12th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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. In some selections, there is attention paid to vocabulary as well as content, craft, and style.

In Unit 1, students read the two elegies, “The Wife’s Lament,” translated by Marcelle Thiébaux and “The Seafarer," translated by Burton Raffel. Once students complete the readings, they complete the After Reading Refer to the Text and Reason with Text section. The questions located within this section have students refer and analyze both poems. Refer to Text questions are as follows: 1a. “How does the speaker of ‘The Seafarer’ describe life on the sea and on land? 4a. In ‘The Wife’s Lament,” what does the speaker say in lines 46-47 about her former beloved’s situation? In the last stanza, where does the speaker say her beloved is?”

Both of these questions, which are identified as Understand: Find meaning and Evaluate: Make Judgements correlate to the Reason with Text questions: “1b. Determine which way of life the speaker prefers, if either. Does he see either lifestyle as all positive or all negative? 4b. Argue whether the speaker accurately and fairly judges her beloved’s actions and situation, both past and present.”

In Unit 2, students read three anonymous ballads, “Bonny Barbara Allan,” “Get up and Bar the Door,” and “Lord Randall.” After Reading, Reason with Text question 2b asks students to apply and use information to answer the question, “Dialogue or conversations between characters, is a frequent feature of ballads. What is the purpose of dialogue in this ballad? Refers to 'Get up and Bar the Door'." Question 3b asks students to analyze and take apart the question “What dramatic effects are created by the question-and-answer format of this ballad?” These questions identify some components within the texts but do not promote deeper vocabulary or content growth.

In Unit 4, students read The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act V, a drama by William Shakespeare. After Reading, Reason with Text question 2b asks students to apply and use information to answer the question, ”Explain how the associations in these analogies reveal the men’s attitude toward Macbeth?” Question 5b asks students to create and bring ideas together when answering the question, “Write a rebuttal to Macbeth, disagreeing with the perspective he states in these lines.” 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 6, students read from “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” an essay by Mary Wollstonecraft. In After Reading, Reason with Text question 1b asks students to find meaning to understand: “Summarize Wollstonecraft’s feelings about the contention that women are incapable to attain virtue.” Question 4b asks students to evaluate by making judgements: “Evaluate Wollstonecraft’s argument. What does she want for women? What reasons does she give? How effective is her argument?” In the Analyze Literature Argument and Epithet writing students are asked, “What are the main points of Wollstonecraft’s argument? How do her language and tone support her argument? Describe how she makes her argument effective. To whom is the epithet of innocence connected in this excerpt? Describe the effects of these word associations on Wollstonecraft’s argument.”

In Unit 7, in the Meeting the Standards supplemental book, students are presented with different levels of activities. Students read the sonnet “How Do I Love Thee,” by Elizabeth Browning. The Analyze Literature: Sonnet assignment is labeled as medium in difficulty; assignments range between easy, medium, and difficult in complexity. Teachers are instructed to “use this chart, in combination with the results of the Formative Survey from the Assessment Guide, to identify activities that are appropriate for students.” For this particular assignment, students complete the following questions: “What is the poem’s rhyme scheme? Does the poem have an octave and sestet or quatrains and a couplet? Which type of sonnet is the poem? Sonnets were usually written by men. As indicated by the names of the types of sonnets, they were highly traditional. In your opinion, does Browning’s sonnet do justice to the form and the tradition? Explain.” These build in complexity as the questions are sequenced from easy--identification--to difficult--drawing evidence based conclusions.

In Unit 8, students read “The Hollow Man,” a poem by T.S. Eliot. After Reading, the Reason with Text question 3b asks students to analyze the question, “How is the speaker moved by the people and the settings? What emotion do they evoke in him?” Question 4b asks students to evaluate and make a judgement when answering the question, “Critique Eliot’s views of humanity. Do you agree with his views? Why or why not?”

In other selections, the teacher may need to support students with extended work to assure they have opportunities to grow vocabulary and knowledge, as the questions and sequences ask students to engage at a surface level as opposed to a deeper level.

In Unit 9, in the Annotated Teacher Edition, students read “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” and “Fern Hill,” both poems by Dylan Thomas. After both readings, they will complete the Refer to the Text and Reason with Text section.

• 2a. “What words does the speaker use to describe himself as a child in ‘Fern Hill’?”

• 2b. “Would the child in ‘Fern Hill’ have the same attitude about death as each type of man in ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’? Why or why not?”

• 5a. “How does Thomas classify the different stages of life?”

• 5b. “Explain what both poems suggest about his attitude toward these different stages.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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, Anglo-Saxon Period 449-1066, students read and compare two texts: “The Seafarer” by anonymous, translated by Burton Raffel and “The Wife’s Lament” by anonymous, translated by Marcelle Thiebaux. At the end of the second text, students are asked these comparison questions: “What is the mood of ‘The Seafarer’? What words and images help create that mood? What is the mood of ‘The Wife’s Lament’? Again, how is language used to create mood? What does the seafarer mourn? What leads you to this conclusion? What loss or losses has the speaker of ‘The Wife’s Lament’ suffered? What does she repeat to express her grief?”

• In Unit 2, Medieval Period 1066-1485, students read the anonymous ballad “Lord Randall.” At the end of the selection, students are asked text-dependent questions. In order to Refer to the Text, students are asked to “List the topics of the mother’s questions in ‘Lord Randall’.” To further reason with the text, students are asked, “What dramatic effects are created by the question-and-answer format of this ballad?”

• In Unit 3, Renaissance, students read, “Whoso list to hunt,” a sonnet by Sir Thomas Wyatt and “With how sad steps” (Sonnet 31), by Sir Philip Sidney.

  • The After Reading, Refer and Reason with Text questions have students refer to both poems, Question 4a. “Identify the primary characteristics of each speaker.” Question 4b. “Compare and contrast the speakers in the poems."

  • The Compare Literature: Sensory Details and Personification section asks students to: “Review the chart of sensory details you created for each poem. Which sense or senses are referenced most by each author? How does each author use sensory details to express the notion of unrequited love? What object is Sydney personified in 'With how sad steps?' What human qualities does he give this object? How does the use of personification help convey the idea of unrequited love?”

  • The Extend the Text, Writing Options: Creative Writing section says: “Rewrite Wyatt's 'Whoso list to hunt' so the speaker is talking to the deer and seeking answers, rather than hunting her. Refer to 'With how sad steps' as a model. Consider how changing the speaker’s role might affect what he conveys about unrequited love.”

• In Unit 4, Renaissance, students read, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Acts I, II, and III, a drama by William Shakespeare. The Text to Text Connection section asks students, “Suppose you write a review of Macbeth. What will you say you like about the play? What will say you do not like? What lines in the play will you quote to support each of these points? Overall, will your review be favorable or unfavorable? Why?”

• In Unit 4, Renaissance, students read, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act V, a drama by William Shakespeare and Primary Source Connection Comparing Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland.”

  • Review Questions: 1. “What details does Holinshed provide about MacBeth? What details in Shakespeare's play support or contradict Holinshed's description? Compare and contrast the two descriptions.”

  • The Text to Text Connection questions ask: “Evaluate the ways in which Shakespeare adapted Holinshed’s text. What might have been his purpose in making these changes? Was he trying to rewrite history by altering the facts, or was he simply trying to create an interesting play? Support your explanation with details from both texts.”

  • Analyze Literature: Tragedy and Theme section asks, “What was your perception of Macbeth before reading Act V? What qualities of a tragic hero does he display? Use details from the play support your answer. Using information presented in Macbeth and your own knowledge and observations, draw an inference as to the central theme, or author's message, of the drama. How does Shakespeare develop the theme through the character of Macbeth? Support your answer using details from the play. What additional inferences can you draw about other themes that run through the drama?”

• In Unit 5, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 1625-1798, there are two sections. Part 1, Ideas Old and New and Part 2, Life and Times. Each section in this unit focuses on the time era and the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, connecting students with the historical perspectives of the time through The House of Stuart and Oliver Cromwell, The Restoration and the Glorious Revolution, The House of Hanover, The Industrial Revolution and The Age of Reason and Empiricism.

• In Unit 6, Part 1, The Beginning of Romantic Thought, on page 650 students are asked to:

  • Identify from the lyric poem, “To a Mouse,” the speaker and tone; Connect to prior knowledge and experience; Identify and evaluate sound effects such as onomatopoeia; and read the poem aloud to listen for rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and repetition.

  • The Mirror and Windows question at the end of the text is: “Mice do not have to recall the past or worry about the future. How might this be an advantage? What other advantages are there to living in the present?”

  • In the Analyze Literature section, Dialect and Meter students are asked to: “Describe the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in 'To a Mouse.' What term would you use to describe the meter in 'To a Mouse'?”

• In Unit 7, students read “My Last Duchess,” and “Porphyria’s Lover,” both are poems written by Robert Browning. The Mirrors & Windows question that follows “My Last Duchess” is “Think of a time you revealed to someone more about yourself than you had intended, perhaps in a moment of joy or anger. How did you feel? What were the consequences, if any?” At the close of “Porphyria’s Lover,” students are presented with the following Mirrors & Windows question: “The speaker’s desire to possess his love leads him to a drastic decision. When have you felt jealous about someone or something? How did your feelings influence your actions?” Students are then presented with an After Reading section. Within this section, students are presented with Refer to Text questions and Reason with Text questions. Questions are tiered in the following order: “Understand: Find meaning, Apply: Use information, Analyze: Take things apart, Evaluate: Make judgments, and Create: Bring ideas together.” Also, within this particular section, students are also presented with a Reading Assessment section where the questions are formatted based on standardized testing questions. An example question pair is as follows: “2a. In ‘Porphyria’s Lover,’ what does Porphyria do when she first arrives at the cottage?” and “2b. How do her actions inside the cottage contrast with the weather outside? How is the speaker’s psychological state similar to the weather?”

• In Unit 9, students read the poems “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and “Fern Hill.” The Mirrors & Windows question at the close of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is: “Thomas writes that when a person dies, he or she should ‘not go gentle into that good night.’ How should a person face death?” Students are also presented with Mirrors & Windows questions after “Fern Hill”: “What person, place, or event from your childhood do you remember fondly? What types of experiences make people aware of the passing of time?” Students are then presented with an After Reading section. Within this section, students are presented with Refer to Text questions and Reason with Text questions. Questions are tiered in the following order: “Understand: Find meaning, Apply: Use information, Analyze: Take things apart, Evaluate: Make judgments, and Create: Bring ideas together.” Within the “Analyze Literature” section, located within After Reading, students are presented with the following questions: “Review the structure of ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.’ Identify what makes it a villanelle. Explain the significance of the lines Thomas repeats throughout the poem” and “What sensory details does Thomas use to create a sense of innocence and freshness in ‘Fern Hill’? How do the details change in the second part of the poem? How does this illustrate the change in the speaker’s mood?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 2, Annotated Teacher’s Edition, Vocabulary & Spelling, Word Parts, Understand the Concept section it says, “When you come across an unfamiliar word, try analyzing the parts. You may be able to determine the meaning of the word if you recognize its root and affixes.” Students Apply the Skill: “Exercise A - Decode or sound out the words in each row of the preceding chart. Then write a definition for each of the words. Identify the origin of the word part listed. Use a dictionary to help you. Then use each word in a sentence in which the word’s meaning is clear from the context. Work with a partner, take turns reading your sentences aloud and listening for meaning.”

• In Unit 3, students read Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech to the Troops at Tilbury. Students are presented with Preview Vocabulary (treachery and concord), Selection Words (multitude and stead), and Academic Vocabulary (colony, armada, unprecedented, domination, plunder, notorious, and antagonize). 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, students are presented with a Vocabulary & Spelling activity that focuses on contractions. Students are presented with two sections in this activity: Understand the Concept and Apply the Skill. Within the Apply the Skill section, students complete two exercises. In Exercise A, students must “Write [the following] sentences on a sheet of paper. Then, underline the contractions and circle the possessives.” In Exercise B, students must “Revise the sentences in Exercise A, writing out each contraction above the line. Note the difference in formality between the original and revised sentences.”

• In Unit 5, students take part in a vocabulary and spelling lesson on political and historical terms. During the lesson they encounter these vocabulary words: political science, documentary, and adopted. They also review or learn the key terms sword part, etymology, dictionary, and context clues. Once they understand the key terms, they practice their understanding of these terms by determining the meaning of words in a passage based on context clues.

• In Unit 6, students take part in a vocabulary and spelling lesson on syntax. During the lesson they encounter these vocabulary words: awkward and conventionally. They also review or learn the key terms inflected language, syntactic language, syntax, verb, noun, rhythm, and rhyme. Once they understand the key terms, they practice their understanding of these terms by rewriting lines of a poem using conventional syntax.

• In Unit 7, in the Annotated Teacher's Edition, Vocabulary and Spelling, Understand the Concept section students practice using Homophones: “One of the difficulties with the English language is that many were sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings these homophones can cause confusion in writing unless you remember the differences along with some simple rules.” Students Apply the Skill by Improving the Use of Homophones Using the Correct Homophones.

• In Unit 8, Exceeding the Standards resource, the Vocabulary & Spelling focus is Building Effective Sentences and Paragraphs Lessons 52-58. In Lesson 57: Making Your Language Precise and Colorful, “When you write, use words to tell your readers exactly what you need. Colorful language-such as precise interesting nouns, verbs, and modifiers-tells your readers exactly what you mean and makes your writing more interesting. Precise nouns give your readers a clear picture of who or what is involved in the sentence.” Students practice in Exercises 1-3 Identifying, Understanding and Using Precise, and Colorful Language.

• In Unit 9, Annotated Teacher's Edition, Vocabulary and Spelling, Understand the Concept section, students practice using Greek and Latin Words: “What you may not recognize is that many English words are based on words or word parts in Latin and its predecessor, ancient Greek. For instant, the word tyranny in the first excerpt from ‘Shooting an Elephant’ comes from the Greek word tyrannos, a term for a person who seized power and became the absolute ruler of a Greek city-state. The vocabulary word prostrate comes from the Latin prefix pro- (“before”) and the verb sternere (“to spread out, throwdown”). Knowing common Greek and Latin word parts can help you determine the meanings of unfamiliar word you encounter in reading materials and on test. Familiarize yourself with these common Greek and Latin word parts.” Students practice Applying the Skill, determining the meaning of words using Greek and Latin word parts and finding the etymology of subject area words.