8th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and consider a range of student interests.

Texts selected for the materials are worthy of careful reading, and include a range of topics that are of high-interest and age-appropriate for Grade 8. Topics include suspense, the immigrant experience, and the Civil War. Many of the core texts are timeless classics, CCSS exemplar texts, and are written by award-winning authors. The texts contain rich vocabulary, both academic and content-specific. Examples of texts include, but are not limited to, complete texts or excerpts from the following:

• In Unit 1, students read Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. This novel is engaging, has strong content and ambiguous dialogue (many untagged speakers). The complex characterization creates a challenging text. Vocabulary includes British slang of the time period.

• In Unit 1, students read “The Monkey’s Paw”, by J.J. Jacobs. This short story is engaging with well-developed characters. It provides a strong example of the literary elements of foreshadowing, mood and suspense.

• In Unit 1, students read A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord. This challenging text has complex organization with changing point of views. It also contains rich language that paints a suspenseful picture of a disaster.

• In Unit 2, students read The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. This play is a CCSS exemplar text and contains vivid and emotionally honest details worthy of close reading. This age-appropriate text contains rich language to which students can relate.

• In Unit 2, students read “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat”, by Winston Churchill. This speech is a CCSS exemplar text. Specific features of the speech include unique tone, a well-defined purpose, and compelling emotion. This speech also provides age-appropriate historical context for World War II.

• In Unit 2, students read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable, by John Boyne. This novel is historical fiction and allows students to analyze how point of view and character shape theme. This novel also provides age-appropriate historical context for World War II.

• In Unit 3, students read “A Celebrations of Grandfathers”, by Rudolfo Anaya. The essay explores the lessons and values the author learned from his grandfather and other ancianos (elderly people) within the context of the Mexican-American community and its history and culture.

• In Unit 3, students read “Abuela Invents the Zero”, by Judith Cofer Ortiz. The short story examines how a teenage girl who was raised in the United States handles the culture clash that she experiences when her traditional Puerto Rican grandmother comes for a visit. Many students can relate to this story. It is high interest, engaging and provides cultural information about the people of Puerto Rico.

• In Unit 3, students read “Home”, by Anton Chekhov. The short story finds universal truths in subtle domestic situations. In this story, a father needs to discipline his son, and readers are given insight into the comic complexities of this seemingly simple task. This story is engaging, high interest, and many readers have been in the son’s situation.

• In Unit 4, students read the “Gettysburg Address”, by Abraham Lincoln. This is one of the most well known inspirational speeches in American history. Abraham Lincoln dedicates a cemetery to fallen Union Soldiers, while urging the nation to continue the hard work of fighting for equality. It has historical context and rich language.

• In Unit 4, students read “O Captain! My Captain”, by Walt Whitman. The poem uses the metaphor of a ship and its captain to convey the poet’s response to the end of the Civil War and the tragedy of Abraham Lincoln’s death.

• In Unit 4, students read “Civil War Journal” by Louisa May Alcott. This journal gives details of the author’s real-life experiences as a nurse during the Civil War. It has historical context and is told from first-person point of view. This text is also rich in academic vocabulary.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade level.

Texts include a mix of informational and literary texts. There is a wide array of informational and literary anchor texts for every unit. Additional supplementary texts are included, resulting in a wide distribution of genres and text types as required by the standards. Literary texts include historical fiction, short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and fables. Informational texts include autobiographies, memoirs, journals, speeches, and persuasive essays.

The following are examples of literature found within the instructional materials:

• In Unit 1, students read “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, Cujo by Stephen King, and “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe.
• In Unit 2, students read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable by John Boyne, and The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich.
• In Unit 3, students read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, “Abuela Invents the Zero” by Judith Cofer Ortiz, and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.
• In Unit 4, students read “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt, and “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman.

The following are examples of informational text found within the instructional materials:

• In Unit 1, students read “Let ‘Em Play God” by Alfred Hitchcock, A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, and Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly.
• In Unit 2, students read “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” by Winston Churchill, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
• In Unit 3, students read “A Celebration of Grandfathers” by Rudolfo Anaya, “Born Worker,” by Gary Soto, and Essays from Mandatory Volunteer Work for Teenagers.
• In Unit 4, students read the “Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided” by Abraham Lincoln, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and An American Slave by Frederick Douglass.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to the associated student task.

The instructional materials for Grade 8 meet the criteria for texts having the appropriate range of complexity for the grade level. Texts range from 570L to 1370L. Most texts fall within either the Current Lexile Band or the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 6-8. The texts are appropriate for Grade 8 according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to the associated student task. Some texts do exceed these bands but the tasks are designed to make them accessible. Examples of texts that have the appropriate level of complexity for Grade 8 include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students read “The Monkey’s Paw” which has a Lexile level of 940L. This level falls within both the Current Lexile Band and the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 6-8. This text has qualitative value in that the author creates suspense through foreshadowing, mood, and dialogue. The elements of the genre are reflected in the challenges of the text.

• In Unit 2, students read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This text has a Lexile level of 1080L which exceeds the Current Lexile Band and but falls within the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 6-8. This text has qualitative value in that contains many references to real places and events, such as WWII and Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp complex established by the Nazis.

• In Unit 3, students read “Home” by Anton Chekhov. This text has a Lexile level of 1020L which exceeds the Current Lexile Band and but falls within the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 6-8. However, the text is appropriate. The Teacher Edition states that the text, “takes the perspective of the parent and places high demands on students’ cultural literacy, including knowledge of dialect and specific vocabulary, as well as knowledge of the writing forms, so scaffolding is provided to help students access prior knowledge and build appropriate background to support an understanding of the qualitative dimensions.”

• In Unit 4, students read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. This text has a Lexile level of 1080L which exceeds the Current Lexile Band and but falls within the Stretch Lexile Band for grades 6-8. In this excerpt, Douglass’s situation is embodied in the rich figurative language of the text. The text also has qualitative value in that it is a strong example of both problem/solution and cause/effect text structure.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for supporting students’ increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year. (Series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band.)

The instructional materials provide a variety of texts appropriate for the grade band. Texts increase in complexity as the units progress. While some texts fall at the high end of the grade level, students also read less complex selections as they learn to analyze texts. Along with increasing text complexity, demands in writing also increase in complexity. Students are asked to read texts, analyze these texts, and respond to them in writing.

Each unit contains an Access Path where teachers can find resources scaffolded for English Language Learners. This Access Path includes handouts that provide support for handling text complexity in the areas of purpose, genre, organization, connection of ideas, sentence structure, specific vocabulary, and prior knowledge.

Each unit focuses on the use of textual evidence to support student analysis. This skill helps students evaluate information within texts, organize ideas, make inferences, create claims, and use evidence within their own writing. By the end of the year, students are using textual evidence in independent writing assignments such as argumentative essays. Examples of increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the Skill section on Inference for Sorry, Wrong Number, students go through a lesson that focuses on using textual evidence to support an inference. The lesson states, “Whether you’re making inferences from a short passage or drawing conclusions based on an entire text, textual evidence is the most important tool for helping you explain your ideas.” After defining inferences, using evidence to support an inference is modeled, and students practice with a series of multiple-choice questions.

• In Unit 2, in the Skill section on Reasons and Evidence for the Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow, students read and analyze why people behaved the way that they did during this era of history by examining the evidence the author provides. This lesson provides follow-up questions to help teachers guide students toward a usable, repeatable method for uncovering reasons and evidence.

• In Unit 3, in the Close Read of “Mother to Son,” students use textual evidence to compare the tone and theme from the poem to another text within the unit. Students are prompted to use textual evidence as the prompt states, “Analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. Support your writing with evidence from both texts.”

• In Unit 4, in the Extended Writing Project, students write an informative/explanatory essay. Students use textual evidence to support their writing. The prompt states, “Use ideas and information expressed in at least two unit texts to reinforce your analysis.” During the writing process, students are encouraged to “develop their informative pieces in such a way that the thesis statement is supported by the key details. Students should use reasons and evidence to support the thesis.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 partially meet the criteria that anchor texts and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by a text complexity analysis and rationale for purpose and placement in the grade level.

Most texts include instructional notes and text notes. These are all found in the ELA Grade Level Overview booklet. At the beginning of each unit, there is an overall explanation of the unit. This includes the balance of literary to informational texts, the essential question, and an analysis of the text complexity of particular texts. In response to texts that are above the recommended Lexile band, the publisher provides scaffolds to assist all students in accessing the text. Quantitative, qualitative, and reader task information is included for most texts. Qualitative features such as Scaffold Instruction to Access Complex Text (ACT), ACT features, publication date, and genre. Quantitative features such as Excerpt Lexile, Full-text Lexile, and Word Count are also provided. In response to texts that are above the recommended Lexile band, the publisher provides scaffolds to assist all students in accessing the texts. Examples of texts being accompanied by text complexity analysis and rationale for purpose and placement include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students read “The Monkey’s Paw.” The story opens with the White family spending a contented evening together at home. They are visited by Sergeant-Major Morris, who tells stories of his world travels and gives the family a mummified monkey’s paw that is said to grant wishes.” The Lexile Level is 940L. W.W. Jacobs creates suspense as readers begin to suspect what will happen through foreshadowing, mood, and dialogue. The elements of the genre are reflected in the challenges of the text. In addition, students may need help linking story details to determine the theme.

• In Unit 2, students read The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play. This Common Core Exemplar text “addresses the unit task demands of analysis of dramatic elements, such as the role of dialogue to reveal character, the development of theme, and the way a filmed production of a drama remains faithful to or departs from the source text. These task demands, combined with the complex intertextual references, make the literary texts meaningful but challenging selections for students.” The Lexile level is 790L. Materials encourage students to label acts and scenes as well as the purpose of stage directions.

• In Unit 3, students read “Abuela Invents the Zero.” This text takes a look at the cultural divide between first generation immigrant adolescents and their grandparents. While the story appears to be humorous, students need to realize that it is meant to teach a moral. The Lexile level is 970L. “The qualitative dimensions, reader characteristics, and task demands of the selections in this unit make it an accessible but appropriately challenging set of texts for eighth grade readers as they move up the staircase of increasing complexity for the recommended quantitative dimensions (as measured by the Lexile® Framework) for Grades 6-8."

• In Unit 4, students read Narrative of the Life of Frederick: An American Slave. This Common Core Exemplar text shows how important learning to read was in the author’s life while also revealing the negative effects of slavery. The Lexile level is 1010L. “The text may be more challenging for readers without a background knowledge of slavery and the particular time in history in which the narrative is set.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations that the anchor and supporting texts provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of texts to achieve grade level reading.

Each unit exposes students to high-quality texts that cover a variety of genres, time periods, and cultures with a balance of literary and informational texts. Reading is done independently, as a whole class, aloud, and silently. All of the anchor texts and supporting materials revolve around a central theme and essential question for each unit. Reading materials increase in complexity as the year progresses, and teacher interventions are gradually released in order to enable the students to achieve grade-level reading independently. Examples of students engaging in a range of texts include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students begin the unit on day one by reading the Blast background and materials included in several research links. The next day the students participate in the First Read of “Let ‘em Play God,” in which they read and annotate the text. Day three includes skill work on Author’s Purpose and Author’s Point of View as well as Word Meaning. Students read both the definitions and model sections associated with the skills. Students then complete a Close Read of “Let ‘em Play God,”, including a detailed reading and annotation of a selection. On the final day, the students complete First Read of “The Monkey’s Paw,” which includes reading the introduction and reading and annotating the text itself.

• In Unit 2, students complete a first read and a close read of Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow. Students also complete two skill lessons, one on informational text elements and one on reasons and evidence. They use excerpts from Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow to practice the skills. Students also complete a Blast where they read background information regarding propaganda messages during war times. In Unit 2 there are two full text studies: The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Throughout Unit 2, students read additional texts including All Quiet on the Western Front, All the LIght We Cannot See, Stepping on the Cracks, The Devil’s Arithmetic, The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club, and Farewell to Manzanar.

• In Unit 3, the anchor text, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, meets expectations for Grade 8. The Overview explains that this unit prompts students to consider the complexities of morality. It opens with “Abuela Invents the Zero,” a short story by Judith Ortiz Cofer that chronicles a teenage girl’s struggles with her traditional Puerto Rican grandmother and the culture clash it represents. Other selections delve into rich characters and character-building situations as created by Anton Chekhov, Langston Hughes, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Gary Soto, Rudolfo Anaya, William Blake, and Pablo Neruda. Students explore the complexities of how people become who they are as well as investigate ways to realize their potential in the world.

• In Unit 4, students complete a First Read and a Close Read of Across Five Aprils. Students also complete a skill lesson on point of view and character, and use excerpts from Across Five Aprils to practice the skills. In Unit 4, there is one full text study on Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Throughout Unit 4, students read additional texts including House Divided Speech, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, Speech to the Ohio Women’s Conference: And Ain’t I a Woman, “Sullivan Ballou Letter”, Civil War Journal, The Red Badge of Courage, Gettysburg Address, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, and “O Captain! My Captain!”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

The materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly. Grade 8 is broken into four units of study that include a variety of texts and activities. The majority of the questions and associated tasks require students to engage with the text directly. The Think tab of the each First Read section includes a series of constructed response questions that require textual evidence in a response. The Your Turn portion of the Skill sections contain multiple-choice questions that refer specifically to the text. The Close Read sections require an extended writing task. This task requires students to synthesize text details and to cite textual evidence. In addition to answering text-dependent questions about written text, students answer text-dependent discussion questions tied to various media accessed via StudySyncTV. When answering these text-dependent questions, students are provided directions on where to look for details and what kind of information should be mentioned in their answers. Sample exemplar answers are provided for all questions. Examples of questions, tasks, and assignments that are text-dependent/specific include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the First Read of Lord of the Flies, students are asked text-specific questions such as, “What has happened that has caused the boys to be where they are? Explain your inferences about where the boys are, and what happened, using textual evidence.”

• In Unit 2, in the First Read of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play, students use text-specific sentence frames to help them look for textual evidence to answer the Think Questions. An example of these sentences frames is “Mr. Frank breaks down crying because….”

• In Unit 3, in the Skill section on Character for “Abuela Invents the Zero”, students are asked a two-part multiple choice question such as, (A) “Which statement best explains what readers learn about Constancia from the dialogue in this excerpt?” (B) “Which detail from the passage best supports your answer?”

• In Unit 4, in the First Read for “Paul Revere’s Ride”, students are asked to “identify and list textual evidence (quotes, details, and examples) from Paul Revere's Ride that you can use to answer these questions as you watch the SyncTV episode.” As students watch the video, they then answer text-specific questions such as, “ At 1:12 in the video: Students are discussing whether the poem is just for kids, or whether the author has a more adult purpose in mind. One of the students recites the catchy first few lines and recalls having to memorize the passage. Brainstorm other evidence in the poem that suggest Longfellow wrote it for children, adults, or both.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for having sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent/specific questions and tasks build to a culminating task that integrates skills (may be writing, speaking, or a combination).

Materials include both text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that help prepare students for the each unit’s Extended Writing Task. These culminating tasks integrate writing, speaking, or both. There are questions that prompt thinking, speaking, and writing tasks that focus on the central ideas and key details of the text. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are taught as integrated skills. The Extended Writing Tasks ask students to explore the theme and essential question of the unit in more depth as they reconsider what they have learned through analyzing texts, conducting research, and contemplating their own life experiences. Each unit has a different mode of writing so that over the course of the year, students demonstrate proficiency in constructing long-form argumentative, argumentative literary analysis, informative/explanatory, and narrative works. Once submitted, these writing assignments can be adapted and delivered as oral presentations. Examples of text-dependent/specific questions and tasks that build to a culminating task include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the Extended Writing Project focuses on the narrative form. As students work to develop an original suspenseful narrative, they probe the unit’s central question, “What attracts us to stories of suspense?". The unit’s fiction and nonfiction selections about classic stories of suspense, real-life suspenseful situations, and how suspense is created and employed in print, on the airwaves, and on film provide a context for students as they begin writing their narratives. In the Close Read of “The Tell-Tale Heart, students answer questions such as, “Authors of Gothic tales such as 'The Tell-Tale Heart', often use symbols to help develop the theme of a story. The 'vulture eye' and 'the beating heart' are examples of two key symbols used in this way. Highlight several instances of the author's use of these symbols. Make annotations to interpret the significance of these symbols and describe how they contribute to the story's theme.”

• In Unit 2, the Extended Writing Project is an argumentative essay that addresses the following prompt: “Carefully consider the selections you have read in this unit, including their themes and the ideas they offer about war and conflict. Pick two of the selections from the unit and write an argumentative essay that presents a claim in answer to the following question: how can people best respond to conflict? Along with information from the selections, include research from at least three other credible print and digital sources to support your claim and develop your argument.” Students must reflect on prior analysis of two of the texts in the unit. They are asked to supplement these texts with three reliable outside resources to construct a claim, support their claim with relevant evidence, use transitions to show the connection of ideas, and produce a Works Cited page.

• In Unit 3, the Extended Writing Project helps students access the knowledge of argumentative writing they developed in Unit 2 in order to explore literary analysis. Students probe the unit’s central question, “How can our life experiences shape our values?”, as they develop an original literary analysis about how experiences can change a person’s values for the better or for the worse. The unit’s selections include such foundational works as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Langston Hughes’s “Mother to Son.” These texts feature a wide range of both fictional characters and real-life people who are separated by vast differences in culture and time period but who all exhibit the profound influence of experience on personal values and thus provide a context for students as they begin writing their literary analyses. Students answers questions such as, “List the five types of supporting details included in the Definition section. Why are supporting details important in an argumentative essay?” and “What happens if an author includes irrelevant or incorrect supporting details?”

• In Unit 4, the Extended Writing Project focuses on informational/explanatory writing. The unit’s essential question, “How did the War Between the States redefine America?”, is developed through fictional and nonfictional texts that explore a wide range of perspectives and experiences in connection with the American Civil War. The Extended Writing Project requires students to write an informative/explanatory essay about how the war changed Americans and their ideas about freedom. In the Skills: Arguments and Claims activity for The Gettysburg Address, students watch the Concept Definition video. Students then read the definition of argument and claim. In small groups or as a whole class, students are provided questions that aim to spark discussion related to argument and claim. An example of a question provided in this activity is, “What are some of the arguments made in the texts you have read or the movies and videos you have seen this year?"

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 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 of the four units provide frequent and varied opportunities for students to engage in whole class, small group, and peer-to-peer discussion that reference the text under study and incorporate the understanding and use of academic vocabulary and syntax. A Speaking and Listening Handbook provides teachers with explicit instructions on teaching and modeling collegial discussions. Strategies and handouts guide students as they practice and assess evidence-based discussions. Checklists and graphic organizers are offered to students to help them prepare for the discussions. Rubrics are provided for peers and teachers to assess the academic conversations. Examples of how materials meet the criteria of this indicator include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the First Read of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” instruction includes a StudySyncTV video that shows students discussing the text. The Teacher Edition includes a lesson plan for class discussion of the StudySyncTV video. In this plan, the teacher stops the video at 0:52 and asks the whole class, “From what point of view does the narrator tell the story? How does this point of view affect the reliability of the narrator's story?”

• In Unit 2, in the text study of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play, students are given a section of text to read and annotate. The Teacher Edition suggests that students break into pairs or small groups to discuss the inferences made while reading. There are four questions provided to guide discussions, including this example: “What was Anne's attitude about the Annex where her family hid? What does she mean by an “annex”? Cite details from the text in your answer.”

• In Unit 3, in the First Read of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the Teacher Edition suggests that students answer the questions located under the Think tab and then answer the questions individually. Next they use the peer review instructions and rubric to complete two peer reviews of the answers to the questions. The Think section includes eight text-dependent questions such as, “What does Tom learn about the difference between work and play at the end of the excerpt? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.”

• In Unit 4, in the Close Read of The Red Badge of Courage, students are introduced to vocabulary in the text and provided a series of Skills Focus questions. The teacher uses a model that is provided to lead the class in a discussion to answer these questions. An example of the questions includes the following: “In paragraph 12 of Chapter 7, Henry feels that his actions had been full of strategy. He thinks ‘they were the work of a master's legs’. What does he mean by this figure of speech? How is Henry attempting to convince himself that his actions were praise-worthy? Support your answer with textual evidence.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

Students are given frequent and varied opportunities to engage in speaking, listening, and presenting activities surrounding their study of texts and the associated reading, writing, and research tasks. The opportunities for speaking, listening, and presenting can be found throughout the unit in the Blasts, First Reads, Skills, and Close Reads.

Speaking and listening are also important aspects of the Research Project students complete in each unit. After sharing and discussing the results of individual members’ research findings, each group plans and delivers a formal presentation in narrative, argumentative, or informative mode using multimedia elements such as videos, graphics, photos, and recordings to reinforce main ideas.

The Speaking & Listening Handbook is utilized during the Research project by students, who will be required to respond critically and constructively to the work of their peers. This handbook also provides teacher support in the form of lesson plans, handouts, checklists, rubrics, and formative assessments. These tools help teachers teach and assess the Speaking and Listening standards.

Examples of speaking and listening tasks, relevant follow-up questions, and supports include but are not not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the Blast of the Big Idea section, students are introduced to the driving question for the unit, “Why do we love suspense?” After students read background information about the unit and answer guiding questions, they are asked to create and publish their own blast of 140 characters or fewer (similar to a tweet). The blasts are seen by all students, and students are encouraged to respond to each other’s work.

• In Unit 2, in the First Read of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play, students are assigned to heterogeneous groups and are given one of the following prompts to discuss: “What are the challenges of dramatizing a diary entry? How does the story of Anne's diary change by focusing the drama on her father, Otto?” Students model their discussions after the StudySyncTV episodes they have seen. Teachers stress the importance of using academic language correctly and citing textual evidence in their conversations to support their ideas.

• In Unit 3, in the Research section, students are placed in small groups to create a research project on a series of suggested topics. Groups review, discuss, and assemble their research, then present their findings. One example of a suggested topic is altruism. Questions to stimulate research include, “Does altruism—selfless concern for the well-being of others—really exist, or are all actions, in some way, motivated by self-interest?” and “Why are some people altruistic while others are not?” Students investigate articles and studies about altruism to help answer these questions.

• In Unit 4, in the First Read of “Paul Revere’s Ride”, students engage in a jigsaw activity. Student are placed in small groups and given a stanza from Longfellow's poem, “Paul Revere's Ride”. Students read their stanza and discuss it using the following questions as support: “What action takes place in the passage?”, “What imagery does Longfellow use to make his point?”, “How does the rhythm of the verse increase the tone and meaning of the poem?". The materials suggest that teachers remind students that Longfellow was wrote this poem just before the Civil War. Students also respond to the question, “What can you infer about Longfellow's purpose for writing the poem based on the time period in which it was written?”. Each group has an opportunity to present their ideas and inferences.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g. multiple drafts, revisions over time) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

The materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects. Each unit of study asks student to engage in both on-demand writing and process writing. Students engage in on-demand writing via Blasts and Think questions that are part of Close Read assignments. In addition to shorter, on-demand writing, the students complete an Extended Writing Project at the end of each unit. Each of the four units covers one of these essential writing forms: narrative, informative/explanatory, literary analysis, and argumentative writing. These Extended Writing Projects take students through the writing process including the following: prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, and editing/proofreading/publishing. Students explore different aspects of the writing process and are given a variety of writing practice opportunities to hone their skills and enhance their understanding of each unit’s particular writing form. Examples of on-demand and process writing include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the First Read of Cujo, students engage in an on-demand writing activity where they respond to five Think questions, such as, “Based on the descriptions and events in this excerpt, what can you infer about the title character, Cujo? Use textual evidence to explain your inferences.” After answering the questions, students complete two peer reviews using the peer review instructions and rubric.

• In Unit 2, in the Close Read of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable, students complete an on-demand writing task. The prompt states, “How can point of view and character shape the overall theme of a text? Identify the theme of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable" and discuss how character and point of view contribute to the theme. Include textual evidence to support your writing.” Students begin by brainstorming individually or as a group and then write a response to the prompt.

• In Unit 3, in the Research section, students develop research presentations on the topic, “Students will investigate the different ways we work to be better people, and the way this work is described in literature, film, and other arts, as well as by the sciences.” Student are instructed to use precise language and domain specific vocabulary. They write brief explanations of the facts they uncovered, create a bibliography, and write the content of the presentations. After the presentations are done, students write about what they learned about the presentations by “listing three things they know now that they didn’t know before and b: writing a paragraph explaining how the presentations informed their understanding of becoming a better person.”

• In Unit 4, the Extended Writing Project asks students to respond to the prompt: “The Civil War was a turning point in American history, one that helped define who Americans are today. Why did so many people feel it was necessary to fight? How did their efforts help redefine what it means to be an American? Write an informative essay analyzing how the Civil War changed Americans and their ideas about freedom.” Students complete research for this task and complete each step of the writing process.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

The materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria that materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing. The materials provide for a variety of writing tasks across the school year that vary in length and depth, tie to classroom texts and “Big Ideas,” and represent equally narrative, informative/explanatory, literary analysis, and argumentative writing.

Students engage in writing activities throughout each unit. Students write short constructed responses as part of each Close Read lesson for each text in the unit. This informal writing allows students to demonstrate understanding of the specific text while practicing the featured type of writing. Students engage in informal writing through the annotations that students create as they closely read the various units in the text.

In addition to these shorter, less formal writing opportunities, each of the four units of study contains an “Extended Writing Task” that takes place at the end of the unit. These writing prompts are linked to the unit texts; throughout the unit, students are given opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing types addressed in the standards. StudySync also provides guidance and support from peers and adults, to develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. Students are given opportunities use digital sources for research and presentation. Examples of opportunities to address different text types include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the Extended Writing Project focuses on narrative writing. Students write a narrative in response to this prompt, “You have been reading and learning about stories of suspense, in addition to studying techniques authors use to generate a feeling of suspense in readers. Now you will use those techniques to write your own suspenseful narrative based on real or imagined experiences and events.”
• In Unit 2, the Extended Writing Project focuses on argumentative writing. Students write an essay based on this prompt, “Carefully consider the selections you have read in this unit, including their themes and the ideas they offer about war and conflict. Pick two of the selections from the unit and write an argumentative essay that presents a claim in answer to the following question: how can people best respond to conflict? Along with information from the selections, include research from at least three other credible print and digital sources to support your claim and develop your argument.”
• In Unit 3, the Extended Writing Project helps students access the knowledge of argumentative writing they developed in Unit 2 in order to explore literary analysis. Students write an essay in response to the prompt, “As the selections you have read in this unit show, people are shaped by their individual life experiences. People make choices, some of which are mistakes, but they often learn and grow from their experiences. Choose two selections from this unit and think about the main character or the narrator in each one. What does the main character or narrator value most, and how do the characters’ experiences shape or even change their values? Write a literary analysis that shows how personal experience can change people for better or sometimes for worse."
• In Unit 4, the Extended Writing Project focuses on informative/explanatory writing. Students write an essay based on the prompt, “The Civil War was a turning point in American history, one that helped define who Americans are today. Why did so many people feel it was necessary to fight? How did their efforts help redefine what it means to be an American? Write an informative essay analyzing how the Civil War changed Americans and their ideas about freedom. Use ideas and information expressed in at least two unit texts to reinforce your analysis.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for materials including frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information appropriate for the grade level.

The materials provide students with writing activities that vary in length and purpose in response to a variety of texts. The First Read lesson for each text requires students to complete short answer questions that are text-dependent. The Close Read lessons at the end of each text include an extended writing prompt that requires students to synthesize all of the close reading and skills work that they have done with the text. At the conclusion of each Full-Text Unit, there are two opportunities for long-form writing responses that are connected to an anchor text. One of these is always analytical in nature and requires an argumentative or informative/explanatory response to the whole text. Lastly, the Extended Writing Project requires students to return to the texts they have read over the course of a thematic unit in order to draw evidence from and analyze these mentor texts. Examples of evidence-based writing to support careful, well-defended analyses include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the First Read of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, students watch the SyncTV episode and identify textual evidence, such as quotes, details, and examples, from “The Tell-Tale Heart" that they can use to respond in writing to questions such as, “Olivia says, ‘Yeah, or maybe he's trying to convince himself that he's awesome, which might mean he is actually insecure.’ Do you agree or disagree with Olivia's interpretation? Why or why not?”

• In Unit 2, in the Close Read of Dear Miss Breed, students work on understanding how point of view may change the interpretation of a story. Students then respond to the following writing prompt: “What makes first-hand accounts of historical events more interesting and exciting than descriptions by people who weren’t present at the scene? How do first-hand accounts help you visualize places and events in the past in a way that second-hand accounts do not? Support your writing with evidence from the text.”

• In Unit 3, in the Full Text Study of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, at the conclusion of reading the text, students write an analytical essay in response to the following prompt: “Readers of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer have often observed the novel’s spiritual overtones. Most of the action of Tom Sawyer takes place in St. Petersburg, a name with religious connections, where characters pray a lot, attend church and Sunday School, and seem very concerned with the differences between good and evil. Could this town, based on Twain’s boyhood hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, be a kind of heaven to the author? By contrast, other crucial scenes take place in a dark underworld. What do you think Mark Twain is up to? Are there characters who stand for good or evil, or a combination of both? Is there a heaven and a hell in the book? What part does religion play? Drawing from characters and events in the novel as well as from pertinent additional readings, write an essay of at least 500 words about morality in Tom Sawyer. What statement is Mark Twain making about good and evil? Is it supported or contradicted by the added readings?”
• In Unit 4, in the Close Read of The Red Badge of Courage, students respond to the following writing prompt: “How does the point of view Stephen Crane uses in The Red Badge of Courage help you understand the thoughts, reactions, and feelings of Private Henry Fleming? How does the use of personification contribute to the text? Use your understanding of point of view and personification to determine the themes that emerge in this excerpt. Support your writing with evidence from the text.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the criteria for materials including explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of context.

The materials include a student edition and an annotated teacher edition of the Grammar, Language, and Composition Guide. The guide can be used for students who need more instruction and support either in a small group or a tutorial setting. The lessons can be used for pre-teaching or reteaching. The second part of the Grammar, Language, and Composition Guide focuses specifically on grammar and usage, with each chapter focusing on a specific grammar or usage skill. The lessons provide instructions, practice, and review. Grammar and usage instruction and practice is also embedded in each of the units of study in the First Read Section of several texts. These lessons and tasks build in complexity.

The teaching of grammar, usage, and mechanics happens throughout the Core Program and is designed to help students develop a complex understanding of language that they can use to enhance their comprehension of texts. The grammar strand is structured around instruction, practice exercises, and student application. After receiving direct instruction and completing a practice handout on the lesson’s grammar, usage, or mechanics concept, students are prompted to analyze the use of this concept in a given text and answer questions about the purpose and effect of the concept. They may also be prompted to practice the skill through short revision tasks. Core concepts are revisited with opportunities for application throughout a grade level. Language instruction is also provided strategically throughout a unit’s Extended Writing Project, which gives students the immediate opportunity to apply grammar, usage, and mechanics concepts to their own writing, by revising their drafts to incorporate the concept and editing their drafts to apply it correctly. Examples of explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the First Read of “Let ‘em Play God,” students learn about and practice spelling with suffixes -ible and -able. After completing the grammar handout practice exercise, students apply what they have learned by analyzing the use of the suffixes -ible and -able in “Let ‘em Play God” by answering questions such as, “In the first sentence of the eleventh paragraph of “Let 'Em Play God”, what does the word plausible mean? Is it a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb?”

• In Unit 2, in the First Read of Parallel Journeys, students work with active and passive voice. First, students review the use of active and passive voice as explained in the StudySync grammar handout. “Students then apply what they have learned by analyzing the use of active and passive voice in Parallel Journeys , inappropriate shifts between active and passive voice, as well as how using either active or passive voice can change the emphasis of a sentence.” Students reread the selection and answer questions such as, “What is the difference between active voice and passive voice?”, “Why is active voice often preferable? When is passive voice useful?” and “Read and display this sentence: "Many people found the events awful, but it was to be the way of life from now on." How does the writer of this sentence make an inappropriate shift from active voice to passive voice? How can you fix it?”

• In Unit 3, in the First Read of “Born Worker,” students learn about and practice how to use commas to signal pause or separation. After completing the grammar handout, students apply what they have learned by analyzing the use of commas to indicate a pause or break in “Born Worker.” Students read the first four paragraphs and answer questions such as, “What is the purpose of commas?”, “How are commas used in this selection? Please provide examples from the selection,” and “How are commas separating items in a series important to the story?”

• In Unit 4, in the First Read of “House Divided” speech, students practice using commas, ellipses, and dashes to indicate a pause or break. After completing the practice exercise, “students to apply what they have learned by analyzing how commas, ellipses, and dashes are used in the "House Divided" speech.” Students read the speech and answer questions such as, “What is the purpose of the commas in the first two sentences of the "House Divided" speech?”, “What is the purpose of the dashes in the 8th paragraph?”, and “What do the ellipses after the 10th paragraph indicate?”