11th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a theme to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

The instructional materials are organized around themes and build student’s reading comprehension of complex texts. The first three units for Grade 11 are organized under a thematic umbrella focused on the American identity and how it has changed through different time periods. Unit 4 looks at the many aspects of love. The themes of the four units are as follows: “We the People,” “The Individual,” “Modern Times,” and “Seeking Romance.”

Each unit provides both fiction and nonfiction selections to build student content knowledge; students are required to read and comprehend the complex texts independently and proficiently. At the beginning of each unit, students consider the Big Idea or essential question of the unit, and when they read and analyze the texts in the unit, they face further questions and discussions about this essential question. The reading, writing, and discussion tasks ultimately lead to a culminating task that requires students to synthesize what they have learned about the texts as they relate to the overarching idea of the unit. Examples of texts centered around themes to build student’s ability to read and comprehend complex texts include but are not limited to:

• Unit 1 combines several selections to build student knowledge around the theme “We the People.” Students explore how America’s identity was shaped and formed by reading literary and informational texts about “Pilgrims and Puritans, enslaved Africans, Native Americans, and the Founding Fathers.” Many of the texts surround the founding of our nation, including “Letters to John Adams,” The Crisis by Thomas Paine, “The Whistle” by Benjamin Franklin, The Declaration of Independence, Founding Documents of the United States of America and The Federalist Papers: No. 10. Students learn about the many perspectives during the struggle for independence and think about how these views forged America’s identity.

• Unit 2 studies the theme of “The Individual.” Students think about individuality and how a people find their place in society; students read poetry, nonfiction, essays, novel excerpts, short stories, speeches and primary sources. The first literary text in the unit are the opening lines of “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman, which celebrates individualism and the idea that each person must create his/her own beliefs and experience life in his/her own way. Other selections share stories of people expressing their opinions and beliefs, often imparting the ideals of individualism, such as “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” an excerpt from Walden by Henry David Thoreau and “Society and Solitude” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

• Unit 3 combines several selections to build student knowledge around the theme “Modern Times.” Students explore how the word “American” was redefined in the 20th century. The unit begins with an introduction to the Modern Age (1910-1930) and from the Depression to the Cold War (1930s-1960s). The first text study is the novel The Great Gatsby, which has students thinking about the American Dream and what that really means. Other selections focus on civil rights and how war affected individuals. These include “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, an excerpt from A Farewell to Arms and an excerpt from Hiroshima.

• Unit 4’s theme is “Seeking Romance.” Students read texts that have them analyzing the many aspects of love. The unit begins with two sonnets by Shakespeare: Sonnet 116, which defines what love is and is not, and Sonnet 18, which describes the true fidelity of love. Other selections look at other facets of love, including, selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, and the poem “On Her Loving Two Equally” by Aphra Behn.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced higher order thinking questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

The materials offer students several opportunities to use evidence pulled directly from the text as well as make inferences while reading in order to help make meaning of the of the texts provided. Most discussion questions and tasks cover comprehension, summarizing, clarifying, drawing conclusions, making inferences, evaluating, synthesizing ideas, and analyzing and identifying literary devices. Most questions are higher order and ask students to engage with the text directly. The materials do include a range of text dependent questions and tasks throughout each unit, and questions and tasks cover a wide continuum of standards and strategies.

Each text in the unit has a sequence of reading opportunities- guiding students in how they should approach each reading of the text. Approaches to reading individual texts within each unit include, but are not limited to: First Read, Skill, Close Read. The First Read is a reading of the text with very little front loading and is more of a surface read of the text and might include tasks and questions that ask students to make inferences and predictions and/or summarize. The Skill reading focuses on a particular skill to think about while re-engaging with the text. Questions and tasks covered in the Skill sections vary and include, but are not limited to: figurative language, argumentation, rhetorical analyses, and technical language. The Close Read brings the student back to the text and often includes questions and tasks that require students to re-engage with the text deeply- citing textual evidence, synthesizing ideas, and/or analyzing author’s purpose/craft.

For example, in Unit 1, while completing the Close Read of “The Whistle,” students show their knowledge of rhetoric by highlighting “examples of grammatical parallelism in the sentences that Franklin uses to describe people who have ‘paid too much for their whistles.’ Explain how these examples of parallelism help to emphasize Franklin's points.”

A detailed example from Unit 1, We the People, is shared below:

In Unit 1. “We the People,” one of the texts is The Federalist Papers: No. 10 by James Madison. The following text dependent tasks/questions can be found in the First Read: Discuss. In this part of the lesson, students are put into small groups to discuss questions they identified while reading. The following questions are included in the teacher’s edition to help facilitate discussions:

• “Based on the title, what kind of text might we be about to read?”
• “To whom is Madison writing this?”
• “As you reread the third paragraph, what kinds of words hint at the strategy that Madison is about to use to develop his argument?”

After students discuss the text in small groups or pairs, they move onto the “First Read: Think,” in which they answer short answer questions like the following:

• “Reread the first paragraph. What are the three undesirable effects of factions?”
• “Reread the paragraph that begins “The effect of the first difference is.” Why does Madison believe that chosen government representatives can control the effects of factions?”

In the Skill portion of this lesson, students learn two different skills: comprehending technical language and analyzing arguments, claims and persuasive techniques. Within this section, a skill is defined; a model of how a text is analyzed for that skill is shown; and, finally, students answer text dependent questions that illustrate their understanding of the skill. A detailed example is explained here from the Skill: Arguments and Claims (part 2) lesson. Students are taught in the Identification and Application section about rhetoric, rhetorical appeals, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. Then they are asked to read and annotate the Model text by highlighting key points, asking questions, identifying the places where the Model is applying the strategies laid out in the “Identification and Application” section. After reading the Model text, teachers lead a whole-group discussion using the following questions:

• “What are the two types of logical reasoning identified by the Model?”
• “What are the two parts of inductive reasoning?”
• “What are the two parts of deductive reasoning?”

At the end of the discussion, students are told to answer a multiple choice question which will assess their understanding of the skill. A section of the text is written on the left side of the screen, and the following questions are on the right:

• “Part A: In the passage, what conclusion is drawn about a republic form of government?”
• “Part B: Which sentence or phrase from the passage states this conclusion?”

During the Close Read portion of the lesson, students are given the opportunity to explore the texts arguments, claims, persuasive reasoning, and technical language more thoroughly. Students begin by working with vocabulary found in the text. Then, the teacher models how to close read the text using annotation strategies provided. After modeling, the teacher reads over the “Skills Focus” question, so the students understand what they should pay close attention to while reading. Then students read and annotate the rest of the text; discuss the “Skills Focus” question in a large group; and, finally, answer a writing prompt. The “Skills Focus” questions from this lesson, “Close Read: The Federalist Papers: No. 10,” include:

• “Highlight any passages that present an analogy about disease and cure. How does this analogy relate to Madison’s central argument?”
• “Reread the paragraphs that begin ‘The second expedient is…’ and ‘The latent causes of faction.’ What do these paragraphs suggest about human nature? Do you agree with Madison’s assessment of human nature? Highlight evidence in the text that will help you respond to these questions, and comment on that evidence.”
• “Reread the paragraph that begins ‘The effect of the first difference is…’ What is Madison’s opinion of elected representatives? Does he provide any evidence to justify this opinion? Is his characterization of elected representatives consistent with his earlier observations about human nature? Highlight evidence in the text that will help you respond to these questions, and comment on that evidence.”
• “Reread the paragraph that begins ‘The influence of factious leaders…’ Highlight the analogy related to fire in that paragraph. Explain this analogy. Do you think the point that Madison is making is still true today?”

The text-dependent writing prompt for this lesson is:

• “Do you think Madison’s arguments are still relevant today? For example, do you think that factions, or groups that represent people who share the same interests and have a common political cause, are necessarily a threat to the public good? Do you agree with Madison’s descriptions about human nature and the natural formation of factions? Do you agree that elected politicians are enlightened individuals who can be trusted to make decisions for the public good? Do you think that Madison was right in saying that the larger the society, the less likely a faction will unite members across the country? Select two points from Madison’s essay and write a response in which you explain whether you think the points are still valid in today’s society.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

The materials provided students multiple opportunities, through questions and tasks, to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts. Each unit contains texts that are represented in more than one format, several texts that explore/represent one theme, and several argumentative prompts that give students the opportunity to state and claim and use evidence from the various texts to support their claim.

The reading, writing, research, and discussion tasks throughout the four units of study require students to complete a thorough, detailed examination of every reading selection. The culminating task for each unit is an Extended Writing Project; the prompts for the informational, argument, and literary analysis writing tasks demand that students cite evidence from multiple texts in the unit. Each unit contains a Research Project that requires that the students put the skills of reading and analyzing texts that they learned throughout the unit into practice. Each unit also contains a Full Text Study which comes with companion texts. This text set becomes the resource for the final activity for the Full Text Study, where students are asked to complete sustained writing tasks in response to prompts that require them to compare and contrast two or more of the texts in the set. Examples of coherently sequenced set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students read "We the People" and are asked to “Reread the paragraph that begins ‘The other point of difference is…’ What is Madison saying about small democracies versus larger republics? Highlight evidence in the text that will help you respond to this question, and comment on that evidence.”
• In Unit 2, students read “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass. After the First Read, the Think Question 1 asks, “What is Frederick Douglass’s opinion of the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence? Why does he feel that he cannot celebrate the Fourth of July? Cite evidence from the text to support your response.”
• In the middle of Unit 3, students analyze the supreme court case “Plessy v. Ferguson” and the coordinating supreme court case Brown v. Board of Education. Students are asked to analyze the arguments separately. As the student move toward a final analysis, they are told to “Compare and contrast the arguments in Justice Brown’s majority opinion with Justice Harlan’s dissenting opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson. Which rhetorical strategies does each use most effectively in their arguments? Which arguments or instances of legal reasoning don’t seem to have withstood the test of time? Explain your response using thorough and relevant evidence from each part of the text.”
• In Unit 4, students Sonnet 18 and are asked to illustrate their understanding of the sonnet form when asked, “Where in “Sonnet 18” do you sense such a change? Explain how the poet uses language and tone to suggest a shift or development in the central theme of the poem. Remember to provide relevant and thorough textual evidence to support your response.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a theme through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

The materials provide questions and tasks that support students’ ability to complete each unit’s Extended Writing Project in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic or theme through a combination of skills; this culminating activity is designed to deepen content knowledge as students return to texts they have already analyzed. The materials achieve this goal by tying the questions that are asked in the Extended Writing Project to the essential questions and theme of the unit. Each unit provides questions that prompt thinking, speaking and writing that focus on the central ideas and key details of the text. Reading and writing (and speaking and listening) are taught as integrated skills. Students are required to read, annotate, argue, discuss, write about, and share their thoughts about each of these texts in multiple ways. Examples of questions and task that support student’s ability to complete culminating tasks include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the Extended Writing Project requires students to write an informative/explanatory essay that has students choose two texts from the unit to answer the following questions: “How do the events depicted in both the literature and historical documents you have read introduce and develop a theme related to colonial America’s identity?” The questions and tasks for each of the texts in the unit support this ultimate goal. As stated in the ELA Grade Level Overview for Grade 11 “Short constructed responses that accompany all Close Read lessons in the unit help students demonstrate understanding of the specific reading and language skills developed in conjunction with the texts, such as the interpretation of figurative language and theme in the Phillis Wheatley’s poem ‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’ or the evaluation of informational text structure in Benjamin Franklin’s letter ‘The Whistle.’ The prompts also enable students to develop their thinking about events related to early America as they select as the subjects of their essay” The unit Blasts also support this writing assignment by looking at topics such as the causes of people behaving irrationally.

• In Unit 2, students study classic works of literature and informational texts as they think about when following the rules is not always the “right” decision. The culminating task asks students to write a literary analysis essay that requires them to analyze three texts from this unit and examine how the “texts from this unit reflect the ways Americans defined themselves as individuals in the 19th century.” The lesson plan for the Extended Writing provides structured supports to help the students complete this writing.Discussion questions like the following are offered: “What question(s) should you answer about each of the texts?” These questions will provide the teacher with information needed to determine the students’ readiness to complete the assignment.

• In Unit 4, the Extended Writing Project focuses on the narrative form. Students write a modern tale of love. In preparation for the culminating writing activity, students practice skills necessary for narrative writing. For example, in the Skill: Narrative Sequencing lesson, students are given characteristics of introductions and a student model. In small or whole group, students take notes on the elements of narrative sequence. Questions, such as “Is the Model's description of the story's resolution supported by the text? How so?” are included in the teacher edition to activate thinking. After reading the model, students are instructed to complete the “Narrative Sequence Diagram” handout and share with a peer for feedback.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic and domain-specific vocabulary words in and across texts.

Language instruction in the StudySync core program provides systematic vocabulary instruction, as well as repeated opportunities for practice and application in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students will encounter vocabulary-building opportunities in the Vocabulary Workbook, the Academic Vocabulary link on the Unit Overview page, and across all three lesson types: First Reads, Skill lessons, and Close Reads.

Students are also provided with a Vocabulary Workbook. This gives “students additional opportunities to build and expand their vocabulary” (Study Sync Core Program Guide: Grades 6-12 60). There are twelve units; each unit contains three to four lessons; each lesson consists of ten words related by a concept or theme. The lessons are on topics such as using context clues, prefixes, word families, synonyms, Latin roots, suffixes, Greek Roots, reference skills like using a thesaurus, and reading skills like word parts. Lesson structure, practice activities and assessments are included for each unit.

On the Unit Overview page of each unit, there are a list of readings, key skills and Common Core standards which the unit covers. Within this list, is the heading Academic Vocabulary, which contains links to two to three academic vocabulary lessons. Each lesson contains ten words that are related topically. The lesson is separated into three sections: Define, Model, Your Turn. Define lists the words, their form, their meaning and other meanings in a chart. The Model lesson gives students a sample context and then uses the words in sentences. Your Turn has the students complete an assessment that is self-assessed.

In the First Reads, students are exposed to the challenging vocabulary in the text. They are given opportunities to use context clues and analyze word parts in order to understand the meaning of the words, and teachers are encouraged to model these types of strategies. The materials focus on language development by having students use context clues, word placement, and common Greek and Latin affixes and roots to figure out the meaning of words.

The Skill Lessons focus on domain-specific vocabulary, and students are exposed to these vocabulary words through a variety of media. The vocabulary words are explained by other teens through a video, and there is a written explanation and examples for each term below the video.

The Close Read lesson has students look at the precise meaning of the academic vocabulary and compare it with their initial predictions from the First Read. Misunderstood words are reviewed and students discuss why the context clues or other tools did not help them define the word. Students are then to complete the vocabulary worksheet associated with the lesson.

Examples of opportunities for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 7 of the Grade 11 Vocabulary Workbook, there are four lessons: Lesson 25: Using Context Clues, Lesson 26: Word Usage, Lesson 27: Prefixes that Show Direction or Position, and Lesson 28: Using Reading Skills: Learning from Context. The words in Lesson 25 “will help [students] express the different directions that [they] encounter, whether they are in literature or in real life”; in Lesson 26, all are related to the different “ways people respond to new situations”; in Lesson 27, all words contain the prefixes ex-, e-, ab-, a-, abs-, ad-; in Lesson 28, students look for cause and effect clues to understand a word in context (61-67).

• On the Unit 4 Overview Page, the Academic Vocabulary heading has two links: Academic Vocabulary Lesson 59 and Lesson 60. Lesson 60 contains ten words that will “have multiple meanings,” like adhere, digest and critical. Students read the definitions on the Define page, such as “acute, adj, having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions; deeply perceptive; adj: having a rapid onset and short but severe course; adj: extremely sharp or intense.” Then they read the words in example sentences on the Model page - “Because the therapist showed empathy and an acute understanding of his situation, the patient let down his guard and spoke freely to her” and “Scott rushed to the doctor when he felt acute pain in his abdomen, since he knew this might indicate appendicitis.” Finally, they complete three questions in the Your Turn section that can show immediate feedback, like question one that asks students to “drag and drop the sentence that explains how the two sentences are similar. Then esxplain how the meanings are different”

• In the Unit 1 First Read lesson of “Letters to John Adams,” students are told to make predictions about the five vocabulary words found in the text based on context clues. The teacher models this skill with the word “iniquitous” by thinking aloud and asking questions - “The position of the word ‘iniquitous’ in front of the noun ‘scheme’ suggests that it is an adjective. This makes sense, since most words ending in the suffix ‘-ous’ are also adjectives. I can also recognize ‘in-’ as a possible prefix that means ‘not’ or ‘opposite.’ That would leave a base word of ‘iquit,’ which doesn't make sense. I'll look for more context clues before I determine a possible meaning.” Students then predict the rest of the words on their own, with a partner or in small groups.

• The Skill Lesson for the excerpt from The Road in Unit 3 includes a Concept Definition video that defines plot, character and setting. After the video, there is a small group or whole class discussion about the terms with questions like, “How can a close analysis of descriptions and other details help a reader make inferences about story elements that an author leaves unclear?” Students are then taken to the model and asked to look for the following on their own - “comment on what readers learn about certain story elements from the excerpts reprinted in the Model.” While students read the Model, the teachers uses questions to guide their understanding, like “The Model briefly mentions that the description of the setting in the first excerpt is written in the third person. Why is this important to note?” Finally, students are asked a comprehension question to assess their understanding of the domain specific vocabulary - “Which of the following statements best describes a relationship between two or more story elements in this paragraph?”

• The Unit 2 Close Read of “Song of Myself” has the teacher “project the vocabulary words and definitions onto the board or provide students with a handout so they can copy the vocabulary into their notebooks . . . [have] students compare the precise meaning of a specific word with their vocabulary predictions from the First Read. Review words defined incorrectly to understand why students were unable to use context clues or other tools to develop usable definitions.” Once this exercise is completed, the student complete the vocabulary worksheet attached to the lesson.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials support students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year.

The materials supports students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year. To achieve this goal, instructional materials include well-designed lesson plans, models, and protocols for teachers to implement and monitor students’ writing development. Direct instruction on the writing process builds as the year progresses. Within the unit, students write in response to driving questions in Blasts, comprehension questions in First Reads, and discussion questions in Close Reads. These informal writing opportunities prepare students to write more formally as part of each unit’s Extended Writing Project and Research assignments. For Research, students discuss, plan, research, write, and deliver presentations. In the Extended Writing Project, students complete a writing project in one of the three primary modes of writing with the help of a student model, graphic organizers, rubrics, and extensive scaffolding of writing skills. The students engage in all phases of the writing process. Examples of materials supporting students’ increasing writing skills over the school year include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the Extended Writing Project is an informative piece. It provides a Student Model that contains the essential features of the informative/explanatory form and offers an example of a structured academic grade-level response to the prompt. The Student Model is used to help students better understand how the elements work together to create an effective essay, to identify and label the six features of informative writing (clear thesis, clear organizational structure, supporting details, precise language and domain specific vocabulary, citations of sources, and an effective concluding statement), and to think about how they can apply these ideas to their own writing. Direct instruction is provided on audience and purpose, thesis statements, organization, supporting details, introductions, sources and citations, body paragraphs and transitions, style, and conclusions.

• In Unit 2, the Blasts, comprehension questions in First Reads and writing prompts in the Close Reads scaffold throughout the texts as students are asked to complete more advanced understanding of the topics and texts throughout their writing. The unit begins with a Blast that introduces students to the ideas of the unit. In the case of Unit 2, students are asked to consider the following: “How does a person find his or her place in society?” Students are asked to discuss, investigate through some research, and then respond to the question in a Blast post of their own using 140 characters or fewer. At the start of the unit students are asked to read the poem in which the speaker describes himself and what makes him who he is. At the end of the First Read students are asked to respond to the following prompt: “What do you learn about the speaker of the poem? How would you describe the speaker? Cite evidence from the text to support your response.” This question supports the students beginning to think about individuals and how people find their individuality within their society. Students are also reminded to use strong textual evidence to support their answer. This is the first prompt in a series of short answer prompts that support them in developing a more thorough understanding. At the end of the text in the Close Read, students are asked to reflect on what Whitman is saying and then to comment on what they would say about themselves in a reflective essay. “What do you learn about the speaker of the poem? How would you describe the speaker? Cite evidence from the text to support your response.” This supports the students in developing, through writing, a stronger understanding of the individual and their role within society. At the end of the unit, students are asked to write an argument about the role of the individual in society, which builds on the student’s previous work and study in the unit.

• In Unit 3, the Extended Writing Project focuses on argumentative writing, and instruction focuses on an introduction to this form. The Extended Writing Project provides a Student Model that contains the essential features of the argumentative essay and offers an example of a structured academic grade-level response to the prompt. The Student Model is used to help students better understand how the elements work together to create an effective argument, to identify and label the six features of argumentative writing (clear thesis, clear organizational structure, body paragraphs with supporting details and evidence, precise and compelling language and rhetoric, proper citations, and a conclusion), and to think about how they can apply these ideas to their own writing. Direct instruction is provided on research and note-taking, thesis statements, organization, supporting details, body paragraphs and transitions, and sources and citations.

• In Unit 4, the Extended Writing Project focuses on narrative writing. Analysis of story elements, irony and tone are key task demands giving students ample scaffolding as the unit’s analysis becomes more sophisticated.The Unit 4 model texts for this project, an excerpt from Metamorphoses and an excerpt from Cyrano de Bergerac, emphasize the analysis of story structure and irony. Other texts express thoughts and feelings about the idea of love. By the time students have reached the final writing project, they will be prepared to include the story elements studied within the unit and address the idea of love in their own modern tale.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials.

Each of the four units in the Grade 11 materials include multiple opportunities for students to engage in research activities and present their findings. Each unit begins with a Big Idea Blast that gives students their first opportunity to draft a response to the driving question of the unit. The Blast includes multi-media research links that are related to the theme, and as students interact with the research links in the Blasts throughout the unit, they formulate a broader understanding of the theme, the texts in the unit, and the issues that surround them. The First Read of many selections in the unit includes a Build Background activity that asks students to work collaboratively on a small scale research inquiry that complements the text they are reading.

Each unit also includes an extensive, multi-step Research Project that is related to the unit’s theme and is a culmination of the skills that the students have practiced over the course of the unit and the knowledge they have gained. After sharing and discussing the results of individual members’ research findings, each group plans and then delivers a formal presentation in either the narrative, argumentative, or informative mode using multimedia elements such as videos, graphics, photos, and recordings to reinforce its main ideas.

If students are working on a topic that is informative, they present evidence to develop the subject matter. If students are working on a topic that involves presenting an argument in support of a claim, they use evidence that both supports their opinion and answers opposing viewpoints, or counter arguments. The Speaking & Listening Handbook is provided during this phase of the Research project both for speakers and for listeners, who are required to respond critically and constructively to the work of their peers. Each unit provides suggested topics for each research project. Examples of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area include but are not limited to:

• The Big Idea Blast in Unit 4 has students considering the unit’s essential question, “How can we try to define love when it encompasses so many different emotions and outcomes?” Included in this are research links that have the students explore different perspectives of love, including “Four Centuries of Love” by Maria Popova, “The Psychology of Love” by Lisa Cohen and a video by Brad Troeger and Chris Boyle.

• An example of Build Background can be found in the Unit 2 First Read of “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes. The students work in pairs or small groups to “research different aspects of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance for class discussion.” Each group or pair is assigned a topic from the following: The Great Migration, Paul Laurence Dunbar, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Jazz music, Coleman Hawkins, Bessie Smith, Bop (or be-bop) music.

• The Research Project in Unit 1 has students researching “What shaped American’s identity? . . . students will research how various people, places, events, and beliefs contributed to a growing need for a new identity separate and distinguishable from Europe—and Great Britain in particular.” There is a suggested list of topics for the small-group research project and provided links are found in the Blasts throughout the unit. This is a multi-step project that includes reviewing and discussing the topic, conducting the research, presenting the research and responding to the presentations.This research can be used as a resource for the Extended Writing Project, which is an informative essay about “how events depicted [in the texts from Unit 1] introduce and develop a theme related to colonial America’s identity.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 11 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

The Core Program Overview includes a structured guide titled “Building an Independent Reading Program.” This section provides an overview of why independent reading is important, and it gives details on how to set up such a program in the classroom. Teachers are also given a five step plan to implement an independent reading program that provides choice for students to select texts and read independently at home and at school. This includes referring students to the StudySync Library where they can explore other titles in the library that share the same themes as addressed by the units.

Suggestions for accountability include reading logs, notebooks, online reflections, and informal conversations; having students do end-of reading activities such as filling out a Google Form, pitching books, producing movie trailers, writing reviews on GoodReads, designing movie posters, and participating in a book club style chat. Examples of opportunities for students to regularly engage in a volume of independent while being held accountable include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the StudySync Library includes several additional texts related to the theme We the People. Additional texts include A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, by Mary Rowlandson, The Earth Is Precious, by Chief Seattle, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Upon the Burning of Our House, by Anne Bradstreet, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards. 1776, by David McCullough, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, by Benjamin Franklin. For each of these texts, there is a mini unit that includes an “Overview”, an “Introduction” to the text, “Vocabulary” found in the text, an excerpt to “Read,” “Think” questions to aid comprehension, and “Write” prompts that require deeper analysis and practice with skills taught in the unit.

• In Unit 2, the pacing guide offers outside reading selections related to the theme, The Individual and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. “ Some of the texts, like the Declaration of Sentiments, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, and “Lee Surrenders to Grant, April 9th, 1865”, are actual historic documents, while others, like Walden, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” and “Society and Solitude” link to specific periods in history and present readers with ideas and arguments that are representative of that time period. Still others, like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or the short story “The Story of an Hour,” present readers with a fictionalized account of a very specific moment in time, allowing readers to understand the concerns of the time, but also a representation of life in that era. Finally, What they Fought for, 1861–1865 uses primary sources to instruct and inform readers about a specific historical event, the Civil War” (15). These independently read comparative texts are specifically referenced in the Teacher’s Reading Guide for the full text study of he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is divided into sections covering different chapters of the novel. At the end of the reading guide are two writing prompts that revisit The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and reference the comparative texts.

• In Unit 3, the theme is Modern Times. The Core Program Guide states, “Your independent reading program should be ongoing, so it’s important to set up a system for recording what students are reading. This can be easily done using a Google Form to create an online reading log. As students finish each book, they should complete a form providing basic information about their book, a rating and a written review.” The pacing guide gives suggestions for further and independent reading including any texts by Zora Neal Hurston, Nella Larsen, James Baldwin, Claude McKay and Richard Wright. Other novels mentioned are The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, and Kindred by Octavia Butler.

• In Unit 4, students are encouraged to read texts on the theme of Seeking Romance during independent reading. Students are expected to read independently both in school and at home. The Core Program Guide states, “In addition to the time you spend reading in class, it’s important to set clear expectations for independent reading outside of the classroom. Students should read outside of class for a set amount of time each day. As students become stronger readers, the time spent reading outside of class should also increase.” Teachers are encouraged to request parent signatures on a reading log or ask students to keep an ongoing log of their reading in their notebooks or online where they reflect on their reading each week. Questions should be provided to direct student reflections. The Core Program Guide stresses that it is important for a teachers to decide on an amount of time appropriate for independent home reading for their student population, then communicate that expectation clearly to both students and parents.