10th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 1a. Anchor texts within the Grade 10 materials are of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and consider a range of student interests.

Materials for Grade 10 include well-known and diverse authors such as Chinua Achebe, Susan B. Anthony, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Victor Hugo, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Mark Mathabane, Richard Rodriguez, Marjane Satrapi, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Elie Wiesel, and William Butler Yeats. 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 10 students: Cultural Conversations, Cultural Perspectives, Cultures in Conflict, Dramatic Justice, and Building Cultural Bridges. 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 the connections between cultural heritage and identity and how culture affects conceptual perspectives. Students also explore how individuals from diverse cultures come to understand one another through art. In reading a novel, students are immersed in a distant and foreign culture, learning about a community and the institutions enabling it to function, as well as the conflicting roles of community members and the effects of political and social change. In looking at a broad swathe of international texts, students gain insight into the universal themes, issues of justice and injustice, and cultural clashes and conflicts continuing to challenge the world.

Unit 1: Cultural Conversations, a unit of multiple texts

• “Two Kinds,” an excerpt from The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, National Book Award Finalist
• “Everyday Use,” a short story by Alice Walker, first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature
• “What is Cultural Identity?” a research article by Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco

Unit 2: Cultural Perspectives, a unit of multiple texts

• Kaffir Boy, an autobiography listed among Outstanding Books for the College-Bound and Lifelong Learners, by Mark Mathabane
• Persepolis, a graphic novel and New York Times Notable Book, by Marjane Satrapi
• “On Surrender at Bear Paw Mountain,” a speech by Chief Joseph

Unit 3: Cultures in Conflict, a unit anchored in the study of a novel

• Things Fall Apart, a novel listed by TIME among the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005, by Chinua Achebe

Unit 4: Dramatic Justice, a unit anchored in the study of dramatic monologues

• Antigone, a drama by Sophocles

Unit 5: Cultural Bridges, a unit anchored in a documentary film

• The 11th Hour, a documentary film narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, written and directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 1c. Grade 10 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 10 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. Overwhelmingly, SpringBoard categorizes Grade 10 texts as complex. Only a handful of titles falls in the accessible or low categories. Texts falling below the College and Career Expectations for Lexile Ranges in the 9-10 grade band are typically offset by higher qualitative measures and task demands. In general, texts that are quantitatively above grade band have less rigorous qualitative demands and the associated tasks have scaffolds in place to ensure student access.

Examples include:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.6, students read an excerpt from A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. The passage read by students has a Lexile measure of 1180, within the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 9-10 grade. The Text Complexity Analysis rates the text with an overall moderate rating: “The text contains abstract and figurative language to describe Kahlo and her work that may challenge readers such as ‘insistence on surprise and specificity,’ ‘love of spectacle,’ and ‘transmuted her pain into art with remarkable frankness tempered by humor and fantasy.’” The qualitative analysis indicates the text’s purpose is “somewhat implied as the author writes not only to describe Kahlo’s art, but her struggles to be understood, using words to describe her art such as ‘...like a smothered cry, a nugget of emotion so dense that one felt it might explode. The text contains no graphics or ancillary text features.'” The associated student task asks learners to examine cultural identity as presented in multiple genres (RL.9-10.6) and to analyze stylistic techniques of literary selections (9 10.4). The textual analysis lays the foundation for later tasks: “Through close reading, students conduct a comparative analysis of texts in order to have deeper discussions regarding conflict and cultural identity."

• In Unit 2, Activity 16, students read an excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s lecture, “Hope, Despair, and Memory.” The text has a 770 Lexile measure, well below the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 9-10 grade, however, the overall quantitative rating is complex. The Text Complexity Analysis explains although the text is in the grade 2-3 Lexile range, “the cognitive demands are high because students analyze and then emulate the speech.” Additionally, the speech acts as a mentor text for a culminating task when students will respond to an argumentative writing prompt. Knowledge demands for better understanding the context and message of this text would be enhanced by “general historical and cultural knowledge of the Holocaust” and some background in the Bible would also enhance understanding.

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.20, “An African Voice,” an interview of Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, has a Lexile measure of 1320, on the high end of the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 9-10 grade. The Text Complexity Analysis rates the text as moderate in qualitative difficulty and complex overall. The task demands are rated as accessible. Students are asked “to understand the literary analysis essay style by making connections between the author’s life and literary text.” Structurally, “the interview conforms to the genre with a question followed by an answer format, which will help students navigate the text.”

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.13, students read a press release written by The Humane Society of the United States and the Wild Fish Conservancy: “The HSUS and Wild Fish Conservancy File Suit to Stop Sea Lion Killing.” The text has a Lexile measure of 1580, well above the College and Career Readiness range expected for the 9-10 grade. The Text Complexity Analysis indicates an overall very complex rating while the qualitative measure is considered moderately difficult. The task considerations are challenging. The analysis explains, “The cognitive demands are high because students evaluate the use of evidence in support of a potential solution to a conflict. Although the quantitative measure places this text above the Grades 9–10 band, the learning task asks students to work in groups,” thereby scaffolding those who may struggle. The qualitative considerations indicate the press release is straightforward and explicit; however, “deep understanding of this text requires some familiarity with the argument animal right activists make to protect the sea lions, as well as the argument local fisherman and tribal officials make in support of protecting the salmon.”

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 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 10.

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 780 to 1290 Lexile Measure. While reading, students build literacy skills through activities that ask them to compare and contrast how central ideas are developed, determine word meaning, analyze character interaction and development, and explain how conflict advances theme. Students also build skills in connecting the unit’s theme, Cultural Conversations, evolves through the unit texts. Students are asked to analyze point of view in light of culture, compare and contrast the representation of subjects in various media, analyze cultural elements in a memoir, and infer how cultural identity is central to meaning. In the second half of the unit, students prepare to write a collaborative synthesis paper by analyzing an author’s use of literary devices to explain how specific stylistic choices support the development of tone and theme. The unit supports a progressively rich series of lessons that build on previous learning by looking at multiple texts, comparing and contrasting how two different authors explore similar subjects and themes. Additionally, students develop annotating skills, important for independent readers, by reflecting on symbols, images, figurative language, and tone. Students analyze the structure of an argument, collaborate with group members to reach consensus, and synthesize various sources to formulate a position and state it in a thesis statement.

In Unit 3, students read a range of texts measuring in complexity levels from 890 to 1140 Lexile Measure. Students read a number of poems, typically complex by virtue of the genre. While reading, students build literacy skills through activities that ask them to analyze folktales and proverbs for cultural clues, determine author’s purpose, gather, evaluate, and cite sources, analyze the impact on tone and meaning of words, analyze complex character development on plot, cite textual evidence to support an interpretation and write an expository compare/contrast essay. Students are also asked to participate in a Socratic discussion using textual evidence to support analysis and write an analytical response. The latter half of the unit asks students to gather and cite evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly and by drawing inferences from the text, write a narrative to explore character voice, and analyze how a theme is developed over the course of a novel. The unit supports a progressively rich series of lessons that build on previous learning by asking students to analyze cultural views of gender, analyze how plot develops a theme, examine cultural misunderstandings as conflict that advances the plot, and conduct a comparative analysis between texts with similar themes.

In Unit 5, students are challenged to engage with nonfiction through print and nonprint media in order to better understand how to mediate conflicting points of view “to present a solution to a complex problem.” Students read a range of texts measuring in complexity levels from 1100 to 1760 Lexile Measure. Additionally, students watch two documentary films. Unit 5 is steeped in opportunities for students to practice not only reading print text, but also addressing RI.9-10.7: Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums, determining which details are emphasized in each account.” While reading and analyzing the documentary films, students build literacy skills through activities asking them to distinguish between objective and subjective points of view, compare and contrast documentary treatments, and evaluate how a director uses rhetoric and details to advance a subjective point of view. Students also use the pairing of film and print to build skills in RI.9-10.8: “Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.” Through Activity 5.5-Activity 5.10, students are asked to explain how filmmakers use juxtaposition for effect, analyze how documentary establishes point of view, analyze the relationship between cause-effect claims, evaluate how filmmakers use evidence and rhetorical appeals to support a claim, analyze how rhetorical appeals are used to support a persuasive claim in a documentary, analyze an interview to evaluate the impact of subjectivity on a text, and identify fallacies in order to evaluate a text’s credibility. These and other literacy skills are transformed into practice with Embedded Assessment 1. Students are asked to work collaboratively to present a solution to an environmental conflict and deliver a group presentation. Thereafter, Embedded Assessment 2 challenges students to transform the embedded assessment presentation into a documentary film. To prepare for these embedded assessments, students build on the literacy competencies taught and practiced through the unit texts and activities.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 meet the criteria of Indicator 1e. The Grade 10 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 10 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, social science, and earth science, from a wide distribution of media including newspaper, journals, music, film, and the internet. Among the text types are short stories, poems, drama, novels, speeches, documentary, earth science articles, and other 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 Activity 5.15, students are asked to identify “the elements of an argument in one of your independent reading texts. Give an oral summary to a small group of peers that explains how the author used at least three different elements.” Independent Reading Checkpoints are also embedded in each unit. For example, in Unit 5, after a study of how authors and directors use various techniques to engage an audience, students are instructed to review “your independent reading. Think about the ways the print and nonprint texts enhanced your understanding of how authors and directors use various techniques to engage and influence an audience. Which text stood out for you as being especially effective? Why? Was there a text that you thought was ineffective? Why?” 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 10 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 10 materials employ text-based questions and tasks over the course of the school year:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.3, while reading “What is Cultural Identity” by Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco, Setting a Purpose asks students to “[u]nderline or highlight information that helps you identify the concept of cultural identity.”

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.15, after reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and learning about Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, Writing to Sources asks students to consider “[t]o what degree does Okonkwo fit Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero? What flaws lead to his downfall? Students are instructed to “provide supporting details and textual evidence from different chapters” as part of their responses.

• In Unit 4, Activity 4.3, after reading an excerpt from Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Second Read asks students, “What does Benvolio’s retelling of the fight reveal about his character? Which details does he choose to emphasize and what does that tell you about him?”

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 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 “reflective essay explaining your cultural identity.” The scoring rubric indicates exemplary writing will “develop a clear, strongly maintained central idea, using a range of relevant well-chosen evidence using an effective organizational style with logically linked ideas and varied transitions.” Activity 1.1 asks students to define and describe culture and cultural identify in writing. Activity 1.2 engages students in making collaborative decisions about effective communication via speaking and listening. Activity 1.3 introduces scholarly articles and a personal essay supported by text-dependent questions to build background knowledge of cultural identity. Activity 1.4 builds knowledge of writer’s craft through analysis and editing of syntax, phrases, and parenthetical expression using the texts from the previous activity. Activity 1.5 through Activity 1.8 introduce various genres--novel, biography, memoir, and interview/essay--to further develop the students’ understanding of cultural identity while analyzing organizational styles and author’s craft through text-dependent questions. The culminating task also guides the student writer through a series of questions beginning with planning/prewriting and continuing throughout the drafting, revising, editing, and publishing phases of the project.

• The Unit 3, Embedded Assessment 1 is based on a combination of independent research and the novel, Things Fall Apart. Students are directed to work collaboratively in researching for a formal presentation comparing and contrasting a single cultural change from precolonial to postcolonial Nigeria. In preparation for the assessment, eight unit activities provide a foundation for success. Early unit activities introduce the importance of proverbs and fables in the novel and as part of an oral tradition. Additional lessons engage students in using the internet to research as well as teaching documentation and citation strategies for internet resources. Continued study of the chapters in the primary text through a series of sequential text-dependent questions deepens students’ understandings of the Ibo culture and language as well as generates cultural wonderings for later research. Alongside the reading, activities supporting technology skills for presentation purposes support success for an effective final presentation. Later activities ground learner skills in the structure of comparison and contrast analyses essential for success in the culminating task. Before beginning Embedded Assessment 1, a lesson on academic voice and formal diction is applied through a Socratic Seminar. The final lesson before assessment begins directs students to review research questions from early lessons and focus on one cultural change for the resulting research and presentation.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 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.

The Grade 10 materials establish the importance of evidence-based discussion from the outset by asking students to design a set of class norms displayed for reference throughout the year. The class norms play an important role as students regularly engage in a variety of evidence-based discussions within the whole class, as small group conversations, and as partners sharing text-based ideas and information. Discussions take place 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 10 materials provide opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.2, students work in small groups to discuss what the term “culture” means. After performing some independent work to define the term, students are instructed to “[d]iscuss your definition with a small group of peers.” The Teacher Wrap suggests using sentence stems as needed for differentiation and advises teachers to ensure students go beyond superficial understandings of culture and explore subcultures as well. The Round Table Discussion Organizer is introduced for the first time, and the Teacher Wrap suggests the teacher “model for the class how to record student ideas.” Following this initial small-group discussion, students are asked to identify “two to three norms you and your fellow classmates can follow to communicate effectively.” The Teacher Wrap suggests four attitudes and skills aligned to the Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards, Grade Band 9-10.

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.16, after reading speeches by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Elie Wiesel, Working from the Text asks students to “synthesize textual evidence by participating actively in a Socratic Seminar.” Students are to “come to the discussion prepared with textual evidence” and three or four questions and are reminded that the following actions help to create a successful seminar: “[talking] to the participants and not the teacher or seminar leader; [referring] to the text to support your thinking or challenge an idea; [paraphrasing] what other students say to make sure that you understand their points before challenging their opinions and evidence.” In preparation for the seminar, students have read the speeches twice and worked through two series of text-dependent questions independently, as pairs, or in small groups.

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.5 - Activity 5.8, while viewing the documentary, The Eleventh Hour, students initially work in small groups to understand the how the juxtaposition of film images impacts the rhetorical stances of ethos, logos, and pathos. As viewing continues, students work collaboratively to “record comments about the film, questions about its function as a text, and a summary of the effectiveness of the argument it makes.” In the final stages of viewing, each group is asked to focus on one of three areas: Ethos and Credibility, Evidence and Persuasion, or Values and Perspectives. Group members take notes independently while viewing. After viewing, groups consolidate their notes into a single summary on the assigned area. Groups then jigsaw into new three-person groups to share their evidence and conclusions within the new group.

The instructional materials reviewed for SpringBoard Grade 10 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 including 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 10 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 text analysis to researching and presenting information on current issues. Throughout, students are expected to verify and clarify ideas as well as advance differing views and support 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 10 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 1.6, after viewing and taking notes on the PBS film clip The Life and Times of Frida and reading an excerpt from Frida, a Biography of Frida Kahlo, students prepare for a small group discussion “with well-reasoned, text-based responses to address Kahlo’s life, art, and cultural identity.” The discussion asks students to synthesize the information and concepts of both texts. In preparation, students organize the notes they had taken and work through a series of text-dependent questions: "What did you learn about Kahlo’s life, art, and cultural identity? What details are emphasized in each text to support your interpretation of the artist and how she depicts her cultural identity in her work?" Following the discussion, students are introduced to Kahlo’s Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States and the poem, “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora. In studying each of these texts, students answer a series of text-dependent questions and then participate in a second group discussion to compare and contrast what each text emphasizes and how emphasis is achieved.

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.15, after reading the 1959 United Nations' “Declaration on the Rights of the Child” and studying current statistics published by the World Health Organization, students “conduct research on the issue of hunger in [their] community” and “synthesize findings into a brief, informal presentation and present information to a small group of peers.” Teachers are given additional guidance in the Teacher Wrap to “ask students to provide feedback to the presenter to clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions presented.”

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.8, after reading Chapters 7 and 8 of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, students return to the text, working in small groups or pairs to prepare for a Socratic Discussion. Each group is assigned a single open-ended, text-dependent question. Working together, students are to “skim/scan Chapters 7 and 8, taking notes to find textual evidence to support their response.” Additionally, students are to develop a set of “talking points” in support of their answer and design a “drawing, outline, or graphic organizer” to act as a visual aid in their response. The Teacher wrap suggests the students participate in either a Gallery Walk or a jigsaw group to share their points with other members of the class, taking notes and asking questions to be used during the Socratic Discussion. Groups are then to prepare four questions for the discussion: two interpretive questions and two universal questions. Before beginning the discussion, students are reminded of the five Socratic Seminar norms.

• In Unit 4, Activity 4.4, after reading an excerpted monologue from White Teeth by Zadie Smith, students use a SOAPStone organizer to analyze the monologue: speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone. Students use the analysis to consider how a monologue develops the complexity of a character and then are instructed to “write an original monologue on an issue of importance to them that reveals characterization, an internal conflict, or perhaps an issue of fairness or justice” and “include a summary statement of the scenario before the monologue; the speaker’s feelings on an internal conflict to convey a theme; diction, detail, sentence structure, and punctuation for effect.” After writing, students trade monologues with partners and “rehearse and conduct an oral reading of [their] partner’s monologue with appropriate vocal and visual delivery.” Presentation to small groups is followed up with a discussion on “ways to refine [their] monologue to make [their] intentions clearer.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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 10 materials employ on-demand writing alongside technology, editing, and/or revision tasks over the course of the school year:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.5, after a close reading of Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” Writing to Sources: Explanatory Texts asks students to complete an on-demand assignment. Students are to write an essay explaining “how Tan uses the central conflict between mother and daughter to develop the theme of the work.” They are reminded to establish a clear focus regarding Tan’s “perspective toward cultural identity, toward her mother, toward America,” use sufficient quotes and details from the text, maintain an academic voice, and “vary syntax by incorporating a variety of phrases” in the essay.

• In Unit 2, through a series of activities, students revise a narrative essay into a series of panel drawings. In Activity 2.5, after reading the narrative essay, “Pick One” by David Matthews, students are asked to write a narrative essay recounting a time when they made a weighty decision about themselves. In this essay, they are to pay special attention to pacing, transitions, details, and sentence types. Later, in Activity 2.7, after studying the elements of a graphic novel and reading an excerpt from the graphic novel, Persephone by Marjane Satrapi, students are asked to return to the earlier narrative and revise it into a series of panel drawings using the elements of the graphic novel, editing captions and dialogue “to correctly use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.”

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.18, after reading chapter 22 of Things Fall Apart and the poems “Prayer to the Masks” by Leopold Sedar Senghor and “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats, Writing to Sources: Explanatory Texts asks students to refer to their notes from Setting a Purpose for Reading and Second Read activities and write an essay making connections between the poems and the novel: “What similarities in theme or central idea did you notice?” Students are further instructed to “include quotes or specific details from the poems and the novel to support [their] claims; explain how specific words in the poems and the novel relate to each other and show similarity between themes; use a coherent organizational structure and employ transitions effectively to highlight similarities and difference.

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.19, after reading chapters 23-25 of Things Fall Apart, students are asked to “write a letter to the District Commissioner explaining how his attitude toward the Ibo people is based on cultural misunderstanding.” Students are to state their purpose in the first sentence, provide contextual evidence, and use appropriate voice and tone. Later in the unit, after a study of noun agreement, students are to return to the letter and verify all nouns match in number and agreement as well as agreement between antecedents and words such as “all,” “each,” and “both.”

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 Reflective Expository Essay about Cultural Identity; Writing a Synthesis Paper; Writing a Narrative; Writing an Argument; Writing a Literary Analysis; and Writing a Literary Analysis on Characterization and Theme. 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 10 materials employ process writing in longer written tasks featuring technology, revision, and/or editing over the course of the school year:

• In Unit 4, Embedded Assessment 2, after reading Antigone, students are to write an analytical essay examining the effects of character interaction: “Choose a character whose words, actions, or ideas contrast with Creon’s character. Explain how these conflicting motivations contribute to Creon’s development as a tragic hero and how the character interactions advance the plot or develop the themes of the play.” Preparation for and writing of this essay span nineteen class periods or approximately four weeks. Activities 4.8 through 4.15 take students through an in-depth study of characterization in the play, including “static and dynamic characters [and] complex characters who advance the plot,” character foils, and tragic heroes. The formal drafting, revising, and editing for publishing of the analytical essay occurs the final week of the process.

• In Unit 5, Embedded Assessment 1, after a study of climate change and global warming, students are asked to complete a focused project arguing “a solution to the environmental conflict your group has researched.” Students are to deliver a group presentation designed to contextualize the conflict and justify their resolution. Students are urged to consider using a digital format for their presentation, e.g., PowerPoint, Prezi, or other technological media. Activities 5.1 through 5.12 lay the foundations for the project. In Activity 5.15, students are to “write a position paper representing your stakeholder’s position...[choosing] an appropriate structure for your paper, [gathering] multiple sources to support your claim...being sure to: organize your points to present a clear argument, using the components of argumentation as a general outline; citing quotes and details from your sources to develop your claims...[including] transitions to link main points and a final statement that restates your claim.” Drafting the Embedded Assessment activity is followed up with Check Your Understanding, asking students to “annotate your draft, labeling the elements of argument in your paper” and marking edits for corrections in conventions. Additionally, revision and reflection activities occur in Activity 5.16 following a lesson on appropriate citation conventions. Students are to “exchange position papers with a partner and highlight all references to specific evidence, quotes, or ideas from sources” as well as add editing suggestions for accurate citations as needed. They are to look for variety in the use of direct and indirect quotations and syntax “to enhance the flow of the writing.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 1m. The Grade 10 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 10 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. 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, Embedded Assessment 2, students are asked to “collaborate with peers” to write a synthesis essay. Preparation of the thesis begins in Activity 1.14 after students have read several essays by various authors on the “individual’s attitudes and perspectives about cultures that have affected or influenced their own.” Choosing a Position asks students to take a position defending, challenging, or qualifying a response to this prompt: To what extent does a person’s culture inform the way he or she views others and the world? In Activity 1.15, students return to unit texts and independent readings to identify and qualify evidence for inclusion in the synthesis essay and in the final stages of writing, students work together crafting a group position paper integrating multiple sources and multiple pieces of evidence and explanations to support their claim.

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.6, after reading an excerpt from the essay “If You are What You Eat, Then What am I?” by Geeta Kothari, students write an essay that “explains the author’s use of a can of tuna as a symbol of cultural difference.” Students are reminded to discuss “the author’s use of specific words and figurative language to describe the characters’ ideas about tuna” and comment on how the narrative technique draws readers into the text.” Students are reminded to begin with a clear thesis fully conveying the “topic of the symbol and your view on how the writer uses it to engage readers” and to include “direct quotations and specific examples and details from the text to support your thesis statement.”

• In Unit 2, Embedded Assessment 2, asks students to develop an argument about “an issue that resonates across cultures...choose a position, target audience, and effective genre to convey your argument to a wide audience.” The Assessment Scoring Guide indicates an exemplary response “synthesizes evidence from a variety of sources that strongly support the claim; summarizes and refutes counterclaims with relevant reasoning and clear evidence; and smoothly integrates textual evidence from multiple sources.” In preparation for the assessment, Activity 2.17 asks students to read an editorial by Kathleen Kingsbury, and analyze how the author builds her argument. Students then write an essay explaining how Kingsbury builds an argument “to persuade her readers to support better treatment for restaurant workers.” Working from the Text pairs students in the use of a graphic organizer to “create an outline of the main argument and details of the passage” reminding students to “use your own words to paraphrase or summarize each section of the editorial, and check to make sure that your summary is accurate.” Students are reminded to focus “on the most relevant features of the passage” and consider how Kingsbury used evidence, such as facts and examples, to support claims.

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.11, while reading chapter ten of Things Fall Apart, students are asked to note values and norms of Ibo culture as they become apparent. Later in the activity, Writing to Sources: Explanatory Text asks students to use their notes “to write a paragraph to explain the values and norms of Ibo culture….[I]nclude a well-stated topic sentence; include the best details and textual evidence that highlight the values and norms of Ibo culture and use precise or domain-specific vocabulary when possible; use a logical organizational structure and employ transitions effectively to move from one key point to the next.”

• In Unit 4, Embedded Assessment 2, students are asked to “write an analytical essay about the effect of character interaction in the play Antigone. Choose a character whose words, actions, or ideas contrast with Creon’s character. Explain how these conflicting motivations contribute to Creon’s development as a tragic hero and how the character interactions advance the plot or develop themes of the play.” The Assessment Scoring Guide indicates an exemplary response “thoroughly examines the effect of character interaction on plot or theme; accurately analyzes characterization, including another character’s role (such as foil) in the development of a tragic hero; and smoothly integrates relevant textual evidence, including details, quotations, and examples.” In preparation for the assessment, Activity 4.15 asks students to analyze “the development of a tragic hero over the course of a play,” and “Write a character analysis incorporating textual support.” Working from the Text asks students to find “textual evidence to support your analysis of Creon as a tragic hero” and write an explanatory paragraph that “explains how Teiresias contributes to Creon’s development as a tragic hero.” Students are instructed to “[i]nclude specific relevant details...Cite direct quotations and specific examples from both characters.”

• In Unit 5, Activity 5.8, after watching the documentary film, The 11th Hour, students are asked to write a film review, taking a position “on whether or not it is effective as a documentary. Identify the criteria that are relevant to your target audience. Defend your position with relevant and sufficient evidence. Write a precise claim and support it with valid reasoning and relevant evidence. Be sure to: acknowledge counterclaims that anticipate the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases while also refuting the evidence for those claims; maintain a formal tone, vary sentence types, and use effective transitions; end with a call to action to your target audience.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for Indicator 1n. The instructional materials include instruction of grammar and conventions/language standards for Grade 10 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 10 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.9-10.4-6) and provide opportunities for student practice.

For example, in Unit 2, the Instructional Activities and Pacing Guide indicates that Activities 2.2 and 2.3 offer instruction and practice with language goals. Unit 2, Resources at a Glance lists sentence variety and varying sentence beginnings as among studies in Language and Writer’s Craft, and lists colons, semicolons (L.9-10.2a & 2b), punctuation for effect (L.9-10.2b), syntax, and verb tense as among the Grammar and Usage conventions to be studied. In Activity 2.2, a Grammar & Usage sidebar contextualizes sentences and fragments and provides an example from the text under study: “In academic writing, it is important to make sure all of your sentences are complete. In narrative writing and in poems, however, sentence fragments can sometimes be used for effect.” The sidebar provides an example from the mentor poem, “Where I’m From,” and asks students to consider how this “fragment affects the pace of the poem.” Later in the activity, Writing to Sources asks students to write an explanatory essay explaining how Lyon “uses imagery and specific words and phrases to convey a sense of family culture and identity.” Students are expected to include direct quotations (L.9-10.2), introduce and punctuate all quotations correctly (L.9-10.2b, W.9-10.2b), and use a coherent, organizational structure that makes connections between specific ideas (W.9-10.2c). The subsequent Activity 2.3 defines syntax as “the way a writer organizes the words, phrases, and clauses of sentences” and introduces students to subordinate structures such as subordinate clauses and appositives. Students read closely to identify authors' syntax choices, an activity building on previous activities exploring organizational structures that create cohesion and clarity (L.9-10.1b). Other grammar and convention practice in this unit includes punctuation using quotation marks (L.9-10.2b), understanding how to punctuate dialogue, using dashes within quotations to provide emphasis, and showing understanding of sentence variety by mixing simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences (L.9-10.3).

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 analyzes the words objectivity and subjectivity by analyzing the words’ roots and affixes, with the root ject, from the Latin jacere, meaning 'to throw.'” The callout box provides other examples of words with the root ject and follows with an analysis of the words’ prefixes, ob- and sub- before closing with a challenge for students to consider word parts in determining word meaning. 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 10 units are lessons titled Academic and Social Language Preview and Optional Language Checkpoint. The Academic and Social Language Preview typically precedes lessons titled Interpreting the Text Using Close Reading. Unit 2 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 to check their definitions against a formal source (L.9-10.4a & 4d). The lesson is followed by the close reading and study of the associated mentor text. Optional Language Checkpoint, a class period activity, also appears in each unit. Included among the Grade 10 checkpoints are lessons in parallel structure, using punctuation within sentences, using subordination and coordination, noun agreement, recognizing frequently-confused words, recognizing conventional expressions. For example, Unit 2 Lc2.5 is a study of subordinate and coordinate clauses and related conjunctions (L.9-10.1b). Following the instruction and practice section of the lesson, Check Your Understanding instructs students to edit a written response provided in the activity: “Several clauses should be joined with conjunctions. Suggest which conjunctions you would choose...[R]emember to check your writing for subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.” Students then revise their own writing to include or to improve the use of subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.

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 5: Response to Literature, Short Story and Writer’s Craft Practice provides instruction on stylistic choices made by a writer: parallelism, analogy, allusion, and anaphora. The activity continues by asking students to cite an example of a stylistic choice from the Alice Walker mentor text used throughout the lesson and to explain the effect (L.9-10.3). Then, the activity asks students to return to their writing and edit for coherence, adding a transition to show comparison and contrast (L.9-10.1).