The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend complex texts proficiently.

The materials for Grade 11 are organized around topics or themes to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend texts proficiently. Each of the six units has an Essential Question that provides a theme for the unit. All of the readings, including Whole-class Learning, Small-group Learning, and Independent Learning, are centered on that topic to assist students with answering the Essential Question. Within the Whole-Class Learning instruction, the anchor texts challenge students to think about the Essential Question. Supporting texts in the Small-Group Learning and the Independent Learning sections provide information relative to the essential topic and anchor texts. Many of the texts represent multiple and sometimes conflicting perspectives about the essential topic, and include a variety of styles, genres, and media. The lessons in each of these learning modalities include activities that further student comprehension of progressively difficult text. Students’ knowledge based on the specific topic/lens is deepened after every text is analyzed, based on supporting questions. Assigned to keep an evidence log along with multiple graphic organizers, students can chart their growth as independent readers. Additionally, students display their knowledge in the completion of Performance Tasks or Performance-based Assessments that usually consist of speaking and listening skills or writing tasks.

Examples of organization of texts by topic to build student knowledge to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 1: Writing Freedom

• Essential Questions: What is the meaning of freedom?
• Whole-class Learning:
  • The Declaration of Independence
  • The Bill of Rights
  • Benjamin Franklin’s Speech in the Convention
• Small-group Learning:
  • The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
  • Letters between John and Abigail Adams
  • "The Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln
• Independent Learning
  • “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
  • Thurgood Marshall's speech “Reflections on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution”

Unit 6: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Tales

• Essential Questions: What do stories reveal about the human condition?
• Whole-class Learning:
  • “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker,
  • “Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver
  • “The Leap” by Louise Erdrich
• Small-group Learning:
  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
  • “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter
  • “A Brief History of the Short Story” by D.F. McCourt.
• Independent Learning
  • “The Man to Send Rainclouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko
  • “The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe
  • “Ambush” by Tim O’Brien
  • “Housepainting” by Lan Samantha Chang

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced higher order thinking 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.

The materials for Grade 11 primarily contain sets of coherently sequenced higher order thinking 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. First-read materials direct students to notice, annotate, connect and respond. Close-read materials provide students with more annotation directions and tools, then direct them to question the text and draw conclusions. Students keep a digital notebook to collect their responses to the text. During Whole-class, Small-group, and Independent Learning, students engage in Making Meaning sections with each text which provides sequenced higher-order thinking questions and tasks for a range of purposes through various subsections. For example,

• Comprehension Check provides questions and tasks concerning the key ideas and details of the text.
• Jump Start: Close Read provides questions and tasks concerning the craft and structure of the text.
• Analyze the Text: provides questions and tasks concerning the key ideas and details
• Analyze Craft and Structure provides questions and tasks concerning the craft and structure of the text.
• Language Development section provides sequenced higher order thinking questions and tasks related specifically to language through the Concept Vocabulary, Word Study, Word Network, and Conventions subsections.

Examples of sets of coherently sequenced higher order thinking questions and tasks to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 2: The Individual and Society

Text: an excerpt from the Preface of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Close Read

• Mark details that relate to death and other details that relate to new life or rebirth.
• Why does Whitman include these details? What is dying and what is being born?
• What impression of America do these references create?

Analyze the Text

• Interpret: In the Preface to Leaves of Grass what does Whitman mean when he calls America a “nation of nations”?

Unit 3: The Individual and Society

Text: “Second Inaugural Address” by Abraham Lincoln.

Comprehension Check

• To what event is Lincoln referring when he says, “On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago…”?
• What does Lincoln intend to do to heal the nation, after the war?

Analyze Craft and Structure

• What does the content of the speech tell you about Lincoln’s intended policy for his second term?
• What national issue does Lincoln discuss in paragraph 3?
• Explain what might have been the effect of the speech if Lincoln had developed it to discuss only this issue.
• How does Lincoln’s use of chronological structure contribute to the effectiveness of the speech?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 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.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 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. This structure begins with an essential question for each unit. Each text is accompanied by Whole-class, Small-group, and Independent Learning sections. Each of these learning constructs contains text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that guide students in building knowledge and integrating ideas across both individual and multiple texts. These sequences of text-dependent questions prepare students to complete the Performance Tasks, Unit Reflections, and Performance-based Assessments that require students to specifically integrate knowledge across multiple texts.

Examples of coherently sequenced, text-dependent questions that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 1: Writing Freedom

Essential Question: What is the meaning of freedom?

• Analyze the Text: Declaration of Independence
  • Why does Jefferson begin with points about human rights before discussing the colonists’ specific grievances?
  • What does Jefferson mean by saying that people do not change governments for “light reasons”?
  • Relative to the essential question, how does Jefferson connect the meaning of freedom to the main idea of human rights?
• Analyze the Text: Preamble to the Constitution
  • How can you tell from the Preamble that the Constitution is meant to do more than merely resolve the country’s issues at the time?
  • How does Amendment II of the Bill of Rights reinforce Amendment I?
  • Why is “RESOLVED” used to begin the second paragraph of the Preamble?
• Performance Task: What statement do you find most compelling for American today: the Preamble to the Constitution or the first sentence of paragraph three of the Declaration of Independence?

Unit 3: Power, Protest, and Change

Essential Question: In what ways does the struggle for freedom change with history?

• Analyze the Text: Students read an excerpt from What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass and answer a series of questions that include the following:
  • How does Douglass’s opening reference to the Declaration of Independence reinforce his message?
  • Douglass presented his speech to an anti-slavery society--an audience that was already on his side. Why, then, did Douglass speak as harshly as he did? Whom was he trying to reach?
• Analyze the Text: Students read the "Second Inaugural Address" by Abraham Lincoln and answer a series of questions that include the following:
  • Think about the irony in paragraph 3. In what way does Lincoln see irony in the abolition of slavery in the United States? Interpret what Lincoln finds ironic about the prayers of both sides.
  • What does Lincoln say about the nature of the speech he made when he first took office four years earlier? How does he contrast that information with the speech that he is making in the present, at his second inauguration?
• Performance Task: Did the nation achieve the goals that Douglass and Lincoln desired?

Unit 5: Facing Our Fears

Essential Question: How do we respond when challenged by fear? Teacher edition, page 181

• Analyze the Text: Students read The Crucible, Act 1 and answer questions that include the following:
  • Who is Reverend Hale? Do you think he is fair and impartial in his actions so far? Explain.
  • What evidence suggests that sharp divisions exist among the people of Salem? Name two other characters who may be accused of witchcraft by the end of the play. Explain your choices.
• Students read The Crucible, Act III and answer:
  • What term does Danforth use to describe Abigail and the girls? What does his use of this term show about his views of the accusers?
  • Identify two examples of direct characterization of Giles Corey in state directions. Identify two examples of indirect characterization-in dialogue-that amplify the examples of direct characterization. Explain your choices.
• Performance task: Could any of the characters in The Crucible have done more to end the hysteria in Salem?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, and listening).

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrated their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills, including a combination of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Each unit is focused on a topic that is driven by an essential question. Each unit is divided into three learning modalities: Whole-class Learning, Small-group Learning, and Independent Learning. Students engage with multiple texts and tasks during each learning modality. As they progress through the unit, students have the opportunity to practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening independently; but the performance tasks for each modality generally require a combination of these skills as students compose synthesis essays, share their own work, hold structures discussions, and perform peer reviews. The Performance-based Assessments for each unit also require that students integrate multiple skills and give oral presentations of their work.

Examples of integrated skills in questions and tasks to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 2: The Individual and Society

Essential Question: What role does individualism play in American society?

• Whole-class Performance Task: Write a personal narrative. Address this question: how has my personal experience shaped my view of individualism? Do I see it as a guiding principle, something to be avoided, or a combination of both?
• Small-group Performance Task: Plan and deliver a group speech that responds to the following prompt: When is it difficult to march to the beat of a “different drummer” and stand on your own as an individual? What are the risks and rewards of nonconformity?
• Performance-based Assessment: Write a personal narrative that answers the question “What significant incident helped me realize that I am a unique individual?” Use the personal narrative as the basis for an oral storytelling session.

Unit 4: Grit and Grandeur

Essential Question: What is the relationship between literature and place?

• Whole-class Performance Task: Write an explanatory essay that addresses the prompt: How do American authors use regional details to make the events and themes of a narrative come to life for readers?
• Small-group Performance Task: Give an explanatory talk that explains an understanding of the sense of place demonstrated in each of the texts in this section.
• Performance-based Assessment: Write an essay explaining what makes certain places live on in our memory? Use the final draft of the explanation to present an oral presentation.

Unit 6: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Tales

Essential Question: What do stories reveal about the human condition?

• Whole-class Performance Task: Write a fictional narrative that addresses the question: How do stressful situations often reveal the best and worst in people?
• Small-group Performance Task: In the group, plan, present, and video-record a stream-of-consciousness narrative that responds to this statement: The day felt as if it would never end.
• Performance-based Assessment: Write a short story using third-person point of view to show a fictional character or characters responding to life-changing news. Deliver the story extemporaneously in a storytelling session. Use digital audio components to add interest and enhance the mood.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Materials include a consistent approach for students to regularly interact with word relationships and build academic and figurative language in context.

The materials for Grade 11 include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Most materials include a consistent approach for students to regularly interact with word relationships and build academic vocabulary and figurative language in context. Each text within the Whole-group and Small-group Learning sections include a “Language Development” section with: “Concept Vocabulary,” “Word Study,” “Word Network,” “Conventions and Style,” “Text Features,” etc. All units follow the same expectation that students are interacting and building academic vocabulary per individual text. To complete the Performance-based Assessment at the end of the unit, students demonstrate “Academic Vocabulary” by incorporating their culminating “Word Network” per individual unit. Students are regularly interacting with words and building relationships with the language of the multiple texts as each unit is modeled exactly the same. By the time students have completed all units, students will have mastered formative language in context for individual texts and across texts multiple times. Additionally, the materials include text-specific evidence logs and selection tests that support and assess students as they interact with academic and figurative language in context.

Examples of building key academic vocabulary words in and across texts to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 3: Power, Protest, and Change

Text: excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" By Frederick Douglass

Language Development

• Concept Vocabulary:
  • Vocabulary: obdurate, stolid, disparity, denounce, equivocate, conceded
  • How does the concept vocabulary sharpen the reader’s understanding of the debate over slavery?
  • What other words in the selection connect to this concept?
  • How would you expect obdurate people to respond to advertisements?
• Word Study
  • The Latin prefix ob- often means “against.” It combines with the root dur-, which means “hard,” to form obdurate, which means “hardened against.” The word suggests a lack of sympathy toward someone else’s difficulty or need and is a good synonym for hard-hearted.
• Word Network
  • Add words related to struggle from the text to your Word Network.
• Evidence Log
  • Before moving on to a new selection, go to your evidence log and record what you learned from “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
• Writing from Sources
  • In this speech, Douglass mentions Southern laws that made it a criminal offense to teach a slave to read and write. Briefly research how some slaves, including Douglass himself, learned to read. Then write an informative paragraph in which you draw connections between your research and Douglass’s speech.
    • Consider using several of the concept vocabulary words in your informative essay.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain a year-long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria as they provide a year-long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks. In each unit, writing instruction and tasks are aligned to specific texts. The texts are often used as models for future writing tasks so that students are writing with mentor texts in mind. Writing instruction takes a scaffolded approach to process writing providing students with the opportunity to practice and prepare before writing for performance-tasks or performance-based assessments. This instruction across the six units includes development of various grade-level- appropriate modes of writing to explore and reflect learning relative to the essential question in each unit. The cohesiveness of the writing instruction is also aligned to language standards which support development of increasingly complex writing skills. Text sets in each unit of study provide model/mentor texts such that students can analyze author’s craft demonstrating the language goal relative to writing instruction prior to attempting to demonstrate achievement in a writing task. Across the year, students keep a digital notebook which provides a snapshot of coherence as well as a record of growth across the various tasks.

Examples of a cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 1: Writing Freedom

• Performance Tasks:
  • Write an editorial for a local school or newspaper in which you argue your side of an issue that affects your school or community. Use modern syntax and usage, but apply some of Jefferson's persuasive techniques.
  • Write an extended definition of a key word or concept presented in one amendment (of your choosing) from the Bill of Rights. Your extended definition should explain both the dictionary meaning of the word or concept and any shades of meaning reflected in the amendment. Use at least two techniques to clarify information and engage readers.
• Performance-based Assessment
  • Write an argumentative essay in which you respond to this question: What are the most effective tools for establishing and preserving freedom? Use the anchor texts to identify some of the most successful tools that the Founders established. Use other texts from the unit to demonstrate how well those tools have stood the test of time. Supplement your ideas with examples from your own research that confirm your argument.

Unit 4: Grit and Grandeur

• Performance Tasks
  • Write an explanatory essay in which you explore whether Twain follows his own rules for telling a funny story in Life on the Mississippi and “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Consider similarities and differences in the humor displayed in the two narratives.
  • Write a critical analysis of the poem. Analyze ways in which Jewett structures events and uses dialogue and description to keep readers uncertain about Sylvia’s intentions until the end of the story.
  • Write an explanatory essay to address the question, “How do American authors use regional details to make the events and themes of a narrative come to life for readers?” Use examples for each text [in the set] to explain how authors use setting to create a desired impact on readers.
• Performance-based Assessment
  • Write an explanatory essay using examples from texts in the unit to explain what makes certain places live on in our memory. Analyze at least three texts to show how their authors address the question. Determine how and why a setting becomes essential rather than trivial to the meaning of a literary work. Then, integrate one or more anecdotes from your own life into the essay.

Unit 6: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Tales

• Performance Tasks
  • Write a short narrative in which you retell an event from “Everyday Use” from the perspective of a character other than Mama. Make sure your narrative is consistent with the characters and setting created by Walker.
  • Write a realistic narrative scene that shows how the boy and the girl in the story might have reacted if they had known what colic is and whether or not their baby had it.
  • “The Leap” Write a short, entertaining anecdote about an event in your or your family’s past. Tell about a time when a parent, teacher, or coach intervened in a situation in a way that made you feel grateful. Include an opinion that highlights an important lesson. Conclude your anecdote with a paragraph that explains how your experience compares to that of the narrator in “The Leap.”
• Performance-based Assessment
  • Write a short story from the third-person point of view that shows how a fictional character or characters respond to life-changing news. Bring your character’s story to a resolution or epiphany that demonstrates a truth about the human condition.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials.

For the Grade 10 textbook, most materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials. Each unit includes a research goal that students will conduct research projects of various lengths to explore a topic and clarify meaning. Most of these research projects are brief, and students are given an option to explore topics of their own choosing. An included resource toolkit includes a section on research which addresses topics like narrowing a topic, consulting sources, and avoiding plagiarism. While the research directions in the student text are always the same, the teacher edition offers varied suggestions for specific topics in case some students don’t develop one of their own. This instructional approach provides student an opportunity to practice their research skills through mini-inquiry projects. Many questions can be answered by consulting a single source beyond the assigned sources and sharing either the process of finding information or synthesizing with other students.

Examples of focused, shared research and writing projects to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 1: Writing Freedom

• Text: excerpt from Common Sense by Thomas Paine
  
  • Research to Clarify: Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the text?
  • Research to Explore: Choose something from the text that interests you and formulate a research question.

Unit 3: Power, Protest, and Change

• Text: “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
  • Research to Explore: This story may spark your curiosity to learn more. Briefly research a relevant topic that interests you. You may want to share what you discover with your group.
  • Research to Clarify: Ask students to research and read more of Kate Chopin’s writing about women in the late nineteenth century and their changing roles and relationships as mothers and wives. Ask them to write a short essay detailing what they have learned.

Unit 5: Facing our Fears

• Text: “Antohos” by Julia Alvarez
  • Research to Clarify: Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research that detail. In In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the text?
  • Research to Explore: Conduct research on an aspect of the text you find interesting. For example, you may want to learn about the history and culture of the Dominican Republic.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

Each of the six units within Grade 11 is organized into Whole-class Learning, Small-group Learning, and Independent learning segments. In the Independent Learning section, students are given a list of works to select from as their personal reading. The section begins with Independent Learning Strategies that require students to be accountable for their work. The section states, “Throughout your life, in school, in your community, and in your career, you will need to rely on yourself to learn and work on your own.” Highlighting the purpose behind independent reading while providing guidelines for accountability (create a schedule, practice what you learned, and take notes) allows regular engagement for independent learning in each chapter. There is a student video for them to watch and learn more about what they must do during their Independent Learning days, which are typically Days 27 and 28 of each unit pacing plan.

Accountability for independent reading includes a selection test for each independent title which consists of selected response items addressing comprehension, vocabulary, and analysis. There are clear directions and consistent expectations for recording entries in the student’s digital notebook to connect and extend analysis of the text as well. Students are also consistently expected to share what they learned independently with their group/class.

Another opportunity to increase volume of reading and support or encourage independent reading is with the information for teachers to use trade books in each unit. Titles in each unit provide opportunities for teachers to swap titles within a unit, supplement with additional reading, or direct students for further reading on their own. While the possibility of independent reading in the form of reading and completing a task outside of a group does exist in each unit, accountability within each unit does not require a volume of independent reading.

Below is an example from a single unit of how students regularly engage in a volume of independent reading to meet the criteria for this indicator include, but are not limited to:

Unit 1: Writing Freedom

• Teaching with trade books:
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • The Federalist Papers by James Madison
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving

• Independent Learning texts:
  • From “Democracy is not a Spectator Sport” by Arthur Blaustein with Helen Matatov - essay
  • "Reflections on the Bicentennial of the Unit State Constitution" by Thurgood Marshall - speech
  • Poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks and Elizabeth Bishop
  • “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury - short story
  • Excerpt from the Iroquois Constitution - political document
  • Excerpt from “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine - essay

Unit 1: Sample Independent Reading Tasks

• First Read: Students complete the First Read Guide (graphic organizer). They complete the following information:
  • Notice: Who the story is about, what happens, when and where it happens, and why those involved react the way they do.
  • Annotate: Mark vocabulary and key passages you want to revisit.
  • Connect: Connect ideas within the selection to what you already know and what you already have read.
  • Respond: Complete the Comprehension Check and by writing a brief summary of the selection.
• Comprehension Check
  • Students answer the following questions:
    • What activity does Leonard Mead engage in during the evening?
    • What do the other people in the city do during the evening?
    • What is unusual about the police car that stops Mead?
    • Where does the voice say that the police car will be taking Mead?
  • Confirm your understanding of the selection by writing a three-sentence summary of the text.
• Share Your Independent Learning: Students are asked to share their learning with their classmates. An example from the student textbook:
  • Prepare to Share: What is the meaning of freedom? Reflect on the text you explored independently and write notes about its connection to the unit. In your notes, consider why this text belongs in the unit.

The materials for Grade 11 are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing. Each unit is organized into the following sections: Unit Introduction, Whole-class Learning, Small-group Learning, Independent Learning, Performance-based Assessment, and Unit Reflection. Teachers and students are also directed to additional materials such as digital resources, including media selections, modeling videos, and audio recordings.

The curriculum is composed of six, six-week units. Each unit follows the same sequence of instruction focused on the unit essential question.

• Unit Introduction – 1 day
• Whole-class Learning – 12 days followed by 2 days for performance task
• Small-group Learning – 9 days followed by 2 days for performance task
• Independent Learning – 2 days followed by 2 days for performance based assessment

Each section begins with an overview followed by the lesson plan for the text. Each lesson plan includes:

• Summary of text
• Insight into the text itself
• Connection to the essential question
• Connection to the performance task
• Lesson resources including:
  • Instructional standards for the lesson
  • Student resources found online
  • Teacher resources found online in the Interactive Teacher’s Edition
  • Selection resources
  • Reteach/Practice resources
• Assessment
• Text Complexity Rubric
• Support for ELLs, struggling learners, and gifted
• Teaching and Learning Cycle: Decide and Plan → Teach → Analyze → Revise and Identify Needs → Decide and Plan

For Grade 11, the teacher and student can reasonably complete the content within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding. The pacing is such that students can master the content by the end of the course. The pacing guide appears in the TE on the first page of each unit, on the Whole-class Learning overview page, on the Small-group Learning overview page, and on the Independent Learning overview page of each unit.

With 6 units, the curriculum could be covered in a 36 week academic year. Teachers may choose to deliver Whole-class Learning, assign students to groups for Small-group Learning, or assign the independent learning lessons to individual students.

Support for block scheduling of the course content for individual lessons in each unit is available. For example, each day in the pacing plan represents a 40-50 minute class period. Teachers are advised to combine days to reflect their class schedule and they are given guidance on revising the pacing for differentiation (integrating lesson components and resources as necessary for students).

The student resources for Grade 11 include ample review and practice resources, clear directions and explanation, and correct labeling of reference aids. Materials include: evidence log; word network; learning strategies for Whole-class, Small-group and Independent Learning; genre-specific first and close read guides; text-dependent questions; App for scanning multi-media; model text for writing; support charts; concept vocabulary; essay rubrics; organization chart for small-group work; choice in many assignments; selection audio; presentation rubrics; and sentence stems.

Student directions are clearly written, and units and assignments follow the same predictable sequence, making it easy for students to complete activities. By beginning the Unit with a Launch Text written in the type of writing students will be practicing throughout the unit, and by having students address the essential question in response to the Launch Text throughout the unit and again in the culminating performance assessment, students continue to interact with the theme through reading, writing, and speaking.

The First-Read Guide is divided into quadrants titled: Notice, Annotate, Connect, and Respond.

• Notice new information or ideas you learn about the topic as you first read this text.
• Annotate by marking vocabulary and key passages you want to revisit.
• Connect ideas within the selection to other knowledge and the selections you have read.
• Respond by writing a brief summary of the selection.

The Close-Read Guide is divided into three sections:

• Close read the text – Revisit sections of the text you marked during your first read. Read these sections closely and annotate what you notice. Ask yourself questions about the text. What can you conclude? Write down your ideas.
• Analyze the text – Think about the author’s choices of patterns, structure, techniques, and ideas included in the text. Select one and record your thoughts about what this choice conveys.
• Quick Write – Pick a paragraph from the text that grabbed your interest. Explain the power of this passage.

Ample review and practice resources are available:

• Evaluating Your Draft checklist:
  • Purpose and Organization
    • Provides an introduction that establishes a clear context and introduces the characters.
    • Presents a clear chronological sequence of events that are linked by a variety of transitions.
    • Provides a conclusion that follows from the events and experiences in the narrative.
  • Evidence and Elaboration
    • Effectively uses narrative techniques such as dialogue, pacing, and description.
    • Uses descriptive details, sensory language, and precise words and phrases.
    • Establishes the writer’s voice through word choice, sentence structure, and tone.
  • Conventions
    • Attends to the norms and conventions of the discipline.

Directions and explanations are clear and reference materials are correctly labeled:

• Peer Review - Exchange papers with a classmate. Use the checklist to evaluate your classmate’s nonfiction narrative and provide supportive feedback.

Materials for Grade 11 include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment items. Alignment to the standards is found repeatedly throughout the series.

On pages T48-T59 of the Teacher Edition (TE), the Standards Correlation indicates, by standard, the name of the text or assignment and page number on which it appears. In Lesson Resources prior to each text in the TE, the standards appear in the chart broken down by Reading, Language, Writing, and Speaking and Listening.

In the Student Edition (SE), the standards are found on pp. xx-xxix and noted in the margins throughout each text selection, with the activities and questions following the text, with the performance tasks, and with the culminating Performance-based Assessment.

There is alignment between questions, tasks and assessment items. Examples like the one below can be found throughout the textbook:

• Question
  • What was the author’s dream at age 12?
• Task
  • Using this chart, cite three of the author’s influences and explain how each influence affected the central idea of the text. Share your responses with your group.
• Assessment Item
  • You have read about imaginary characters and settings. Work with your group to develop, plan, and perform a fictional narrative for your class in which you address this question: What might Alice and the Jabberwock discuss if they had met and had a conversation?

The instructional materials, My Perspectives: English Language Arts - Grade 11, include a Teacher’s Edition with ample and useful annotation 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.

The series includes an overview for each of the six units that includes a pacing plan with suggested days for unit introduction, Whole-class Learning, Small-group Learning, and Independent Learning. After each type of learning there are performance tasks that lead to the performance-based assessment at the end of each unit. To further assist teachers, there is a connection to standards, other lessons, trade books, skills, and vocabulary. The units include notes for cross-curricular perspectives and differentiation of instruction.

Throughout the unit, teacher guidance is provided in the margins on every page. For example, during Close Read the narrative guides teachers through this process by reminding students of what to look for, Annotate gives modeling language, Question models questioning and has the teacher talk through what they are wondering following the narrative, and finally, Conclude is where the teacher makes a conclusion based on the modeled think aloud.

Pearson Realize has online resources supplementing the Teacher Edition (TE) and Student Edition (SE). Digital Perspectives in the TE shows what digital resources are available for each lesson, such as audio, video, document, annotation highlights, EL highlights, and online assessments. Students have an online Evidence Log that is used to record evidence from all selections in a unit to aid in writing the culminating task of the Performance-based Assessment.

The instructional materials in My Perspectives: English Language Arts - Grade 11 contain a teacher’s edition with 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.

The series begins with “Getting Started with My Perspectives” that offers a program overview, teacher “how-to” information, teacher resources with scope and sequence, student resources, ELD support, and author background information.

Each unit in this series includes labels (Unit Introduction with Goals, Pacing Plan, Current Perspectives, Home Connections, and Unit Reflection) that give teachers an explanation of how to teach the texts and skills. The Personalize for Learning offers English Language Support, as well as Challenges for advanced students. This and other resources are available as a link within the online teacher edition. Additionally, the teacher’s edition allows for a direct link to the student’s edition within the unit for activities and assignments.

Pages are also color-coded: Whole-class Learning is lime green, Performance Tasks and Performance-based Assessments are color-coded in orange, Small-group Learning is turquoise, and Independent Learning is blue. The teacher is given instruction on what to say for each point of the lesson. Both Whole-class Learning and Small-group Learning have Learning Strategies to guide teachers with an outline to execute instruction.

Each selection in the Whole-class Learning and the Small-group Learning contains a “Planning” section that offers teachers the following:

• Summary
• Insight
• Connection to Essential Question
• Connection to Performance Tasks
• Lesson Resources with standards listed
• Student Resources
• Teacher Resources
• Reteach/Practice Suggestions
• Assessment

Background and Author information is given for each section as a means to provide teachers with needed guidance through each reading selection. Within the teacher’s edition most selections have an audio-adapted version and a written version of the text.

The instructional materials in My Perspectives: English Language Arts- Grade 11 contain a teacher’s edition that explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum.

Teachers are provided with a Pacing Plan for each unit that includes the Unit Introduction, Whole-class Learning, Small-group Learning, Independent Learning, Performance-based Assessment, and Unit Reflection. Within each section, there is a recommended number of days allocated for each reading selection and activities, including Performance Tasks and Performance-based Assessment. This gives a great overview of the unit and what to expect, for ease in planning.

Standards are given for each section as a means to provide teachers with needed guidance through each reading selection.

The instructional materials contain explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies.

At the beginning of the Teacher’s Edition, there is a section entitled, “Getting Started with My Perspectives.” In "What is My Perspectives" the publisher explains, “My Perspectives is a print and digitally blended program that promotes students’ ownership of the learning through goal setting, student choice and reflection. Students encounter authors’ perspectives as they read literature from across time periods and cultures. They engage in meaningful activities that inspire thoughtful conversations, discussions, and debates. ”

Pages are also color-coded: Whole-class Learning is lime green, Performance Tasks and Performance-based Assessments are color coded in orange, Small-group Learning is turquoise, and Independent Learning is blue. The teacher is given instruction on what to say for each point of the lesson. Both Whole-class Learning and Small-group Learning have Learning Strategies to guide teachers with an outline to execute instruction.

There is also a Planning section before each text selection showing the Lesson Resources, both student and teacher resources organized by Making Meaning, Language Development, and Effective Expression. Next, is a Personalize For Learning: Reading Support that gives the Text Complexity rubric for that reading selection and a Decide and Plan section which gives teachers additional information for English Language Support, Strategic Support, and Challenge support as well as a Read and Respond teaching scaffold. Decide and Plan also includes CCSS Instructional Standards for the selection with a catching-up suggestion and a looking-forward selection for the various standards covered in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.

Materials for Grade 11 regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress. The series provides for year-long assessments in the form of a Beginning-of-Year Test on all standards taught in the academic year for planning standards focus, a Mid-Year Test for mastery of standards taught the first half of the year and providing opportunities to remediate, and an End-of-Year Test to determine mastery of standards, future class placement, and to capture final assessment data.

Unit-level Assessments include:

• Selection activities formatively used to assess students’ grasp of critical concepts such as analyzing text, analyzing craft and structure, concept vocabulary, word study, and author’s style.
• Notes in the Teacher Edition that offer suggestions for re-teaching.
• Selection tests tracking student progress toward mastering standards taught with the selection.
• Performance tasks including both a writing and a speaking and listening performance task preparing students for success on the end-of-unit Performance-based Assessment.
• Unit tests requiring students to apply standards taught in the unit with new text, providing an opportunity for teachers to remediate.
• Performance-based Assessments where students use their notes, knowledge, and skills learned to complete a project on their own.

Assessments for Grade 11 clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

In the Teacher Edition (TE), there is a Standards Correlation that notes by standard and title of the text or assignment and the page number on which it appears. In Lesson Resources prior to each text in the TE, the standards appear in the chart by activity and assessment, broken down by Reading, Language, Writing, and Speaking and Listening.

In the Student Edition (SE), standards are noted in the margin next to each text, activity, assessment and performance task.

Assessments for Grade 11 provide sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up.

When assessing taught standards, Mid-Year Tests and Unit Tests can be administered online, and remediation is assigned automatically. If not administered online, an interpretation guide can be used to assign remediation resources.

The writing portion of each Performance-based Assessment includes a genre-specific rubric in both the Teacher Edition and Student Edition. The second part of the Performance-based Assessment, speaking and listening, includes a rubric specific to the type of presentation. The wording in these rubrics is taken directly from the standards.

Formative assessment tips and suggestions are included with each activity. A section entitled "Personalize for Learning," located in the bottom margin of the TE throughout each unit, provides support for ELLs, Strategic Support, and Challenge.

Materials for Grade 11 include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress.

Prior to the introductory Launch Text, students complete a self-assessment, rating themselves on how they meet the unit goals.

The first activity students complete at the end of each text during Whole-group and Small-group Learning is a Comprehension Check, in which students respond to several open-ended questions following the first read of the text and then write a summary of the text. During Small-group Learning, students respond individually, then review and clarify details with group members.

Formative assessment tips and suggestions are included in the Teacher Edition (TE) in the margins with each of the activities students are to complete following a text. If students fail to cite evidence, teachers are instructed to remind them to support their ideas with specific information.

In the lesson plan for each text, found in the Interactive TE or Unit Resources, teachers are provided a list of resources to go with that text lesson. The list includes Reteach/Practice documents and Assessment for the text, if available.

Materials for Grade 11 provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners, so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding the grade-level standards.

Each unit begins with a Launch Text that is a lower Lexile, so that students can read independently and complete the assigned homework. There is also an audio summary for students to build additional background before reading.

There is a Personalize For Learning: Reading Support section that gives the Text Complexity rubric for that reading selection and a Decide and Plan section which gives teachers additional information for:

• English Language Support with suggestions for Knowledge Demands and Language
• Strategic Support with suggestions for Knowledge Demands and Language/Clarity
• Challenge Support with suggestions for Text Analysis and Written Response

As part of supporting the standards throughout the unit’s teaching and learning cycle, under Decide and Plan is the standard being taught.

• Next to the standard under Catching Up, selection scaffolds are provided before the lesson is assigned in the Student Edition (SE) to scaffold learning for students who are below grade level or students who need English Language Support.
• The Looking Forward section provides activities to practice mastered skills in depth for those students exceeding grade level standards.

There are also notes in the Teacher Edition (TE) under the heading Personalize For Learning to provide extra support. There is a Vocabulary Development section that focuses on multiple-meaning words and gives examples for several meanings of a selected word.

Under Lesson Resources in the TE there are Reteach/Practice materials available online for students who may need extra teaching and practice with author’s craft, word study, conventions and writing/discussion. Each selection has the option to listen to the audio online as well as the Word Network graphic organizer and the Evidence Log.

Author’s Perspective gives teachers pertinent information to assist with providing differentiated instruction.

Materials for Grade 11 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 have extensive opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen to grade-level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards. The students read the same grade-level texts throughout each unit, with the teacher modeling and scaffolding instruction during Whole-group Learning and facilitating during Small-group Learning. The students do have a choice of 4-6 selections during Independent Learning. These selections vary in genre and Lexile, but all are tied to the unit’s Essential Question and have a similar lesson plan and expectations.

There are supports built into the series to help make students who are not at grade level and students who speak a language other than English successful with the grade-level text and grade-level standards. For example, when introducing a unit, there is an Introduction Video as well as a Launch Text that is always a model of the type of writing students will be expected to write at the end of the unit. Audio Summaries are also available in both English and Spanish to help build background knowledge before reading.

Materials for Grade 11 regularly include extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level.

All students have extensive opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen to grade level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards. The students read the same grade-level texts throughout each unit, with the teacher modeling and scaffolding instruction during Whole-group Learning and facilitating during Small-group Learning.

Under Personalize For Learning: Reading Support the Decide and Plan section gives teachers additional information for Challenge Support with suggestions for Text Analysis and Written Response.

Under Standards Support Through Teaching and Learning Cycle, the Looking Forward section provides activities to practice mastered skills in depth for those students exceeding grade-level standards. Within the Teacher’s Edition (TE), there is a chart that has the CCSS grade-level standard listed that includes a column called “Looking Forward.” This gives advanced opportunities for students who have mastered the standard to go deeper into the standard.

The Teacher’s Edition has tips for the teacher throughout the unit under the heading of Personalize For Learning, and one category is Challenge. Suggestions are located here to extend the learning for students who are exceeding grade-level standards. The format is similar for each unit and each grade level.

Materials for Grade 11 provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.

Unit 2: The Individual and Society

Whole-class Learning: After reading selected poems by Walt Whitman, students write a description of their classroom, school, or community in free verse. Students share their poems with the class then compare these with an expository paragraph on the same topics.

Small-group Learning: While reading “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” students identify passages that are most important to develop details that reflect alienation and isolation then share them in their group.

Independent Learning: Group students according to the selection they have chosen. Then have students meet to discuss the selection in depth. Their discussions should be guided by their insights and questions.

Unit 5: Facing our Fears

Whole-class Learning: Students read Arthur Miller’s The Crucible aloud and discuss key elements of the text.

Small-group Learning: Students work independently to answer questions about Farewell to Manzanar then share their responses with the group.

• 1. Why do the other Japanese Americans in the camp view Papa as a traitor?
• 2. How do their opinions affect Houston’s perceptions of her father?

Independent Learning: After choosing a text from the selections offered as independent readings for this unit, students are asked to share what they have learned with classmates (pairing or small groups). The task is as follows: “Reflect on the text you explored independently and write notes about its connection to the unit. In your notes, consider why this text belongs in the unit.” Under “Learn From Your Classmates,” students are asked to “Share your ideas about the text you explored on your own. As you talk with others in your class, jot down a few ideas that you learned from them.”