The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 2a. 

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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, How Do We Know the Right Thing to Do?, texts are centered around a central theme: “How do we determine the right thing to do?” Texts that connect to this theme center around the following topics:

    • environmental ethics

    • biomedical ethics

    • ethics of identity and representation

    • sports ethics

    • ethics of social justice.

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, students study storytelling, investigating the Central Question: “What makes a good story?” Examples of texts students study to explore a common line of inquiry include, but are not limited to, “Introduction,” “But Sometimes What We Call ‘Memory,’” “Coyotes and the Stro’ro’ka Dancers,” excerpts from Storyteller by Leslie Marmon Siko and the parable “The Far and the Near” by Thomas Wolfe.

  • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, texts are centered around a central theme: “How do storytellers use primary sources?” The unit focuses on the play, the original Broadway performance “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a series of historical documents. The unit also includes texts discussing Lin-Manuel Miranda's use of history in his performance in “'Hamilton' and History: Are They in Sync?” by Jennifer Schuessler. 

  • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, students investigate the Central Question: “What does it mean for things to fall apart?” Examples of texts students study to explore a common line of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. During the unit, students focus on character analysis and an exploration of the missionary and Igbo tribes in answering guiding questions such as “What shapes Okonkwo’s character?” and “How do secondary characters enrich the novel?” 

  • In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, students investigate the Central Question: “How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty?” Complex texts students read to examine the common line of inquiry include, but are not limited to, these Grade 10 appropriate texts: “What Would Happen if We Stopped Vaccinations?” by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. During the unit, students examine the questions: “How should we address ethical issues involving the development of vaccines?” and “How should we address issues of unequal access to public health resources?” as they prepare for an evidence-based argumentative essay around the theme of ethics in public health.

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

  • Students read across genres with eight central texts connecting to the theme of the unit, including, but not limited to, Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue,” excerpts from Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama, and the prose poem “The War Prayer” by Mark Twain.  

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, students build their knowledge around the cohesive topic of ethics. Students examine the essential question, “How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?,” by analyzing multiple texts including narrative non-fiction, a poem, and articles about various ethical situations. In Section 1, Lesson 1, students watch “The Ethical Dilemma of Self-Driving Cars” to begin to develop their understanding of the complex theme. Students explore this topic further in Lesson 3 with “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” and “Utilitarianism: Crash Course Philosophy #36.” In Section 2, Lesson 1, students examine ethical issues in a text and decide in which pathway the ethical should be placed. The culminating task follows a similar process, but students work together with a group to select a pathway and discuss the ethical issues that surround that pathway.

  • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, students examine texts and complete tasks to answer the Central Question: “How Do We Tell Someone Else’s Story?” Students build vocabulary on the author's craft throughout the unit. In Lesson 2, Section 3, students create an Author’s Craft Journal to examine The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. This tool helps them build knowledge and vocabulary to address the Central Question. Students further expand their knowledge by reading a poem about HeLa cells. The culminating task involves students writing an expository essay to answer the essential question. Students gain analysis skills from engaging in the complex texts in this unit that prepare them for reading texts throughout the school year.

  • In The Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, six central texts connect to the theme, and the unit includes opportunities to read across text types, including an excerpt from “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making,” “The Hippocratic Oath,” and “The Belmont Report” from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

  • 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 3, Lesson 2, students use a Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool to examine key details in the resources they collected. These guides help students read texts independently and proficiently.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 2b.

Grade 10 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 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, students complete a culminating task: a 5–7 minute group presentation of a self-selected ethical issue. Students choose one of several options to reach the final product including the opportunity to create “a text set of need-to-read documents (text-based, visual, or audio) that cover various aspects of your pathway, along with your pathway group’s analysis of those documents.” An example of this analysis is found in Section 3, Lesson 2, as students read and annotate a common text to determine the central idea of the text and how specific information in the text supports their inquiry pathway.

    • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 2 addresses the question: What are the elements used to make a good story?

      • In Lesson 3, students read “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner to review literary elements related to characterization within the text. Students consult the Narratives Reference Guide, built as a resource for this curriculum. Guiding prompts from the Narratives Reference Guide on structure and point of view include, but are not limited to:

        • “Determine what kind of ending the story has.

        • Think about the relationships between the character's tragic flaws and the story’s plot, resolution, and themes.”  

    • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 2, Lesson 2, Activity 4, students read “From Alexander Hamilton to The Royal Danish American Gazette, 6 September 1772” by Alexander Hamilton. To analyze key ideas and details in the text, students underline unfamiliar words and note any sections of the text that reveal the central idea. In a subsequent activity in the same lesson, students further examine the central idea by analyzing the purpose. Students then write a central idea statement in one or two sentences.

    • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 1, Lesson 2, students read chapters 2–3 of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, analyzing complex characters and citing textual evidence when responding to questions in their Learning Log; examples include:

      • “Describe Okonkwo’s relationship with his wives and children and explain the reason for his behavior. What evidence from the text offers the strongest support for this interpretation?”

        In Section 2, Lesson 4, students read Chapter 14 and answer questions, such as:

        • “What is Okonkwo’s attitude now that he has been exiled? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?”

    • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 4, Lesson 2, students determine the relevance of the research materials they collected using the Research Frame Tool. Students use the Research Frame Tool to inquiry questions and keywords gathered from the text. This tool is used to show relevance between key ideas and details from the texts researched and then inquiry paths students select. 

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

    • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 1, Lesson 4, students read two excerpts from Sandra Cisneros’s “A House of My Own” and answer questions to determine how the author uses language to convey meaning, including:

      • “As you read the two excerpts, what do you notice about the author’s use of language and how the structure of her sentences shifts? Provide specific examples of the author’s use of language and sentence syntax from the text.”

      In Section 3, Lesson 3, students examine Amy Tan’s use of language when reading “Mother Tongue.” Students answer questions, such as:

      • “What do you think Tan is saying about writing when she uses the phrase “the intersection of memory upon imagination?”

    • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 2, Lesson 2, students examine the vocabulary in “From Alexander Hamilton to The Royal Danish American Gazette, 6 September 1772” by Alexander Hamilton to determine the meaning of words and their impact on the text. Students answer questions, such as:

      • “What does the context suggest the word means? What is its connotation, and how does that compare with a dictionary definition?”

    • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, students focus on character analysis and an exploration of the missionary and Igbo tribes to answer guiding questions such as:

      • “What shapes Okonkwo’s character?

      • How do secondary characters enrich the novel?”

      In Section 2, Lesson 2, students read, “Colonialism Explained” by Jamila Osman to determine an author’s perspective and how it is developed over the course of a text. Throughout the lesson, students answer guiding questions to gather evidence that frames their analysis of the author’s perspective in preparation for a class discussion on the author’s perspective about colonialism. Prompts for the discussion include:

      • “Based on the tone and central idea of the text, what do you think is the author’s perspective on colonialism? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

      • How does the author use rhetoric (e.g. language, word choice, structure of main points, facts, data, and historical context) to develop her perspective?”

    • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 1, Lesson 3, students analyze the craft and structural choices from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Students use the Author Craft Note-Taking Tool to examine various aspects of the text, such as tone, representation of key persons, and figurative language. Students apply the knowledge from the task to a subsequent activity in Section 3, Lesson 3, in which they write an analytical statement about the author’s craft in Chapters 26–28 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

• 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, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, students complete a culminating activity in which they compose an “expository essay comparing the portrayal of Henrietta Lacks’s story in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with its portrayal in one of the unit’s companion texts.” Students answer guiding objectives, such as “Explain the techniques that are used in each text to convey her story.” To build capacity to complete the task, in Section 3, Lesson 3, students use the Author’s Craft Note-Taking Tool to analyze Skloot’s craft by answering a cloze reading prompt: “What effect does Skloot’s use of _____ have on the reader’s understanding of the text?” Students then reflect on the following ideas in their Learning Log:

    • “the technique that Rebecca Skloot devises by using the terms on the Author Craft Note-Taking Tool

    • an example of this technique from your reading

    • the purpose of the technique and its intended effect.”

    These activities help support students embedding these ideas in their final product at the end of the unit.

  • In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 2, Lesson 3, students read “New Media, old Messages: Themes in the History of Vaccine Hesitancy and Refusal” by Jason Schwartz to identify and analyze key ideas and details in response to the text-specific prompt:

    • “Preserving and Promoting Vaccination in a Democracy: What does the author suggest is a superior strategy for advocates of vaccines and why? How do key details from the text explain and support this strategy?”

  • Students may work with a partner, and the materials include Teaching Notes for instructors to provide additional student support and differentiation. 

    In Section 3, Lesson 3, students independently read and annotate excerpts from “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' by the United Nations General Assembly. Students annotate the document for key words, phrases, and ideas related to questions, such as: What stipulations in the declaration relate to the health and welfare of all humans?”

    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 knowledge acquired in previous units regarding key ideas, details, craft, and structure to find, assess, and annotate appropriate texts for their culminating research assignment. Guiding questions prompt students to independently focus on key ideas, details, craft, and structure and are embedded in the lesson activities rather than the explicit teaching of the components.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 2c. 

The Grade 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 1, students focus on the text “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making.” In Lesson 9, students prepare for the Section Diagnostic by reading and annotating the text and discussing the following questions with a partner:

      • “What is the problem or challenge of applying an approach described in the framework?

      • Why is the framework for making decisions important to making ethical decisions?”

    • Students use this analysis to support building the knowledge needed to apply to the Section Diagnostic where they “choose an approach from ‘A Framework for Ethical Decision Making’ and apply it to the ethical dilemma presented by self-driving cars.”

In Section 2, Lesson 2, students analyze Rachel Carson’s “A Fable for Tomorrow” by responding to a series of questions including:

• “What is the main idea expressed in this reading?

• What are three to four sentences presented in the text that represent the main idea or enhance your thinking on the topic?

• What pathway is represented by this reading? Based on what you have read, would you like to further explore this topic?”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 3, Lesson 3, students continue to build knowledge relating to good storytelling, focusing on who tells the story and the narrator’s perspective. Students read and analyze Amy Tan’s memoir and essay, “Mother Tongue,” considering a series of text-specific questions, including:

  • “In her essay, Tan expresses multiple views of her mother and her use of the English language—views that have shifted over time. What are two contrasting views presented by Tan, and what language and examples does she use to characterize her mother's English? Cite specific examples from the text.

  • How does Tan use her experiences with her mother (and her mother’s English) to develop a narrative about herself as a person and a writer?”

• In Section 4, Lesson 3, students read three texts that employ fictional narration and narrative nonfiction to answer:

  • “How do the stories of the three survivors compare? What evidence from the text supports this comparison?

  • What do they add up to in terms of helping us understand the impact of 9/11 on survivors’' lives?

  • What do you think Sides is trying to communicate with his nonfiction narrative?

  • What do you think is the story’s meaning or theme?”

This series of coherently sequenced questions scaffold to support student understanding of the key ideas and details of the passages.

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

  • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 3, Lessons 1 and 2, students closely examine songs from Hamilton the Revolution in tandem with excerpts from Introduction to Washington and Hamilton’s Relationship to explore how the relationship between Washington and Hamilton was represented in the musical and in the primary sources. Students use the Washington-Hamilton Note-Taking Tool to analyze the songs and use the evidence collected to complete the Comparison Organizational Frame, a tool to support students’ comparisons of the musical and the primary source.

In Section 3, Lesson 4, students integrate knowledge and ideas from multiple texts to compare how Alexander Hamilton is represented in Hamilton the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarte to how he is represented in primary sources. Students answer questions such as: “How did Lin-Manuel Miranda interpret primary and secondary sources to portray Hamilton’s relationship with Washington?”

• In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 1, Lesson 1, students read “Igbo Culture and History” by Don Ohadike as an introduction to the Igbo Culture and primer to the colonization of Nigeria before they begin to read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Students question what they find interesting about the culture and identify what they would like to learn more about. Both texts and associated tasks prepare students to answer the Central Question of the Unit: “What does it mean for things to fall apart?”

In Section 2, Lesson 8, students further develop their understanding of the history and culture of the Igbo tribe and the novel’s author, Chinua Achebe. Students continue analyzing “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats and then write a paragraph in Lesson 9 examining Achebe’s choice of title: Things Fall Apart. During text analysis, students respond to questions such as:

• “What kind of event is the speaker describing?

• How do you know? To what source or event does Yeats allude in the poem?” 

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 3, Lesson 3, students synthesize research findings from multiple texts and use the Research Frame Tools with their team, reviewing their inquiry paths and questions and establish which steps they would like to take as they move forward with their research.

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

  • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, students complete a culminating task to compare the portrayal of Henrietta Lacks in the core text and a unit companion text. Students “Evaluate which text, the book or the companion text, is the most compelling in relating the story of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells.” Students practice embedding this knowledge throughout the unit in a series of activities.

    • In Section 2, Lesson 5, students explore the importance of how the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, uses primary sources to develop Henrietta Lacks in the text.

    • In Section 4, Lesson 2, students explore the painting Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine by Kadir Nelson and discuss questions, such as: “What aspects of Henrietta Lacks’s story are emphasized in the painting?”

These activities help students develop skills to integrate this knowledge in the culminating activity.

• In Section 5, students complete the Culminating Task to integrate knowledge from multiple sources to write an expository essay comparing the life of Henrietta Lacks’ as portrayed in both texts. Integration of student knowledge is embedded in students’ work as they answer guiding questions such as: “How do other texts portray the story of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cell culture?”

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 3, Lesson 2, students build background knowledge for Subtopic 3: Access to Public Health Resources by reading two seminal documents from the United Nations, including excerpts from “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and the “UN Declaration of Universal Health Coverage.” Students consider how the documents relate to other approaches and seminal documents they study as well as how the principles outlined in the documents are relevant to public health and controversies while ensuring equal access to health resources such as vaccines. As an example, students examine, “How should we address issues of unequal access to public health resources, healthcare, and preventative measures such as vaccines?” Student tasks and close analyses of texts help prepare them to work in research teams to investigate the central topic and to “write an evidence-based argument that presents and supports an ethics-based position in response to a significant public health question.”

• In Section 5, students complete the Culminating Task to “respond 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 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.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 2d. 

The Grade 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, students complete the Culminating Task, a presentation and reflection incorporating speaking, listening, reading and writing skills to answer the Central Question: “How do we determine the right thing to do?” Throughout the unit, students consider ethical issues, including environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, ethics of identity and representation, sports ethics, and ethics of social justice.

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 4, Lesson 6, students complete the Section 4 Diagnostic to research a historical or contemporary event or figure and write a historical narrative depicting the story of the selected event or figure.

For this task, students are required to demonstrate mastery of several standards, including writing narratives using a variety of narrative techniques, drawing evidence to support analysis of texts, analyzing themes, and using precise language.

• In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 5, students complete a Diagnostic Task to create lyrics for an original song or to write additional verses to an existing song from Hamilton: An American Musical. This task incorporates the reading of research, writing of a song, and speaking and listening during group work. In addition, students reflect on their Diagnostic Task and self-assess their preparation for the Culminating Task, a personal essay reflective of the creative process and addressing the unit Central Question: “How do storytellers use primary sources?”

• In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, students read the text Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In Section 1, Lesson 10, students complete the Section 1 Diagnostic, a multi-paragraph analysis of how Achebe uses foils to amplify Okonkwo’s character. In Section 2, Lesson 11, students complete the Section 2 Diagnostic, a whole-class Socratic Seminar addressing the question: “How does Achebe build up tension in Section 2 of Things Fall Apart?” Student-facing materials prompt students as follows:

  • “A successful Socratic Seminar requires you to have read the text closely, reviewed your notes and annotations, and prepared to articulate your ideas clearly. The expectation is that everyone participates in the discussion. You can engage in the discussion through the following discussion strategies:

    • posing meaningful questions that propel the conversation

    • asking clarifying questions

    • respectfully challenging perspectives

    • building on others’ ideas by providing additional evidence or ideas

    • synthesizing your peers’ ideas.”

Both diagnostics provide opportunities for students to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge of a topic through integration of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

• In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 1, Lesson 9, students complete the Section Diagnostic, a literary analysis to demonstrate an understanding of Rebecca Skloot’s writing techniques and their effects as exemplified in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  In Section 3, Lesson 9, students complete the Section Diagnostic, a Socratic seminar addressing the question: “In what ways did the history of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells change our world?” As the unit Culminating Task, students write an expository essay in which they evaluate and explain which text is the most compelling relating to the story of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. The various unit tasks provide students multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding of the texts they are examining through reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students work in groups to submit research portfolios the instructor uses to assess their progress toward the Culminating Task, a collaborative research presentation that demonstrates their findings and conclusions of their group-developed research questions. In Section 1, Lesson 7, students submit their preliminary research portfolio, including their completed Exploring a Topic Tool, Central Research Question Checklist, Potential Sources Tool, and individual reflections. The Potential Sources Tool asks students text-specific questions, such as:

  • “What is the purpose of the text with respect to the topic?

  • Does the text provide accurate, current and supported information?”

In Section 3, Lesson 8, students resubmit their portfolios, including the Research Frame Tool, Potential Sources Tool, Research Note-Taking Tool, Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, Organizing Evidence Tool, Research Evaluation Checklist, and three claims about their inquiry questions or research problem. The Organizing Evidence Tool prompts students to state claims from their research and to cite supporting evidence from the resources they collected. In both portfolio submissions, the teacher provides feedback and the students self-assess their preparedness by answering a series of guided questions, including:

• “How well did you take necessary action to prepare for the task?

• What went well for you during the completion of this task?

• What did you struggle with during the completion of this task? How did you push through that struggle?”

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?” 

• 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 1, Lesson 5, students expand on their understanding of ethics by reading about the rights approach and using the Ethical Approach Note-Taking Tool to synthesize their learning. Subsequent to reading “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, students apply the rights approach to previous readings and discuss some of the approach’s advantages and disadvantages. The student-facing materials provide guidance and a series of questions, including:

    • “How does this approach relate to the question, ‘Should Batman kill the Joker?’ that was posed in the Crash Course video?

    • What are the advantages of this ethical approach?

    • How is this a challenging ethical approach? What are some of its disadvantages?”

The various readings and lesson activities prepare students for the Culminating Task, an oral presentation in which they collaboratively research, create, and deliver a presentation about ethical issues and write an individual reflection on their research process. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide additional guidance, such as:

• “These questions are designed to direct students to connect the rights approach to Kant’s formulations of the categorical imperative and to understand why this approach can be challenging to apply.”

Teachers may use these opportunities to inform instructional decisions and to assess student understanding of the texts throughout the unit.

• In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 2, Lesson 1, students collect evidence and engage in a class discussion to analyze the tone in Chapter 12 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Teachers use this activity to monitor student preparedness for the Section Diagnostic to write a multi-paragraph response to the following questions:

  • “How does Skloot convey various perspectives about complex issues in Part 2 of the book?

  • What impact do her choices have on the reader's understanding of the complex issues—race, ethics, class, and science—in the text?”

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, students work throughout the unit to prepare for the Culminating Task, an argument essay addressing the unit Central Question: “How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty?” 

In Section 2, Lesson 6, for example, students examine arguments on complex public health issues by answering questions, such as:

• “The Common Good: In what ways does the argument reflect consideration of the common good?

• Individual Rights and Personal Liberty: In what ways does the argument reflect consideration of individual rights or personal liberty?”

In Section 2, Lesson 11, students utilize their Learning Logs to self-assess both their performance on the Section 2 Diagnostic and their preparation for the unit Culminating Task by responding to a series of prompts, including:

• “How well did you take necessary action to prepare for the task?

• What went well for you during the completion of this task?

• What did you struggle with during the completion of this task? How did you push through that struggle?

• How well did you actively focus your attention during this independent task?”

Students then update their Culminating Task Tracker to include any skills or content area knowledge they need to address and to evaluate how well they are mastering the required knowledge and skills. Finally, students consider the unit Central Question: “How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty?” as they respond in their Learning Log to the prompt: “How has your response to the question evolved, deepened, or changed?”

In Section 5, Lesson 1, students begin working on the Culminating Task to “Write an evidence-based argument in response to a complex ethical debate in the realm of public health.” Earlier sections of the unit include text-specific and text-dependent questions and tasks to prepare students for the Culminating Task.

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 2e.

The Grade 10 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 Foundation Unit, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 3, Lesson 2, students write a concise, objective summary of the text. Supports for students include the Attending to Details Tool, The Foundation Unit Research Guide, and the Foundation Unit Pathway Text “How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?” Scaffolds include completing the Attending to Details tool as a group, creating a list of the central ideas in the text, using the Assess the Usefulness of Sources for Your Research Purposes portion of the Research Guide to ensure the relevance of the text to student research, and using the Evaluating Ideas Tool to determine how language choices indicate author’s perspective. These steps and stages allow the students to meet the Lesson Goal: “Can I write a concise, objective summary of the text?”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, students write an original narrative for the Culminating Task. To support grade-level writing proficiency, students practice various narrative writing techniques throughout the unit, and 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 2, for example, students respond to the following questions in their Learning Log:

• “What might happen in a story you could tell—perhaps one drawn from your own experiences?

• What might be the opening scene (exposition) in your story?

• How might you develop and complicate your story in its middle (rising action, complication)?

• What kind of ending (climax, resolution) might the events of your story lead to?”

Students use these questions to begin to plan their narratives and to outline the structure of their writing.

In Section 2, Lesson 8, students write a narrative response to the question: “How might you retell a classic story?” The writing task connects to mentor texts students read during the unit, including “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Far and the Near” by Thomas Wolfe. The student-facing materials prompt students to reflect on the knowledge and skills they are developing in preparation for the Culminating Task. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include additional guidance to support students, such as:

• “Encourage students to make connections among what they have learned in this section, what they have learned in the Section Diagnostic, and what is required to successfully complete the Culminating Task.”

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

• “Organize Ideas: How well do I group and sequence narrative details, paragraphs, and sentences to produce a coherent and well-developed retelling of a classic story?

• Develop Ideas: How well do I use a first-person point of view to retell and develop a classic story told originally in third person?

• Use Language to Convey Meaning: How well do I use vivid, descriptive images and words to retell a classic story in the style of its original author?”

In Section 3, Lesson 4, students review the Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist to self-assess their understanding of the narrative writing process before they complete a one-to-two page narrative of a moment in their life that is both “dramatic and meaningful.” Lesson Goals for this activity include writing standards that require students to “identify important details and examples of the writer’s craft.”

• In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 1, Lesson 10, students complete the Section Diagnostic, a mutiparagraph analysis of how Achebe uses foils to amplify Okonkwo’s character in the text, Things Fall Apart. 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 about Okonkwo 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?

  • Organize Ideas: How well do I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, and evidence to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed explanations?

  • 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?”

Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide guidance to support students, such as:

• “You can use evidence gathered from students’ Section Diagnostic responses to determine where individuals or groups of students might need additional support, especially regarding the skills and knowledge they will apply on the Culminating Task.”

The activities include an opportunity for students to reflect on their work and to self-assess readiness for the Culminating Task to write a character analysis of Okonkwo that addresses the unit Central Question: “What does it mean for things to fall apart?”

• In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, students complete the Culminating Task, an expository essay comparing the portrayal of Henrietta Lacks’s story in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with its portrayal in one of the unit’s companion texts. In Section 1, Lesson 5, the student-facing materials direct students to “Respond to the following questions in your Learning Log, citing evidence from the text to support your answers:

  • What more do you learn about Henrietta in this chapter?

  • What do you learn about Rebecca Skloot in this chapter?”

This writing activity serves as a scaffold to prepare students for other unit writing assignments, including the Culminating Task in Section 5. Lesson Goals for this activity include writing standards that ask students:

• “Can I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed narratives, explanations, and arguments?

• Can I recognize points of connection among texts, textual elements, and perspectives to make logical, objective comparisons?

• Can I apply correct and effective syntax, usage, mechanics, and spelling to communicate ideas and achieve intended purposes?

• Can I use effective formatting, style, and citations to present ideas for specific audiences and purposes?”

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, students complete the Culminating Task, an argumentative essay addressing the prompt, “In light of personal beliefs, individual rights, and social justice, how should we address the common good as it relates to topics of public health?” Students develop their ability to accomplish the Culminating Task throughout the unit in the form of Section Diagnostics and informal writing activities within the unit lessons. In Section 2, Lesson 1, for example, students use the Video Note-Taking Tool to record the arguments that experts and parents present for and against vaccinations in the Frontline video, “The Vaccine War.” In Section 4, Lesson 1, students employ the Delineating Arguments Tool to examine a model argument presented in “Measles, Mumps, and Religious Freedom: Mandatory Vaccination and the Limits of Parental Rights” by Christopher O. Tollefson by identifying issues and questions and by locating claims and supporting evidence presented in the text. Lesson Goals for this activity include writing standards that ask students:

  • “Can I delineate and explain the structure of a research-based model argument about ‘Mandatory Vaccination and the Limits of Parents Rights’?

  • Can I plan a sequence of the claims and evidence I will use to support my argument about a public health controversy?”

These activities reflect a cohesive plan to support student understanding of how arguments are structured and help them develop their own arguments for the unit Culminating Task. 

• 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, Alexander Hamilton, Section1, Lesson 1, the materials provide resources to help students unpack and complete the Culminating Task to write an original song to be included in Hamilton The Revolution. In addition to the Literacy Toolbox, which is useful to teachers in every unit and lesson, the Teaching Notes for this activity offer specific guidance to support student writing, including ideas and materials for a mini-lesson on the difference between poetry and prose. 

In Section 2, Lesson 11, students “write a response comparing Miranda’s interpretation of Hamilton’s views of slavery with what we found in our reading of primary and secondary sources.” The Teacher Edition provides guidance for teachers to support students through this writing process, such as:

• “Some students might benefit from using a tool when composing their response. Sentence frames can also be a useful scaffolding for all students, regardless of ability range and are particularly useful for English learners.”

The use of organizers and sentence frames represents a protocol for teachers to implement writing development.

• In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, students complete a character analysis of the character Okonkwo in which students “consider how internal and external factors influence his relationships and contribute to his fate at the end of the novel.” The materials offer a variety of protocols and support in the form of guides, tools, and suggestions presented in the Teaching Notes section of the Teacher Edition. In Section 4, Lesson 2, for example, the Teaching Notes suggest that teachers review the Claims Reference Guide to model for students how to form claims in their own writing. Similarly, in Section 4, Lesson 5, the Teaching Notes prompt teachers to direct students to the Conventions Reference Guide for their Culminating Task essay revision activity to help model writing conventions such as parallel structure and incorporating mentor sentences. 

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 2, Lesson 4, students utilize their Mentor Sentence Journals to identify and record sentences they find interesting or ones that are strong examples of language concepts. The student-facing materials guide students through the process through prompts, such as:

  • “What does this sentence contribute to the author’s ideas in the text?

  • How does it expand your understanding of the text or author?”

Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide additional details to guide teaching strategies, such as choosing at least one mentor sentence worthy of careful study in advance:

• “You might model a mentor sentence analysis by engaging in a think-aloud as you follow the steps for deconstruction, analysis, and writing practice. If needed, consider working on a second mentor sentence with the whole class, allowing the students to work as a group. Then, you can divide the students into groups and turn over the work to them.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 2f.

Grade 10 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 Foundation Unit, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do, students complete the Section Diagnostic using their research from Section 1 to “draft a multi-paragraph analysis of an ethical dilemma, using the information gained from texts in this section to analyze the dilemma.” Later in the unit, in Section 4, Lesson 1, students begin their Culminating Tasks in which they “Collaboratively participate in a research team to choose a pathway option and create and deliver a 5–7 minute presentation about ethics and why ethical issues are complex in that pathway.” In Section 4, Lesson 3, students complete the Application Unit Potential Topics Tool and use the following questions as a guide:

    • “Were there any particular topics or texts that captured your attention? Why?

    • 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?”

These lessons represent a progression of research skills throughout the unit.

• In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, students complete the Culminating Task, a personal essay reflecting on the creative process of creating original song lyrics using primary and secondary sources. After completing the Culminating Task, in Section 6, Lesson 5, students engage in a whole class or group discussion of possible connections among the unit, other units from the year, and the research students might choose to do in the final Application Unit. In the Application Unit, Section 1, Lesson 1, students use the Application Unit Potential Topics Tool to develop potential topics to explore with their research teams by addressing the questions:

  • “Which questions fascinate you?

  • What mysteries would you most love to dig into, whether or not they can ever be solved?”

These activities are sequenced throughout the year to allow students to reflect on the skills they developed and prepare them for the final Culminating Task of the year.

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, students examine the ways in which the Central Question, “How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty?” plays out in the realm of public health decision making. To learn how broad ethical questions and approaches apply in a specific context, students examine the historical and contemporary history of vaccinations, public health mandates, and personal dissent by reading informational sources to build background knowledge, analyzing and delineating various perspectives and arguments, and developing their own perspectives and positions. For the Culminating Task, students work in research teams to further investigate this topic, or a related ethical issue in public health, and write an evidence-based argument that presents and supports an ethics-based position in response to a significant public health question. Student-facing materials prompt students as follows:

  • “Write an argument in which you state your response and logically and sufficiently support your position with claims and textual evidence, including the use of ethical frameworks, examples, statistics, arguments, and direct quotations with parenthetical citations.” 

To complete this task, students must:

• “Use correct and effective words, phrases, syntax, and mechanics to clearly communicate your analysis.state your response and logically and sufficiently support your position with claims and textual evidence, including the use of ethical frameworks, examples, statistics, arguments, and direct quotations with parenthetical citations.”

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

  • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, students compare Lin-Manuel Miranda’s interpretation of Alexander Hamilton’s view on slavery to those found in unit primary and secondary resources. In Section 3, Lesson 2, for example, students work as a class using the Comparison Organizational Frame to compare the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington presented in the musical to those portrayed in primary sources, such as an excerpt from Illustrating Washington’s Temper, Referencing A. Hamilton Letter 18 February 1781 from Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Student-facing materials guide students as follows:

    • “You will continue using this tool over the next few lessons. You will begin by summarizing what you know about Hamilton and Washington’s relationship.”

In Section 4, students continue their study of Alexander Hamilton from the perspective of Historical Accuracy and Artistic License to consider how Lin-Manuel Miranda’s interpretation of Alexander Hamilton compares with the way Hamilton is revealed in the primary and secondary sources read.

• In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 4, Lesson 1, students engage in a sustained recursive inquiry process as they conduct research to complete the Culminating Task, a character analysis of Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In Section 4, 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. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide questions and prompts for teachers to support students in their research and Culminating Task, such as:

  • “You might have students develop a master list of important events or quotes from the novel (including page numbers), along with a list of character traits that students feel best fit Okonkwo.”

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 for both the unit Culminating Task for Things Fall Apart, and in beginning the initial stage of planning for The Application Unit end of year research project. The materials also provide an Application Unit Potential Topics Tool for students to capture their reflections, and the student-facing materials provide questions for consideration, such as:

• “Were there any particular topics or texts that captured your attention? Why?

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

Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide additional guidance relating to the Tool students use 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, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 4, Lesson 11, students have the opportunity to develop different aspects of a topic by analyzing texts that they have chosen for independent reading. Student-facing materials provide the following information to explain how students will use independent reading to make connections to different aspects of the topic:

  • “We will share the analyses we have made about our independent reading texts and make connections to the unit. We will plan a final product to share our experiences from reading independently and the knowledge we have gained.”

• 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 Foundation Unit, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, students work toward the Culminating Task during which they collaboratively participate in a research team to choose a pathway topic and create and deliver a 5–7 minute presentation about ethics and why ethical issues are complex in that pathway. In Section 3, Lesson 7, students complete an annotated bibliography as part of the Section Diagnostic. Students compose their annotated bibliographies by writing “two to three sentences explaining how this text connects to your pathway, how it enhances your understanding, and how it furthers your thinking and lines of inquiry.”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 5, Lesson 1, students begin the Culminating Task during which they write an original narrative that presents an interesting story from their lives, their imaginations, current events, or history. Students choose from the genres of Personal Narrative or Memoir, Original Story or Folk Tale, and Nonfiction or Historical Narrative for their original narrative. To prepare for this task, students read an array of stories over the course the unit, including but not limited to, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, and “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” by Mark Twain. Students then analyze and synthesize the various storytelling approaches, use of narrative voice, and use of dialogue in each of these stories before they choose the genre for their own original narrative.

  • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 5, Lesson 7, students have opportunities to synthesize and analyze content as part of the unit Culminating Task by engaging in the following activities explained in the student-facing materials:

    • “We will continue to explore the following question: How will I use primary and secondary sources to create an original work? Following our research, we will closely analyze one of the previously studied songs in order to guide our writing of lyrics for our own original song or writing new verses to an existing song from the musical using our research and the influence of primary sources.”

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

  • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, students complete a Culminating Task during which they write an expository essay comparing the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot with a companion text, such as “HeLa” by L. Lamar Wilson and “Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells and Cell Culture Contamination” by Brendan P. Lucey, Walter A. Nelson-Rae and Grover M. Hutchins. As part of this longer project, students engage in shorter research activities within the unit in the form of Section Diagnostics. In Section 3, Lesson 9, for example, students participate in a Socratic Seminar as the Section Diagnostic to discuss what the book presents in regards to the life of Henrietta Lacks. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition explain:

    • “Once students have completed this task, they will have a better understanding of how the text fits in with the history of race, class, science, and ethics in America.”

In Section 4, Lesson 7, students write a multi-paragraph response on how The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and one of the companion texts address one of the following central issues: race, ethics, class, and science. Students then reflect on how well they did on the Section Diagnostic and how prepared they are for the Culminating Task. Here we see opportunities for students to expand on their learning of the topic, issue, and resources used as they develop skills and knowledge needed for the culminating task. 

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students complete a series of short projects as a part of the longer Culminating Task that progresses throughout the unit. In 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 might lead to valuable questions and problems to explore in their research. Students use this tool to choose which topic to explore for their long project that will complete the unit and the grade level materials. Students may choose from any of the prior units for their long project. Students choose from topics within How Do We Determine the Right Thing To Do?, Telling Stories, Alexander Hamilton, Things Fall Apart, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and The Ethics of Public Health Decisions and all of the texts and topics within these units. In Section 1, Lesson 3, students explore topics and craft research questions to share with their groups. 

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 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students discuss the essential elements and overall theme of an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The Teacher Edition includes Teaching Notes on Teaching Strategies and Decisions, such as “Students might struggle with expressing the main idea in a single sentence. In those cases, students can write a longer summary before attempting to condense those ideas into a single sentence.”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 2, Lesson 5, students watch a section of a video. The teacher-facing guidance suggests questions for the teacher to ask as part of a discussion before watching the video. The Teaching Strategies and Decisions Teaching Notes also mention using The Theme Reference Guide to support students with their understanding.  

  • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 1, Lesson 4, students view and discuss the songs “Guns and Ships,” “History Has Its Eyes on You,” “Yorktown,” “What Comes Next?”, “Dear Theodosia,” and “Non-Stop” from the filmed stage production of Hamilton. The Teaching Notes addressing About the Author, Concept, Text, Topic include the following guidance: “The video timestamp for ‘Dear Theodosia’ is 01:05:01-01:07:50. This song is followed by a one minute scene where Hamilton gets news of John Laurens’s death.”

  • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 1, Lesson 6, students read a passage which mentions locusts descending on one of the characters. The Teaching Notes direct the teacher to show a short video of locusts descending, so students can get a picture of this in their minds if they have never seen this before. The Student Support and Differentiation Teaching Notes also suggest that the teacher pull a useful quote from the text to model what good evidence and quotations look like to aid students in doing this for themselves. 

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 4, Lesson 4, during the review of the Section Diagnostic, materials support the teacher with when and how to give substantial feedback to students on their recent Diagnostic Test performance. These suggestions include how to decide if feedback will be given in the lesson immediately following the test, assessing how the class as a whole performed on the diagnostic and what to do if the majority of the students missed certain questions, and providing sentence frames to students struggling to develop and organize their ideas.

• 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 Edition includes Teaching Notes addressing Student Support and Differentiation, “If students struggle citing evidence, consider modeling different citation examples with a model source and text.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 3b.

The explanation and examples help build teacher understanding and provide the necessary support for students throughout the lessons. Materials allow teachers to expand their pedagogical approaches by offering alternative activities and explaining how to run protocols in the classroom. Materials also point to external resources that are accessible online. Materials include 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 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, Telling Stories, Section 3, Lesson 1, students work on analyzing the narration in multiple texts. The Teacher Edition provides adult-level explanations for helping students analyze the complex narration in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain. Materials reference external sources to broaden teachers’ understanding, “Because of the nature and importance of this narrative structure and voice, students will benefit greatly from listening to the story. There are a number of audio and video renditions available online, including several in which the voice of Simon Wheeler is portrayed by Walter Brennan.”

  • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 2, Lesson 5, students work on analyzing the different experiences of characters in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The Teacher Edition provides adult-level explanations to help teachers understand different types of claims, such as the following: “For example, you might model how to write an analytical or interpretive claim, in which students state observations or conclusions they have reached by closely examining information or ideas, such as how interpretations of themes are developed and communicated in a text.”

  • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 3, Lesson 2, the Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest that teachers may want to introduce students to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, noting that this resource can be found online. This suggestion helps build the teacher’s knowledge of the complex concept of universal human rights. 

• 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 Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 2, Lesson 3, materials offer explicit instructions on how to engage in an academic discussion with the class. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest ways to model academic language in a discussion by describing protocols that translate across grade levels and content areas:

    • “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.

    • Write vocabulary on the board to encourage and support students to practice using new words during the discussion.

    • Following the discussion, share the scripted strong examples with students, along with some weak examples.

    • Ask students to describe the qualities of the strong examples.

    • Direct students to revise the weak examples based on the strong examples.”

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 1, Lesson 2, students closely read the “Preamble to the Constitution” and make text annotations. The Teacher Edition provides the following explanation to support teacher understanding of annotations: “Developing a system for annotating takes practice. You might use the sample annotation key in the Annotating and Note-Taking Reference Guide to model how to annotate the text.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 10 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. The Program 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 1, Lesson 3, students use the Video Note-Taking Tool to address questions, such as “How is being Kantian (that is, like Batman in the video) different from being utilitarian?” about the video “Utilitarianism: Crash Course Philosophy #36.” The Teacher Edition Teaching Notes also suggest students use this Tool to complete this activity.

• In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 3, Lesson 4, materials listed include the Comparison Organizational Frame with which students “discuss the similarities, differences, and conclusions you drew about the relationship between Hamiton and Washington as seen in the musical and in the primary and secondary sources.” The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition also suggest students use the Academic Discussion Reference Guide when engaging in discussions with their peers. 

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students collect and assess potential sources for the Culminating Task using the Potential Sources Tool and Assessing Sources Reference Guide to help examine the following criteria on whether the resource is:

  • “interesting and accessible to you as a reader

  • relevant to your inquiry or research and rich in information

  • credible, accurate, and unbiased”

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 3, Lesson 7, students create annotated bibliographies that summarize each previously read source and its connection to the pathway topic. The Section Diagnostic Checklist includes Writing Goals, such as the following for Summarize:

    • “How well can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of my chosen pathway texts?”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 3, Lesson 6, 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 the following for Analyze Perspective:

    • “How well do I analyze relationships among an author’s perspective, personal experiences, and the themes developed in his or her stories, memoirs, or essays?”

  • In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 6, Lesson 2, students begin planning and drafting their Culminating Task essays. Students utilize a Culminating Task Checklist that includes the following Reading & Knowledge Goals:

    • “Determining Meaning and Purpose: How well do I use connections among details, elements, and effects to make logical deductions about an author's perspective, purpose, and meaning in texts?”

  • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, Section 4, Lesson 1, students prepare to plan and complete their written responses to the unit Culminating Task. The Culminating Task Checklist uses similar language to grade-level CCSS, such as:

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

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 2, Lesson 7, students complete a Section Diagnostic in which they choose from three options to compose an original retelling of a story read in the unit. After reading “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, students “[r]ewrite all or part of the story as if it were being told from Tessie Hutchinson’s point of view.” Throughout the section, students use the Telling Stories: Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist to monitor their progress— below expectations, meet expectations, or beyond expectations—in the section’s writing goals. Students use the Telling Stories: Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist throughout the section in Lessons 5, 7, 8, and 9. In the Program Guide, materials explain, “Teachers review students’ work using Section Diagnostic Checklists to determine students’ progress and diagnose learning needs.” 

• In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Unit Overview, Materials Tab, the Evaluation Plan Document outlines the many opportunities that teachers have to assess student learning: “The unit includes a variety of formal and informal opportunities designed to assess student learning and performance: a Culminating Task, which is the final, summative assessment for the unit; Section Diagnostics, which are formative assessment opportunities to track student progress toward the Culminating Task; and informal opportunities in each lesson to monitor student performance.”

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

  • In the Program Guide, materials explain that the program design for assessment is accomplished through three practices: monitor, diagnose, and evaluate. Materials suggest instructors monitor student performance using the Lesson Goals and adjust or extend activities based on these Goals. Materials explain that instructors can diagnose student literacy development through Section Diagnostics and note, “Information from Section Diagnostics can be used to plan future instruction and identify reteaching opportunities.”

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 1, Lesson 4, students work on a conventions assessment. The Teacher Edition provides the following teacher guidance to determine student learning and address misconceptions: “If students struggle to understand the mentor sentences, you might have them look for examples of the concept in their independent reading, or you might have them manipulate sentence strips so they can clearly see the different parts of a sentence.”

  • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 4, students complete the Section 4 Diagnostic. The Teacher Edition includes some guidance for teachers to consider when assessing students’ work on the Section 4 Diagnostic Assessment: “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. Academic feedback should provide students with relevant information in the midst of their learning process, including concrete ideas of how to improve their skills...you should acknowledge a student’s areas of strength and growth while providing constructive feedback for areas of improvement.”

  • In the Development Unit, Things Fall Apart, the Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition offer guidance for instructors to interpret student performance and suggest follow up lessons for assessments. For example, in Section 1, Lesson 10, materials suggest using sentence-level writing as formative data for the next section and suggest a variety of activities to improve students’ ability to use vocabulary in context:

    • “Write example and nonexample sentences that use the new words.

    • Answer hypothetical situations that use the new words.

    • Connect the meaning of the words to texts or topics they have previously studied.

    • Have students reword sentences to use the new terms.

    • Complete a Word Map for one of the words.

    • Complete an Open Sort or Closed Sort for categories of words.

    • Draw a visual representation of the word.

    • Explore and explain how two words are related conceptually to one another.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, students complete three Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students review their Lesson 1–9 notes and “[use] a foundational concept from ‘A Framework for Ethical Decision Making’ to write a multi-paragraph expository response “explaining how that concept determines the solution to the dilemma of self-driving cars.” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students write a “multisection research proposal in which you outline your rationale for selecting a specific pathway.” During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students “create an annotated bibliography that summarizes each source and its connection to your pathway topic.” During the Culminating Task, students “Collaboratively research, create, and deliver a presentation about ethical issues in a research pathway area.”

• In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, students complete four Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students write a brief narrative story in response to the following Task Question: “What legendary story can you tell?” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students choose from a list of short stories and “write a brief original narrative retelling the story from the point of view of another character.” During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students “Write a brief personal narrative that is based on your own experiences or view of the world.” During the Section 4 Diagnostic, students “Research a historical or contemporary event or figure” and “Write a historical narrative depicting the story of your selected event or figure.” During the Culminating Task, students “Write an original narrative that presents an interesting story from your life, your imagination, current events, or history.” 

• In the Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, students complete five Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students “Write an objective summary of Acts 1 and 2 of Hamilton: An American Musical, and identify one of its themes,” using textual evidence to support their response. During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students write a comparative response in which they “Compare Miranda’s interpretation of Hamilton’s views of slavery with what you found in your reading of primary and secondary sources.” Students use “evidence from the musical and multiple texts” to support their response. During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students write an expository response “[comparing] Miranda’s interpretation of Hamilton and Angelica Church’s relationship with what you found in your reading of primary and secondary sources.” Students support their response using “evidence from the musical and multiple texts.” During the Section 4 Diagnostic, students participate in a formal academic discussion that addresses the following questions: “To what extent does Lin-Manuel Miranda’s interpretation and portrayal of Hamilton’s character align with how he is represented in the primary and secondary sources you have studied? How important is it to be historically accurate when creating art that is based on a real person or event?” During the Section 5 Diagnostic, students “Use your group’s research from this unit to create lyrics for an original song or to write additional verses to an existing song from Hamilton: An American Musical.” Students also “write an explanatory response that answers the following questions: What is your perspective of the people or events you researched and how is that conveyed in your song lyrics? How did Lin-Manuel Miranda’s content and craft decisions in his lyrics influence your song lyrics?” Students use textual evidence to support their response. During the Culminating Task, students write a reflective essay on “the creative process you engaged in when creating your original song lyrics [that explains] your group’s choices regarding the incorporation of primary and secondary sources.” 

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, students complete four Section Diagnostics which lead to the end-of-unit Culminating Task. During the Section 1 Diagnostic, students participate in a collaborative research and “deliver a presentation that answers your research question.” During the Section 2 Diagnostic, students write an expository response to the following questions: “What is a key ethical issue or question surrounding the mandating of vaccinations to prevent widespread infectious diseases? What ethical approaches should we apply to this issue? What solutions or consequences might the approaches lead to?” During the Section 3 Diagnostic, students select a subtopic related to public health 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” addressing the Central Question, “How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty?” During the Culminating Task, students “Write an evidence-based argument in response to a complex ethical debate in the realm of public health.”   

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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, How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?, Section 2, Lesson 5, students brainstorm their proposal for the pathway of their choosing. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide opportunities for student support and differentiation, including questions for the teacher to reflect on and use to make instructional decisions: “Would students benefit from being provided a focused checklist for each paragraph?”

  • In the Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 1, Lesson 3, students use the Author Craft Note-Taking Tool to refine their thinking about the beginning of the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. 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 Ethics of Public Health Decisions, students engage in this type of metacognition through The Ethics of Public Health Decisions: Culminating Task Checklist as they record whether or not they are below, meet, or exceed expectations and in activities asking them to reflect on their thinking, such as Section 2, Lesson 11, where they reflect on their learning during the Section Diagnostic:

• “How well did you take necessary action to prepare for the task?

• What went well for you during the completion of this task?

• What did you struggle with during the completion of this task? How did you push through that struggle?”

In the Program Guide, the materials explain that metacognition and reflection are key for addressing learners below grade-level expectations: “Students reflect on their learning in an ongoing fashion throughout the program, bringing awareness to what they have learned and how they learned it, instilling self responsibility for their learning.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 Development Unit, Alexander Hamilton, Section 2, Lesson 11, students use the Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist and the Comparison Organizational Frame to help compose their response for the Section Diagnostic. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition explain the following:

    • “Some students might find the organizer and sentence frames too restrictive. Allow students to use their own structure when writing their responses. The goal is for students to write responses that clearly express their ideas.

    • 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 Development Unit, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 3, Lesson 4, students analyze sentences in Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and replicate her structure, style, grammar, and punctuation. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest “a gradual release of responsibility in which the students perform more and more of the chunking into parts themselves” and encourages students that have mastered the concepts to move beyond the model: “If students conceptually understand that a semicolon links independent clauses, you might encourage them to use a semicolon to link more than two independent clauses, for effect.”

  • In the Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 2, Lesson 5, students complete a close-reading of “The Far and the Near” by Thomas Wolfe. The Teacher Edition provides opportunities to extend learning for students who may be performing above grade level: “Some students who demonstrate advanced competency might benefit from an additional challenge. Consider the following questions, designed to push students:

• 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, Things Fall Apart, Section 4, Lesson 3, students write drafts of a character analysis essay. The Teacher Edition provides the following information to extend student knowledge for those who may be performing above grade level: “Students who demonstrate more sophisticated writing skills might benefit from having time to complete a more extensive revision of their work or from experimenting with a unique organizational structure or stylistic technique.”

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 2, Lesson 4, students reread selected texts that they previously read in the unit. The Teacher Edition provides ideas for students who are performing above grade level: “If students master the concepts quickly, you might have them experiment with grammatical rules to create sentences that move beyond the model. For example, if students conceptually understand that a semicolon links independent clauses, you might encourage them to use a semicolon to link independent clauses, for effect.”

• In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 1, Lesson 3, students use the Potential Sources Tool to evaluate potential resources for their research projects. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest, “Students who are working at a highly advanced level and who have extensive experience with the research process might feel slowed down by the Potential Sources Tool.” Materials suggest students use this tool to scan multiple sources and record their ideas and use their Learning Log or in the Research Note-Taking Tool for additional space to take notes. 

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 Development Unit, Telling Stories, Section 1, Lesson 3, students utilize a Vocabulary in Context Tool when working with vocabulary. The student-facing materials provide instructions including, “You might use a Vocabulary in Context Tool 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, including but not limited to: “Does the author use any metaphors to help me determine the meaning of the word? Does the word use any prefixes or suffixes that can give me clues to the word’s meaning?”

  • 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, Things Fall Apart, Section 3, Lesson 2, students discuss themes in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include strategies to provide student support and differentiation suggestions for students who are struggling 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 that “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, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Section 1, Lesson 5, Activity 5, students review some key vocabulary from Chapters 2–4 that is content-specific or challenging. Student-facing materials include the following directions: “Review the Vocabulary List from Chapters 2–4 of the text. In your group, assign each member a set of words from the list to define. Individually, locate the words as they are used in the text, using the provided page number, and consider the following questions for each: What is the meaning of this word? What strategy did you use to determine the meaning (context, morphology, reference resource)? How is its meaning important to the text?”

  • Teacher Notes in the Teacher Edition include additional guidance for supporting English learners: “[I]f a word under study is a cognate—a word that shares similar spelling, meaning, and pronunciation with a word in another language—in the student’s native language, you might make connections between the cognate and the new vocabulary word. A cognate provides a bridge to the English language for English learners.”

• In the Development Unit, The Ethics of Public Health Decisions, Section 2, Lesson 2, students complete a first reading of an article that summarizes the history of opposition to mandatory vaccinations. Students annotate the article's introduction with text-specific tasks relating to a quotation available in the student-facing materials. Questions include, but are not limited to: “1. Identify where in the article this sentence appears. 2. Write a short paraphrase of the sentence.”

  • The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include strategies for student support and differentiation for students who struggle with comprehending the complex text. Teachers use a list of provided questions to determine which supports will be necessary. Questions include, but are not limited to: “Are students struggling with the vocabulary and language? If so, would nonlinguistic representations of concepts be helpful? Preteaching key vocabulary with visual supports can be especially beneficial for English learners.”