12th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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: Forging a Hero

• Essential Question: What makes a hero?
• Whole-class Learning:
  • Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel
  • Beowulf a graphic novel by Gareth Hinds
• Small-group Learning
  • Poetry by Richard Lovelace and Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • Poetry by Mary Borden and Wilfred Owen
  • “How did Harry Patch become an Unlikely WWI Hero?” an interactive site by BBC iWonder
• Independent Learning
  • “Accidental Hero” by Zadie Smith
  • "The New Psychology of Leadership” by Stephen D Reicher, Michael J Platow, and S. Alexander Haslam
  • “Speech Before Her Troops” by Queen Elizabeth I

Unit 3: Facing the Future, Confronting the Past

• Essential Question: How do our attitudes toward the past and future shape our actions?
• Whole-class Learning:
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  • Audio performances by L.A. Theater Works
• Small-group Learning:
  • Various poetry by William Shakespeare, Mary Wroth, and Edmund Spenser
  • “The Naked Babe and the Cloak of Manliness” from The Well Wrought Urn by Cleanth Brooks and Frank Kermode
• Independent Learning
  • Excerpt from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (translated by David Grene)
  • Various poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Paul Muldoon, and Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
  • Macbeth: A Graphic Novel illustrated by John Haward, script by John McDonald
  • “The Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 1: Forging a Hero

Text: an excerpt from a graphic novel of the epic poem Beowulf

Comprehension Check

• How does Beowulf’s physical stature compared to that of his men?
• Write a brief summary to confirm your understanding of this excerpt from this graphic novel.

Language Development

• Identify a scene from the graphic novel in which, in your opinion, the composition is particularly effective. What aspects of the composition make it effective?
• (a) Where does Hinds use close-up, middle-distance, and long-distance perspectives in telling the story? (b) Do you think he effectively combines these different perspectives? Explain.

Effective Expression

• How effective is the graphic novel excerpt as an adaptation of "The Last Battle?”
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the graphic novel medium?

Unit 5: Discovering the Self

Text: an except from “Time and Free Will” by Henri Bergson, translated by F.L. Pogson

First Read:

• Connect ideas within the selection to other knowledge and the selections you have read.
• Respond by writing a brief summary of the selection.

Close Read

• Revisit sections of the text you marked during your first read. Read these sections closely and annotate what you notice.
• Pick a paragraph from the text that grabbed your interest. Explain the power of this passage.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 Forging a Hero

Essential Question: What Makes a Hero?

• Comprehension Check: Students read Beowulf and answer a series of questions including:
  • Who is Hrothgar, and who is Grendel? Write a summary of the excerpt from Beowulf to confirm your understanding of the epic.”
• Close Read:
  • Why might an author choose to repeat a word in such rapid succession?
  • What does the repetition here reveal about Grendel?
  • What do these details suggest about the threats the Danes face and the personal qualities they value?
  • What do Beowulf’s dying wishes tell you about him?
• Performance Task: Write a brief argumentative essay in which you address this question: Which counts more--taking a stand or winning? In your essay, take a clear position on the question. Incorporate your analysis of the Beowulf texts to support your ideas.

Unit 4 Seeing Things New

Essential Question: Why are both vision and disillusion necessary?

• First Read: Students read an excerpt from The Pilgrim’s Progress and follow a series of tasks to engage with the text independently, such as:
  • Specific supports that relate directly to the indicator stand as graphic organizers to assist with comprehension. There are four sections a student must complete: “Notice,” “Annotate,” “Connect,” and “Respond” for the first read.
• Close Read:
  • 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.
  • “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.
  • Pick a paragraph from the text that grabbed your interest. Explain the power of this passage.

Unit 6 Finding a Home

Essential Question: What does it mean to call a place home?

• Research: Students read "Back to My Own Country: An Essay” by Andrea Levy, and to help understand the text they work through the following:
  • Conduct research on an aspect of the text you find interesting. For example, you might want to learn more about Andrea Levy’s life in Britain and her literary achievements. Think about how your research findings enhance your understanding of the text.
• Analyze the Text:
  • What incident does the author describe at the beginning of the essay?
  • What role does this opening incident play in the essay?
  • How did the author’s family try to assimilate into the white culture?
  • What does this assimilation suggestion about the family’s beliefs about the culture?
• Performance Task: How did British colonialism complicate the idea of home? You have read two essays that discuss what it is like to live in a place where you are not accepted. In "Back to My Own Country: An Essay,"..."Shooting an Elephant,"....Now use your knowledge of the topic to write an informative essay about perceptions of home.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 1: Forging a Hero

Essential Question: What makes a hero?

• Performance Task: You have just read two variations on an ancient epic. In “The Coming of Beowulf,” the hero muses to Hrothgar on his reasons for standing up to Grendel, saying, "Fate will unwind as it must!" He does not know whether his mission will succeed or fail, but he is willing to try...Write a brief argumentative essay in which you address this question: Which counts more--taking a stand or winning?
• Performance-based Assessment: Students will show proof of knowledge built via an Argumentative Writing Task: “In this unit, you have read an epic, a graphic novel, poems, and a website, all dealing with some aspect of heroism. Depending on their authors and the times in which they were composed, the selections reveal a variety of attitudes about heroism and leadership...Which contributes more to heroism--sacrifice or success?...After completing the final draft of your argument, prepare to read it as a speech. You will deliver your speech as if you were speaking to one of these audiences: Cadets at West Point, Graduating High School Seniors, A Political Convention, [and] Peace Corps Volunteers."

Unit 4: Seeing Things New

Essential Question: Why are both vision and disillusion necessary?

• Performance Task: After students read various poetry and an excerpt from Gulliver's Travels, students write a brief, reflective narrative in which they address this question: When do we need a new vision of things?
• Performance-based Assessment:
  • Part I: In this unit, you read a variety of texts in which writers responded to the world around them by seeing things in new ways...Write a reflective narrative in which you respond to this question: When can the way we look at things lead to growth--and when can it hold us back? (Students are also required to incorporate ideas from at least three of of the texts in the unit.)
  • Part II: After completing a final draft of your narrative, prepare a dramatic reading of your text.

Unit 5: Discovering the Self

Essential Question: How do we define ourselves?

• Whole-group Performance Task: You have just read several poems and two excerpts from the novel Frankenstein. In the poems, the speakers relate experiences in which nature or world events contribute to their shifting senses of self. In the excerpts from Frankenstein, the Creature gains a sense of self but then grapples with that new understanding in the face of harsh rejection. Use your knowledge of the poems and Frankenstein to explore your ideas about the self as an individual, in nature, or in society. Write a brief personal narrative that addresses this question: How does the world around us contribute to our sense of self?
• Performance-based Assessment:
  • Part I: You have read a variety of texts that explore the development of a person’s sense of self. Whether you experience an hour in the life of a character, as in Mrs. Dalloway, or watch as a speaker reveals deep feelings about nature and memory, as in "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," you come away from the texts in this unit with a deeper understanding of what constitutes the ‘self’.” Write a personal narrative in which you answer the following question: What types of experiences allow us to discover who we really are?”
  • Part II: After completing a final draft of your narrative, condense the main ideas into a two-minute elevator introduction.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 1: Forging a Hero

Text: "Beowulf"

• Concept Vocabulary
  • Vocabulary; lair, gorge, writing, stalked, gruesome, loathsome
  • How does the concept vocabulary sharpen the reader’s understanding of the foes and challenges Beowulf faces?
  • How would you describe the behavior of a person or creature that tends to gorge when eating?
• Word Study
  • Write definitions of gruesome and loathsome that demonstrate how the suffix -some contributes to their meanings.
  • Using a college-level dictionary, identify the word origins and write the meanings of these words featuring the suffix -some: burdensome, cumbersome, meddlesome, noisome.
• Word Network
  • Add interesting words related to heroism from the text to your Word Network.
• Writing to Sources
  • Write a comparison-and-contrast essay in which you compare and contrast the character of Beowulf with that of a modern hero in a television show, video game, or other medium. In your comparison, consider the type of monster or threat each hero faces, as well as each hero’s characteristics. In your comparison-and-contrast essay, consider including several concept vocabulary words.
• Evidence Log
  • Before moving on to a new selection, go to your Evidence Log and record what you learned from "Beowulf."
• Performance Task
  • Write a brief argumentative essay in which you address this question: Which counts more-taking a stand or winning?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 2: Reflecting on Society

• Performance Tasks:
  • Use your knowledge of the Prologue from The Canterbury Tales to consider the relationship between social ideals and realities. Write a brief explanatory essay in which you discuss this question: How does Chaucer find humor in the difference between the ideal and the real in the characters that populate The Canterbury Tales?
  • Arguments are often based on examples--sometimes called paradigms--and on chains of logical reasoning...With your group, fill in details about how William Shakespeare’s life, as described by Woolf, differed from that of his imaginary sister. Then, state Woolf’s conclusion, inferring her position from the details she presents. Cite textual evidence to support your answers.
• Performance-based Assessment:
  • Write an explanatory essay in which [they] select three examples from literary and social history to answer this question: What factors lead people to criticize their society rather than simply accept it?

Unit 4: Seeing Things New

• Performance Task:
  • You have read two poems that offer new perspectives on love and death. You have also read an excerpt from a novel that presents a satirical view of religion and politics, and you have viewed media selections that were inspired by the novel. Now you will use your understanding of those selections to create a narrative that explores a new way of looking at things. Write a brief reflective narrative in which [the following question is addressed]: When do we need a new vision of things?
• Performance-based Assessment
  • Write a reflective narrative in which you respond to this question: When can the way we look at things lead to growth--and when can it hold us back? Incorporate ideas from at least three of the texts in this unit.

Unit 5: Discovering the Self

• Performance Task
  • Use your knowledge of the poems and Frankenstein to explore your ideas about the self as an individual, in nature, or in society. Write a brief personal narrative that addresses the following question: How does the world around us contribute to our sense of self?
• Performance-based Assessment
  • Write a personal narrative in which you answer the following question: What types of experiences allow us to discover who we really are?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 2: Reflecting on Society

Text: “On Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid

• Research to Clarify: Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from one of the texts. Briefly research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the text?
• Research to Explore: Conduct research to find out about either the history of British rule in Antigua or the Brixton riots of April in 1981. Share what you discover with your group.
• Performance-based Assessment: At the close of Unit 2, students must compose an explanatory essay based on this prompt: What factors led people to criticize their society rather than simply accept it? Students are prompted to do several research tasks during the writing process:
  • Look at the list of kinds of people below. Choose two, and find a real-life example for each...Begin by doing research on the people you have chosen.
  • Conduct research on the real-life examples you chose. Then, in the body of the essay, explain how each of your three examples illustrates the factors that lead some people to criticize rather than accept their society.

Unit 3: Facing the Future, Confronting the Past

Text: The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act I - V, by William Shakespeare

• Research to Clarify: Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research that detail. In what way does the information you learn shed light on an aspect of the play?
• Research to Explore: Conduct research to find representations of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth in a work of visual art.
• Research to Clarify: Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research that detail. In what way does the information you learn shed light on an aspect of the play?
• Research to Explore: Choose something from the text that interested you and formulate a research question.

Unit 5: Discovering the Self

Text: Poetry Collection 1: “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and from The Prelude by William Wordsworth

• Research to Clarify: Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from one of the poems. Briefly research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the poem?
• Research to Explore: Choose something that interested you from the poems, and formulate a research question.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 12 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 12 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 3: Facing the Future, Confronting the Past

• Teaching with Trade Books:
  • Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
  • King Lear by William Shakespeare

• Independent Reading Texts:
  • From "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles
  • Poetry Collection 2
  • From Macbeth: The Graphic Novel by John McDonald, Jon Howard, Nigel Dobbyn, and Gary Erskine
  • “The Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad
  • Science Articles by Jane Collingwood and Peter Dizikes

Unit 3: Sample Independent Reading Tasks

• Text: From Macbeth: The Graphic Novel
  • 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 write a brief summary of the selection.

• Close Read
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Pick a paragraph from the text that grabbed your interest. Explain the power of this passage.
• Share Your Independent Learning: Students must prepare to share based on the essential question: How do our attitudes toward the past and future shape our actions?
  • Based on the student discussion, students must jot down ideas learned from others.
  • And lastly, students must reflect: “Review your notes, and mark the most important insight you gained from these writing and discussion activities. Explain how this idea adds to your understanding of what makes a hero.”
• Evidence Log: Students must respond to “Connection to the Prompt,” “Text Evidence/Details,” “Additional Notes/Ideas,” and finally, a review that asks, “How does this text change or add to my thinking?”