10th Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading.

Texts within the units provide interesting and engaging subject matter that enable students to make personal and universal connections. The majority of texts are previously published and written by well-known authors. Texts range from historical to modern-day literature and represent a variety of text genres and multicultural and socially relevant themes across units. The units are designed to provide students a variety of text types centered on a topic, genre, or analytical skill; therefore, many units do not have an identifiable anchor text.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Unit 1 features “On Civil Disobedience” by globally known Mohandas K. Gandhi. As an anti-colonial political activist who practiced nonviolence, Gandhi’s work builds student’s knowledge about government and the different ways in which an individual can use their voice. This text may also motivate students to broaden their knowledge of Gandhi and his influence on well-known activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Unit 1 also includes a set of paired texts “On Surrender at Bear Paw Mountains” by the Nez Perce Indians’ Chief Joseph and “On Women’s Right to Vote” by women’s suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Both texts are seminal United States documents with literary and historical significance. Students examine the use of rhetorical appeals by author’s outside of the white, male perspective of U.S. history.
• Unit 2 features the classic novel Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. He won the Man Booker International Prize for Literature for his body of fiction. This Common Core exemplar text is a cultural tale of an individual clashing with traditions and contains relatable content on family relationships and customs.
• Unit 2 also features another international work “Half a Day” by author Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. This allegorical short story uses a school day to represent the journey and brevity of life and contains themes of socialization, aging, and memory.
• Unit 3 features informational texts such as an excerpt from “Tinker v. Des Moines” a Supreme Court Decision. The Amendment 1 excerpt contains rich academic vocabulary to deepen comprehension of past and current legal issues and broaden personal perspectives on free speech and society.
• Unit 3 also includes “Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability” an environmental report by the United Nations Event Programme (UNEP). This research report features rich domain-specific vocabulary and relevant environmental topics students can build upon.
• Unit 4 features an excerpt of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This graphic novel is an autobiographical account of the author’s childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The story contains engaging, thought-provoking images that speak of the human cost of war.
• Unit 4 also includes other international works such as “Tuesday Siesta” by Nobel Prize winning Columbian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This short story contains rich imagery and sensory details to explore the universal topic of a family’s mourning process.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.

Publishers provide a Text Complexity Measures document that indicates the quantitative data, qualitative analysis, and task considerations for the significant texts in each unit. The analysis uses Lexile and qualitative measures based on CCSS Appendix A (pages 5–6). Poetry and canonical or Common Core exemplar texts are not included in this document.

While some texts fall above and below the College and Career Expectations for Lexile Ranges in the grades 9-10 stretch band (1050–1335L), the publishers provide a rationale based on the complexity of the qualitative features or the student task associated with the text. Most texts below the grade band are accompanied by a more rigorous task or require more student independence.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, the publisher provides complexity information for 14 texts. Lexile levels range from 500 to 1590 with three below grade band and three above the grade band. The majority of texts are labeled as complex per the text analysis documents. Text types include articles, speeches, editorials, and arguments. Several activities require students to use multiple texts.
• Activity 1.2 text from the argument, “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (Part One)” by Jane McGonigal, PhD: Quantitative: Lexile: 1230L, Qualitative: High, Task: Challenging–Evaluate
• Activity 1.8 text “On Surrender at Bear Paw Mountains” by Chief Joseph: Quantitative, 500L: Qualitative: Moderate Difficulty: Task, Moderate–Compare-Contrast
• Activity 1.9 text “Declarations of the Right of the Child” by the United Nations: Quantitative: 1590L: Qualitative, Moderate Difficulty: Task, Moderate–Research
• In Unit 2, the publisher provides complexity information for six of the seven texts in the unit. The central text, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe does not have a text rationale. Of the six analyzed texts, three fall within the grade band, and three are below the grade band with a range of 810L to 1150L. Texts include a novel, poetry, novel excerpts, and short stories.
• Activity 2.21 “Half a Day” by Naguib Mahfouz: Quantitative, 810L: Qualitative, High Difficulty: Task, Challenging–Evaluate
• Activity 2.24 text excerpt from Annie John by Jamaica Kinkaid. Quantitative, 1140L: Qualitative, Moderate: Task, Moderate–Analyze
• In Unit 3, the publisher provides complexity information for nine texts. Texts in the unit include legal documents, op-eds, infographics, illustrations, and informational texts. Lexile levels range from 830L–1560L.
• Activity 3.4 text Tinker vs Des Moines (Excerpt 3) from the Supreme Court of the United States: Quantitative, 1420L: Qualitative, High Difficulty: Task, Challenging–Create
• Activity 3.5 text Jacobson vs. Massachusetts by Supreme Court of the United States: Quantitative, 1560L: Qualitative, High Difficulty: Task, Challenging–Create
• Activity 3.7 text “Measles: A Dangerous Illness” by Roald Dahl: Quantitative, 970L: Qualitative, Moderate: Task, Challenging–Evaluate
• Unit 4 contains only one text complexity analysis provided by the publisher. The central text in this unit is a canonical text Anitgone by Sophocles. Additional texts are poetry and graphic novel excerpts which generally do not adhere to the same complexity standards as prose. The single text complexity analysis provided is for the short story “Tuesday Siesta” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The text has a Lexile score of 830 and a qualitative measure of moderate. The associated analysis task is also of moderate difficulty. The publisher rationale for using a text below grade range is that the complexity comes from the multiple layers of meaning.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ literacy skills (understanding and comprehension) over the course of the school year through increasingly complex text to develop independence of grade level skills (Series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels).

Throughout the four units of study, students encounter challenging, rigorous texts and accompanying lessons, tasks, and assessments. Text selections fall within a range of accessible to very complex and low to high difficulty, with most texts falling within the moderately difficult range. Skills and knowledge build as students analyze a variety of texts and grapple with literary elements to complete two embedded assessments per unit. Thus, students work toward independence of grade level skills within each unit and continue to grow their skills and knowledge of content and topics across the school year. The task demands and expected level of independence also increase across the year.

The complexity of anchor texts support students’ proficiency in reading independently at grade level at the end of the school year. Series of texts include a variety of complexity levels. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the beginning of the year, students focus on arguments. This starts with analysis of an op-ed article “The Flight from Conversation” by Sherry Turkle. Students then analyze a persuasive speech “Taking a Stand on Justice On Civil Disobedience” by Mohandas K. Gandhi. At the unit midpoint, students analyze the structure of an editorial to determine use of persuasive elements then write an argumentative essay on a topic of their own choice for Embedded Assessment 1. Students identify topics, research, and plan a debate topic in order to complete Embedded Assessment 2.
• In the middle of the year, students compose an annotated bibliography to prepare for a position paper. In Unit 3, Voice in Synthesis, they must “reexamine the sources from previous activities” then “plan, write, and revise an argument” that clearly states a position. Using multiple sources including online resources, students evaluate the credibility of sources for accuracy and reliability. Students identify and research an environmental conflict, identify a topic, then plan and deliver a group presentation using the scoring guide provided.
• By the end of the year students write a literary analysis of a work of literature. In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, students read the poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop and “analyze how the author evokes praise, mockery, and mourning in the poem through language, rhyme, meter, and structure.” This prepares students to analyze characters in Antigone by Sophocles, then perform a scene from the play based on analyses of character motivations. The rubrics and task demands are similar but build upon the ones students encountered in Units 1 and 2.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that anchor texts and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by a text complexity analysis and rationale for purpose and placement in the grade level.

The publisher provides a text complexity document for each grade level which includes a summary or rationale of the placement of the text and the overall, quantitative, qualitative, and task complexity measures. This document also includes qualitative considerations for levels of meaning, structure, language, and knowledge demands. The task considerations explain the assessments associated with the text and how they fit into the overall assessment picture, and reader considerations that help the teacher think about how individual students might understand and engage with the text. The Teacher Wrap and Teacher Edition instructional notes provide a framework with text-specific guidance and purpose for the text. Most tasks, such as close reading, independent reading, text-dependent questions, and writing assignments are addressed within the framework and are identified in the Teacher Wrap and Teacher Edition with a rationale for text placement and how the tasks relate to lesson goals and learning targets. 

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.10, Taking a Stand on Truth and Responsibility, students read an excerpt from Kofi Annan’s Nobel Lecture. The Text Complexity document provides a Lexile score of 1260 and an overall rating of complex. The Summary section provides this rationale for text placement: “This text is complex for a tenth grade reader and is first approached as a shared reading. The 1260 Lexile measure places the text in the 9–10 grade level band, but the qualitative measures indicate a high difficulty level due to its implicit purpose and unconventional structure. The task demands are moderate, resulting in an overall complex rating.” 

• In Unit 2, Persuasion in Literature, Activity 2.2, Love and Marriage, students read the short story “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe. The Text Complexity document provides a Lexile score of 810L with an overall rating of complex. The Summary section provides this rationale for text placement: “This text is complex for a tenth grade reader, which is fitting for literary fiction from another culture. The 810 Lexile measure places the text below the 9–10 grade level band, but the qualitative measure indicates a high difficulty level due to its structure and levels of meaning. The task demands are also challenging, resulting in an overall complex rating.” 

• In Unit 3, Voice in Synthesis, Activity 3.3, Reading a Court Case on Freedom of Speech, students read an excerpt from the Court Opinion Tinker v. Des Moines. The Text Complexity document provides a Lexile score of 1020L and an overall rating of complex. The Summary section provides this rationale for text placement: “This text is complex for a tenth grade reader, which is common for primary sources of a legal or historical nature. The 1020 Lexile measure places the text below the 9–10 grade level band, but the qualitative measures indicate a high difficulty level due to the knowledge and language requirements. The task demands are moderate, resulting in an overall complex rating.”

• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, Activity 4.10, Mourning in the Afternoon, students read the short story “Tuesday Siesta” by Gabriel García Márquez and begin to develop their own story. The lexile level for the text is 830 and the overall rating is complex. The qualitative aspects of language are described as, “Márquez uses descriptive imagery and many sensory details, which contribute to the story’s complexity.” Task considerations include, “students analyze syntax, tone, and characterization in this text. They also write a narrative scene in which they evoke a sense of mourning.” 

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for anchor and supporting texts provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade-level reading proficiency.

Students read and analyze a wide variety of text genres and topics across a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts of varying length. All units come with an overview that includes a table of contents with a list of texts, authors, and genres for each activity. Each unit includes a wide range of text types addressing multiple learning styles of students-including but not limited to visuals, texts with audio, and printed texts. Additionally, students experience a volume of reading as they engage in independent reading tasks that are embedded within specific activities and directly aligned to concepts and themes within the unit.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1: The Power of Argument, presents students with a variety of argumentative texts including “Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (Part One)” by Jane McGonigal (essay), “Touchscreen” by Marshall Davis Jones (video performance), “The Flight from Conversation” (op-ed), an excerpt from On Civil Disobedience by Mohandas K. Gandhi (speech), and “Diners should pay attention to workers, not just the food,” by Kathleen Kingsbury (editorial).
• Unit 2, Persuasion in Literature, centers on the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The supporting texts include the “Declaration of the Rights of the Child,” by the United Nations (proclamation), “The Summer Hunger Crisis” by Billy Shore (editorial), “Marriage Is a Private Affair,” by Chinua Achebe (short story), “Prayer to the Masks,” by Léopold Sédar Senghor (poem), “An African Voice,” by Katie Bacon (interview), “Half a Day,” by Naguib Mahfouz (short story), and an excerpt from Annie John, by Jamaica Kincaid (novel).
• Unit 3, Voice in Synthesis, features a variety of informational texts on current social issues: “Amendment I” and an excerpt from the 1969 Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines (legal documents), “On Immunity: An Inoculation” by Eula Biss (opinion piece), “Smallpox—The Speckled Monster” by James Gillray (infographic), an excerpt from “Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability,” by the United Nations Environment Programme (research report), and The Story of Bottled Water (film).
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, the unit includes multiple poems such as “Vegetable Love in Texas” by Carol Coffee Reposa, “Mutton” by Jonathan Swift, “Ode to Kool-aid” by Marcus Jackson, “Sonnet 130,” by William Shakespeare, and “Ode to the Cat” by Pablo Neruda. The unit also features “Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha” by Kehinde Wiley (painting), “Tuesday Siesta” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (short story), and the central text Antigone by Sophocles (play).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

The materials provide frequent opportunities for students to interact with texts by answering questions and completing tasks and assessments that require them to provide textual evidence to demonstrate their knowledge and support their thinking. The lessons are organized into recurrent sections that require students to draw on texts directly multiple times over the course of a lesson. The questions in each section build towards the Embedded Assessments in the unit. As students read, they complete several standard task sections: Making Observations, Focus on the Sentence, Returning to the Text, and Working from the Text. Students work from initial thoughts about key details in a text, to focusing on specific sentences in the text. Then, students answer a series of text-dependent/specific questions about the text and then finish the lesson with attention to specific quotes and how the text connects to the overall unit topic. In many lessons, there is also a Writing from Sources section for students to practice various writing types using the texts they read.

Students also complete text-dependent questions and tasks within the embedded unit assessments, informal and formal discussions, and quizzes. The Embedded Assessments require students to use the skills developed throughout the unit to interact with fresh texts and use textual evidence.

Instructional materials include questions, tasks, and assignments that are text-dependent/specific over the course of a school year. Text-dependent/specific questions, tasks and assignments consistently support students’ literacy growth over the course of the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.2, students read an excerpt from Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal. Students then “underline the central claim of this excerpt,” and “put stars next to McGonigal’s supporting statements.”
• In Unit 2, Activity 2.2, after reading “Marriage Is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe, students answer the questions, “What is implied by Nene’s use of the word yet in the first paragraph? What can we infer about the characters’ relationship?” and “What cultural differences exist between Nene and Nnaemeka?”
• In Unit 4, Activity 4.4, students read an excerpt from the play, Antigone by Sophocles. After reading, students make observations about the text then answer questions including, “Beginning in line 1135, how does Teiresias connect his vision directly to Creon? How can Creon change the course?”
  

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials contain sets of sequences of text-dependent/text-specific questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding.

The materials include several types of culminating activities for each unit of study throughout the year including assessments, frequent writing prompts, and collaborative tasks. The two Embedded Assessments per unit are directly aligned with the units’ topic and/or genre. The “Planning the Unit” section gives teachers a preview of the skills and knowledge that will be assessed in the Embedded Assessments. The beginning of the unit also unpacks the Embedded Assessments for students to keep the end products in mind as they progress through the unit. All lessons and writing prompts scaffold the required learning for the Embedded Assessments. The activities within each lesson include sequences of text-dependent questions that guide students’ understanding of the selections in the unit and build to daily and end of unit culminating tasks. Formative assessments along the way give students the opportunity to practice skills they are learning and allow teachers to assess student progress toward learning goals. The products that result from the Embedded Assessments vary in nature over the course of the year: creating an argument, participating in a debate, writing a literary analysis essay, writing a short story, creating an annotated bibliography, presenting a solution to an environmental conflict, writing an analysis of a piece of creative writing, and performing a scene from Antigone.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1: The Power of Argument, Activity 1.6, students read the article excerpt from “We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter.” Teachers direct students to reread and answer questions such as, “What is the key idea of this passage, and how does Headlee support it?” and “What was one of Headlee’s most valuable lessons in listening? What kind of appeal does she make?” In the section, Working from the Text, students work with a group to return to the text to identify empirical, logical, or anecdotal evidence. Next, students review logical fallacies then work with a partner to identify any logical fallacies in the text. Finally, students complete a writing task: “Evaluate the claim Celeste Headlee makes about the importance of communication. Then assess the evidence she sits to support the claim and identify logical fallacies or faulty reasoning she uses.” This lesson and others like it help prepare students for the first Embedded Assessment: “Write an argumentative essay on an issue of your choice that you feel strongly about. You will need to develop a clear claim, and conduct research to gather evidence that supports your claim. Your final argumentative essay should use the genre characteristics and craft of an argument.”
• In Unit 4: Praise, Mock, Mourn, students read and analyze various literary works to write their own creative piece and analyze others in the first Embedded Assessment. Students complete tasks such as Activity 4.7 which requires that students “read two poems about war and analyze the authors’ uses of language, literary devices, and other structural features to convey messages to the audience.” For Embedded Assessment 2, students respond to the following prompt: “Your assignment is to choose a scene from Antigone with your group, mark the text for visual and vocal delivery, and then perform it in front of the class. Your performance should demonstrate an analysis of each character’s feelings and motivations. You will also be responsible for carefully viewing your classmates’ performances and providing feedback.” To prepare students for this task, students read and analyze the play Antigone by Sophocles. The tasks leading up to this include Activity 4.13 in which students analyze the characters of Antigone and Ismene in the opening scene and Activity 4.15 in which students analyze the attitude and emotions of Creon, the king of Thebes. In Activity 4.19, lesson tasks lead up to an analysis of the development of Creon as a tragic hero over the course of the play.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols to engage students in speaking and listening activities and discussions (small group, peer-to-peer, whole class) which encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

Teacher materials provide support and direction for teachers to fully implement grade-level standards and grow students’ speaking and listening skills. At the end of each grade level, a Speaking and Reading Strategies document lists the strategies used throughout the units, and indicates whether each is a strategy for teachers or students or both. The definition and purpose of each strategy is listed for strategies including choral reading, debate, drama games, fishbowl, note-taking, oral reading, rehearsal, role-playing, and Socratic seminar. There are also a series of graphic organizers that provide structures and protocol activities such as active listening feedback, active listening notes, audience notes and feedback, collaborative dialogue, conversation for quickwrite, discourse starters, and round table discussion. In the Planning the Unit section at the beginning of each grade level, the Activities Features at a Glance section includes icons that indicate which activities include listening, speaking, and discussion tasks. The Teacher Wrap also provides detailed instructions for teachers on engaging students in a variety of speaking and listening activities and groupings. For some activities, the Teacher to Teacher notes offer more detail on best practices with the strategy, and scaffolding suggestions for both students who need additional support and students who need extension activities.

Materials provide multiple opportunities, protocols, and questions for discussions across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.6, the Teacher Wrap prompts teachers to “Conduct a shared reading of “We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter” by Celeste Headlee. Pause at the end of paragraph 5 and ask students to describe the events surrounding Air Florida Flight 90. Have them discuss the communication between the pilots, the information they shared, and what might have been miscommunicated. Elicit a few responses before continuing with the reading.” After finishing the reading, teachers are prompted: “To respond to Working from the Text, have students work with small groups to discuss the types of evidence they identified while reading. Ask students to discuss the impact of the evidence on the text and the reader. Which types of evidence do they find most influential and why?”
• In Unit 2, Persuasion in Literature, Activity 2.7, students receive direct instruction in “Preparing for a Socratic Seminar” before reading the text, two chapters of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. This includes, “Work with your group to create a visual and come up with talking points to present your response to the assigned question,” as a part of the prework. The teacher directions after group work say, “Students should also be questioning the text by writing level 2 and 3 questions for the seminar.” Teachers are given the following directions for the Socratic Seminar:
• Begin the Socratic Seminar with the following question: “What are the consequences of the killing of Ikemefuna to individuals and to the community as a whole?”
• Encourage students to pull evidence from the text to support claims made in the Socratic Seminar. Students' oral responses to literature should incorporate the same elements as in literary analysis.
• At the conclusion of the seminar, ask students to select one of the questions from the graphic organizer and use it as the basis of an analytical paragraph. Students may consult their notes, group discussions, and Socratic Seminar notes.
• In Unit 3: Voice in Synthesis, Activity 3.4: Analyzing Rhetoric in a Supreme Court Case, students read excerpt 3 of Tinker vs. Des Moines, the dissenting opinion by Mr. Justice Black. Students complete a first read of the text independently and code the text using elements of the SOAPSTone strategy. As a next step, the teacher guides the class in a discussion using the Making Observations questions. Students complete a Focus on the Sentence task independently then pair up to discuss and complete a set of text-dependent questions and fill out their SOAPSTone charts. Afterward, the teacher conducts a follow-up discussion “in which students focus on the contrast between the tone of Justice Fortas and Justice Black.” The teacher then introduces the rhetorical triangle as a means of organizing a discussion: author, audience, and text. In small discussion groups, students “Use the rhetorical triangle to frame an analytical discussion. Answer the following questions in your discussion group. Take notes during the discussion.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking (and discussions) about what they are reading and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

As noted in the teacher planning documents for each unit, speaking and listening skills are included throughout the unit. The majority of activities include at least one opportunity for students to speak and listen in academic discussions as they relate to reading selections and lines of inquiry. Materials provide directions for implementation and when appropriate for scaffolding the activity in the teacher edition. The Teacher Wrap offers additional support for facilitating discussions and prompting students with guiding and follow-up questions and activities. Discussions generally require students to provide textual evidence and use learned academic and literary vocabulary. Throughout the year students also have multiple opportunities to present in groups and as individuals. For each activity, teachers receive directions for implementation and when appropriate for scaffolding the activity in the teacher edition. The Teacher Wrap provides support for teachers to facilitate discussions and prompt students with guiding and follow-up questions and activities. The frequency and structure of the activities create the conditions for students to improve their skills over time.

Students have multiple opportunities over the school year to demonstrate what they are reading and researching through varied grade-level-appropriate speaking and listening opportunities.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.3, students read an excerpt from “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World” (Part Two) by Jane McGonigal. The Teacher Wrap includes directions, questions, and follow-up questions to use while students are reading the selection. For example, “Have students review paragraphs 27–30 and summarize any similarities McGonigal identifies between the two stories” and “Ask volunteers to share their ideas regarding the point of McGonigal’s analogy and how it leads up to her final claim in the last line: ‘We are starving, and our games are feeding us.’” The materials prompt teachers to “direct students’ attention to the photographs. Lead them to discuss what these images suggest about the connection between people and gaming across time and culture.”
• In Unit 2, Persuasion in Literature, Activity 2.14, students read Chapters 20-22 of the central text Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The Teacher Wrap provides directions and questions for conducting several speaking and listening activities, such as “Explain what a missionary is. Then read aloud the excerpt from Chapter 20 as students mark the text for evidence of cultural misunderstanding. Have students think-pair-share a response to one of their highlighted statements. Then ask them to assess whether the speaker is justified, providing textual evidence to support their assessments. Share ideas in a whole-class discussion.”
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, Activity 4.4, in the “Returning to the Text” section, the teacher directions state, “Have students use small group discussion to reread the text and respond to the questions. Remind them to use evidence in their responses.” Questions include “What words does Teiresias use to convey his fright? What omen does Teiresias interpret, and what is the meaning of the sign? Beginning in line 1135, how does Teiresias connect his vision directly to Creon? How can Creon change the course? Consider how the language in this excerpt differs from the language you studied in the texts in Activities 4.2 and 4.3. What do you notice about diction that is used to communicate mockery, and how does it differ from diction used to praise?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g., multiple drafts, revisions over time) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

Throughout the units and over the course of the school year, the instructional materials require students to produce a mixture of standards aligned, on-demand, short, informal, focused writing projects and longer independent writing process tasks and essays that require multiple drafts and revisions over time with the use of digital resources where appropriate. The materials follow a scaffolded approach to writing within units and across the year. Students study authors’ craft and practice applying what they learned to their own writing. Students frequently practice the writing process of pre-write, plan, draft, review, revise and edit, which includes opportunities to collaborate with peers.

Students engage in on-demand writing daily throughout the lessons and process writing tasks in the unit embedded assessments, unit prompts, and supplemental workshops. The majority of writing tasks are evidence-based and text-based. There are two embedded assessments per unit which both include process writing tasks. These are outlined in the Teacher Edition. The Teacher Wrap also offers guidance for revision and editing. Each assessment also includes a scoring rubric and questions to help students in planning, drafting, and revising throughout the writing process. For on-demand writing, materials include Focus on the Sentence activities, in which students practice writing at the sentence level and then move into paragraphs and then essay-length writing pieces. The Gaining Perspectives section of the lesson uses an on-demand writing task for students to summarize the classroom discussion on a given topic. Reading to Build Knowledge sections include on-demand writing-to-source prompts. Independent Reading Checkpoint sections also include informal writing assignments where students reflect on and/or synthesize their independent reading.

The supplemental materials include ten Writing Workshops per grade level that provide direct instruction on the writing process for argumentative, explanatory, narrative, literary, research, narrative nonfiction, poetry, script, and procedural writing; however, it is critical to note that these are not part of the core materials and are used at the teacher’s discretion.

Examples of on-demand writing include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.11, students respond to this analytical prompt: “Write an essay in which you explain how Kathleen Kingsbury builds an argument using evidence to persuade her audience to support her claim regarding better treatment for restaurant workers. Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Kingsbury’s claim, but rather should explain how the author builds an argument to persuade her audience.”
• In Unit 2:Persuasion in Literature, Activity 2.5, students complete an argumentative prompt as the final component of the lesson: “Take a position on the question: Is it common for powerful leaders to have flawed characters? Why? How might this affect the community? Write an argumentative essay to support your position and explain how it relates to Okonkwo’s character.”
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, Activity 4.5, students read Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare and respond to a literary analysis prompt. They are asked to “write a paragraph that analyzes Shakespeare’s use of satire in achieving the sonnet’s purpose.”

Opportunities for process writing tasks and focused projects include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 3, Voice in Synthesis, Activity, 3.8, students examine the sources from previous activities in the unit to synthesize a response to a prompt about vaccinations. Students will plan, write, and revise an argument stating their opinion. Students will synthesize at least three of the sources examined in Activities 3.5–3.7 and develop a position about how much control they think the government should exercise over an individual's right to make personal decisions regarding vaccination.
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, Embedded Assessment 1, students analyze a previously written creative writing piece or another text from the unit. Students must address the author’s choices that serve the purpose of praise, mockery, or mourning in their analysis. Students will pre-write, plan, write, draft, revise, edit, and publish their writing pieces. The Teacher Wrap includes a suggestion for student support: “Students may find this assignment especially challenging. Provide guidance for thesis statement writing by providing a frame: The element of __________ works toward the purpose of (praise, mockery, or mourning) by __________.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. (Writing opportunities incorporate digital resources/multimodal literacy materials where appropriate. Opportunities may include blended writing styles that reflect the distribution required by the standards.)

The materials provide opportunities for students to learn, practice, and construct a variety of writing modes and genres across the school year. Because writing instruction starts at the sentence level and progresses through paragraphs to full, multi-draft pieces of writing, students and teachers are able to monitor progress. The majority of writing prompts, assignments, and assessments are text-based and reflect an in-depth look at author's craft across a variety of text types. Each unit contains two Embedded Assessments that require students to demonstrate their understanding of the unit focus through writing types and media as required by the standards. Students regularly engage in task-based writing and writing to sources, and direct instruction in narrative, argument, and informational writing. Students engage extensively in each writing type across the year as each unit exemplifies a different mode of writing. There is also variation of writing types within each unit typically for smaller tasks within lessons.

There are also ten Writing Workshops per grade level that provide direct instruction and practice for argumentative, explanatory, narrative, literary, research, narrative nonfiction, poetry, script, and procedural writing. It is important to note that these workshops are not a part of the core materials and must be used at the teacher’s discretion.

Materials include sufficient writing opportunities for a whole year’s use. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, students practice analyzing and writing arguments. Students read multiple essays and articles on a variety of social issues. Students write explanatory essays in which they analyze how authors build and support claims. For Embedded Assessment 1, students research an issue that they feel strongly about and write an argumentative essay that follows the craft of the exemplars they read in the unit. Students continue to practice using claims and evidence for arguments such as a Knowledge Quest on how video games affect brain function and behavior to prepare for a final debate for Embedded Assessment 2.
• In Unit 2, Persuasion in Literature, students engage in narrative writing. Across the unit, students analyze exemplars and practice using narrative elements. Embedded Assessment 1 is a narrative analysis essay based on Things Fall Apart, in which students write about how a character reacts to the cultural and historical events and how this impacts the plot. After reading exemplar narratives, students complete Embedded Assessment 2: “Write an original short story that conveys a specific cultural perspective or historical moment. Conduct research into the time period and setting that you choose in order to convey the setting accurately.”
• In Unit 3, Voice in Synthesis, students read a variety of informational works across multiple media platforms to study argument. The unit focus is analyzing rhetoric across multiple sources on one issue. Students complete several argumentative writing tasks to practice making and supporting claims. For Embedded Assessment 1, students gather research on a solution to an environmental crisis and compile an annotated bibliography. This prepares them to write an argumentative essay with their solution to that crisis which they present for Embedded Assessment 2.
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, students read multiple poems, a graphic novel and the play, Antigone, to practice literary analysis of the language and author’s craft of creative writing. This prepares them to write their own creative piece that includes praising, mocking, or mourning. Students craft a literary analysis of their own piece or another in the unit for Embedded Assessment 1. For the remainder of the unit, students write short informational pieces analyzing Antigone.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support sophisticated analysis, argumentation, and synthesis.

The instructional materials provide frequent opportunities for writing that requires students to analyze sources, make arguments with claims and supporting evidence, and synthesize information across texts and various media sources. These opportunities include on-demand tasks within lessons, as well as both embedded assessments per unit. Close, critical reading activities throughout the units incorporate text-based writing from the sentence level to multi-draft full-length compositions. Students also read additional texts independently within each unit and synthesize in writing what they learned from these texts along with the selections that are embedded in the lessons. Students complete two Knowledge Quests per unit, in which they read and analyze a collection of texts around a topic, theme, or idea and synthesize what they learned either in a Writing to Sources prompt or a class discussion. For significant tasks such as the Embedded Assessments, students are provided with graphic organizers, checklists, and/or rubrics to support their work.

Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1,The Power of Argument, Activity 1.12, students read three texts and an infographic before completing a Knowledge Quest, in which they “write about how video games affect the brain and behavior.” Students are then prompted: “Work with a partner to discuss whether you think time spent studying the effects of video games on the brain has value. Support your point of view with reasons and evidence from the texts you read, and listen openly to your partner’s point of view.” Students then write a summary that “highlights their points of agreement and disagreement.”
• In Unit 2, Persuasion in Literature, Activity 2.9, students research the precolonial and postcolonial culture of Nigeria. The lesson starts with On the Spot Research, in which students work with a group, choose a topic from a provided list, and write research questions to compare and contrast “how that cultural aspect of civilization changes from precolonial to postcolonial Nigeria.” Students are instructed to “research information about your topic using both print and digital resources.” Groups then share what they learned with each other. After reading a chapter from Things Fall Apart, students end the lesson with an informational writing prompt, which requires them to “write a paragraph to explain the values and norms of the Ibo culture.”
• In Unit 3, Voice in Synthesis, Embedded Assessment 2, students work in a group to present a solution to the environmental conflict, including justifications for their approach to resolving it. Their presentation must include research-based evidence. Students complete a graphic organizer that includes guiding questions, such as the following: “How will students integrate oral source citations to cite research, including paraphrased and quoted text?” and “ What evidence and citations will be included to develop claims, counterclaims, and reasons?”
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, Activity 4.7, students read two poems about war, “Grape Sherbet” by Rita Dove and “The War Works Hard” by Dunha Mikhail. They analyze the authors' use of language, literary devices, and other structural features to convey messages to the audience. Students must write a literary analysis that includes specific text-based evidence from multiple texts to build knowledge and vocabulary about wars and war heroes.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for materials including instruction and practice of the grammar and conventions/language standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application in context.

Materials provide embedded instruction and practice of grammar and language concepts throughout the four units of study at each grade level. Sections titled Grammar and Usage point out authors’ use of grammatical constructs in the selections students are reading in the activity. The goal of providing these call-outs is to increase reading comprehension and to provide a model for students to incorporate the constructs into their own writing. Students engage in sentence-level grammar and usage practice through Focus on the Sentence tasks. Several times in the unit, students complete Language and Writer’s Craft tasks that “address topics in writing such as style, word choice, and sentence construction.” These exercises are also embedded in daily lessons, reference the text at hand, and include application to the students’ own writing.

Units also contain Language Checkpoints which provide more in-depth practice of conventions and usage; students study examples from unit selections and complete multiple exercises for practice, including revising sample sentences and revising sentences within their own work. The design of the various grammar and usage exercises enables students to practice concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways. Most tasks address the specific grammar and conventions/language standards for the grade, though not all lessons align to the grade-level standards. Language Workshops provide supplemental exercises on vocabulary, sight-words, and word studies; however, it is important to note that these workshops require additional instructional time and teacher planning as they are not a part of the core materials.

Materials include instruction of all grammar and conventions standards for the grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Students have opportunities to use parallel structure.
• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.10, the Language Checkpoint builds on a prior lesson in Activity 1.7 on parallelism. Students read: “In Activity 1.7 you identified examples of parallelism in Gandhi’s speech, “On Civil Disobedience.” Parallelism is a rhetorical device in which words or phrases are repeated in a rhythmic way. In this Language Checkpoint, you will examine parallel structure, a convention used to order items in a series. Sentences have parallel structure when two or more elements create a series. Each element in the series is of equal rank or importance, and all elements are expressed in a similar way. Words, phrases, and clauses can all be parallel.” Students then practice identifying and correcting lists of words or clauses that are not parallel.
• Students have opportunities to use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent; noun, relative, adverbial) to convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or presentations.
• In Unit 4, Praise, Mock, Mourn, Activity 4.10, the Language Checkpoint topic is Using Subordination and Coordination. Students learn how to “understand the difference between subordinate and coordinate clauses” and “Use subordinating and coordinating clauses conjunctions correctly when writing.” The exercises use examples from the text “Tuesday Siesta” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which the students read in Activity 4.10. For example: “Read the following independent clauses. Choose a subordinating conjunction to join them, and write your sentence. Soot and humid air filled the train. The daughter obeyed her mother's requests.” After instruction and practice using the provided text, students apply what they learned to their own writing: “Return to the scene that you wrote at the end of Activity 4.10. If you did not use any coordinating conjunctions, find two sentences you can combine. If you did not use any subordinating conjunctions, find an opportunity to use one. If you already used conjunctions, be sure you used ones that make sense and that you punctuated them properly.”
• Students have opportunities to use a semicolon (and perhaps a conjunctive adverb) to link two or more closely related independent clauses.
• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.4, students read the Op-Ed “The Flight From Conversation” by Sherry Turkle, PhD. The materials include a “Grammar and Usage” section within the text that points out the author’s use of a semi-colon : “Writers use a semicolon to join independent clauses when two or more clauses are of equal importance. In paragraph 11, notice the sentence “Human relationships are rich; they're messy and demanding.” In this sentence, the two independent clauses are about two aspects of human relationships.” At the end of the selection, students complete a “Focus on the Sentence” task where they practice what they learned: “Complete the following sentence. Turkle calls herself a ‘partisan for conversation’ because __________. Now, rewrite the sentence as two independent clauses joined by a semicolon. Turkle calls herself a ‘partisan for conversation’; she _____________.”
• Students have opportunities to use a colon to introduce a list or quotation.
• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.6, students complete the Language and Writer’s Craft section of the lesson. The focus is on colons and semicolons. After viewing the definition and several examples, students are prompted: “Write two sentences, one that uses a colon before a list and one that uses a colon to introduce a quotation.”
• Students have opportunities to spell correctly.
• In Unit 1, The Power of Argument, Activity 1.11, the Embedded Assessment guide for students prompts them to edit their work for publication: “Which words need to be checked for correct spelling?”