The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 2a.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for texts are organized around a cohesive topic(s)/theme(s) to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.  Each unit is organized around a central theme and related guiding questions that connect overall to the unit topic. The texts, tasks, and materials for this grade level are grouped so that students investigate a Central Question when moving through the Foundation and Development units using the information they gather from analyzing the various texts to perform the culminating tasks. Throughout the process of analyzing multiple texts, students broaden their vocabulary and knowledge, strengthen reading comprehension, and develop independent-thinking skills as they dig into unit content and apply their learning to new readings they encounter. The course capstone includes an Application Unit in which students drive their investigation with an inquiry question of interest. The Program Guide provides additional information for teachers relating to the selection of classic and contemporary texts within each unit: “Text sets guide and focus student learning and knowledge development by examining a diverse body of authors, perspectives, and genres. While students develop strands of knowledge in units, they also extend their understanding across units in their year, and across all four years, of high school.”

Texts are connected by cohesive topics/themes to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Texts are connected by a grade-appropriate cohesive topic/theme/line of inquiry.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to be American?, students read multiple types of texts, including primary sources written by the founding fathers, speeches to discuss American principles, and articles to deepen student learning. The Central Question: “What Does It Mean to Be American?,” is explored in depth in Section 1, Lesson 1, in which students analyze the question in preparation for studying the unit and preparing for the culminating task. For the culminating task, students collaborate with group members to research how the pathway topic enhances their understanding of what it means to be an American. With the use of complex texts throughout this unit, students build their comprehension and vocabulary skills in order to navigate texts independently and proficiently.

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students explore the Central Question: “How do perceptions, illusions, and dreams influence our lives?” Examples of texts students study to explore a common line of inquiry include, but are not limited to, “The Trouble With Nick: Reading Gatsby Closely,” an excerpt from Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days, and “Why the Americans Are so Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity,” an excerpt from Democracy in America.

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, the texts are built around a central theme: “How do high school athletics reflect American society?” Students read core text that connects to this theme, such as in Section 2, Lesson 5, students read “Unchecked, Unchallenged and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?” by Ivey DeJesus and “The White Flight from Football” by Alana Semuels. Both texts highlight the central theme of how high school athletics reflect American society. 

  • In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, students investigate the Central Question: “How do we construct the story of a complicated history?” Examples of texts students study to explore a common line of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the narrative nonfiction The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and the poem “The South” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes.

  • In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, students investigate the Central Question: “How viable is the American dream of homeownership?” Complex texts students read to examine the coming line of inquiry include, but are not limited to, these Grade 11 appropriate texts: “Why Owning a Home is the American Dream” by Anthony Depalma and “The Civil Rights Law We Ignored” by Walter Mondale.

• Texts build knowledge, vocabulary, and the ability to read and comprehend complex texts across a school year.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, texts are focused around a central theme: “What does it mean to be an American?” Texts that reflect this theme include historical documents such as “The Declaration of Independence,” “The Preamble to the Constitution,” and “The 14th Amendment.” The unit also included contemporary speeches from President George W. Bush and Barack Obama. 

  • In The Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students focus on the question, “How do perceptions, illusions, and dreams influence our lives?” The unit supports the common theme and exploration of the American Dream with cross-cultural and multi-genre texts to prepare students for the culminating task of a literary analysis essay about human illusions and the American Dream. 

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, students read the narrative nonfiction book Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger throughout the unit. The rich vocabulary, complex meaning, and moderately complex structure of this text allows students to build their knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension for other reading tasks throughout the school year. Students complete a series of tasks throughout the unit that help shape their understanding of the Central Question. Students write an expository essay for the culminating task to answer the Central Question.

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, students develop their knowledge to closely watch and understand film by watching excerpts from Hidden Figures and using materials like Telling Stories with Film Filmmaking Glossary and Video Note-Taking Tool. 

  • In The Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, students answer “How viable is the American dream of homeownership?” For the culminating task on this theme, students will write an evidence-based argument in response to one of the controversial issues of homeownership they have explored through the volume of reading during the unit.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students develop knowledge and vocabulary to conduct their own independent research through the use of plans, checklists, and guides. For example, in Section 4, Lesson 2, students use a Research Frame Tool to map out their inquiry process with the resources they collect. This helps them build knowledge and comprehend the sources they are collecting.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 2b. 

Grade 11 materials provide opportunities for students to analyze the author’s word choice, structure, and point of view development as delineated in the grade-level craft and structure standards. Additionally, each unit in the Grade 11 materials includes guiding questions that students track throughout the unit; these questions are present throughout each lesson and within the written materials and tasks. In the independent reading lessons, students read texts related to the anchor texts and use the guiding questions to present their findings on how the texts relate to each other.

Students build knowledge by investigating a topic or anchor text through organized text sets in each unit. Throughout this process, students cite textual evidence and examine themes and complex characterization according to grade-level standards. To support student learning and literacy development, as students develop their projects they examine key ideas and details from texts, use texts to craft definitions of key concepts and themes through close examination of language used by the authors of the core texts read, examine choices made in film adaptations of literature and how these choices affect the overall meaning of the texts, and embed their learning into final products that take key details and structure into account as they compose their final drafts. 

The Foundation Unit provides data for teachers to make decisions about the support necessary in future development units and whether students might need additional guidance or differentiation. The scaffolding for students is consistent to support students in grade-level proficiency by the end of the year and to support comprehension of grade appropriate complex texts. By the end of the year, analysis of key ideas, details, craft, and structure are embedded into student tasks and routines.

Materials require students to analyze the key ideas, details, craft, and structure within individual texts as well as across multiple texts using coherently-sequenced, high-quality questions and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• For most texts, students analyze key ideas and details and craft and structure (according to grade-level standards).

  • The materials contain coherently sequenced questions and tasks that address key ideas and details.

    • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be An American?, Section 1, Lesson 3, students read and discuss the Preamble of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment to answer questions on key ideas and details from the text. As students read the Preamble of the Constitution, they answer the following questions: 

      • “Who are ‘we’?

      • Who do you think would have been included in ‘we’ in 1776?

      • Who is ‘we’ now?”

      Students examine the 14th Amendment by answering questions such as: 

      • “According to Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, who is a citizen of the United States?”

      These questions focus on central ideas found in the text and students make inferences based on what they read. 

    In Section 2, Lesson 4, students read and annotate “What Makes an American” by Raoul de Roussy de Sales. Students analyze key ideas and details using the Attending to Details Tool to examine the texts for specific ideas and details that help them answer the Central Question: “What does it mean to be an American?” Students cite evidence and develop claims using the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool. Later in the lesson, students apply these skills to analyze their independent reading texts.

  • In The Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students focus on the question: “How do perceptions, illusions, and dreams influence our lives?” The unit supports the common theme and exploration of the American Dream with cross-cultural and multi-genre texts to prepare students for the culminating task of a literary analysis essay about human illusions and the American Dream.

    In Section 1, Lesson 3, students begin to analyze and discuss characterization and dialogue from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Examples of questions for consideration include:

    • “What features of Daisy captivate Nick the most? Why?

    • How would you describe Daisy’s relationship with her daughter?”

    In Section 2, Lesson 4, students interpret important developments and relationships among the characters in Chapter 4. To guide their annotation, students answer questions such as: 

    • “What do we learn about Gatsby and his relationship with Daisy in this section?”

    In Section 2, Lesson 6, students read “I, Too” by Langston Hughes. After analyzing the theme of the poem and the language on a phrase by phrase level, including asking “Is the ‘darker brother’ the poet himself, or someone else?”  Students answer:

    • “How does the perspective of the voice in the poem compare to Nick’s perspective in The Great Gatsby?

    • How does the tone of the poem’s language compare to the tone of Nick’s descriptions?”

    In Section 3, Lesson 2, students consider the following prompt:

    • “Analyze character relationships: What do we learn about the characters and their perceptions, interactions, and conflicts?”

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 3, Lesson 1, students connect sources they have collected to their inquiry path using the Potential Sources and Research Note-Taking Tools. Students use these tools to identify the relevance of the resource to their topic by examining key ideas from the text and cite strong evidence to support their inquiry process. 

• The materials contain coherently sequenced questions and tasks that address craft and structure.

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 2, Lesson 1, students analyze how the author’s craft and structure contribute to the meaning of Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. Students answer a series of text-specific questions that focus on craft and structure elements of Chapter 5, including how the author’s specific word choice and description of varying characters’ perspectives contribute to the meaning and tone of the text. 

    In Section 4, Lesson 1, students read and discuss the beginning of Chapter 11 from Friday Night Lights to explore key ideas presented in the text surrounding the concept of values. Students answer questions that focus on how this concept is presented in the craft and structure of the text:

    • “Reread the fourth paragraph on the first page of Chapter 11. Discuss Bissinger’s description of Odessa and Midland. Why is this description so impactful? What language does he use to make it impactful?

    • Why does the author begin Part 2 of Chapter 11 with the anecdotes he uses? What purpose does this have in his writing?

    • On page 236, Bissinger states that people like Giebel want to ‘build an empire, a lasting monument.’ Why are these phrases important? What do they say about the citizens? Why does he use the terms empire and monument?”

  • In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 1, Lesson 2, students utilize a Structure Note-Taking Tool while reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. Students work in pairs or trios to deepen their understanding and to answer questions, such as:

    • “How does the organization of the ideas and information in this section enhance my understanding of the text?”

    In Section 2, students read a series of poems by Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Claude Mckay, authors referenced and included in the anchor text, The Warmth of Other Suns, to prepare to answer the guiding question for Section 2: “What is the relationship between the end of slavery and the Great Migration?” To support their capacity to answer this question, in the preceding lessons students develop an understanding of both the end of slavery and the Great Migration. Students also use the Attending to Details Tool to explore the poems, noting words, phrases, and sentences that frame their thinking.

    In Section 3, Lesson 3, students continue to track Wilkerson’s structure and sources in Part 3 using the same tool. Students answer questions to establish understanding and deepen understanding. 

    In Section 5, Lesson 2, students revisit the Structure Note-Taking Tool during Part 5 and the Epilogue. Students document their thinking throughout the unit to develop their understanding and to prepare for the Culminating Task to “Choose one of these threads [Wilkerson utilizes to weave together her telling of the history of the Great Migration] and write an essay in which you explain how the thread impacts Wilkerson's account of the Great Migration and what would be lost in her examination if that thread were removed. Be sure to support your claims with relevant textual evidence.”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 3, Lesson 1, students watch the opening sequences from Rushmore and The Hate You Give and analyze the filmmakers' storytelling choices. For example, students explore the films using the concept presented by screenwriter Neil Landau: “Make setting a character.” Students examine Rushmore and The You Give and how setting influences the mood and atmosphere of the films. 

• By the end of the year, these components (language, word choice, key ideas, details, structure, craft) are embedded in students’ work rather than taught directly.

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, students complete a culminating activity to create a five-page “pitch-packet” of a film they imagine creating that focuses on the details and style of the film and address questions, such as “How will you use filmmaking and storytelling techniques to create a film that brings your ideas and vision to life?” In Section 5, Lesson 5, students put this final pitch together using the Filmmaking Glossary, which emphasizes details, craft, and structure of a film, such as point of view, exposition, subplots, and subtext. Students use these concepts in the glossary to compose their final draft of their pitch packet. 

  • In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 1, Lesson 7, students utilize the Attending to Details Tool to note key details as they read Chapter 5: “Detached Houses: The Dream of Home Ownership,” an excerpt from The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation by Jim Cullen. Examples of questions students respond to include:

    • “What details does the author present to explain why his parents chose to move from the city to the suburbs?

    • What details does the author present to explain why he feels a sense of shame about his upbringing in the suburbs?”

    In Section 2, Lesson 1, students read and form claims about the article “Legacy of the Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson. Students note and analyze key details using a copy of the Attending to Details Tools to form an evidence-based observation and to discuss the question: “How has the Wilkerson article expanded or challenged your understanding of the Great Migration?”

    In Section 5, students complete a culminating task that “respond[s] to a complex ethical question by researching information, identifying perspectives, delineating arguments, developing a personal perspective and position, and writing an evidence-based argument.” By this point in the unit, students are familiar with the evaluation process and were guided in preparing their research and returning to guiding questions encountered in the unit. Students follow a Culminating Task Checklist and rubric to support their planning, pacing, and accountability to embed the required components within their work to demonstrate mastery of unit skills and standards.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research, students apply the skills they have learned about analyzing language, word choice, key ideas, details, structure, and craft to complete a research assignment. Direct instruction is not provided because students are expected to apply the knowledge they have gained from previous lessons; rather, each component is embedded throughout the tasks and guiding questions students use to prepare their research presentations. Students use the Research Note-Taking Tool to analyze potential texts for their research; a column titled “Notes” requires students to note key ideas and details from the texts and discuss how they relate to the central ideas for their research.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 2c. 

The Grade 11 materials include questions and tasks to support students’ analysis of knowledge and ideas via sets of coherently sequenced higher-order questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, knowledge, and ideas within a text or texts to make meaning and to build an understanding of a text or a topic.

Throughout the year, students read a variety of selections for analysis and annotation while investigating a topic. The sequences of text-specific and/or text-dependent questions support students in their ability to analyze across multiple texts and within single texts. The materials juxtapose texts strategically to build student knowledge around a common topic or theme. Lessons build to a unit culminating task or project through which students demonstrate understanding of the core body of knowledge and skills built into the unit. By the end of the year, integrating knowledge and ideas is embedded in student work. 

Materials require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas within individual texts as well as across multiple texts using coherently-sequenced, high-quality, text-specific and/or text-dependent questions and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Most sets of questions and tasks support students’ analysis of knowledge.

  • Sets of questions and tasks provide opportunities to analyze within single texts.

    • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American, Section 2, Lesson 2, students select a common seed text from the Foundation Unit Pathway Text and determine the perspective, credibility, and relevance using the Evaluating Ideas Tool. Students respond to questions such as:

      • “What are the author’s central ideas or views?

      • How do the author’s language choices indicate his or her perspective?

      • What does the author of the text leave uncertain or unstated? Why?

      • How does this text help my understanding of what it means to be an American?”

    • In The Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students focus on the question: How do perceptions, illusions, and dreams influence our lives? The unit supports the common theme and exploration of the American Dream with cross-cultural and multi-genre texts to prepare students for the Culminating Task, a literary analysis essay about human illusions and the American Dream.

      • In Section 3, Lesson 1, students analyze key scenes from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. At this point in the unit, students are prepared to examine how the author develops the conflicts, tension, suspense, and thematic threads that lead to the climactic events of the novel. As students read and analyze the text, they consider a series of Scene Analysis Questions, including:

        • “Examine the narrative point of view: How is the scene presented, and how do its narrator’s perceptions and descriptions influence your reading?

        • Evaluate effects: How do description, imagery, symbolism, or dialogue contribute to the mood, atmosphere, and meaning of the scene?

        • Interpret meaning: What theme or themes of the novel does the scene develop? What do you think Fitzgerald is suggesting?”

      • In Section 4, Lesson 1, students listen to Ari Shapiro’s podcast “American Dream faces Harsh New Reality” and respond to the prompt: Shapiro references The Great Gatsby and its early representation of a form of the American Dream—six years before James Adam coined the term. What other connections between the ideas of the podcast and the themes of the novel do you see? What do you think the novel says about the American Dream through its depiction of Gatsby and his dreams?

  • Sets of questions and tasks provide opportunities to analyze across multiple texts.

    • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, students complete a culminating activity where they look at the text Friday Night Lights, by H. G. Bissinger, through a cultural lens. Students analyze a series of texts representing social issues, such as fandom, race, gender, and values.

      • In Section 2, Lesson 3, students read “Unchecked, Unchallenged, and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?” by Ivey DeJesus, and answer a series of text-specific questions such as: 

        • “The author states,’Under the proverbial Friday night lights that shape so much of a young person’s high school experience, racism seems to be courting a foothold on the field and court—unchecked, unchallenged and unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?’ This seems to be the author’s main claim, or her thesis statement. How does this statement relate to what we have read in Friday Night Lights?”

Both the question and task are examples of students analyzing multiple texts within the unit as they read the text on racism in high school sports and connect ideas presented to Friday Night Lights.

• In Section 3, Lesson 5, students complete the Section Diagnostic in which they answer the following questions to analyze multiple texts:

  • “How does Bissinger portray the impact of gender on the students and athletic culture of Permian High?

  • How does Bissinger’s perspective compare to those of the authors of the other section texts?”

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 2, Lesson 2, students listen to a reading of “The Migration of Negroes” by W.E.B. Du Bois and consider the Question Set in relation to this text. Students analyze the following quote from the text: “There is a silent influence operating in the hearts of the growing class of intelligent Negroes that the insurmountable barriers of caste unnecessarily fetter the opportunities to which every living soul is entitled, namely, a fair chance to earn an honest living and educate his children and be protected by the laws,” by unpacking any unfamiliar language before answering the prompt:

  • “How do the speaker’s choice of words and the sentence structure of this quotation help to convey his point of view about the situation faced by so many in the South?”

Student knowledge acquired through the analysis of “The Migration of Negroes” and subsequent questions develop students’ understanding of the key ideas and details in The Warmth of Other Suns.

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 1, Lesson 3, students read a series of reviews on the film Hidden Figures and complete a jig-saw activity to analyze the reviews and complete the Understanding a Movie Tool. 

In Section 4, Lesson 3, students read texts to build knowledge and understanding of “the new lives waiting for and experienced by those who left the South in hopes of a better quality of life.” As students track Isabel Wilkerson’s structure and sources in The Warmth of Other Suns, students respond to a series of questions to deepen understanding such as:

• “What stylistic elements stand out in this section of the text?

• How does the style enhance my understanding?” 

Students continue the lesson by reading and analyzing the newspaper articles, “Where We Are Lacking” and “Penalties of Migration” answering discussion questions connecting to the migration experience such as:

• “How did life in the North and West compare to life in the South for the migrants?

• How did reality compare with the fantasy of a new life? What were the impacts and effects of the single decision to migrate?”

• By the end of the year, integrating knowledge is embedded in students’ work.

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 5, Lesson 4, students integrate knowledge from the texts they have read in the unit to create their own movie. To support student planning, students complete the Understanding a Movie Tool with embedded instruction on integrating knowledge; for example, students use what they have learned about how an author conveys mood to explain how they will create the mood of their movies.

  • In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 2, Lesson 4, students study data infographics for American cities that indicate continuing racial segregation patterns. Students develop claims about the patterns and consider these while reading, analyzing, and delineating the argument in Vice President Mondale’s 2018 op-ed essay “The Civil Rights Law We Ignored.” Students utilize the Delineating Arguments Tool as they respond to a series of questions, including:

    • “Given his background and the ideas he presents, what seems to be Vice President Mondale’s perspective in this essay?

    • What information and claims about the past and recent history of the Fair Housing Act are presented by Mondale in support of his contention that it has been ignored?”

  • Student tasks and close analyses of texts around the Central Question “How viable is the American dream of homeownership?” prepare students to demonstrate their “knowledge and perspective with a culminating argumentative essay addressing an aspect of a specific issue surrounding homeownership.”

    • In Section 5, students complete the Culminating Task to “develop a perspective and argumentative position in response to a complex issue about homeownership in the United States...supported by a series of evidence-based claims, including at least one counterargument to an opposing perspective or position.” By the end of the year, the students choose and prepare their own topic of study, returning to guiding questions encountered in the Foundation Unit and throughout the Development Units. Students follow a Culminating Task Checklist and rubric to support their planning, pacing, and accountability to embed the required components within their work to demonstrate mastery of unit skills and standards.

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students complete a culminating task where they complete an interest-based research project. The task asks students to do the following:

  • “Share your Central Research Question and tell the story of why you became interested in the question and how you arrived at your current understanding of your research topic.

  • Present a clear, engaging narrative of your research process, communicating the evolution of your critical thinking and learning, reflecting on the challenges and successes you experienced, and citing evidence from a wide range of perspectives to help your audience understand the context and conclusions of your work.

  • Tailor your final presentation to your audience, using auditory, visual, and digital aids, as well as public-speaking techniques that will keep them engaged.

  • Respond to questions from your audience respectfully and knowledgeably by citing your sources and expressing your conclusions.”

Students integrate their analysis of single and multiple texts throughout the unit using tools such as the Research Evaluation Checklist to analyze the credibility of sources along with the relevance of the information presented for their selected inquiry pathway.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 2d. 

The Grade 11 materials include multimodal and summative unit Culminating Tasks that provide various ways for students to communicate their understanding to smaller peer groups and to the larger learning community. Unit Culminating Tasks are varied and include the following: Narrative Essay/Group Presentation; Fictional, Personal, or Historical Narrative; Literary Analysis; Explanatory Essays; Argumentative Essay; and Portfolio/Group Presentation. Session Diagnostics at the end of each unit section provide formative opportunities to assess student readiness of the discrete skills required to complete each Culminating Task. According to the Program Guide: “Written diagnostics tasks span a range of task types, including literary analysis, argument, narrative, and expository. Oral diagnostics may be tasks done by an individual (e.g., participation in a Socratic Seminar) or in groups (e.g., presentation of an analysis with teammates).”

Culminating tasks require students to demonstrate their knowledge of a unit’s topic/theme through integrated literacy skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Culminating tasks are evident across a year’s worth of material and they are multifaceted, requiring students to demonstrate mastery of several different standards (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) at the appropriate grade level. Culminating tasks are varied across the year and provide students the opportunity to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge of a topic or topics through integrated skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening).

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, students complete the Culminating Task, a presentation and reflection incorporating speaking, listening, reading and writing skills to address the Central Question:  “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” and to share their team’s inquiry questions, investigative findings, claims, and specific textual evidence. Over the course of the unit, students develop their findings and claims, state important aspects of their research process, and submit possible questions for additional investigation. 

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 4, Lesson 9, students participate in a formal fishbowl discussion for the Section Diagnostic. Student-facing materials in the Lesson Overview of Section 4 direct students as follows:

    • “We will communicate an evidence-based claim that takes a position about one of the two characters and his significance in the novel.”

This task requires students to demonstrate mastery of several standards, including developing strong claims and counterclaims, establishing and maintaining a formal style, using precise and academic language, using strong evidence from the text to support inferences, and demonstrating an understanding of literary elements, devices, and terminology. 

• In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 3, students utilize reading and writing skills to complete the Section 3 Diagnostic, a written response based on their understanding of Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger and other Section 3 texts that answers the questions:

  • “How does Bissinger portray the impact of gender on the students and athletic culture of Permian High? 

  • How does Bissinger’s perspective compare to those of the authors of the other section texts?”

The Culminating Task Connections notes on the Section 3 Diagnostic read:

• “This prepares students to analyze how the issues of gender in high school sports impact the student-athletes’ perspectives on American society. The comparison of two issues prepares students to think about a topic critically.

• Students also demonstrate their ability to respond in writing to questions about the text. This prepares students to explain how high school sports reflect American society.”

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section Diagnostics provide opportunities for students to engage in class discussions, formal presentations, and writing responses in preparation for the unit Culminating Task, an explanatory essay addressing the Central Question: “How do we construct the story of a complicated history?” In Section 2, Lesson 6, for example, students engage in the Section Diagnostic, a class discussion addressing the questions:

  • “What is the relationship between the end of slavery and the Great Migration?

  • What were the most significant factors that impacted the lives of African Americans in the South between 1915 and 1975?

  • Which of these weighed most heavily on Ida’s, George’s, and Robert’s decisions to leave the South?

  • How do the texts from this section enhance our understanding of the decision to migrate?”

In Section 3, Lesson 7, students complete the Section 3 Diagnostic, a formal presentation that explains which panel of Lawrence’s The Migration Series best represents and connects to the history Wilkerson constructs in her text. To complete this task, students demonstrate knowledge by integrating reading, writing, and speaking skills and by using their textual analysis to support and deliver their presentations.

In Section 4, Lesson 7, students complete the Section Diagnostic, a written response that focuses on one of the characters from The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and addresses the prompt:

• “How was the person’s life affected, altered, or impacted as a result of the decision to migrate?

• Write a response identifying the individual, and explain how the person’s life changed because of the decision to migrate.”

Over the course of the unit, students examine the “threads” Wilkerson utilizes to weave together her telling of the history of the Great Migration in the text, The Warmth of Other Suns, including: push and pull factors, the legacy of slavery, the impact of a single decision on the trajectory of life experiences, and the long-term effects of decisions to leave the South. To complete the unit Culminating Task, student-facing materials direct students as follows:

• “Choose one of these threads and write an essay in which you explain how the thread impacts Wilkerson's account of the Great Migration and what would be lost in her examination if that thread were removed.”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 2, Lesson 9, students complete the Section Diagnostic, a movie analysis comparing the levels of realism between Blackfish by Gabriella Cowperthwaite and a more fictionalized movie. In the Section 3 Diagnostic, students complete an evaluation of a movie, including a 3-5 minute oral review. These tasks prepare students for the Culminating Task, a film proposal in which students develop an idea for their own original feature film and create a “pitch packet.” The various tasks provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding of the texts and unit theme via reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 5, students work towards the Culminating Task, an argumentative essay addressing the unit Central Question: “How viable is the American dream of homeownership?” Students-facing materials provide a set of standards-based requirements for completing this task, specifically:

  • “Develop a clear position supported by a series of evidence-based claims.

  • Include at least one counterargument refuting an opposing position.

  • Support your claims with evidence from multiple credible sources and include proper citations.

  • Organize your claims and evidence into a well-reasoned argument for a specific audience and purpose.

  • Use effective diction, syntax, and tone.”

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 5, Lesson 1, students work with their research groups to develop an action plan to address the Culminating Task, a presentation to their learning communities that addresses a group-developed inquiry question. Students collaborate in teams to develop and deliver a presentation of their findings to their learning community. Students use the Culminating Task Checklist to assist their completion of the task, which includes the following categories for assessment: Reading & Knowledge Goals, Writing Goals, and Speaking & Listening Goals. Students complete the checklist by answering prompts, such as: “How well does our presentation use visual media and technological tools in an effective way, building the audience’s interest and illuminating our findings?” 

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 1, Lesson 7, students submit the team’s research materials for the completion of their Diagnostic Task. This allows for the teacher to give direct feedback after assessing the student’s preparedness to complete the Culminating Task. For this diagnostic task, students employ speaking and listening skills in group research, reading skills in the assessment of sources for their research, and writing skills in the submission of their ideas on their research.

• Earlier text-specific and/or text-dependent questions and tasks are coherently sequenced and will give the teacher usable information about the student's readiness (or whether they are “on track”) to complete culminating tasks.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 1, Lesson 3, students read and annotate “The Preamble of the United States Constitution” and “The 14th Amendment” by the United States Congress. The student-facing materials provide a coherent series of questions including:

    • “Who are ‘we’?

    • Who do you think would have been included in ‘we’ in 1776?

    • Who is ‘we’ now?

    • What do you know about the Civil War and Reconstruction?

    • According to Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, who is a citizen of the United States?”

The various readings and lessons students complete provide questions for consideration that will prepare students for the Culminating Task, an oral address in which they collaboratively research, create, and deliver a presentation about American identity area and write an individual reflection on their research process. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition share, “It is important for students to recognize that the concept of ‘we’ has changed since the inception of the Constitution.” Teachers can use these opportunities to inform instructional decisions and assess student understanding of the texts throughout the unit.

• In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students complete the Culminating Task, a multi paragraph literary analysis and critical argument that states an interpretive position and supports the response with text-based claims. Students have the option of answering one of the following prompts:

  • “What does The Great Gatsby ultimately suggest about human perception, illusions, and dreams—and potentially about the American Dream?

  • As a narrator, is Nick Carraway the novel’s ‘most important character’ (Mellard), a judgmental ‘snob’ (Donaldson), or an ‘unreliable’ voice (Boyle)? What is your own reading of Nick’s character and role in the novel?”

Students prepare for this Culminating Task throughout the lessons and activities within the unit, and teachers have the opportunity to assess students’ readiness for the task ahead. In Section 2, Lesson 8, for example, students practice literary analysis in the Section Diagnostic as they write a one-paragraph analysis addressing a series of questions, such as:

• “How does Fitzgerald describe and contrast characters, settings, and scenes in Chapters 2–4? Analyze a set of contrasting characters or settings and scenes to explain the impact on your reading and your understanding of the novel.”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 4, Lesson 1, students read the article “Flick Chicks: A guide to Women in the Movies." by Mindy Kaling and answer the following questions:

  • “In what ways is Kaling’s character type an example of a caricature, a stereotype, or a trope?

  • Thinking about the problems with movie stereotypes, how do you feel about the portrayals of women that Kaling satirizes?”

Students respond by completing a short-write in their Learning Logs, which provides teachers the opportunity to monitor student preparedness for the Section Diagnostic during which students “Write, and be prepared to read dramatically, a detailed character sketch of your movie’s protagonist, including his or her relationship to the antagonist in the movie.” The activity prepares students for this diagnostic task by helping students avoid writing their female characters as stereotypes, caricatures, and tropes. Writing and developing these characters also support student readiness for the unit Culminating Task to develop an idea for an original feature film and create a five-page "pitch packet." 

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 5, Lesson 1, students begin the unit Culminating Task, an argument that addresses the question: How viable is the American dream of homeownership? Student-facing materials prompt students as follows:

  • “Based on the texts you have read in this unit and your own research, write an argumentative essay that establishes and supports a position in response to a current issue related to homeownership.”

In earlier sections of the unit, students prepare for the Culminating Task by completing formal and informal writing tasks in response to coherently sequenced guiding questions and prompts. In Section 1, Lesson 1, for example, the student-facing materials outline the following information to prepare students in advance of the unit theme and Culminating Task:

• “We will begin our examination of homeownership and the American Dream by considering the following question: Why has homeownership been considered part of the American Dream? We will see how the mythology of owning a home has been built through songs such as ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ written in 1823, and learn about the post–World War II building boom that made owning a home accessible to many, but not all, Americans.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 2e. 

The Grade 11 materials provide writing tasks across the grade level that increase in complexity. The program’s design provides practice through Section Diagnostics to allow teachers to monitor student progress of grade appropriate writing activities and to prepare students for completing the unit summative tasks. The program also offers a final Application Unit as a capstone in which students can follow a self-selected topic of inquiry and apply writing skills they acquire and practice throughout the year. The student-facing materials include guidance as students complete writing tasks, and the teacher-facing materials provide additional support for scaffolding, including opportunities for modeling and using exemplar or model texts students read during the unit. A Literacy Toolbox includes Reference Guides and Tools to support student writing tasks. These tools are incorporated purposefully throughout the course materials.

Students encounter a Culminating Task at the beginning of each unit and perform a series of formal and informal writing activities addressing grade-level standards to build their knowledge and writing skills over the course of each unit. The materials provide students a wide range of writing tasks, including short-response questions, guiding questions, and formative writing opportunities throughout the year. Writing tasks vary in length and purpose and help students to develop their analytical, argumentative, informational, and narrative writing skills. The lessons provide a cohesive design so that students apply and expand the skills they learn from previous lessons to perform on later lessons throughout the units. Culminating tasks walk students through each stage of the writing process and allow students to monitor their progress with rubrics, checklists, and graphic organizers. Writing instruction and assignments scale up in difficulty throughout the year. Writing instruction supports students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the year.

Materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to achieve grade-level writing proficiency by the end of the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Materials include writing instruction that aligns to the standards for the grade level and supports students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year.

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, students complete the Culminating Task, an expository essay addressing the prompt, “How does Bissinger portray high school athletic culture at Permian High School?” Writing guidelines direct students to:

    • “Write an expository essay in which you state your response and logically and sufficiently support your response with claims. Support your claims with relevant textual evidence, including direct quotations with parenthetical citations. Apply correct and effective words, phrases, syntax, usage, and mechanics to clearly communicate your analysis.”

Unit lessons and activities are designed to support student development of writing skills.

• In Section 1, Lesson 3, for example, students answer the Section 1 Question Set of text-dependent prompts, including:

  • “Why does Bissinger make the statement about political parties on page 42, Paragraph 3?

  • What is his perspective on the political leanings of Odessa?

  • How do you know?” 

In Section 1, Lesson 7, students write an expository response to demonstrate their understanding of the first four chapters of Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. For this writing assignment, students analyze the text and respond in writing to prepare them for further writing throughout the unit and across the school year.

In Section 5, Lesson 1, students use the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool to answer framing questions such as, “How do the lessons student athletes learn about values impact their perspective of American society?” 

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, after reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and other related texts, students complete the Culminating Task, an essay to “explain how the thread impacts Wilkerson's account of the Great Migration and what would be lost in her examination if that thread were removed.” Students practice developing their writing through Section Diagnostics with the unit.

In Section 1, Lesson 8, for example, students complete the Section Diagnostic in which they write a response to the following questions:

• “What do you notice about Wilkerson’s choices regarding sources, organization, and structure?

• How do those choices help her achieve her purpose and convey her perspective on the subjects she writes about?”

Lesson Goals for this activity include writing standards that require students to:

• “Form Claims: How well do I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis?

• Develop Ideas: How well do I use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to support and elaborate on coherent and logical narratives, explanations, and arguments?

• Gather and Organize Evidence: How well do I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence in order to demonstrate understanding of texts and topics, support claims, and develop ideas?

• Use Conventions to Produce Clear Writing: How well do I apply correct and effective syntax, usage, mechanics, and spelling to communicate ideas and achieve intended purposes?”

In Section 2, Lesson 6, students compose a quick-write in response to guiding questions, such as: “How do the texts from this section enhance our understanding of the decision to migrate?” The student-facing materials prompt students to use the Sources Note-Taking Tool and Vocabulary Journal from the previous lesson. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition offer additional guidance to support students, including:

• “It is important that students receive your feedback on their Section Diagnostic performance as soon as possible. Providing timely academic feedback is crucial to students’ literacy development and understanding of their own proficiency.”

Throughout the unit, the writing tasks align to the standards for the grade level, provide opportunities for teachers to assess student readiness, help students to achieve proficiency with the Culminating Task, and support students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year.

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, students complete the Culminating Task during which they develop an argumentative position addressing the unit Central Question, “How viable is the American Dream of Homeownership?” Students develop their writing throughout the unit through a series of informal and formal writing opportunities and use a series of data, information, and examples from the materials to compose an argumentative thesis.

In Section 1, Lesson 10, for example, students write expository paragraphs in response to what current research data suggests about homeownership. The student-facing materials prompt students to use materials they have already created in preparation of the diagnostic assessment, including the Vocabulary Journal and Mentor Sentence Journal, as follows: “Identify a significant word or words and at least one sentence writing technique that you would like to use in your response to the Section Diagnostic.” 

The materials indicate that the teacher will review drafts to assess student understanding and skills at this point in the unit. The activities also include an opportunity for students to reflect on their work and self-assess their skill readiness.

In Section 2, Lesson 4, students consider their own positions on fair housing and desegregation based on texts read in the section and compose “a paragraph that presents and explains your perspective and position. Include references to texts or websites we have examined.” 

In Section 4, Lesson 3, students compose a synopsis of their argument using the following set of guidelines:

• “Specifically explain the issue, subtopic, and question you will focus on, your purpose for writing the argument, and the audience you are intending to address.

• Clearly communicate and explain the argument’s central position and each of its supporting claims, including at least one counterclaim.

• Overview the reasoning and organizational plan you intend to use to present the argument.

• Overview and explain how you will use evidence to develop the argument, identifying the main sources you intend to cite.”

These formal and informal activities are cohesively sequenced to help students prepare for the unit Culminating Task by allowing them to develop and refine their argumentative thesis. 

• Instructional materials include a variety of well-designed guidance, protocols, models, and support for teachers to implement and monitor students’ writing development.

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students complete the Culminating Task, “a multi-paragraph literary analysis and critical argument in which you state your interpretive position, and logically and sufficiently support your response with text-based claims.” Throughout the unit, the writing tasks provide opportunities for teachers to assess student readiness and support them to achieve proficiency with the Culminating Task.

In Section 2, Lesson 1, for example, students examine a mentor sentence from Chapter 2 from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, analyzing how structure and use of literary devices contribute to the novel’s meaning. The student-facing materials guide students through the process and support them to perform tasks independently via prompts, such as:

• “Explain the final image and phrase: ‘men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.’”

Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include additional instructions to share with students, such as

• “Remind students to keep a collection of mentor sentences in their Mentor Sentence Journal, so they have a robust writer’s toolbox to consult for their responses on their Section Diagnostic and Culminating Tasks.”

In Section 2, Lesson 2, teachers model text analysis using the Character Note-Taking Tool and Analyzing Relationships Tool in which students identify detail about characters and locate supporting evidence. Students then use these tools to “Identify key details about Myrtle that contrast with Daisy, and use a Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool to make a claim about Myrtle and how she presents a counterpoint to Daisy in the novel.” To help students develop their writing throughout the unit, teachers use a collection of guides and tools to support student practice of the analysis required for the unit Culminating Task.

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 1, Lesson 8, students “write a multi-paragraph synopsis of the movie we independently watched and analyzed that provides background information about the movie, summarizes its storyline and its central characters’ story arcs, and analyzes its use of filmmaking techniques, its overall style, and the filmmakers’ message.” The Teacher Edition provides support for teachers to implement and monitor students’ writing development by providing guidance such as:

  • “Work together as a class to make one or more revisions to the weak model based on the answers to the questions. Review the revised model and ask students to explain how the revisions improve the support and development of ideas.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 2f. 

Grade 11 materials build skills throughout the year, including opportunities for collaborative research, evaluating sources, synthesis and analysis of texts, and applying those skills in a unit-long research project as a capstone for the course. The Program Guide provides details relating to active learning through inquiry: “In the Foundation and Application units, students investigate a topic through recursive and iterative cycles of inquiry in which they work in learning communities to explore significant issues and topics, refine research questions, find and assess sources for relevance and credibility, and present their research in various forms.” Students compile comprehensive research on specific questions during the final Application Unit and present their findings to their learning community. The student-determined text set during the final unit provides students with an opportunity to explore topics they have been learning more deeply and demonstrate the research skills they acquire.

The materials reviewed for this grade level include a progression of research skills according to the grade level standards by providing various opportunities for students to engage in online research and discussion of unit topics and to cite evidence from multiple sources in the Lesson Activities, Section Diagnostics, Culminating Tasks, and Independent Reading Presentations. Students also have the opportunity to synthesize work and analyze content through a variety of tools provided in the materials and are given opportunities to complete research projects of varying lengths. Materials sequence research projects throughout the year to help students progress in their research skills. At the beginning of the year, students begin to practice working in groups in the Foundation Unit with focused guidance from the instructor, and during the Application Unit at the end of the year students work collaboratively in self-directed teams with the instructor acting as coach or facilitator. Materials support teachers in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge of different aspects of a topic. The materials provide guidance and support to teachers, including but not limited to, questions to prompt student thinking, graphic organizers to assist students, and an option for teachers to provide various scaffolds for students.

Materials include a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Research projects are sequenced across a school year to include a progression of research skills according to grade-level standards. 

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 1, Lesson 4, students explore the question, “How do perceptions, illusions, and dreams influence our lives?” Students deepen their knowledge and skills to read and analyze texts through guiding questions and close examination of the text, “The Trouble With Nick: Reading Gatsby Closely,” an excerpt from Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days by Scott Donaldson. The student-facing materials prompt students to consider the following questions:

    • “What is a new claim the author makes to further develop his analysis of Nick as a snob?

    • What evidence from the text does Donaldson cite to support his claim?”

• In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 1, Lesson 7, students engage in a progression of research skills. For this lesson, students use their notes to answer the question, “How do the fans in Odessa impact the players of the Permian football team?” Subsequently, in Section 3, Lesson 5, students use their research to answer two questions that represent a progression from the question in Section 1: “How does Bissinger portray the impact of gender on the students and athletic culture of Permian High? How does Bissinger’s perspective compare to those of the authors of the other section texts?”

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, in the Culminating Task in Section 6, students gather ideas and information from multiple resources to write a response to the prompt:

  • “How do we construct the story of a complicated history? Wilkerson utilizes a number of threads to weave together her telling of the history of the Great Migration. Choose one of these threads and write an essay in which you explain how the thread impacts Wilkerson's account of the Great Migration and what would be lost in her examination if that thread were removed. Be sure to support your claims with relevant textual evidence.”

Students utilize a graphic organizer in their planning, adding thoughts on the thesis, the main idea in evidence from a variety of sources, and concluding thoughts. Lessons within the unit provide students with a wealth of information on The Great Migration to pull from in order to complete this writing task. 

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students use the Grade 11: Application Unit Potential Topics Tool they have been developing throughout the entire year to reach consensus on ideas to explore in their research teams. In Section 1, Lesson 1, students review the Application Unit Potential Topics Tool and answer the following questions:

  • “What topic, angle, or text from this unit interested you most? Why?

  • What questions do you have about this topic that remain unanswered?

  • What topic, angle, or text from this unit do you want to explore further?

  • Are there any books, articles, websites, or movies about this topic that you would like to read, watch, or explore more? If so, list them here.

  • Are there any sites you would like to visit or people you would like to interview to help you learn more about this topic? If so, list them here.

  • What are some of your most interesting insights about this topic?”

• Materials support teachers in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge of different aspects of a topic via provided resources. 

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students examine texts they wish to use in their research pathways and record their research notes as a group. The Teacher Edition Teaching Notes suggest:

    • “In order to give adequate feedback early on in the research process, be aware of each team’s individual note-taking system so that you can catch any misconceptions, leave constructive criticism, and provide positive reinforcement.”

Students use the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts to develop their pathway inquiry questions. As students read the first text they select, they answer:

• “What are the author’s central ideas in this text?

• What details support those ideas?

• How does this text help my understanding of what it means to be an American?”

When students select their second resource, they complete the Evaluating Ideas Tool using the following questions as a guide:

• “What are the author’s central ideas or views?

• How do the author’s language choices indicate his or her perspective?

• What does the author of the text leave uncertain or unstated? Why?”

• In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 5, Lesson 8, students engage in a sustained recursive inquiry process as they conduct research to complete the Culminating Task, a multi-paragraph literary analysis and critical argument that states an interpretive position, and logically and sufficiently supports the response with text-based claims. The instructional materials provide a Culminating Task Progress Tracker to help students develop research and note-taking skills, reflect on what they have studied, and consider potential inquiry questions for the final Application Unit. Teachers may use the Culminating Task Progress Tracker to conference with students and guide their questions when monitoring readiness both for The Great Gatsby unit Culminating Task and in the initial planning stage of the Application Unit end of year research project.  

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 6, Lesson 6, students collaborate in groups to discuss their understanding of the novel, including thematic connections to other units of study and possible questions and ideas to explore for the longer Application Unit research task at the end of the year. The materials also provide an Application Unit Potential Topics Tool for students to capture their reflections, and the teacher materials provide questions and prompts for teachers to support students, such as: 

  • “What about each text or topic do you still want to study? What questions do you still have? Write these down in the Questions or Subtopics to Explore column.

  • How would you begin to research each text or topic?”

Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide additional guidance relating to the Tool and the purpose of the project, for example:

• “It provides a space in which students can capture their reflections about what they found intriguing in a unit and might want to explore further in the Application Unit.

• It serves as a repository of leads they might research when they arrive at the Application Unit.”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 2, Lesson 4, students examine different aspects of realism present in a movie of their choice to prepare for the Section Diagnostic, an essay that compares the levels of realism between Blackfish by Gabriella Cowperthwaite, studied in class, and a more “fictionalized” movie that students watch and analyze independently. Student-facing materials prompt students to “Consider how the filmmakers for both movies use visual techniques, effects, and storytelling choices to make each movie feel realistic or fantastic, true or untrue.” To support students' knowledge and skill development in the completion of these tasks, the instructional materials include a Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist, Filmmaking Glossary, and Understanding a Movie Tool.

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 1, students build an initial research frame by generating and grouping inquiry questions to build inquiry paths that will further guide their investigations. To support students in this process, the materials provide a Research Evaluation Checklist and a Research Frame Tool. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide the following rationale and guidance to support students:

  • “The Research Frame Tool urges students to further refine their inquiry. Framing inquiry through inquiry paths allows students to have a plan for comprehensively exploring a topic. At every step of the investigation, students should go back to their research frame and ask themselves what they have learned, what questions they have answered, and what questions they should investigate next based on the results of their investigation at that point.

  • It is important to make it clear that the research frame is not meant to be static. Questions within the inquiry paths might change, become obsolete, or be replaced by new questions. Entire inquiry paths might need to be abandoned or added as well. Even the framing of the Central Research Question might evolve, as students might revise their angle of investigation.”

• Materials provide many opportunities for students to synthesize and analyze content tied to the texts under study as a part of the research process. 

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 4, Lesson 10, students use their research skills to synthesize and deepen their understanding of unit content by sharing analyses of their independent reading and the connections to unit texts studied in class. Student-facing materials prompt students as follows:

    • “Review the notes and claims you have already made and use Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tools to produce more formal statements that express your analysis. You can also use an Organizing Evidence Tool to note your primary and supporting claims and supporting evidence.”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, students analyze a film that they select to watch from Part 2 of the Movie Viewing List and the documentary Blackfish by Gabriella Cowperthwaite. In their analysis, students consider the following:

    • “Summarize the storylines and major character arcs for each movie.

    • Analyze the level of realism of each movie, presenting specific examples of techniques and choices used by the filmmakers to develop the atmosphere, mood, and realism of the film.

    • Present, explain, and support evidence-based claims about the style and message of the documentary Blackfish and the movie you viewed independently.

    • Compare the movie you watched independently with the documentary Blackfish, focusing on the realism, believability, style, and apparent messages of the two movies.

    • Present and defend a claim about the technical and storytelling differences between documentary films and more ‘fictionalized’ movies, as exemplified by the two films you watched and analyzed.”

  • In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 1, Lesson 2, students learn how to delineate an argument or informational source by considering its perspective, position, supporting claims, and use of evidence. The student-facing materials prompt students as follows:

    • “Based on your previous discussions, use a copy of the Delineating Arguments Tool to summarize and write down what you have learned about the issue, perspective, and position presented in ‘Why Owning a Home Is the American Dream.’ Consider what the author’s purpose might have been in writing the article and whether there is a controversy or question about the issue that he is addressing.”

Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provides the following additional guidance to teachers:

• “Students will use this tool throughout the unit to analyze others’ arguments and to plan their own, so modeling and practicing its use at this early state is important.”

The activity connects to students developing skills to draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

In Section 2, Lesson 6, students research and analyze texts to better answer the Culminating Task prompt:

• “Based on the texts you have read in this unit and your own research, write an argumentative essay that establishes and supports a position in response to a current issue related to homeownership, choosing from one of the subtopics.”

• Students choose to argue a position on homeownership from four subtopics. Students read a variety of material within the unit on all of the subtopics and then decide which to use as sources for their subtopic and argumentative position, including but not limited to, “Mapping Segregation” by Matthew Bloch, “Redefining the Multifamily Challenge” by Ben Carson, and the optional excerpts from Act 2 of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Students analyze and then synthesize the various sources to answer the prompt and develop their position and support it with evidence-based claims, use at least one counterargument refuting an opposing position, and support their claims with evidence from multiple credible sources. 

• Students are provided with opportunities for both short and long projects across the course of a year and grade bands.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 2, Lesson 3, students work in research teams to establish their understanding of a specific subtopic and generate a set of questions that are related to what it might mean to be an American. To begin investigation, student teams read, analyze, and evaluate common seed texts. This short research activity builds toward the unit Culminating Task, a longer research project in which students collaborate in research teams to create a 5–7 minute presentation about one of the following pathways: culture and American identity; democracy, civic engagement, and American identity; immigration and American identity; race, ethnicity, and American identity; religion and American identity; and war and American identity.

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, as part of the unit Culminating Task, students compose an expository essay responding to the central question, “How does Bissinger portray high school athletic culture at Permian High School?” Students examine this question through the themes of fandom, race, gender, and values. To prepare for this longer task, students explore these topics through shorter research opportunities earlier in the unit. In Section 2, Lesson 3, for example, students examine the article “Unchecked, Unchallenged and Unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?” by Ivey DeJesus by answering text-specific questions, such as:

    • “The author states, ‘Under the proverbial Friday night lights that shape so much of a young person’s high school experience, racism seems to be courting a foothold on the field and court—unchecked, unchallenged and unabashed: Is Racism in High School Sports Being Tolerated?’ This seems to be the author’s main claim, or her thesis statement. How does this statement relate to what we have read in Friday Night Lights?”

In Section 3, Lesson 5, students respond to the following questions as part of the Section Diagnostic:

• “How does Bissinger portray the impact of gender on the students and athletic culture of Permian High?

• How does Bissinger’s perspective compare to those of the authors of the other section texts?”

These activities allow students to practice researching and analyzing the themes of race and gender and how each relates to Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger in preparation for the unit Culminating Task. 

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 1, Lesson 1, students discuss the importance of a researched perspective and the research process. Students form small research teams and begin developing their research topics. The teacher discusses each phase of the Research Plan and the Research Portfolio Description section. In Section 1, Lesson 2, students begin the first section of a shorter research project using the Exploring a Topic Tool to identify one or two potential Central Research Questions that may lead to valuable questions and problems to explore for the longer research project that will complete the unit and the grade level materials. Students may choose from any of the prior units: What Does It Mean to Be an American?, The Great Gatsby, Friday Night Lights, The Warmth of Other Suns, Telling Stories With Film, and The American Dream of Homeownership and from all of the texts and topics within these units. 

The Application Unit provides students with an opportunity to self-direct their research process, build a research portfolio, and develop a presentation for their learning community that shares their research findings. Tools and Reference Guides students utilize in previous units are available for students in the Literacy Toolbox throughout the unit-long project.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3a.

Across the school year, the Teacher Edition includes guidance in the Teaching Notes. Teaching Notes address the following categories: Teaching Strategies and Decisions; About the Author, Concept, Text, Topic; and Student Support and Differentiation. Materials include a Literacy Toolbox  for students and teachers. This resource provides both teachers and students support and scaffolds for teaching and growing literacy development and includes a wide range of Reference Guides and Tools, including, but not limited to, Annotating and Note-Taking Reference Guide, Delineating Arguments Tool, and Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool. The Program Guide details the Guiding Principles, Program Design, Unit Components, Instructional Approaches, Support for Students with Diverse Learning Needs, Bias & Sensitivity, and Website Guidance. The Course-at-a-Glance also provides a descriptive snapshot of the program’s overall structure with several suggestions for yearlong pathways. 

Materials provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials to support students' literacy development. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials provide comprehensive guidance that will assist teachers in presenting the student materials and ancillary materials.

  • In the Program Guide, materials explain the function of the Teaching Notes section, “All units contain robust teaching notes that support teachers by providing important content and pedagogical information. The teaching notes are organized into three categories, About the Author, Concept, Text, Topic; Teaching Strategies and Decisions; and Student Support and Differentiation.” Materials offer content and pedagogical information. For example, in the Application Unit, Section 1, Lesson 1, the Teaching Notes provide insight into the importance of vocabulary instruction for ESL learners:

    • These opportunities provide students, particularly English learners, a tremendous chance to increase their cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). Often, students, particularly English learners, employ basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS).

Materials present opportunities for teachers to expand their knowledge of what these skills are and how they can support them in the classroom.

• In the Program Guide, materials provide teacher guidance on the Reference Guides available to students. Student-facing materials include reminders to utilize the Reference Guides, and these reminders are also included in the Teaching Notes. One example includes Reference Guides that support writing, such as Connecting Ideas, Conventions, Integrating Quotations, Organization, and Style. The guides “include definitions, descriptions, and examples of sundry conventions and language usage concepts. For example, the Connecting Ideas Reference Guide includes descriptions of the purpose and effects of transitions and a table highlighting ‘Transition Words and Phrases.’ The Integrating Quotations Reference Guide offers students examples of how to incorporate, and respectively credit, the work of others into their own writing.” 

• Materials include sufficient and useful annotations and suggestions that are presented within the context of the specific learning objectives.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students read and analyze a second text for their pathway. The Teacher Edition includes Teaching Notes on Teaching Strategies and Decisions, such as “Students will now move from primarily using the Attending to Details to the Evaluating Ideas Tool. These two tools are very similar in organization; moving from a question to the noting and analyzing of key details and finally to the development of a text-based observation or explanation.”

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 2, Lesson 7, students prepare to respond to the Section Diagnostic prompt. Teacher guidance for this lesson includes working with students mastering new vocabulary, supporting students in mastering new sentence styles, and a list of activities the teacher can utilize to assist students in using the new vocabulary before taking the Section Diagnostic. 

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 1, Lesson 5, students read Part 2 of Chapter 3 in Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. Students consider the following question: “1. How do the backgrounds of Boobie and his uncle, L.V., shape Boobie’s self-image as he enters adulthood?” The About the Author, Concept, Text, Topic Teaching Notes include the following guidance: “In the remaining parts of Chapter 3, Bissinger continues to describe Boobie and his life. Part 2 describes how Boobie came to live with uncle, L.V., as well as some background about L.V. himself. All of this information provides the reader with important details about the development of Boobie’s self-image.”

  • In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 1, Lesson 4, students work in expert groups using the Jigsaw Note-Taking Tool. The Teaching Notes include several look-fors and extensive guidance. Materials suggest teachers evaluate students' background and cultural knowledge and remediate when appropriate, sharing guidance for students when they are struggling to determine the central and supporting ideas.

  • In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 3, Lesson 8, students share the texts they are reading independently and their understandings gained from the reading of those texts. The teacher-facing materials support teachers and students with this lesson by suggesting that teachers meet one-on-one with students, so they can share their ideas. Materials suggest which tools (i.e., Reading Closely Tools and Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tools) support the students as they work independently.

  • In the Application Unit: What Do I Want to Research?, Section 3, Lesson 4, students learn how to provide parenthetical citations for the sources of information and quotations they use. The Teaching Notes addressing Student Support and Differentiation include: “If students struggle citing evidence, consider modeling different citation examples with a model source and text.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3b.

The explanation and examples help build teacher understanding to ensure teachers provide the necessary support for students throughout the lessons. Materials offer guidance on the use of external resources to address complex concepts, such as using polling data to drive learning, and explain the pedagogical importance of annotating a text. Materials also include teacher guidance on film analysis to support students with this concept, and provide guidance that is applicable across multiple grade bands and content areas.

Materials provide a teacher’s edition that contains full, adult-level explanations and examples, when necessary, of the more advanced concepts so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Materials contain adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade/course-level concepts so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 4, Lesson 3, students complete visual analysis of the cover art of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Teacher Edition includes the following adult-level explanations to support teacher understanding, “You can direct them to carefully examine details as they use the Visual Analysis Tool. They might make any and all of the following observations or claims: the eyes are Daisy’s; the figures reclining in the eyes are Myrtle’s body; the reflections are from Daisy looking through the windshield; the light blue streak is Daisy’s tears; the image at the bottom depicts New York City, Coney Island, Gatsby’s party, or the scene of the accident.”

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 4, Lesson 1, the Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include an analysis of chapter 11 from the book Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger and explain how “[...] excess would impact the children, young adults, and the football players in these cities.” Additional guidance includes, “While Bissinger does not explicitly state this, it is inferred. Students might need your assistance to recognize this.” 

• Materials contain adult-level explanations and examples of concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 1, Lesson 1, the Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include this guidance, “Free online survey tools, such as Survey Monkey and Google Forms, can help with homework (and potentially protect anonymity), for students to select survey information addressing the question, “What does being American mean?”  

In Section 1, Lesson 2, the Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition explain the pedagogical importance of annotating a text:

• “attending to details about plot, character, and the author’s craft

• making inferences

• making connections among different parts of the text, other texts, and students’ own lives

• asking questions about points of confusion

• defining unknown words and phrases

• summarizing or paraphrasing what is happening in the text

• writing any thoughts or emotions the text elicits.”

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 2, Lesson 2, students read “The Migration of Negroes” by W.E.B. Du Bois. The Teacher Edition provides adult-level explanations of the author and the text and includes a suggestion for an external source to further learning, “This essay is found in NAACP’s June 1917 issue of Crisis Magazine and discusses the reasons behind the migration of African Americans, which includes a map of migration patterns. While the text is available in the Unit Reader, you might have students read it online in its original publication, where it is set in its historical context. The issue can be found on the marxist.org website.”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 1, Lesson 1, the Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition explain the significance of the films being read in the unit; introduce terms, such as camera angles, visual elements, storytelling, narrative style, sound effects, and music; and explain how they impact the telling of a story in film. The materials state: “Just as you would closely read and analyze a text before teaching it with your students, we encourage you to view each of the films, film clips, and supporting videos prior to showing them in the classroom.”

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 1, Lesson 3, students read a text from Khan Academy to develop their understanding of the history of suburban migration and homeownership in the 1950s and beyond. The Teacher Edition includes the following explanation: “Prior to the discussion of the homework reading, students will read two texts to provide additional background knowledge on the topic to enrich the discussion. The two short texts are overviews of the historical phenomenon of suburbia and its dark side and were developed as resources for Khan Academy’s unit on postwar American history.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3e.

Materials include a Program Guide with a detailed description of Instructional Approaches that relate to the following content: Questioning, Reading, Writing & Presenting, Vocabulary, Grammar & Syntax, Speaking & Listening, and The Literacy Toolbox. The Program Guide also includes an Appendix E: Tools section that lists Instructional Areas and corresponding Tools, such as the Attending to Detail Tool to correspond with Reading Closely. Other notes in Appendix E include information relating to Writing and Organizing, Analyzing Arguments, Research, Vocabulary, and Evaluation.

References for Reading include but are not limited to: Fisher and Frey’s Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts (2013) and Wiggins’ Understanding by Design (2005). References for Speaking & Listening include Walqui’s Scaffolding the Success of Adolescent English Language Learners (2010) and Zwiers’ Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understanding. References for Support for Students with Diverse Learning Needs include but are not limited to Cervetti’s Conceptual Coherence, Comprehension, and Vocabulary Acquisition: A Knowledge Effect?, and Fisher and Frey’s Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction & Intervention (2010).

References for the Teaching Notes include but are not limited to: Bransford’s How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (2000) and Reeves’ Transforming Professional Development into Student Results (2010). References for Writing & Presenting include but are not limited to Dornan’s Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom (2003) and Vermont Writing Collaborative’s Writing for Understanding: Using Backward Design to Help All Students Write Effectively (2008).

Materials provide explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials explain the instructional approaches of the program.

  • In the Program Guide, materials include a description of Questioning as an approach to secondary literacy instruction. The program uses “questions to frame students’ initial reading, guide students through analysis, and initiate inquiry.” Materials provide additional information relating to the Central Questions, Assessment Questions, Guiding Questions, Student-Generated Questions, Metacognitive Reflective Questions, and Supporting Questions.

  • In the Program Guide, details relating to Writing include supporting students' writing skills “not only by analyzing text to develop their own ideas, but also by analyzing and mimicking the writing of others.” Throughout the program, materials consistently include Mentor Sentences and ongoing journals for students to identify exemplars they can emulate and  strategies they can incorporate into their own pieces.

  • In the Program Guide, materials include a description of Vocabulary in the list of Instructional Approaches. The Program Guide states that this curriculum uses vocabulary for high school literacy development “by providing opportunities for students to expand their word knowledge that they can call on in speech and writing.” Additional information is available relating to the Supporting Vocabulary: Tools & Reference Guides, Critical Thinking & Analytical Tools, and Reference Guides.

  • In the Program Guide, materials list Grammar & Syntax under the Instructional Approaches. The Program Guide states that through the high-school literacy instruction, “students are given opportunities to explore and mimic grammar, syntax, and usage in text.” The Program Guide also states that Grammar & Syntax are examined in context, and “Grammar is examined with the goal of improving students’ reading and writing skills.” Materials further note, “Students are given opportunities to deconstruct, examine, and mimic grammar, syntax, and usage they see in a text.” The Program Guide includes the following headings under Grammar & Syntax: Mentor Sentences;, Supporting Grammar & Syntax: Tools & Reference Guides; Critical Thinking & Analytical Tools, which include the Language Use Handouts and Working with Mentor Sentences Tool; and various Reference Guides, which include the Connecting Ideas Reference Guide, and Integrating Quotations Reference Guide. 

  • In the Program Guide, materials list Speaking and Listening as an Instructional Approach included in the high school literacy program. The Program Guide states, “Throughout the units, students speak to, and hear from, their peers formally and informally.” The Program Guide also notes, “Academic conversations are linchpins in literacy development.” Materials include Academic Conversations in many lessons throughout the course. Students and teachers can access Supporting Speaking & Listening: Tools & Reference Guides and Critical Thinking & Analytical Tools, including the Philosophical Chairs Discussion Tool and an Academic Discussion Reference Guide.

• Materials include and reference research-based strategies.

  • In the Program Guide, materials emphasize the importance of students reading “for depth and breadth, allowing for students to build the stamina to read one text deeply, critically, and closely or several texts to build a robust body of knowledge.” The Program Guide includes detailed descriptions of the following: “Depth: Closely Reading for Nuanced Understanding” and “Breadth: Wide Reading for Content and World Language.”

  • In the Program Guide, materials include details relating to tools available, as well as the use of scaffolding, drawing on research to support student performance during academic discourse. The materials state, “Students are provided a suite of tools, materials, and resources to support their learning, including sentence frames and conversation starters.” The tools students use, such as the Academic Discussion Reference Guide in the Literacy Toolbox, provide a number of Discussion Stems that students can use based on their role in the discussion. These include, but are not limited, to stems when exploring a topic, opinion, or argument and stems when encouraging others to share their thoughts: “How did you come to that idea? We haven’t heard you share yet. Do you agree or disagree with _____?” Materials identify scaffolding as a best practice when teachers work with students who are learning English as an additional language.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3f.

The Literacy Toolbox includes a comprehensive list of Reference Guides and Tools needed to complete activities throughout the course. Student-facing materials and Teacher Edition Teaching Notes also reference these tools and guides throughout the unit. The Materials tab for each unit, section, and lesson, includes a list of materials. The Text Overview tab includes a comprehensive list of texts needed for the unit.

Materials provide a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials include a tab titled Materials throughout each unit, section, and lesson. According to the Program Guide, the Materials tab includes a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities: “The Materials tab houses documents specific to the unit, including the Evaluation Plan, Text Overview (teacher-facing), Unit Text List (student-facing), Culminating Task Checklist, and any other relevant documents.”

• Materials include a Text Overview at the beginning of each unit which provides a comprehensive list of texts that will be used throughout the unit. The Program Guide includes the following note regarding the Text Overview: “The Text Overview tab contains the unit’s Text Overview (PDF), which identifies the texts used in the unit and includes recommendations for independent choice reading texts.”

• Materials include a Literacy Toolbox for each unit which contains a list of Tools and resources that teachers can use to support student learning for each unit. TheProgram Guide includes the following information to describe the contents of the Literacy Toolbox for each unit: “Key to HSLP instruction is the Literacy Toolbox, composed of graphic organizers (tools), rubrics, checklists, and reference guides, carefully designed to support student success throughout the learning process in all units. Each unit has content or text-specific materials to support reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities pertinent to the unit’s text or topic, as well as instructional sequences.” 

• In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 1, Lesson 13, materials listed include the What Does It Mean to Be an American: Text Overview, a list of readings, including independent reading options, for the unit. 

• In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 4, Lesson 1, materials listed include: Section 4: Question Set, Theme Note-Taking Tools, World Map, Academic Discussion Reference Guide, Vocabulary Journal, and Mentor Sentence Journal to analyze Chapter 11 of H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights. 

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 2, Lesson 4, students use the provided Understanding a Movie Tool to discuss the conflicts and central themes found in the movie Blackfish directed by Gabriella Cowperthwaite.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3i. 

Materials incorporate Common Core State Standards (CCSS) language teachers can identify and correlate to local standards. The publisher-provided standards correlation document identifies CCSS at the unit level and for each Section Diagnostic and Culminating Task. Materials provide teachers with opportunities to examine and assess student growth on the Learning Goals in each unit, including opportunities for formative assessment, Section Diagnostics, and unit Culminating Tasks. Assessment rubrics and supporting materials, such as the Culminating Task Checklists, provide general descriptions and categories (Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, or Below Expectations) relating to student performance in Reading & Knowledge Goals, Writing Goals, and Speaking & Listening Goals.

Assessment information is included in the materials to indicate which standards are assessed. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials consistently identify the standards and practices assessed for formal assessments.

  • The publisher provides a CCSS alignment spreadsheet to identify standards addressed in each unit’s Section Diagnostic and Culminating Task.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 3, Lesson 6, students refine and revise their Section Diagnostic to demonstrate how their understanding of what it means to be an American has expanded or changed after reading additional texts. The Section Diagnostic Checklist includes Reading & Knowledge Goals, such as:

    • “Compare and Connect: How well do I recognize points of connection among texts, textual elements, and perspectives to make logical, objective comparisons?”

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 2, Lesson 9, students have the opportunity to revise their Section 1 Diagnostic by responding to teacher comments, evaluation, and feedback. The Section Diagnostic Checklist includes Reading & Knowledge Goals, such as:

    • “Gather & Organize Evidence: How well do I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of Chapters 2-4 and to support analytical claims about characters or scenes in the novel?”

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 5, Lesson 2, students begin planning their Culminating Task essays. Students utilize a Culminating Task Checklist that includes Reading & Knowledge Goals, such as:

    • “Analyze Perspective: How well do I analyze how Bissinger’s perspective influences the position, purpose, and ideas of Friday Night Lights?”

  • In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 4, Lesson 2, students “identify any additional evidence that may be needed in order to fully develop our arguments and their claims, then incorporate the new information into our arguments’ organizational structure.” Teacher Notes in the Teacher Edition prompt teachers to use this work as an assessment opportunity as follows:

    • “Consider using their sentence-level writing as formative data that you can build on in the next section.”

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students explore the concept of credibility and how to assess for it using a common text. Students review the article “The False Promise of Homeownership” by Marissa Chapell and utilize the Potential Sources Tool. In the Teaching Notes of the Teacher Edition, the following guidance is available:

    • “As students work in pairs, you might move among teams and answer questions and provide support. Use your knowledge of your students to determine whether they are ready to assess sources independently.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3j.

The Teacher Edition and unit materials include guidance on the assessment system. Materials also include assessment guidance in documents such as the unit Evaluation Plan, which outlines how instructors can monitor, diagnose, and evaluate student performance. Each unit includes multiple formative assessments, such as Section Diagnostics, and summative assessments in the form of Culminating Tasks. Each Section Diagnostic provides ongoing opportunities for student reflection, and both the Section Diagnostics and Culminating Tasks include tools which students can use to track their performance. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide suggestions for monitoring student performance, including next steps for students’ literacy skill development.

Assessment system provides multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Assessment system provides multiple opportunities to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance.

• In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be American?, Section 1, Lesson 11, students read and analyze a text for the Section Diagnostic. The Teacher Edition provides guidance for teachers on how to interpret and use the information from the Section Diagnostic: “This Section Diagnostic is the year’s pre-assessment and is meant to be informative, not evaluative. In addition to the common texts students will have read, analyzed, and discussed, they will read and analyze a new grade-appropriate text and complete an on-demand writing task. This diagnostic provides an early data of students’ reading and writing skills for Grade 11.”

• In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 3, Lesson 5, students work on the Section Diagnostic. The Teacher Edition provides guidance for teachers on interpreting and using the information from the Section Diagnostic: “The Section 3 Diagnostic is more complex than the previous Section Diagnostics. First, students are required to analyze, compare, and synthesize from the three texts used in this section. They will then use an analysis of Friday Night Lights to compare how Bissinger addresses two themes, again comparing and synthesizing information, this time in a single text.”

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 3, students use The Warmth of Other Suns: Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist to self-assess their progress in developing the knowledge and skills needed to complete the Section Diagnostic successfully. Students use the Checklist to assess whether they are below expectations, meeting expectations, or beyond expectations for a series of Reading & Knowledge and Speaking & Listening goals. Students use this Checklist in Lessons 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 to prepare for, complete, and reflect on their Section Diagnostic task. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition also guide instructors on how to best use this tool with students. In the Program Guide, guidance includes, “Teachers review students’ work using Section Diagnostic Checklists to determine students’ progress and diagnose learning needs.” For example, in Section 3, Lesson 5, the Teaching Notes state, “You can review quick-writes to identify students who might benefit from additional support or guidance.”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Unit Overview, Materials Tab, the Evaluation Plan provides guidance for using the Culminating Task Rubric to assess students: “The Culminating Task Rubric is a holistic rubric that uses a four-point scale. The checklists and rubric are intended to be used along with student exemplar responses. Through benchmarking, teachers select student exemplar responses that illustrate the various performance levels on both the checklists and rubric. This process ensures reliable scoring and establishes a common standard by which all student responses are measured. Scoring notes are provided for the Section Diagnostics and the Culminating Tasks. The scoring notes provide plausible responses and supporting evidence for the tasks. Note that while illustrative, the notes might not include all possible responses.”

• Assessment system provides multiple opportunities to determine students' learning and suggestions to teachers for following-up with students.

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students complete a Culminating Task in which they write a literary analysis of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Throughout the unit, students complete Section Diagnostics that help them prepare for the Culminating Task. For example, in Section 2, Lesson 8, students use the Culminating Task Progress Tracker to evaluate their skills and knowledge needed to complete the unit’s Culminating Task. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest instructors use the Section Diagnostic Checklist to assess student performance:

    • “If the whole class has struggled in a particular area, you might conduct a brief mini-lesson or model the use of one of the tools with the entire class. There is an optional lesson at the end of the section that provides students the opportunity to revise their Section Diagnostic response based on teacher feedback.”

The Teaching Notes also suggest instructors use the Evaluation Plan as it “highlights upcoming lessons and activities that provide students with opportunities for continued or expanded practice.”

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, students use a Culminating Task Project Tracker throughout the unit:

  • “Note what knowledge is required on the Culminating Task and how prepared you are for each aspect of the task. Use ✓+ if you feel you have mastered the content, ✓ if you think you have a good understanding of the content, and ✓- if you do not quite understand the content.”

Students fill out this form in each section of the unit, and the Teacher Edition Teaching Notes guide instructors through the process. For example, in Section 3, Lesson 1, as students fill out their Culminating Task Project Tracker for sub-topics they are selecting for their research project, the Teaching Notes suggest:

• “Based on your students and your class situation, you might choose to add other subtopics, allow individual students to propose and pursue an additional subtopic of interest to them, or reduce the number of options to one or two choices so that you can work more easily with the class as a whole.”

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 6, students participate in a conference with the teacher about their progress on the research assignment so far. Students share their source list and research questions with the teacher for review. The Teacher Edition provides guidance for teachers to determine student learning and provide follow-up to students: “At this point, they are working with a wide variety of sources, and even very advanced, engaged students can benefit from extra guidance about how to keep their work process relevant to the Culminating Task. You might push teams to strategically eliminate any research paths and potential sources that are not helpful in answering their Central Research Question.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3k. 

Materials utilize various modalities and item types for student assessments. Section Diagnostics and Culminating Tasks in the Foundation and Development Units range in modality from written tasks to discussions to oral presentations. Item types include discussion questions, constructed response questions, project-based tasks, and research portfolios. Section Diagnostics and the Culminating Task in the Application Unit use the same modalities and item types across each grade level— a problem-based research portfolio and an oral presentation. 

Assessments include opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level/course-level standards and shifts across the series. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, students complete three Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students write a multi-paragraph expository response “about what it means to be an American using the information gained from texts in this section to support your perspective.” Students use textual evidence to support their response to the following questions: “What does it mean to be an American? How has the notion of being an American changed over time?” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students use evidence from “What Makes an American” by Raoul de Roussy de Sales, as well as other texts read during the unit, as they participate in a Socratic Seminar centered on the following questions: “How has the notion of being an American changed over time? What are some of the enduring ideas about what it means to be an American?” During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students revisit their Section 1 Diagnostic and revise their expository response by “refining your claims, adding new information, omitting irrelevant information, and expanding your explanation of what it means to be an American by adding in a counter perspective.” During the Culminating Task, students work in groups to “Collaboratively research, create, and deliver a presentation about change agents.” Afterwards, students individually write a narrative in which they reflect on their research process.

• In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, students complete four Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students write a one-paragraph literary analysis in response to “questions about point of view and character development in Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby.” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students write a one-paragraph literary analysis in response to “questions about the use of contrasting scenes or characters and about how literary devices are used to develop themes in Chapters 2–4 of The Great Gatsby.” During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students write an evidence-based, multi-paragraph literary analysis “that analyzes a key scene from the novel, focusing on its presentation, development, meaning, and significance.” During the Section 4 Diagnostic, students participate in a Fishbowl Debate focusing on the following questions: “How have literary scholars and critics analyzed Fitzgerald’s development of point of view, characters, and themes in The Great Gatsby? How do they support their positions about the importance of their chosen character in the novel?” During the Culminating Task, students write a literary analysis in response to one of the following questions: “What does The Great Gatsby ultimately suggest about human perception, illusions, and dreams—and potentially about the American dream?” or “As a narrator, is Nick Carraway the novel’s ‘most important character,’ a judgmental ‘snob,’ or an ‘unreliable’ voice?”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, students complete four Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students use the Understanding a Movie Tool as they “Independently watch and analyze a movie from a recommended list.” Afterwards, students write a multi-paragraph movie analysis and synopsis that “provides background information about the movie, summarizes its storyline and its central characters’ story arcs, and analyzes its use of filmmaking techniques, its overall style, and the filmmaker’s message.” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students “Independently watch and analyze a film from Part 2 of the Movie Viewing List” and use their completed Understanding a Movie Tools for their selected movie and for the documentary Blackfish to “analyze and compare the two movies,” focusing on levels of realism during their comparative analysis. During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students select a film set in a high school and complete an Understanding a Movie Tool to “evaluate how the filmmaker’s techniques and storytelling choices shaped the film’s atmosphere and level of realism,” as they watch their selected film independently. Students then give “a 3–5 minute oral review for your movie, in the style of YouTube movie reviews, and present the review to a team of other student reviewers.” During the Section 4 Diagnostic, students use their previously developed Movie Character Tools to “write and present a character sketch that tells the character’s story (backstory and character arc) and also includes descriptions of the character’s traits, wants and needs, obstacles and conflicts.” During the Culminating Task, students “Develop an idea for your own original feature film and create a ‘pitch packet’ for your idea.”

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, students complete four Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students write an evidence-based claim and explanatory response to the following question: “What does current research data suggest about the state of homeownership in the United States?” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students read “Disarming the Great Affordable Housing Debate” and “delineate and evaluate its argument.” During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students select a subtopic related to homeownership and use the Delineating Arguments Tool to “outline a plan for your proposed argument.” Students also present their proposal to their research team, provide peer feedback, and use the feedback to revise their arguments. During the Section 4 Diagnostic, students write a synopsis of their proposed argument. During the Culminating Task, students “Take a position and write an evidence-based argument in response to a current issue about homeownership in America.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3m. 

The Program Guide includes detailed guidance for teachers when supporting diverse learning needs. Materials include supports that assist students with accessing grade-level content. Examples of supports embedded into instruction include Reading Closely and Note-Taking Tools. The program consistently provides Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition with strategies to support students and differentiate when necessary. Reference Guides also “provide centralized resources for literacy concepts and processes and offer vocabulary, sentence starters, and other writing support.” 

Materials regularly provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level content and to meet or exceed grade-level standards that will support their regular and active participation in learning English language arts and literacy. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials regularly provide strategies, supports, and resources for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in grade-level literacy work.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 2, Lesson 1, students annotate the text as a homework assignment, using an inquiry question to guide their reading. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide opportunities for student support and differentiation by posing questions for the teacher to reflect on and use to make instructional decisions and assist students who might struggle with comprehension, including, but not limited to: “Are students struggling with the length of the sentences or syntax? If so, would they benefit from chunking sentences into easily understandable parts?” 

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 1, Lesson 1, students use the Understanding a Movie Tool and Filmmaking Glossary as they watch and analyze movies and filmmaking throughout the unit. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide student support and differentiation guidance around the suite of tools and resources students will utilize: “These tools help students develop and internalize analytical processes. Since they are scaffolds, they can be assigned at your discretion, or students might develop their own system for using them if they encounter difficult sections of text.” Materials emphasize the importance of students learning to “draw on tools from the Literacy Toolbox as they learn to recognize their own proficiencies and needs for specific supports, given the specific demands of text or tasks.” 

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 2, Lesson 1, students examine the concept of mood in chapter two of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald by answering a series of guiding questions:

    • “Which words and phrases stand out as powerful or important?

    • What does the language cause you to see or feel?

    • What images stand out and create vivid pictures or evoke strong feelings?

    • How do the author’s word choices develop atmosphere, mood, or meaning?”

  • The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest that if students struggle with determining connections between details found in the text, they should use the Analyzing Relationships Tool for Question 4.

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3n. 

The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include sections dedicated to student support and differentiation, including considerations for working with students performing above grade-level expectations. These sections include questions that extend students’ thinking about the texts they read and develop their ideas in a more advanced way to maximize their learning experiences. 

Materials regularly provide extensions to engage with literacy content and concepts at greater depth for students who read, write, speak, and/or listen above grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials provide multiple opportunities for advanced students to investigate the grade-level content at a higher level of complexity. Materials are free of instances of advanced students doing more assignments than their classmates.

  • In the Program Guide, materials explain, “Student work may reflect the need for extended instruction for many reasons, including that the student may identify as gifted and talented.” The Program Guide provides examples of how this is offered to students:

    • “Students are encouraged to experiment with their own writing styles and structures on assessments.

    • Students are given opportunities to lead small groups and teams.

    • Students are encouraged to make metaphorical connections for newly acquired vocabulary.

    • Students are encouraged to make concrete and conceptual connections between texts or topics in one unit, to text and topics in different units, and across other disciplines.

    • Students are encouraged to develop their own note-taking habits and styles if they no longer need the support offered on tools.

    • Students can draw on tools from the Literacy Toolbox as they learn to recognize their own proficiencies and needs for specific supports, given the specific demands of text or tasks.

    • Students are encouraged to pursue their own interests at their own pace in the Foundation and Application units.

    • Students are encouraged to pursue independent reading options with texts written at a complexity level above the grade-level expectation.”

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 2, Lesson 1, students annotate a text they chose from the Foundation Unit Pathway Texts list. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest questions students can use when completing the Attending Details Tool explaining, “Some students who demonstrate advanced competency might benefit from an additional challenge.” Guiding questions include: 

    • “Would students benefit from being asked how this text or topic connects to another text or topic they have read in another unit?

    • Would students benefit from creating analogous relationships?

    • Would students benefit from a task that requires them to discover the symbolic connection between the text and another concept they have learned in this course or elsewhere?

    • Would students benefit from explaining their expertise about the text to a group of novices? (e.g., How would you explain this text to a five-year-old?)”

  • In the Development Unit, Friday Night Lights, Section 2, Lesson 8, students continue reading their independent reading texts and taking notes using either the Reading Closely Tools or Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tools. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include the following guidance for students who may be ready to move beyond the Reading Closely Tools: “Others might be ready to make analytical claims about the text. They might use Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tools to assist in such an analysis.”

  • In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 4, Lesson 11, students share an analysis of their independent reading texts. The Teacher Edition includes the following guidance to extend learning for those who are performing above grade level: “If students are confident and comfortable, they might engage in a whole-class discussion to share how their independent reading texts relate to the unit. They might prepare and participate in groups.” 

  • In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 3, Lesson 2, students write responses to guiding questions from Part 3 of The Warmth of Other Suns. The Teacher Edition outlines ways to extend student learning for students who may be performing above grade level. One example includes: “Students who demonstrate more sophisticated writing skills might benefit from having time to complete a more extensive revision of their work, or experimenting with a unique organizational structure or stylistic technique.”

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 3, students continue conducting research for their Culminating Task by using the Research Frame Tool, Potential Sources Tool, and the Assessing Sources Reference Guide. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest teachers vary research expectations for students, as “Some might be ready to search for several potential sources across two or more inquiry paths” while others “might need to focus on practicing the process of using keywords and inquiry questions to search for sources.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 3q.

The Program Guide includes teacher guidance on working with students learning English as an additional language. Materials embed support for English learners within the student-facing materials to help them access complex text and reach grade-level proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition outline options and strategies, such as Reference Guides and sentence starters, that teachers may use to support English learners. Attention to academic and Tier 2 vocabulary is evident in the materials, including the Teaching Notes emphasizing the importance of students learning vocabulary within a meaningful context. Materials provide multiple opportunities for students to engage in discussion with their peers, “often using newly acquired academic and Tier 2 vocabulary with sample discussion stems as support. Through these discussions, English learners are able to strengthen their Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP).”

Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards to regularly participate in learning English language arts and literacy. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 1, Lesson 2, Activity 2, students read The Declaration of Independence and answer the following questions in their Vocabulary Journal, “What does the word declaration mean? What is an example of declaration? What is a nonexample of a declaration? What does the word independence mean? What is an example of independence? What is a nonexample of independence?” Teacher-facing materials include a note on creating a visual. Materials encourage differentiation and scaffolded support for English learners students: “You might have students draw a picture next to applicable vocabulary and definitions. Mental images and associations can help strengthen students’ understanding of newly acquired vocabulary.”

  • The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include that “To cement understanding, it is important to have students interact meaningfully with new words. Walk students through an understanding of the noun declaration, which is a form of the verb ‘to declare.’ You might tell students the word declare means something is said in a solemn and emphatic manner. In other words, the speaker is serious and forceful. Share with students examples and nonexamples of what it means to declare something.” 

• In the Development Unit, The Great Gatsby, Section 1, Lesson 4, students examine a range of strategies to determine the meaning of words in Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Students utilize a Vocabulary in Context Tool when working with vocabulary. The student-facing materials include guidance such as, “This tool is used for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate.” Materials include questions in the Vocabulary in Context Tool to support students with using context to determine the meaning of a word. Questions include, but are not limited to: “What do the words in the sentence that come before the unknown word mean? What do the words in the sentence that come after the unknown word mean?”

  • The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include reminders such as, “Native English speakers might grasp nuances in contextual clues, such as tone or cultural references, while English learners might not understand, making it all the more difficult for them to define the targeted vocabulary word.” Guidance includes additional details and suggestions on providing student support, such as creating mental images and associations.

• In the Development Unit, The Warmth of Other Suns, Section 4, Lesson 5, students engage in the fifth jigsaw discussion with home groups, using and completing the Jigsaw Note-Taking Tool. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include strategies to provide student support and differentiation for students who struggle with using academic language in a discussion. The Teaching Notes provide guidance, such as modeling how to use academic language in a discussion: “Script what students say during the discussion, focusing on strong examples of academic vocabulary and discussion stems. Write sentence starters on the board to help students formulate responses.” Teachers can direct students to the Academic Discussion Reference Guide and provide prompts. A reminder in the Teaching Notes states, “You might offer English learners the option to discuss the topic in their home languages and report their discussion in English.” 

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories with Film, Section 2, Lesson 5, Activity 4, students use the Working With Mentor Sentences Tool. Guidance in the student-facing materials directs students to read the following mentor sentence aloud. Directions continue as follows: “Unpack any unfamiliar vocabulary using your vocabulary strategies. Then, determine what the sentence is saying, and paraphrase the sentence to convey its meaning based on your initial understanding.” Teacher-facing materials include the following guidance for supporting English learners: “You might also have English learners think about how the construction of a mentor sentence compares to the construction of sentences in their home language, in order to build connections from one language to another.”

• In the Development Unit, The American Dream of Homeownership, Section 3, Lesson 1, students determine the subtopic that most interests them and write a short explanation of the general perspective or position they might take regarding it. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include strategies for student support and differentiation: “Some students might benefit from using a tool when composing their responses. Sentence frames can also be a useful scaffolding for all students, regardless of ability range, and they are particularly useful for English learners.”