11th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 1a. Anchor texts within the Grade 11 materials are of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and consider a range of student interests.

Materials for Grade 11 include well-known and diverse authors such as Emily Dickinson, Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dan Gioia Lorraine Hansberry. Patrick Henry, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, John F. Kennedy, Jon Krakauer, Alain Locke, Abraham Lincoln, Arthur Miller, Barack Obama, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Tupac Shakur, Mark Twain, Phyllis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, and Anzia Yezierska. Most, if not all, of the texts--print, film, and audio recording-- have been published in some form as books or in notable newspapers and/or journals and magazines, as well as on the screen, in video, or audiocast.

Five thematic units provide anchor texts and supplementary texts encompassing a range of topics relevant and interesting to Grade 11 students: The American Dream, The Power of Persuasion, American Forums, The Pursuit of Happiness, and An American Journey. Books, dramas, short stories, poems, essays, graphic novels, film excerpts, articles, and editorials are among the text types studied throughout the year. Using these materials as a touchstone, students explore a variety of American voices to define what it is to be an American. The year begins in Puritan New England with The Crucible and continues through a study of historic American speeches, Transcendentalism, and an exploration of the Harlem Renaissance. Students analyze models of effective persuasion, learning to discern news from opinion and satire. Students draw on their reading and learning to craft a personal narrative reflecting on how they have been shaped by first-hand experience and research and create a multi-text type project on a topic of choice.

Unit 1: The American Dream, a unit of multiple texts

• “What is an American?” from Letters from an American Farmer by St. John de Crevecoeur
• “I Hear America Singing,” a poem by Walt Whitman
• “America and I,” a short story by Anzia Yezierska
• The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

Unit 2: The Power of Persuasion, a unit anchored in the study drama and historic speech

• The Crucible, a screenplay by Arthur Miller
• “First Inaugural Address,” a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “The Gettysburg Address,” a speech by Abraham Lincoln

Unit 3: American Forums, a unit anchored in the study of editorials and satire

• “Facing Consequences at Eden Prairie High,” an editorial printed in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune
• “How the Rise of the Daily Me Threatens Democracy,” an editorial by Cass Sunstein
• “Advice to Youth,” a satire by Mark Twain.

Unit 4: The Pursuit of Happiness, a unit anchored by a study of Transcendental thought

• Into the Wild, a biography and New York Times bestseller by Jon Krakauer
• excerpt from Self-Reliance, an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• excerpt from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Unit 5: An American Journey, a unit anchored by study of the Harlem Renaissance

• Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel by Zora Neale Hurston
• excerpt from “Introduction to The New Negro,” an essay
• “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a poem by James Weldon Johnson, leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance
• “Mother to Son,” a poem by Langston Hughes

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 1c, Texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task.

SpringBoard Online provides a Text Complexity Analysis for each of the Grade 11 texts. Each text analysis provides a quantitative rating based on Lexile Measures and a qualitative measure based on the qualitative factors described in Appendix A: Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards (pages 5-6): Levels of Meaning or Purpose, Structure, Language, and Knowledge Demands. The Text Complexity Analysis also describes the student task associated with the reading and the teaching of text and considers those activities in assigning an overall level of text complexity. Most texts fall within the College and Career Expectations for Lexile Ranges in the 11-12 grade band, and those that do not are balanced with higher level qualitative measures.

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.2, students read Senator John McCain’s speech, “Veteran’s Day: Never Forget Their Duty.” The text has a Lexile measure of 1150L, below the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 11-12 grade band. The Text Complexity Analysis provides an overall rating of complex, identifying the qualitative measurement as moderate and the task demand as challenging, together offsetting the lower Lexile measure. The analysis explains the purpose and levels of meaning are “somewhat complex as McCain connects the anecdote of his imprisonment in Vietnam...to the abstract nature of the subject of allegiance.” Additionally, the language is somewhat abstract, “containing exemplification and symbolism connected to the theme.” Moreover, knowledge demands require “some familiarity with the Vietnam War, the abstract concept of patriotism, as well as of the allusion to the Hanoi Hilton and the characteristics of the definition essay genre.” The Text Complexity Analysis rates the task as challenging because it involves “creating.” Indeed, the activity introduces students to the elements of writing a definition which will later support the completion of an embedded assessment. The task in this activity is to: “Write a brief response that explains how this extended definition has impacted your own understanding of the word.”

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.2, students read the primary document, “First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The text has a Lexile measure of 1000, below the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 11-12 grade band. The Text Complexity Analysis indicates the overall document to be accessible with a qualitative rating as moderate and a task's demand as challenging. Qualitatively, the purpose is explicit: “to assert the freedoms of the individual and the press” and the structure “conforms to the expectations of the genre.” However, the language is primarily “formal” and “archaic,” and the reading is one long complex sentence requiring careful reading. The task is rated as complex because students “create a new version of this text” by “diffusing and paraphrasing” and then “draft a statement that expresses their opinion on the balance between the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment and individual responsibility in our society.”

• In Unit 4, Activity 4.2, students read an excerpt from “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The text has a Lexile measure of 1000, below the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 11-12 grade band. The Text Complexity Analysis indicates the overall document to be complex with a qualitative measure of high difficulty. Additionally, the task demand of analysis is categorized as moderate. Qualitative factors influencing text difficulty include an implied purpose developed through a series of parallel statements. The use of archaic language and complex sentence structures with phrases such as “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” further raise the challenges to the reader. Knowledge demands, too, are high as several “misunderstood” historical figures are referenced in the text: Pythagoras, Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. The task is complex because it requires students to summarize and analyze the main ideas in each paragraph (RI.11-12.2) and select ideas that state strong opinions (RI.11-12.1). Then students are asked to further demonstrate an understanding of this text by citing textual evidence and recording ideas developing the concept of the pursuit of happiness (RI.11-12.4). Students then compare the ideas of Emerson with the ideas of another writer (RL.11-12) and their own ideas and eventually generate a definition of Transcendentalism (RI.11-12.7).

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.8, students read “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston. The text has a Lexile measure of 930, below the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 11-12 grade band. The Text Complexity Analysis indicates moderately challenging qualitative measures and cognitive demands. Qualitative factors influencing a moderate difficulty include a “somewhat implied” purpose and a shifting structure, from the “witty hook” to anecdotal childhood memories, followed by a “discussion of issues related to feeling ‘colored,’” and concluding with a metaphor. The students' task is appropriately challenging because they are asked to analyze the text and evaluate it as a primary source (RH.11-12.5). Using the SOAPSTone strategy, students cite textual evidence (RI.11-12.1) and analyze the text for ideas shared by Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance, but they are also asked to find evidence proving Hurston follows her own path. (RI.11-12.1, RL.11-12.9).

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 1d. Over the course of the year, materials support students’ increasing literacy skills through a series of texts at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for Grade 11.

Students progressively build literacy skills through work with a variety of texts over the course of the school year. Texts sets are at various complexity levels, quantitatively and qualitatively, and therefore support learners as they develop literacy skills and background knowledge to support independent and proficient reading practices.

In Unit 1, students read a range of texts measuring in complexity levels from 790 Lexile Measure to 1260 Lexile Measure. Initially, students read texts, such as “Veteran’s Day: Never Forget Their Duty” by John McCain, which measure in the 9-10 grade band and Address on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty by Franklin Roosevelt, measuring in the low end of the 11-12 grade band. Through the unit, texts such as William Zinsser’s “The Right to Fail” move into 11-12 grade band, making Unit 1 a transition from the Grade 10 course to the Grade 11 course. In Unit 1, Activity 1.17, students engage with two texts, an excerpt from the “Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic Convention,” measuring 1110L with moderate qualitative and task measurement, and Zinsser’s essay, “The Right to Fail.” Teacher Wrap provides instructions for supporting readers through guided reading, text annotation, and/or using the Persuasive/Argument Writing Map graphic organizers found in the resource materials.

In Unit 2, as students prepare to read The Crucible, they are introduced to the complex texts of Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and “The Trial of Martha Carrier.” The texts are introduced as a means of developing context for the drama; both texts have complexity measures at the higher end of the 11-12 grade band, Edwards’s sermon measuring at 1360L and Mathers’ essay measuring at 1420L. The Teacher Wrap offers instruction for supporting readers through the complexities of these two texts, suggesting graphic organizers, chunking, and contextualizing. Following the study of The Crucible, students transition to the second half of the unit and a study of argument through a series of speeches with complexity measures in the higher end of the 11-12 grade band. A series of texts, Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address in Activity 2.18, Gettysburg Address in Activity 2.20, and John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address in Activity 2.22 focus student study on rhetoric. The Teacher Wrap suggests teachers provide historical context for each text and engage their students in highlighting or marking the text as they read and it also advises teachers to use their professional expertise in determining how to structure the first and second reads: independent, pairs, small groups, whole class.

In Unit 4, students study the Transcendental perspective reading several texts within the 11-12 grade band, among them, Emerson’s Self-Reliance and Thoreau’s “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” The Teacher Wrap suggests teachers use these texts to build students' skill in paraphrasing, offer graphic organizers, encourage journal writing, and differentiate to develop academic vocabulary. The Emerson and Thoreau texts introduce the unit’s focus, the personal journey in the pursuit of happiness, which culminates in reading the novel, Into the Wild by Krakauer, with a Lexile measure of 1210 but an overall complex measure related to the student task requirements. Completion of the novel requires students to read more extensively and more independently than other texts in the unit, showing a steady progression toward becoming more proficient, independent readers.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the criteria of Indicator 1e. The Grade 11 materials provide anchor texts and series of texts connected to them. The materials are accompanied by text complexity analyses and rationales for purpose and placement in the grade level.

SpringBoard Online provides a Text Complexity Analysis complete with rationales for purpose and placement within the online Teacher Resources. Each analysis offers users a choice to download the file or preview the analysis online. The format for each analysis is identical, providing information and discussion in five areas: the context for use, a quantitative analysis with justification if the Lexile level is below grade, a qualitative review, an overview of task and reader considerations, and placement considerations in light of grade level standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet Indicator 1f. The program’s anchor and supporting texts provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade level reading proficiency.

Over the year, students are provided with a variety of texts, primarily representing the disciplines of literature, history, and social science, from a wide distribution of media including newspaper, journals, music, film, and the internet. Among the text types are seminal U.S. historic documents, short stories, poems, drama, novels, speeches, editorials, and informational texts; full text listings are provided within Planning the Unit and Resources at a Glance in the Unit Overview. The former lists all titles in the unit and the latter lists the titles in relation to the unit pacing guide and related activities. Additionally, grade level texts are listed in the End Matter PDF found through the Teacher Resources tab among the Book PDFs.

All units are developed thematically. Some units are structured around an anchor text accompanied by supplementary texts while other units provide multiple texts supporting the thematic and skill-based instruction. Regardless, students have the opportunity to achieve grade level reading proficiency through independent reading and study as well as supported reading, e.g., paired reading, small group reading, choral reading, and chunked reading. With the introduction of each new text, the Teacher Wrap encourages teachers to use their “knowledge of their students” to select the most effective format for the first reads. Each reading activity specifically addresses the reading and learning purpose for the text to follow and offers specific lessons designed to support diverse readers in text comprehension and analysis.

Embedded in each lesson are activity features to encourage rereading: Academic and Social Language Preview, Interpret the Text Using Close Reading, Interacting in Meaningful Ways, Academic Collaboration, and Working from the Text. These activity features specifically support close reading, thinking protocols, word consciousness, and grammar and language, all skills that move readers towards greater reading independence. Within all activities, the sidebar Teacher Wrap offers ideas and tips to support diverse readers in the classroom. Additional reading supports are delineated and defined in the Teacher End Materials PDF available through the Resources tab on the grade-level home page. Included in this Resource handbook is a comprehensive list of reading strategies, along with definitions, and purposes for use. Also included in the Resource are numerous graphic organizers aligned to activities specifically noted in the Teacher’s Edition, e.g., OPTIC, SMELL, SOAPStone, Web Organizer, and Word Map. Additionally found in the Teacher’s Edition Teacher Wrap is specific guidance for adapting teaching methods in the development of grade-level reading skills among diverse readers. Under headings Teacher to Teacher, Adapt, and Leveled Differentiated Instruction are explanations and references for additional supports that are also found in the Resource handbook, e.g., sequencing events, analyzing key ideas and details, charting cause and effect, and unknown word solvers.

Six supplementary close reading lesson sets are also included among the instructional materials: informational/literary nonfiction, poetry, argument, Shakespeare, informational STEM texts, and informational texts in social studies and history. Each lesson set offers three unique texts and instruction for each text follows a four-activity pattern supporting students work toward reading independence:

• Activity 1: provides guided reading instruction that emphasizes multiple readings, vocabulary development, and close-reading strategies with a complex text.
• Activity 2: gradually releases students from teacher-guided instruction and modeling to a collaborative analysis of a visual text to which students apply the skills and strategies of close reading.
• Activity 3: releases students to closely read texts independently to respond to analysis questions and to make connections to previous texts.
• Activity 4: requires students to respond to synthesis writing, presentation, or discussion prompts to demonstrate their mastery of the close-reading skills they have practiced in the workshop.

In addition to reading as part of classroom activities, students are expected to complete independent readings. In each unit, Planning this Unit provides a section titled Suggestions for Independent Reading and offers a “wide array of titles which have been chosen based on complexity and interest.” At the beginning of each unit, students develop an Independent Reading Plan and are instructed to discuss their reading plan with a partner through a series of questions: “How do you go about choosing what to read independently? Where can you find advice on which books or articles to read? What genre of texts do you most enjoy reading outside of class? How can you make time in your schedule to read independently? How do you think literary theory might change your perspective of the texts you read independently?

As a mechanism for monitoring their reading progress, students are accountable for monitoring their independent reading using an Independent Reading Log provided in the Resource handbook available in the Teacher End Materials PDF and the Student Front Matter, both found through the Resources tab on the grade-level home page. Independent Reading Link: Read and Connect is a sidebar activity bridging the unit’s reading instruction and the students’ independent reading. In Unit 3, Activity 3.1, students are told, “During this unit, you will read a local, national, or online newspaper every day. Create a log to keep track of what and when you read, and write down the titles of significant articles that you encountered in each section. Don’t just read the first page or landing page (if you are reading an online publication); navigate through all the sections...Choose a publication that interests you, since you will be spending considerable time with it.” Independent Reading Checkpoints are also embedded in each unit. For example, in Unit 5, Activity 5.1, students were instructed to select a title from the Harlem Renaissance for their independent reading. They were also told their selection would become part of the embedded assessment. In Activity 6, during the unit’s study of the Harlem Renaissance, students are told to review “the independent reading you have completed so far. Review any notes you took about how the texts relate to the Harlem Renaissance. Look for information in the texts that you can use as source material for your multimedia presentation.” In building a volume of reading, students are also encouraged to do their own research, selecting their titles and topics “that intrigue them.”

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the expectations of indicator 1g. Most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-dependent and require students to engage with the text directly and to draw on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text.

Most questions, tasks, and assignments over the course of instruction are designed to encourage students’ interaction with the texts under study. Within each unit are recurrent activities such as Setting a Purpose and Second Read which cause students to consider text-dependent questions regarding concepts related to key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas. Additionally, Writing to Sources activities require students to engage directly with the text using explicit and valid inferential textual support in the development of analytic and explanatory writing.

Following are some representative examples of how Grade 11 materials employ text-based questions and tasks over the course of the school year:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.4, after reading “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman and “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, students work through a series of text-dependent questions provided in Second Read addressing key ideas and author’s craft. Working from the Text asks students to complete a two-column chart comparing the tone in each of the poems and providing evidence through examples of diction and imagery. Writing to Sources follows these activities asking students to compare and contrast the poems through a consideration of the “denotative and connotative meanings of the word sing...include examples of diction and imagery from both texts to support each specific claim you make.”

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.10, after reading several published editorials, students are to select one editorial for analysis. Students are asked to find examples of various types of evidence authors use to support claims, including: illustrative examples, hypothetical cases, analogies, expert testimony, statistics, and causal relationships. For each type of evidence, students must define the type, explain its use, state its limitations, evaluate the type of appeal it makes (logos, pathos, ethos), and state whether the evidence logically supports the author’s claim in that instance.

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.8, after reading “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston and an excerpt by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. describing Hurston’s place in Harlem Literature, Second Read asks students to use a two-column note organizer to consider Hurston’s philosophy and to identify why Gates described Hurston as a "unity of opposites." Students are to enter their inferences and cite textual evidence to support those inferences.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the criteria for indicator Ih. The materials contain sets of high-quality, sequenced, text-dependent, and text-specific questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding. Culminating tasks are rich and varied, providing opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do in speaking and/or writing over the year.

Each of the five units presents two embedded assessments followed by a logical progression of instruction and practice in preparing students to successfully demonstrate their skills and understandings. Preview of Embedded Assessment 1 occurs on the first day of the unit as students unpack the skills required for the task which culminates midpoint in the unit. Following the completion of Embedded Assessment 1, students are introduced to Embedded Assessment 2, again unpacking the skills necessary to successfully accomplish the end task. For each Embedded Assessment, the sequence of activities that follows the unpacking sequentially develops the skills necessary to complete the requirements of the assessment.

• The Unit 1, Embedded Assessment 1 asks students to write a multi-paragraph essay defining “what it means to be an American” and develop an iconic image within their writing. During the nine-lesson unit, students learn to define a word or concept using four definition strategies: example, classification, function, and negation. Additionally, they read mentor texts exemplifying most strategies in practice. Activity 1.1 provides instruction on the extended definition and examples of the four definition strategies. Activities 1.2 and 1.3 introduce definition essays as mentor texts to explore the terms “patriot” and “America’s promise.” Through a sequence of text-dependent questions, students come to better understand the key ideas as well as the craft and structure of the extended definition. Language Checkpoint 3 supports student writing by using the mentor texts to further analyze writer’s craft in the use and misuse of a modifier. In Activity 1.6, students begin to plan their own essay by developing a graphic organizer to capture their thoughts on being an “American” as they read the various unit texts. The unit continues by juxtaposing definition essays and historical documents with lessons on writing techniques. Throughout, students learn about and practice the skills of quoting and citing texts, developing iconic images, and structuring the definition essay. The culminating task provides a checklist and rubric.

• The Unit 4, Embedded Assessment 2 asks students to create a multi-genre research project based on their reading and research related to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. The project should express “research and perspectives on a person, event, or movement that embodies the American ideal of the pursuit of happiness.” To prepare students for this task, nine lessons precede the culminating assessment. Activities 4.18 and 4.19 are a close reading of Chapter 18 as text dependent questions guide readers into author’s craft in both tone and structure. Graphic organizers prompt students to explore the various genres Krakauer uses in his own writing as they plan their multi-genre project. Activity 4.20 provides an exemplum of the multi-genre project, while Activity 4.21 uses a biography (of Sparky, a.k.a., Charles Schulz) as a springboard for students to develop their own thesis statement as the basis for their research project. Activity 4.22 builds on the biography of the previous activity, adding yet another genre to the growing exemplar. Text-dependent questions guide the student reader to better value the juxtaposition of genres in both content and context. Activities 4.23 - 4.25 engage the students in a recursive process as they look back on mentor pieces while drafting and revising their own work in progress. Activity 4.26 provides tips for planning, drafting, evaluating, revising, checking, and editing as well as providing a performance rubric.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions--small groups, peer-to-peer, whole class-- that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

Each unit throughout Grade 11 engages students in a variety of evidence-based discussions within the whole class, as small group conversations, and as partners sharing text-based ideas and information. Embedded within each unit are several Academic Collaboration lessons focused on the current text under study and designed to promote meaningful interaction. The lessons provide a discussion protocol guiding “academic conversation” and sometimes extend into a Language Checkpoint where students work with partners examining syntax related to the anchor text. Academic and Social Language Previews also appear in each unit. These collaborative investigations promote student exploration of word meaning by asking students to determine meaning through the context and then apply the word in a new context. Additionally, the Teacher Wrap supports activities with additional protocols, ideas for increasing pair and small group speaking and listening interactions, instructional advice for differentiation, modeling suggestions, and technology tips for heightening student interaction in effective evidence-based discussion.

Following are some representative examples of how Grade 11 materials provide opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.13, after reading “The Declaration of Independence” and lessons on transition and quotations in Writer’s Craft and lessons on the placement of modifiers in Language Checkpoint, students are instructed to “[r]eread the text [Declaration of Independence] with a partner and note the language, phrases, and rhetorical appeals as elements of argument using a graphic organizer.

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.3c, after reading an excerpt from The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Interacting in Meaningful Ways: Academic Collaboration asks students to develop and answer questions about a drama, support an opinion, and adapt language to context. These objectives are met by having students work as partners or in small groups to address a series of questions regarding characterization, main idea, conflict, and inflection, a term studied earlier in the unit. The activity continues by citing a provocative line from the play and asking students what question they would pose to the speaker. Additionally, the activity points out that The Crucible is “an example of persuasive art meant to change society” and asks students, “If you could ask the author, Arthur Miller, one question about persuasion, what would it be?”

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.11, after the second reading of Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son,” students are asked to mark metaphors and “[d]etermine how Hughes choice of words, syntax, and metaphor contribute to meaning.” The students then read chapter 2 of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and “track metaphors that Nanny and Janie use to describe their lives.” The Teacher Wrap indicates students should think-pair-share examples of figurative language and “discuss the effect of Hurston’s use of figurative language to construct and reflect a character’s identity.” Additionally, the Teacher Wrap offers adaptations for small groups of students as they identify metaphors and develop comparisons. Finally, in Text-to-Text Comparisons, students are to compare the voice and advice given between the two texts.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 11 meet the expectations of indicator 1j. Most materials support students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and evidence.

Throughout the year, students are engaged in a variety of listening and speaking activities from pairing with peers to discussion in small groups, participating in Socratic Seminars, and staging class presentations. Most collaborative activities occur after reading a text and/or a combination of texts sometimes paired with multimedia sources. In most instances, students are required to engage in evidence-based discussions relevant to text themes, structure, development, and purpose. Discussion questions encouraging students to draw on academic vocabulary and syntax are provided within both teacher and student materials and support students’ preparation for collaboration to follow. Additionally, students are taught to generate text-related open-ended questions to propel ensuing conversations and discussions. Guidance for differentiating, extending, and monitoring student learning is provided to the teacher in the Teacher Wrap section provided with each activity.

Grade 11 speaking and listening expectations are based on the establishment of discussion norms corresponding to the Common Core Speaking and Listening standards. Students grow their speaking and listening skills by moving beyond discussions of prepared questions to developing sets of questions for the purpose of discussion and developing goals for collaborative work, setting group deadlines, and establishing roles within the group. Additionally, students become more independent in marshaling conversation to ensure all voices are heard. Many speaking and listening activities center around seminal United States documents and move from analysis to taking a position and working to persuade others. Throughout, students are not only expected to verify and clarify ideas, but to a growing degree, advance differing views and work to persuade others by supporting all information with credible and sufficient evidence. Opportunities to talk and ask questions of peers and teachers about research, strategies, and ideas are present throughout the year. The curriculum includes a host of protocols and graphic organizers to promote and scaffold academic discussions.

Following are some representative examples of how Grade 11 materials support students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading, researching, and presenting with relevant follow-up questions and evidence:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.9, after reading an excerpt from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union speech, “Four Freedoms,” the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, and a transcription of the “Bill of Rights,” students prepare and conduct a Socratic Seminar discussing these seminal texts. Preparation for the seminar includes an annotated first reading of each text followed by Second Read, a series of text dependent questions intended to tease out ambiguities in the texts. After a brief whole-class discussion on the nuances between the terms “freedom” and “rights,” students are to work in groups completing a graphic organizer illustrating the connection between the two texts. Students are asked to “synthesize the comments made by everyone and use relevant details from each text to support your comparison.” Students are then provided time to prepare for the Socratic Seminar by reviewing the readings and writing a response, with textual support, to three pre-seminar questions:
  • Why is freedom important to Americans?
  • Which of the freedoms mentioned in the text is most important?
  • To what extent are individuals responsible to ensure all Americans have their rights and freedoms?

Before beginning the Socratic Seminar, students are reminded of delineated discussion norms: come prepared, talk to discussion participants not the teacher, refer to the text, and paraphrase what others have said before challenging the opinion.

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.19c, after reading Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention,” students prepare for an academic discussion wherein they will form, express, and support opinions. Students begin by working in small groups or pairs to discuss questions posed on the Collaborative Dialogue graphic organizer, a teaching tool posing a series of what and how questions alongside response stems, e.g., “What explicit evidence... indicates Patrick Henry is using allusions…” and the response stem, “In paragraph _____, Patrick Henry alludes to _____." After students have conversed, they are to capture their thinking on the graphic organizer. Next, students use the graphic organizer to engage in the academic discussion. If students need further support in small-group discussion, Teacher Wrap suggests calling upon a student to model a discussion using the Collaborative Dialogue Organizer. The teacher asks the student the first question on the organizer, “What is the central idea of 'Speech to the Virginia Convention?'” The student responds, and the teacher comes back with follow-up questions: “How do you know?” “Which lines from the speech support your answer?” or “I am not sure I agree…” The respondent is coached in how to support a position, how to respond to a dissenting view, and how to persuade the listener to agree. Question 2 exchanges roles--the questioner becomes the respondent, and the respondent becomes the questioner. The activity is given over to the small groups or pairs of students who work through the collaborative dialogue in the same manner.

• In Unit 5 Activity 5.15, while reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, student-led discussion groups move to greater independence considering “aspects of the Harlem Renaissance to trace throughout the novel: historical context, philosophy/beliefs, the arts, daily life.” Students are asked to take responsibility as a group, “to create a schedule for reading.” Independently, they are to read chunked chapters of the text and “write literal, interpretive, and universal questions” to guide their group discussions. To ensure full-hearing of ranging ideas, the materials suggest appointing a timer in each group. Additionally, to support students’ increasing abilities, the materials provide a note-taking guide to use while reading and a discussion guide for capturing the comments of the group after reading.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the indicators for 1k. Materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g., multiple drafts and revisions over time) and short, focused projects incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

On-demand writing tasks are present within most unit activities and focus on specific text/s and/or on a specific writing skill: e.g., quickwrites, double entry journals, reflections, note taking, and answering writing prompts. Standard features of each unit--Working from the Text, Writing to Sources, Argument Writing Prompts, Explanatory Writing Prompts, and Narrative Writing Prompts--ask students to write shorter, on-demand responses that require attention to development, textual evidence, and incorporation of writing skills studied. Additionally, the program offers opportunities for student revisions of many on-demand writing activities.

Following are some representative examples of how Grade 11 materials employ on-demand writing alongside technology, editing, and/or revision tasks over the course of the school year:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.3, after reading and listening to Roosevelt’s speech on the 50th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty and viewing a variety of illustrations, Writing to Sources asks students to write an explanatory essay drawing on the details of both texts in defining “America’s Promise.” They are directed to begin with a clear thesis, use significant details from each, and use effective transitions. Activity Lc.1.3 follows with a lesson on modifiers. Students are asked to return to the essay written in Activity 1.3 and, “working with a partner, underline modifying words, phrases, and clauses” to review for correct placement of modifiers and to “rewrite sentences to correct any misplaced or dangling modifiers.”

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.3-Activity 3.5, students engage in a study of media. Students examine a survey of hard copy and digital media, including but not limited to newspapers, local television news, cable news, podcasts, internet, websites, and social media, to analyze the medium’s target audience and possible bias.

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.3, after viewing a documentary on the background of the Harlem Renaissance, students work in “expert discussion groups” to research an assigned artist and art of the period. Included in this research project are visual and performance arts. Digital availability is necessary.

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.17, students read four reviews over Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God before constructing an argumentative on-demand response. “Once [they] have discussed the critical reviews [students are to] connect [their] understanding of the critical review to the connection it makes to the values, historical context, arts, or daily life championed by the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, [being] sure to: begin [their] response with a thesis sentence that states [their] opinion and gives direction to [their] writing; establish the significance of the claim, distinguishing it from alternate or opposing claims; weave in evidence in the form of quotations and commentary from the review and the novel to support [their] thesis.”

Process writing is supported in each unit through two Embedded Assessments preceded by a series of instructional and practice activities with concepts ranging from ideation to grammar and syntax choices, writing structures, revision and editing. The ten Embedded Assessments offer a breadth of ELA writing purposes: Writing a Definition Essay; Writing a Synthesis Essay; Writing a Persuasive Speech; Creating an Op-Ed News Project; Writing a Satirical Piece; Writing a Personal Essay; Creating a Multi-Genre Research Project; Presenting a Literary Movement; Writing an Analytical Essay. Each Embedded Assessment is outlined in Planning the Unit and Unit Overview sections of the Teacher’s Edition, and the Teacher Wrap provides general guidance to the teacher in the areas of revision and editing. Each Embedded Assessment also includes a scoring rubric and set of questions encouraging students to consider the elements of planning, drafting, and revising throughout the writing process.

Following are some representative examples of how Grade 11 materials employ process writing in longer written tasks featuring technology, revision, and/or editing over the course of the school year:

• In Unit 3, Embedded Assessment 1, after a study of the editorial as a diverse journalistic form, students are to work in groups to “plan, develop, write, revise, and present an informational article on a timely and debatable issue of significance to your school community, local community, or national audience.” After the group has completed the informational article, students independently “develop a variety of editorial products that reflect [your] point of view (agreement, alternative, or opposing) on the topic.” Students can choose among cartoons, editorials, letters, posters, photos, or come up with other ideas. Over the unit’s time, students are introduced to and study model texts, drafting their own informational text in Activity 3.5 before continuing on to study aspects of editorials, preparing them for the individual component of the assessment.

• In Unit 4, Embedded Assessment 1, after a study of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, students are asked to work as a group to write and perform an original dramatic script making “a statement about a conflict that faces society.” The Teacher Wrap indicates students are to “draft their scene using something like Google Docs so they can mutually participate in the creation of dialogue and the plotting of the scene… Online file sharing programs will encourage constant revision and refining.” Teacher Wrap further suggests students should record their rehearsals using video to enhance their critiques and revisions. It suggests the final performance, too, should be in video form as an archive of the work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 1m. The Grade 11 materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information appropriate to the grade level.

The instructional materials for Grade 11 support the indicator’s focus on writing to sources, a key task to grow students’ literacy skills. Writing tasks build over the course of the school year, providing students with varied opportunities of growing complexity to learn, practice, and demonstrate evidenced-based writing. Students are asked to analyze texts, create claims, and include clear information and evidence from texts read within the unit as well as texts read independently. Students are often reminded by the materials to “create an organization that logically sequences claims, counterclaim(s), reasons, and evidence” (CCSS W.11-12.1a.) as well as to select the “most relevant” (CCSS W.11-12.2b) evidence in developing the topic or argument. Application of these skills is evident within the on-demand writing assignments as well as in the embedded assessments within each unit.

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.10, after reading two historical documents and a definition essay, Writing to Sources: Explanatory Text asks students write an extended definition for the term freedom. The writing activity allows students to “draw on three texts that address the issue of freedom—Roosevelt’s speech, the Bill of Rights, and the essay by Jellison and Harvey” but indicates their position “should reflect your own thinking about this concept.” Students are reminded to “begin with a clear thesis that defines freedom; develop your extended definition with specific examples of how you can experience freedom and what it means to you; use each of the four definition strategies to support your points; include clear transitions between points and a concluding statement that reinforces your thesis.”

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.14, after reading Margaret Chase Smith’s speech “Declaration of Conscience” and Arthur Miller’s essay “Why I Wrote The Crucible,” students are asked to choose one of the texts and analyze how the author develops his/her argument: “Write an essay in which you explain how the author builds an argument to persuade the audience of the social agenda promoted in a speech or essay. Select one passage as the focus for your essay: In your essay, analyze how the author uses three or more of the rhetorical techniques you have studied to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of the argument.”

• In Unit 3, Embedded Assessment 1, students are asked to work in groups to “plan, develop, write, revise, and present an informational article on a timely and debatable issue of significance to your school community, local community, or national audience.” After completing the collaborative work, students individually “develop a variety of editorial products that reflect [your] point of view (agreement, alternative, or opposing) on the topic...and include at least two different pieces, such as cartoons, editorials, letters, posters, photos.” The Assessment Scoring Guide indicates an exemplary response “explicitly represents multiple and varied editorial perspectives; is extremely persuasive throughout every piece, demonstrating a thorough understanding of persuasive techniques; provides evidence of thorough and original research throughout; and each piece demonstrates appropriate and ample evidence to support the thesis.” In preparation for the assessment, Activity 3.12 asks students to “[i]dentify fallacious logic, appeals, and rhetoric in sample texts” and to use “logical fallacies and refute the fallacies of others in a debate.” Additionally, Activity 3.13 asks students to analyze “the format, style, and conventions of editorial cartoons…[a]pply knowledge from this analysis to create an editorial cartoon.” These activities support students as they acquire skills in argumentation and analysis of topics, including an analysis of rhetoric using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

• In Unit 4, Activity 4.8, while reading Into the Wild, students are asked to write an analytical essay explaining how the author “uses structure and style to show his shifting feelings toward his subject.” Students are instructed to use “commentary to link reasons and evidence” to their central claim. Additionally, students are reminded to develop their thinking with “relevant details and quotations from the text.”

• In Unit 5, Embedded Assessment 2, students are asked to “discuss how Zora Neale Hurston’s writing is both a reflection of and a departure from the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. Include aspects of the Harlem Renaissance that you see reflected in Hurston’s writing as well as characteristics of Hurston’s writing that are departures from selected aspects of the Harlem Renaissance.” The Assessment Scoring Guide indicates an exemplary response “presents a convincing, thorough, and perceptive understanding of Hurston’s writings, as well as aspects of the Harlem Renaissance; contains analysis that demonstrates an exceptional insight into Hurston’s writings and the Harlem Renaissance; uses clear and effective specific and well-chosen examples that yield detailed support for the analysis; employs stylistic choices in language that are exceptional; successfully weaves textual evidence from the novel into its own prose...” In preparation for the assessment, Activity 5.17 asks students to “[e]valuate multiple critical reviews in light of the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance...and evaluate multiple thematic interpretations of a novel,…[citing] evidence in the form of quotations and commentary from the review and the novel to support your thesis.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria for Indicator 1n. The instructional materials include instruction of grammar and conventions/language standards for Grade 11 and are applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts with opportunities for application context.

Direct instruction and practice with grammar and conventions/language standards are explicitly delineated and also embedded within the activities of unit lessons. Each of the five Grade 11 units is introduced with Planning the Unit, a Teacher Resource page explaining the unit purpose, followed by the Instructional Activities and Pacing chart, listing instructional activities including grammar and language skills as they are taught and applied in the text selections and writing activities. An additional chart, Unit Resources at a Glance, provides a categorical list of unit features: Language Skills comprised of Language and Writer’s Craft featured on activity pages; Grammar and Usage, identified on activity pages through a sidebar; Writing Workshop with Grammar Activities, available through Teacher Resources; and English Language Development. Beneath each of these categories are specifically listed conventions and applications of grammatical structures taught and practiced throughout the unit. The unit’s activities, Word Connections, Academic and Social Language Preview, and some Check Your Understanding activities, address specific language concepts (L.11-12.4-6) and provide opportunities for student practice.

For example, in Unit 3, the Instructional Activities and Pacing Guide indicates Activities 3.4-3.8 and Activity 3.14 offer instruction and practice with language goals. Unit 3 Resources at a Glance lists diction and tone as well as cumulative or loose sentence patterns among the studies in Language and Writer’s Craft. In Activity 3.4, the Grammar and Usage callout box defines and discusses the concept of a rhetorical question, noting they often occur “immediately after a comment and suggest the opposite….” Embedded within the Second Read questions are supports for considering language standards. Questions on topics of Craft and Structure regarding word meaning dependent on context clues and word parts support L.11-12.4-6 as well as the general Note on Range and Content of Student Language Use; students must come to “appreciate that language is as at least as much a matter of craft as of rules and be able to choose words, syntax, and punctuation to express themselves and achieve particular functions and rhetorical effects (CCSS, page 51). Activity 3.5 explores the relationship of bias and nuance (L.11-12.5b) as students learn to determine bias based on selection and omission, placement, photos, and source control among other influential--though nuanced--factors. A Literary Terms callout box in Activity 3.14 introduces domain-specific vocabulary (L.11-12.6): satire, Horatian satire, and Juvenalian satire. Activity 3.15 builds on the previous domain-specific vocabulary lesson and introduces students to the relevance of diction in satire, pointing out in general terms that “satire benefits from careful diction.” Activity 3.19 introduces students to the role of cumulative sentence structures. The Language and Writer’s Craft exercise asks students to examine cumulative sentence structures using a mentor text, identify the main clause and the modifying phrase or clause, then explain the effect of this loose sentence pattern. The study of these elements of grammar and conventions allows students to develop skills they need to write their own satirical pieces for Embedded Assessment 2, thereby demonstrating an increasingly sophisticated context with opportunities for application.

Word Connections, a sidebar featured throughout many unit activities, supports L.9-10.4-6, language standards related to Vocabulary Acquisition and Use. For example, in Unit 5, Activity 3, a callout box discusses the various contexts of the word metamorphosis. A second Word Connections callout box immediately follows to discuss the multiple meanings of the word concentrations. In both instances, the word is discussed in relationship to a scientific context as well as a more generic context. Word Connections and Literary Terminology support students as they grow in skill to determine word meaning and as they “acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases” (CCSS, page 53).

Additionally, found in all Grade 11 units are lessons titled Academic and Social Language Preview, typically preceding lessons titled Interpreting the Text Using Close Reading. Unit 3 offers three such lessons. Academic and Social Language Preview offers an opportunity for students to determine word meaning through a context sentence prior to reading an entire text and then check their definitions against a formal source (L.11-12.4a & 4d). The lesson is followed by the close reading and study of the associated mentor text. Optional Language Checkpoint, a class period activity, is also included in all Grade 11 units. Among the Grade 11 checkpoints are lessons in placing modifiers, writing logical comparisons, using commas, parentheses, and dashes, using subject-verb agreement, and punctuating complete sentences. For example, Language Checkpoint Activity Lc.3.4 engages students in a study of frequently-confused words, a language standard first introduced as L.4.1g and urged by the standards for “continued attention in higher grades as they are applied to increasingly sophisticated writing and speaking” (CCSS, page 30).

Among the resource materials found under the Teacher Resource tab on the SpringBoard landing page are Grammar Activities aligned to specific grades, units, and activities (currently bearing the 2014 copyright date) as well as a Grammar Handbook for grades 9-12 (2014 copyright). Writing Workshops (copyright 2014), accessed through the Teacher Resources tab, also include instruction and practice with Language and Writer’s Craft using mentor texts. For example, Writing Workshop 7: Narrative Nonfiction Reflective Essay, Revising for Language and Writer’s Craft provides instruction on paradox and asks students to “[c]onsider the following classic examples, using the space provided to explain what [you] think is implied by the paradox” (L.11-12.5a). They then return to their own essays and “consider spots where using a paradox may help to engage the reader, express the narrator’s sense of confusion or conflict, or clarify the central ideas in the text,” an activity that shows sophistication in advancing the standards from identification and analysis to application in creation.