9th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 partially meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

While there are targeted questions and series of questions for students that promote students’ ability to draw conclusions and cite textual evidence, determine theme, and analyze point of view, they do not promote students' building knowledge of the content and texts. There are few questions that support students in analyzing author’s language and word choice. The questions that do focus on language and structure do not support students to analyze its effect on the text.

For example, the Assessment Guide for “Thank You, Ma’am,” Lesson Test, includes multiple-choice questions for students to analyze the language, details, and craft. These questions do provide some access to reading the text closely; however, they do not provide deeper knowledge building nor academic vocabulary practice.

• What does Roger attempt to steal from Mrs. Jones?

• Which of the following words is a synonym for "frail," as used in the sentence, "The boy appeared sickly and frail."

• Which of the following quotations from the story is not an example of characterization?

In Unit 2, The Meeting the Standards Guide, Unit 2 Nonfiction, provides the following sets of questions:

• In applying biography, autobiography, and memoir to the Selection, question 1: After students have read the selections in Unit Two, they explain why “The Teacher Who Changed My Life” is considered a memoir and not an autobiography.

• In Assignment page Applying Traits of Essays to Selections, question 2: “Quote one sentence from ‘The Obligation to Endure’ that shows it is an expository essay.”

• In Understanding Speeches, question 3: “What is the main difference between a formal speech and an informal speech?”

• In Applying Traits of Informational Texts to Selections, students use a graphic organizer to summarize one fact and one opinion from each article read in Unit 2. These questions provide some opportunity for students to engage with the text; however, the teacher will need to supplement the questions and tasks to assure students dive into the craft, structure and, vocabulary beyond a surface read.

In Unit 3, students read “Metaphor” by Eve Merriam and “Simile” by N. Scott Momaday. In the Annotated Teacher Edition, teachers ask the students to complete a Mirrors and Windows task before reading “Metaphor”: “Before students read the poem, have them discuss their attitudes about the idea of starting over.” This task is directly followed by a Mirrors and Windows question once students have finished reading “Metaphor”: “Is there freedom in starting over? Is the prospect of starting over every morning invigorating, frightening, or tedious?” Next, students move on to read “Simile,” and instructors pose another Mirrors and Windows question before students read and deconstruct the poem: “Discuss how words can sometimes create rifts in a relationship.” This question is directly followed by a Mirrors and Windows question once students have finished reading “Simile”: “Under what circumstances might it be better to avoid confrontation and when might it be better to meet it head on? Can relationships sometimes benefit from avoidance?” While the questions are focused on the text, they do not support building knowledge of the content or a deep analysis of the effect of the language on the text.

In Unit 5, students read the fable, “The Princess and the Tin Box” by James Thurber as Independent Reading. Once students have read the fable, they complete the following Refer to Text and Reason with Text section questions located at the end of the text:

• Outline the descriptions of each prince, including details of his arrival and gift for the princess. How are they different from the poor young man?

• Evaluate whether or not you think the author does an effective job of setting up the reader to be surprised. Explain.

• Sarcasm is sharp and satirical or ironic language designed to cut or give pain to another. Explain why the moral at the end of the fable is an example of sarcasm.

While these questions do focus on the text, the questions carry the majority of the intellectual load and reduce the actual knowledge demands placed on the student.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 partially meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

In the curriculum, students are presented with text-dependent and text-specific questions; however, the questions do not require students to build knowledge across the text. Included are some text-dependent questions for each selection in the form of During Reading questions and After Reading questions. The During Reading questions require only a surface amount of knowledge to complete. The After Reading questions are broken into Refer to Text and Reason with Text questions. The Refer to Text questions require surface knowledge of the text. The Reason with the Text questions are designed to increase in complexity from understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating; however, these questions comprise a small percentage of the questions and tasks that students are required to address.

Most questions and tasks do not require that students refer to the text, and it is unclear how the questions work to build knowledge across an individual text. Each unit includes two texts that are paired with the intention of teaching literary elements across texts. The individual paired texts have text-dependent questions at the end, but there is only one question that asks the students to compare the texts, and the question does not promote a deep analysis of the texts. There are other text-to-text connections established in the units, but the questions about these connections do not require an analysis of the integration of ideas.

The Mirrors & Windows questions are mainly text-to-student questions, where students are not required to read the text in order to be able to respond. The Annotated Teacher’s Edition presents verbal questions within the outside band as students are reading, but students are not practicing questions independently or in groups. The Exceeding the Standards and Meeting the Standards supplemental resources offer additional, yet limited, activities within the unit to compare a set of texts. Various texts within the units have student writing, speaking, and researching tasks for evidence of students’ need to perform analysis of texts to complete quality cumulative assignments and tasks.

In Unit 1, Fiction, students read and compare two texts: “The Good Deed” by Pearl. S. Buck and “Tears of Autumn” by Yoshiko Uchida. At the end of the second text, students are asked the following comparison questions: “Do Mrs. Pan and Hana Omiya come to the United States for the same reason? Is what motivates Lili to accept Mrs. Pan’s help in ‘The Good Deed’ the same as Hana’s motivation to volunteer for the marriage to Taro Takeda? How do you think each of the women view marriage?”

In Unit 2, Nonfiction, students read the speech, “I Have a Dream,” by Martin Luther King, Jr. At the end of the selection, students are asked text-dependent questions. In order to Refer to the Text, students are asked to “List phrases King repeats during his speech.” To further Reason with the Text, students are asked to “Examine why King repeats ‘I have a dream'.”

In Unit 3, Poetry, students read two lyric poems: “Cold as Heaven” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and “Gentle Communion” by Pat Mora.

• The After Reading, Reason with Text questions have students refer to both poems, “Compare the grandparent/grandchild relationship in 'Cold as Heaven' with the relationship in 'Gentle Communion.' How does death or the possibility of death affect the relationships?”

• In the Compare Literature: Speaker and Tone Section, students respond to the following: “Both Mora and Ortiz Cofer come from Latino immigrant families. Ortiz Cofer came to America as a small child, whereas Mora is a third-generation American. Discuss with a partner or small group how the immigrant experience comes into play between the speaker and the grandmother in each poem. How are the experiences of the speakers and the grandmother's different? How in these poems did immigration affect each character's experience?”

• In the Extend the Text: Informative Writing section students: “Write a compare-and-contrast paragraph of both speaker and tone in “Cold as Heaven” and in “Gentle Communion.”

In Unit 4, Drama, students read, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act V, a play by William Shakespeare and “Purgatory,” a poem by Maxine Kumin.

• In Text to Text Connection, students respond to the following: “Consider if Shakespeare had allowed Romeo and Juliet to survive their ordeal. Might he have imagined their ending as similar to Kumin’s ‘Purgatory’? What question does Maxine Kumin's poem ‘Purgatory’ raise about the nature of Romeo and Juliet's relationship? If the speaker in Kumin’s poem could give advice to Romeo and Juliet, what do you think she or he would say? Compare ‘Purgatory’ to the Final Act of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. What are the greatest losses and the greatest gains in each ending?”

In Unit 4, Drama, Exceeding the Text resource, students read an “In-Depth Study of a Play and Its Criticism: The Devil and Daniel Webster.” After building background, students answer analytical questions about their thoughts on the play. “What was your overall first impression of the play after reading it? Students then read critical articles about the play. “Next, read the following excerpt, A, B, and C, from three scholarly articles about today's work. As you finish each section, reflect on the writers assertions and then fill in the blank provided with a brief summary of her or his main points." Then students are instructed to Compare Your Perspective to a Literary Critic’s: “Now look over your summaries of the 3 critics' main points. Which critics do you most agree with? Choose just one of these critics as the focus of your comparative essay. You will write a two-to-three page essay comparing your own perspective on Benet's play with that of your chosen critic. Your essay’s goal is to demonstrate why you have either a strong agreement or a strong disagreement with that critic.”

Unit 6 is presented as an Independent Reading Unit. Considering this unit is entirely dedicated to independent reading, Before Reading and After Reading sections have changed. In both the Annotated Teacher’s Edition and the Student Edition, there are no Before Reading sections; instead, there are short blurbs about the author and poem selection. So, as students are reading within the student textbook, they are not presented with a purpose, objectives, or additional guiding information. Although, students are still presented with Mirrors & Windows questions at the close of every text, and students also experience a Refer and Reason section that poses three questions at the end of every individual or paired reading; however, the questions presented are not sequenced in a way that builds student knowledge and integration of ideas across individual or paired readings.

• Students read William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and an excerpt from Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, The Grasmere Journals. In the student textbook there is a Mirrors & Windows question located after William Wordsworth’s poem: “They flash upon that inward eye/Which is the bliss of solitude.” How might past experiences assist in everyday life?” At the end of the two text selection, students are presented with “Refer and Reason” questions. There are two questions included for the excerpt from The Grasmere Journals, and there is only one question that requires students to build knowledge across both texts: “Both ‘Song of the Open Road’ and ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ show us a speaker who is on a journey. Compare and contrast how the speakers are affected by their journeys.”

• Students read “Homeless,” an essay by Anna Quindlen. At the close of the text students are presented with a Mirrors & Windows question: “What purpose does it serve to ‘lessen our own participation’ in the troubles of others? Why does this happen and what does it say about the people who allow this to happen? How might people resist this habit?” After the Mirrors & Windows question, students are presented with the “Refer and Reason” section that has three questions. The questions are as follows:

  1. Summarize the essay and identify why Quindlen says she is better at looking at the details than at the big picture. Which has she tried to do in this essay?

  2. Critique how successful Quindlen has been in debunking stereotypes about homeless people. Explain.

  3. Do you think Quindlen’s essay might influence your future thoughts about and actions toward people who are homeless? Why or why not?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 partially meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, consistent approach for students to regularly interact with word relationships and build academic vocabulary/language in context.

Materials include vocabulary over the course of a school-year, but there is no cohesive plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Vocabulary is repeated in contexts, as seen in the Vocabulary and Spelling lessons which are integrated with two of the literature selections in each unit. These lessons incorporate vocabulary words from the preceding selection to provide context and repetition for students to increase their understanding and vocabulary knowledge. However, academic vocabulary is not repeated sufficiently across units throughout the course of the year.

The Teacher’s Edition has key terms with definitions, but there is little to no representation of academic vocabulary. When the academic vocabulary is mentioned within a unit or along with a reading they are not repeated sufficiently through the unit or throughout the course of the year.

A Language Arts Handbook is provided as a student resource at the back of the text which includes Vocabulary and Spelling, and teachers can direct students to these resources.

The Meeting the Standards Unit Resources do include cumulative vocabulary lists and the teacher’s edition provides a Building Vocabulary which includes an overview of all unit vocabulary words, academic vocabulary, and key terms. The Master word lists cover vocabulary from Common Core Tier One, Tier Two, and Tier Three words. Academic words included and addressed in the Vocabulary Practice Lessons that follow do not appear in other Vocabulary Lessons within the grade level and do not appear within the assessment practice or Writing Workshop within the same unit. Additionally, the Exceeding the Standards resource includes a vocabulary and spelling section that contains lessons and practice on word parts and word origins; borrowed words and informal language; testing vocabulary and choosing words; and working with academic vocabulary.

In Unit 1, Annotated Teacher’s Edition, after Scope and Sequence, there is a Building Vocabulary section of over 100 words: “The lists below identify the Words in Use, Academic Vocabulary, and Key Terms within this unit. These words are listed at the bottom of the Teacher’s Edition pages at the beginning of each lesson. Vocabulary development activities are provided in the Meeting the Standards unit book and in the Exceeding the Standards: Vocabulary & Spelling.” The Words in Use section “lists words for teachers along with the page number where they can be found. These words are taken from the sentences within each selection. These words are defined in the side margin or at the bottom of the pages on which they appear.” Next, there is a list of 100 Selection Words: “Selection Words are additional words that may be challenging, but are not central to the selection and are not identified in the pre-reading section. These words can easily be learned using the story, context, and they provide excellent practice for using context clues to find meaning without explicit instruction (Common Core Tier One Words).”

In Unit 2, Annotated Teacher’s Edition, the “Vocabulary & Spelling, Understand the Concept, Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes, a morpheme is a chunk of a word that has meaning. All words are made up of one or more morphemes. The four main types of morphemes are prefixes, suffixes, word roots, and base words.” The text goes on to define each type of morpheme and has a chart with lists of common prefixes, suffixes and root words. Students complete three exercises to Understand the Concept and Apply the skill. There is a Spelling Practice section: “Words with prefixes and suffixes, Being able to recognize common prefixes and suffixes will help to make you a better speller, because you will know how to spell the affix when you hear it. Some affixes you will recognize immediately, such as adding 's' or 'es' to the end of a noun to make it plural; others are less common. Examine this list of spelling word from ‘Yonder Sky Has Wept Tears of Compassion’ to determine which affixes have been used. Then choose five of the vocabulary words and write a brief narrative that clearly shows your understanding of the meanings of your chosen words.”

In Unit 2, Annotated Teacher's Edition, Vocabulary and Spelling, Understand the Concept section, students practice using Figurative Language: “Participating in this lesson will enable students to: Understand the concept of figurative language. Review terms relevant to figurative language. Practice the concept by completing skill exercises.”

In Unit 3, students read Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “The Bells.” Students are presented with Preview Vocabulary (balmy, voluminously, clamor, melancholy, and knell), Selection Words (foretells, molten-golden, ditty, impels, and resolute), and Academic Vocabulary (rendering, evoke, enhance, intentional, prosperous, embody, jingles, and menacing). The Preview Vocabulary definitions are included within the text, as students read. The student textbook also identifies where the words are located within the text; it is the student’s responsibility to identify the Selection Words and Academic Vocabulary.

In Unit 4, Lesson 14, Exceeding the Standards resource, students are presented with an activity on morphemes. Students then complete the Try It Yourself section; within this section there are two exercises. Exercise A requires students to “List five words that contain each of the following word parts.” Exercise B has students “Break each of the following words down into its morphemes, or word parts. Tell whether each part is a prefix, suffix, word root, or base word. Also, give the meaning of each part, as found in your lists of common word parts. Finally, using the dictionary and your knowledge of the word parts, write a definition of the word.”

In Unit 5, students take part in a vocabulary and spelling lesson on prefixes, roots, and suffixes. During the lesson they encounter these vocabulary words: context, incorporate, numerical, correspondent, and authentic. They review the following key terms: prefix, root, and suffix. Once they understand the key terms, they practice their understanding of these terms by defining words on a list.

In the introduction to Unit 6, during the introduction, students encounter the vocabulary words concept, progression, maturity, adrift, and equates. The also review or learn the key terms archetype, hero, setting, character, inference, poetry, skim, scan, theme, description, and narrator.