9th Grade - Gateway 3

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that the student resources include ample review and practice resources, clear directions, and explanation, and correct labeling of reference aids (e.g., visuals, maps, etc.)

The materials, through an integrated approach that combines reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and presenting along with instructional routines that are predictable and easily understandable, provide students with activities and opportunities to practice what they are learning.

Unit components offer clear explanations and directions, teacher and student models, and a variety of instructional routines and opportunities to practice and apply skills. Student writing and text annotations can be saved to an electronic binder where students can receive peer and teacher feedback. With more than 40 short, constructed responses over the course of a grade level, the materials provide frequent opportunities for on-demand writing practice.

The teacher’s lesson instructions are clear, and the lessons are detailed. For example, in Unit 2, students study the skill of Point of View while reading 1984. As an introduction to the skill, students are provided with a definition of the skill, both in written form and through an informational video. Next, students dive deeper by observing the application of the skill through further explanation and a model using an annotation tool. As a last step, students have the opportunity to practice what they learned through the Your Turn section. In this section, students read a short passage, analyze the text, and answer two multiple-choice questions.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment items.

The materials offer resources that connect the Common Core State Standards to the elements of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The Scope and Sequence document provides a grid that shows where all of the informational and literature standards are covered within each unit; specifically where they are introduced as practice/application only or instruction along with practice and application. There is information at the bottom of the page that connects the task to the Common Core Standard being addressed every assignment that students complete. Each lesson comes with a detailed lesson plan that outlines the objectives and lists the Common Core Standards addressed in the lesson. Each step of the lesson plan is detailed, and mentions the relevant connections to the CCSS.

All of the sections and handouts in the Speaking and Listening Handbook contain references to the Common Core State Standards being addressed, as well. For example, in Unit 1, in the First Read of The Grapes of Wrath, students answer Think questions that are aligned to Common Core State Standards. For example, students answer the following question: “Why does the man not use more money from his pouch to get more food that the family wants or needs? Use textual evidence to support your answer.” This question aligns to CCSS.RL.9-10.1. In the Close Read of “Tuesday Siesta,” students are asked to answer the following writing prompt: “Think about the way that Gabriel García Márquez chose to structure the text of “Tuesday Siesta.” Consider how he developed the plot by presenting a sequence of events, manipulating time with a flashback, and creating effects such as drama, tension, and surprise. Now it’s your turn to structure a text. Write a personal narrative about an event in your life when you met someone from another culture and learned something surprising or interesting about that culture. What was the situation? Who was involved? What was the setting or background? Remember that your personal narrative should be told from the I or we point of view since you are telling about a true event from your life. Be sure to include a strong introduction, and sequence your events in time order. Include dialogue and descriptive details. Tell what you learned from this cultural experience and how you could apply it to your life. What message about culture would you like to leave with your readers?” This prompt aligns to RI.9-10.1, RI.9-10.3, RI.9-10.4; W.9-10.5, W.9-10.9.B.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

Detailed lesson plans are provided for each text within the units. Access Paths, Blasts, First Reads, Close Reads, and Skill Lessons are provided along with detailed instructions, activities, and answer keys for each task suggested in the lesson plans. Embedded technology includes Tech Infusions, which are extension activities that incorporate technology such as Padlet, Diigo, PollEverywhere, etc. Another technological feature is Blast activities. This feature allows students to participate in a classroom version of social media, beginning with a driving question and a shared reading of background on a topics. Students then response to the driving question in a public forum. They participate in a poll, and review live research links to learn more about the Blast’s topic. Blast responses go live in real time, providing an opportunity for students to give each other feedback, select favorite responses, and reflect on the driving question again in response to ideas shared by their peers. Examples include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the Skill Lesson: Textual Evidence for “Mending Wall,” teachers are given the following detailed instructions in the lesson plan: After watching the Concept Definition video, have students read the definition of textual evidence.Either in small groups or as a whole class, use these questions to engage students in a discussion about textual evidence. When would you need to use textual evidence? How do you think textual evidence might be different in poetry or literature than it would be for informational text? What is the purpose of citing textual evidence when writing or talking about the inferences you have made about a text? How would you describe the role background knowledge plays in making inferences from textual evidence? Can you think of any examples?”
• In Unit 2, in the First Read of The Lady, or the Tiger?, the teacher is provided with the following embedded Tech Infusion activity: “Build Background. Explain to students that the arena described in the story resembles the arenas that existed in several ancient cities. In pairs or small groups, ask students to use devices or a print encyclopedia to research different aspects of arenas in ancient cultures. Assign each group a topic to investigate. Remind students to include relevant facts, definitions, and concrete details in their research: Roman Coliseum, munera, venatio, and Gladiators. Have students present their findings to the class, integrating multimedia and visual displays into their presentations.”
• In Unit 3, in the First Read of “We Choose to Go to the Moon,” the teacher is provided with the following embedded Tech Infusion activity: Build Background. In pairs or small groups, ask students to use diverse media to research the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1962, when President Kennedy gave his speech. Assign each group one of these topics to investigate: The Bay of Pigs Invasion, The Cuban missile crisis, and The Space Race. Have each group conduct short research projects to explore one of these topics, drawing on several online and print research sources. Encourage students to generate additional questions related to the topics that allow for additional, multiple avenues of exploration.”
• In Unit 4, the Skill Lesson: Poetic Structure for “The Raven,” the teacher is provided with guided questions for a classroom discussion: “Either in small groups or as a whole class, use these questions to engage students in a discussion about poetic structure. Explain how meaning connects with form and structure. Can this also be true of prose? What other questions might readers ask while reading poetry? How much thought do you think poets put into the structure they will use when writing a poem? If you were going to write a poem, what would you choose first--the subject matter or the form/structure?”

The materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition that contains full, adult-level explanations and examples of the more advanced literacy concepts so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

In each lesson plan, teachers are provided full explanations and examples of the more advanced literary concepts in the following sections of the Teacher’s Edition section titled, Instructional Path. The Access to Complex Text section includes information to access the complex text by providing actual literary concepts and examples found in the featured text. The Overview section provides a summary of the text, and identifies the literary concepts included in the featured text. Answer Keys are provided with all activities, along with Access to Complex Text features for each text. This assists the teacher is scaffolding instruction for the students, so that they all may access the complex text. A Teacher’s Glossary is included in each unit which includes linguistic, grammatical, comprehension, and literary terms. Examples of explanations and examples include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, in the First Read of "The Harvest Gypsies,” the teacher is provided with the following information in the lesson plan to help students access complex text: “To help students understand Steinbeck's observations, use the following ideas to provide scaffolded instruction for a close reading of the more complex features of this text: Organization - The excerpt is structured as an investigative report. Steinbeck begins by focusing on the outward, physical details of the migrant camp before examining the lives of the people who live there. In addition, he compares the circumstances of two families of migrant workers. The first family, despite its many hardships, is still considered to be among the "middle class of the squatters' camp." He makes clear that things could be worse for this family, as he goes on to describe the circumstances of the family next door. Sentence Structure - The sentences are complex and include objective, reporter-like attention to detail that conveys the families' desperate situations. Specific Vocabulary - The author's word choice will challenge some readers who may need support for terms such as convulsions and baling wire.”
• In Unit 2, in the Close Read of Four Freedoms Address, the teacher is provided with the following information in the lesson plan to help students access complex text: “The excerpt from Four Freedoms Address is the last third of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's eighth State of the Union address, given in January 1941, and broadcast across the nation by radio. In the speech, Roosevelt lays out his reasons that the United States should become involved with the European countries that were battling Nazi aggression during World War II. Roosevelt makes the case that tyranny anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere, and he asks Congress for the funding and authority to support the Allies. He calls on Americans to sacrifice to defend the four essential human freedoms--freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. “
• In Unit 3, in the Grade 9 ELA Overview, the teacher is provided with the following information to help students access complex text in Of Mice and Men. For example, teachers are given the following context: “Students unfamiliar with the Great Depression and the lives of migrant farm workers may be challenged by the historical and social contexts of the story. Provide students with opportunities to gather background information before reading.”
• In Unit 4, in the Grade 9 ELA Overview, the teacher is provided with the following context to help students access the complex text, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet: “Students may not know the specific details that lead to this tragic ending. They may also need more background knowledge about customs in 14th-century Italy, where the story is set.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition that explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum.

StudySync’s Program Overview states, “The core program was built from the ground up to fully align with the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. The program’s instruction targets requirements of these standards.” The program offers a variety of high-quality texts. The selections presented in each unit and grade offer a balance of literary and informational texts. These texts offer complex themes and ideas as well as compelling characters and language. Alignment is evident in the Scope and Sequence. In this chart, texts are listed in order by unit. For each text, the materials identify which standards are being practiced and which ones are being taught and practiced. This is indicated by an “o” and an “x” respectively. At a glance, teachers can tell which Reading Literature, Reading Informational Text, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language standards are being addressed by each text.

The materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research based strategies.

The materials provide a document in the Core Program Guide entitled, Research-Based Alignments. In this document, the publisher provides an overview of the research upon which the instruction in StudySync was built. The document provides a summary of key research findings and recommendations for best practices of instruction in English Language Arts, focused on Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language, Media and Technology. The document summarizes key research findings and research-based recommendations related to effective reading instruction from several key sources. Some of the key sources are as follows:

• Reading Next-A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York 2nd Edition (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Written in conjunction with staff from the Alliance for Excellent Education, this document describes 15 key elements of effective adolescent literacy programs. Designed to improve adolescent achievement in middle and high schools, the elements are subdivided into instructional improvements and infrastructural improvements.

• Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices: A Practice Guide (Kamil, Borman, Dole, Kral, Salinger, & Torgesen, 2008). This report provides clear and evidence-based recommendations for enhancing literacy skills in the upper elementary, middle, and secondary levels. An analysis of the quality of the evidence supporting each claim is provided.

• Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension (2002). This review of the research on reading comprehension instruction was conducted by the Reading Study Group for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Education Research and Improvement.

• Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading. A Report from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Graham & Herbert, 2010). This document provides a meta-analysis of research on the effects of specific types of writing interventions found to enhance students’ reading skills.

• Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools. A Report from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Graham & Perin, 2007). This report provides a review of research-based techniques designed to enhance the writing skills of students in grades 4-12. Additionally, specific findings have been incorporated from other recent, reputable related research.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress.

The materials contain formative and summative assessments that can be used to measure student progress. There is a placement test that can be given at the beginning of the unit. Each unit has a summative assessment that tests comprehension, skills, vocabulary, and writing. Teachers use the responses in the First Read, the Skills lessons, Close Reads, Blasts, and Extended Writing Projects to conduct ongoing formative assessments. These formative assessments contain a variety of assessment types including multiple choice, short answer, discussion, and extended response. Formative assessments are found throughout the unit, and the End of Unit summative assessments are found in the Core ELA Assessment materials.

The materials provide Placement and Diagnostic Assessments, which are typically given at the beginning of the school year. These assessments focus on fluency and spelling, including an upper-level spelling inventory. The materials also provide oral reading and maze fluency assessments.

In the final portion of a Skills lesson, students respond to two short questions about a different passage of text from the First Read. These assessments provide teachers with immediate feedback on student performance, and the program contains guidance to teachers on how to alter instruction based on that performance.

Throughout each unit, students are assessed on their understanding of key instructional content along with their ability to write to sources. The results of these summative assessments provide teachers with data to track year-long progress and inform instructional decisions.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that assessments clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

Formative assessments are built into each unit through Blasts, First Reads, Close Reads, and Skills Activities. Each formative assessment includes notations of the standards that are being addressed. The Teacher Introduction portion of the Core ELA Assessments document describes each assessment's key areas of focus. The answer key at the end of each downloadable paper copy of the assessments provides item-specific information such as content focus/skill, Common Core State Standard, and Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level. The online version of the assessments offers the same metadata for each item along with tech-enhanced item functionality.

For example, in Unit 1, in the First Read of Lift Every Voice and Sing, students answer the following questions: “Reread the first section of the song. What do you think the song is celebrating? What is the ‘new day’ the songwriter refers to in this section? Cite text evidence to support your inference” and “The word ‘chastening’ comes from the Latin root castus, meaning ‘pure.’ Use this knowledge of the root, along with context clues, to determine the meaning of the word chastening as it is used in the selection. Write your definition of chastening here and explain how you got it.” These questions serve as a summative assessment and support teachers to identify mastery of RL.9-10.1 and L.9-10.4.AL.9-10.4.B.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that assessments provide sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow up.

At the culmination of each unit, students are assessed on key instructional concepts and their ability to write to prompts. The information that these assessments reveal informs the teacher about grouping, future instruction, and the need for remediation and/or reteaching. End-of-unit assessments also generate reports for students and parents on strengths, deficiencies, standard and skill proficiency levels, and across-unit growth. End-of-year assessments also indicate students' readiness for state testing.

The Core ELA Assessments component is an integral part of the complete assessment program aligned with StudySync Core ELA instruction and the California Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The component contains four Unit Assessments, an End-of-Year Assessment, an End-of-Year Performance Task Assessment, scoring rubrics, and charts that point to possible instructional modifications based on student assessment results. The Core ELA Assessments report on the outcome of student learning.

As students complete each unit of the reading program, they will be assessed on their understanding of key instructional content and their ability to write to source texts/stimuli. The results serve as a summative assessment by providing a status of current achievement in relation to student progress through the CCSS-aligned curriculum. The results of the assessments can be used to inform subsequent instruction, aid in making leveling and grouping decisions, and point toward areas in need of reteaching or remediation. Student performance in the end-of-year assessments can act as a signal of student readiness for the demands of high-stakes testing, as well as provide a snapshot of student progress toward end-of-year goals.

The goal of each assessment is to evaluate student mastery of previously-taught material. The expectation is for students to score 80% or higher on the assessment as a whole. Within this score, the expectation is for students to score 75% or higher on each section of the assessment (and 7+ on the PT full-write).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials should include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress.

The StudySync materials provide for ongoing review, practice, and feedback. The Core Program Guide explains that assessments available in StudySync ELA allow for monitoring student progress, diagnosing possible issues, and measuring student achievement in relation to their understanding of previously taught skills. Assessments included within the program help teachers gather data to address students’ instructional needs. They also measure the critical components of reading. Assessment options are grounded in research. Each unit has a Research and an Extended Writing Project, which include routines and guidelines that help teachers monitor student progress in writing. Routines and guidance include but are not limited to:

• Placement and diagnostic assessments to support decision-making about appropriate instructional levels for students. The assessments serve as a baseline and help teachers to monitor student progress throughout the school year.
• Each Unit provides teachers with lesson plans that “point teachers toward minute-to-minute formative assessment opportunities.” First Reads, Skills, Close Reads, and Extended Writing Projects offer “medium cycle assessment opportunities for students and teachers to chart progress toward key learning outcomes. End of unit assessments and performance tasks test key skills and measure progress summatively.”
• Each chapter of the Language and Composition Handbook focuses on a specific grammar or usage skill. Each chapter begins with a pretest, followed by instruction and practice, and ends with a post test.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials provide teachers with strategies to meet the needs of range of learners so content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding grade-level standards.

Throughout each instructional Unit, differentiated lessons are provided for teachers to use. This Access Path provides differentiated lessons classified as emerging, intermediate, advanced, and approaching. The lesson plans include a column of suggestions to help teachers adequately differentiate the lesson. Student grouping is suggested in many lessons. Differentiated worksheets are provided. ELL students may be provided with additional sentence frames while receiving access to the same materials.

Each lesson includes a full set of Access Handouts. Access Handouts are differentiated through the use of sentence frames, graphic organizers, glossaries, and many other activities. Access handouts provide students with support to complete core assignments alongside their on-grade level classmates.

Teachers can create multiple online classes and custom learning groups. This allows teachers to assign texts and the weekly Blast based on Lexile levels. Teacher can customize the directions and requirements for entire classes, smaller groups, or individual students. Teachers can “modify prompts, turn on audio readings, and extend due dates” to help students meet learning goals.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level, or in a language other than English, with extensive opportunities to work with grade level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards.

Students read grade-level texts through the support of teacher modeling and scaffolded instruction. Students work as individuals, in small groups, and as a whole class. Student Models are provided via multimedia introductions. These show students how to interact with the text. Reading skills are supported by explicit grammar and vocabulary instruction. The instructional materials include ways teachers can adapt instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners.

For each Unit, teachers may choose the Core unit or EL Unit. The EL Unit includes materials and assessments for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. All lessons contain a Core Path and an Access Path for teachers along with Access handouts for students to support instruction in the Access Path. The program provides instructional materials that may be used for pre-teaching, reteaching, remediation, and small group instruction. Documents include the following: Grammar, Language, and Composition Workbook, Vocabulary Workbook, Spelling Workbook, Standard English Learners Handbook, and Foundational Skills.

The materials provide supports for reading texts, such as Audio Options, Audio Text Highlight Tool, Audio Speed controls, Video Content with Closed Captioning, Text Enlargement, and Keyboarding. The materials include supports for English language learners and for students learning Standard English, with tools such as Contrastive Analysis Drills, Translative Drills, and Discrimination Drills.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials regularly include extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level.

There are activities specific to students reading beyond grade level in the Access path for each unit. These activities aim to guide high ability students further into the core path content should they complete the activity before other students. Along with scaffolds that differentiate instruction for English learners in the access path, suggestions are provided that stretch learners' thinking. For example, students may have additional opportunities for collaborative and creative engagement. Core path questions support the use of reading comprehension strategies, inference techniques, and the application of textual evidence. The beyond-level activity may, for example, ask students to brainstorm how two characters might talk their way out of trouble. Technology may also be leveraged to support these students.

For example, in Unit 3, the Access Path’s Beyond section for "Only Daughter" offers students a Search the Literature. Advanced students are asked to work in pairs or small groups and “find an example of parallel structure in the text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.

Throughout each instructional unit, students are encouraged to learn in groups. Students participate in collaborative conversations about texts, and receive instruction in whole group, small group, and one-on-one settings. Students also watch StudySyncTV group discussions, which serve as models,

Throughout every instructional unit, the lesson plans include a column with suggestions for the teacher to differentiate the lesson. Differentiated worksheets are included. Grouping suggestions are provided in many lesson plans. ELL students may utilize additional sentence frames and still receive access to the same materials. Examples of scaffolds and differentiation include:

• In the Close Reads for each text, students express their ideas in collaborative conversation groups before planning and writing a short constructed response.

• The Access Path guides teachers to leverage technology tools, such as Closed Captioning and Audio Text Highlight to engage and instruct learners. Additionally, the Access Path guides provide suggestions for alternating between whole group, small group, and one-on-one instruction.

• At each grade level, the Speaking and Listening handbook is divided into four sections: Collaborative Discussions, Critical Listening, Research Using Various Media, and Presentation Skills. Each section is comprised of a comprehension lesson plan, including student handouts, checklists, and rubrics. Each section contains formative assessments that can be used and repeated for the following activities: engaging in small or large-group discussions, listening critically and responding to information and ideas shared by others, conducting research and assembling findings, and presenting in the narrative, informative, and argumentative modes using multimedia elements.