”

In Unit 9, Grammar & Style, Quotations, Understand the Concept, an explanation is provided for when to use quotations. “Whether writing an essay or a research paper, you should use information from other sources to lend credibility to your ideas.” Examples are provided, and then students Apply the Skill, Improve the Use of Quotations, “Rewrite each of the following sentences to correctly use the quoted text, which is underlined. Consider “the capitalization and use of punctuation (commas and quotation marks) in quoting either a fragment or an entire sentence, as indicated.”