9th Grade - Gateway 3

The StudySync 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.)

StudySync materials provide students the opportunity to practice and apply the skills they have learned throughout each unit. Student models and opportunities to write constructed responses are available. Instructions and directions for students are clear, and reminders are available to students throughout extended projects. Additional guidance is available for teachers through lesson plans and prompts when necessary. Reference aids are correctly labeled when the materials include these throughout the unit.

The student resources include ample review and practice resources, clear directions and explanation, and correct labeling of reference aids (e.g., visuals, maps, etc.). For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Divided We Fall, students Begin the unit with a Blast that asks the students, “How will the concepts you're learning today help you later in life?” Students receive background information and answer a poll question. Students then complete Skill lessons on annotations, context clues, and reading comprehension before beginning their first read of “Marigolds,” by Eugenia Collier. Once familiar with the text, students complete additional skill lessons on text dependent responses, textual evidence, and character. Finally, students complete a Close Read of the story “Marigolds,” during which they practice the skills before responding to a narrative writing prompt and complete the final Skill lessons on collaborative conversations, short constructed responses, and peer review.
• In Unit 3, Declaring Your Genius, within the Big idea, students begin with a Blast and Skill: Content Vocabulary—Terms About Intelligence, Recognizing Genre, and Academic Vocabulary. Students then begin the strategy of Analyzing Differing Perspectives by reading the poem “Señora X No More,” by Pat Mora alongside “from ‘The Lost Letters of Frederick Douglass,’” by Evie Shockley and “An Indian Father’s Plea,” by Robert Lake-Thom (Medicine Grizzly Bear). The lesson instructs them on how to explore contrasting perceptions of what qualities constitute true intelligence—such as high literacy, embracing challenges, understanding the natural world, or persevering in the face of difficulty.
• In Unit 6, Human Potential, students read “Letter to My Younger Self,” by David Robinson. A photo of Robinson is available in the text with the following credit: Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images. Directions for the written response following the reading are clear: “How does Robinson use language in effective and engaging ways to develop his argument to his younger self—and, in the process, to young readers in the present? In your response, consider such techniques as metaphor, repetition, and sentence structure.” The Teacher Edition provides additional reminders when using the reading comprehension strategy of Making Connections and examples using the model.

The StudySync 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.

StudySync materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment items. Teacher-facing materials provide many opportunities for teachers to see connections to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in daily lessons, assessments, and larger culminating tasks. The Scope and Sequence indicates which CCSS students practice during each text. In Teacher Resources: Lesson Plan, under the Learning Objective, standards for the specific lesson are listed at the top of the lesson plan. Standards are also represented in each component of the lesson, including questions, tasks, and assessments. Students can also view the connections to CCSS. In student-facing materials, standards are listed under student tasks. Think questions, short quizzes, Your Turn activities, and short response prompts all have standards visible at the bottom of the page.

Materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment items. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, Divided We Fall, students read Guy de Maupassant’s classic short story “The Necklace.” After a close read, students respond to a literary analysis. Students and teachers can see that the task correlates to the standards RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, SL.9-10.1, and W.9-10.2, as this information is indicated in both student- and teacher-facing materials.
• In Unit 4, The Art of Disguise, when viewing the Grade 9 pacing guide, the first text of the unit, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking written by Susan Cain, is listed in the Grade 9 Unit 4 table under readings. The third column represents Skill and Standard Instruction. Two skills are represented, summarizing and informational text elements. Correlating standards, RI.9-10.2 and RI.9-10.3, are listed in parentheses next to the skills.
• In Unit 5, The Dance of Romance, students read the short stories “The Gift of the Magi,” by O. Henry and “Catch the Moon,” by Judith Ortiz Cofer together. The pacing guide indicates which skills and their correlating standards are targeted with the texts. Skill lessons on story structure, point of view, and theme reinforce the following standards: RL.9-10.5, RL.9-10.6, and RL.9-10.2.

The StudySync 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 the ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

StudySync materials provide detailed lesson plans for the teacher that include answer keys, suggestions on presenting the information, and potential scaffolds for differentiation. Embedded technology includes tools for reading and analyzing, such as annotating, highlighting, audio recordings of texts, and numbering lines on paragraphs. Each unit also includes several multimedia components to aid student analysis; for example, StudySyncTV and SkillsTV are often used to start classroom discussions or to introduce student models that help deepen understanding. Each unit begins with a Blast, a feature that starts each unit and mimics social media in the classroom. Students read background information before constructing bite-sized responses. The Blasts go live in real-time, like social media, to generate student discussions that deepen understanding of the units’ concepts and questions.

Materials contain a teacher’s edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and the ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Divided We Fall, students read, “The Necklace,” written by Guy de Maupassant. The ELA 9th Grade Overview provides guidance and strategies to help teachers provide support to better access this short story. For example, under the category, Access Complex Text Features, the materials include guidance and strategies on the genre, sentence structure, and specific vocabulary. Under sentence structure, teachers read that they should guide students to identify the main clauses first before noting the other phrases and the information they provide.
• In Unit 3, Declaring Your Genius, students complete the lesson First Read: An Indian Father’s Plea. In the teacher edition of the lesson on “An Indian Father’s Plea” written by Robert Lake-Thom, the materials include a Check for Success and guidance for struggling students. If students do not understand what “evaluating details” means, teachers have a definition to guide them…“contributes to your understanding of a key idea.” Furthermore, if students continue to struggle with evaluating details, the materials include examples from the text to guide students.
• In Unit 5, The Dance of Romance, if teachers are struggling with teaching a StudySync Blast: The Dance of Romance, they can go to the “Help Center” and then to “StudySync Teaching Labs”. When they choose Integrated Reading and Writing under High School Teaching Labs, they then have several support sections, one being “Teach a Blast—High School. Here teachers find support in a six-minute video that addresses preparation, which includes turning on research links for a longer lesson. The video addresses the lesson step-by-step, providing the order of activities included in the lesson. The video then addresses the delivery of the lesson and includes strategies of how to differentiate and work with ELL students. An explanation of the jigsaw research is available in this instruction video. Teacher tips are available in bubbles throughout the video; for example, “Check out the Lesson Plan for setting expectations for peer review.”

The StudySync instructional 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.

StudySync materials provide a Unit Overview that identifies Difficult Concepts in advance for educators to consider. Explanations are accessible for educators, and sample answers are available in the Lesson Plans, Teacher Edition tab available with each assignment, and the End-of-Unit Assessment when the teacher selects “View as: Teacher when grading.” Within the Integrated Reading and Writing section, a Lesson Plan is available for each task in the Instructional Path, providing options for teachers with instructional moves and guidance for Scaffolding & Differentiation. A grade-level ELA Overview is also available with guidance related to text complexity, including both quantitative and qualitative features, as well as additional information related to the instructional approach to writing using mentor texts.

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. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 2, The Call to Adventure, in the Independent Read of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, the Access Complex Text section provides aspects of sentence structure within the text that may be challenging for students and what the teacher can do to support students. For example, in genre, students may have difficulty identifying the poem's meter. The recommendation for student support is as follows: “Tap out the syllables to show that there are four stressed syllables per line in a pattern of unstressed, stressed—which is called iambic tetrameter.”
• In Unit 4, The Art of Disguise, within the First Read of Arthur Laurent’s play West Side Story, the Connection of Ideas section discusses aspects of the text that may be challenging for students and what the teacher can do to support students. For example, the section notes that the author includes many clues to reveal the tension of the forbidden love between Tony and Maria. The recommendation for student support is as follows: “Students should synthesize information, such as Maria’s mention of Bernardo and her father, as well as Tony’s lack of understanding of her family and culture, to make inferences about the cultural divide that exists as a barrier for the lovers.”
• In Unit 5, The Dance of Romance, the End-of-Unit Assessment provides additional guidance for teachers when grading, including an exemplary sample response for a multi-paragraph essay and explanations detailing why specific answers are correct or incorrect for multiple-choice questions. For example, “Incorrect. This sentence brings a negative, foreboding tone to the passage that is not found elsewhere in it. This is, therefore, not an effective conclusion to the passage.”

The StudySync 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 materials provide lesson plans that denote the specific standards and skills that are addressed daily. The Pacing Guide breaks down standards alignment in an easy-to-use chart that lists the standards associated with each text and points within the unit for readdressing standards. The Scope and Sequence includes a chart that lists each text, shows the standards that are associated with it, and denotes which standards are taught with direct instruction and reinforced with practice, and which are solely practiced.

Materials contain a teacher’s edition that explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum. For example, some examples include the following:

• The Grade Level Overview states the following: “Skill lessons on Organizing Narrative Writing, Narrative Sequencing, and Narrative Techniques teach concepts specifically called out in the Common Core English Language Arts standards.” The Pacing Guide shows that the second text read, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, covers several standards, including RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.1, and RL.9-10.3. Lastly, the Scope and Sequence clearly shows that Reading: Informational, Reading: Literature, Language, Writing, and Speaking and Listening standards are addressed throughout the year.
• The Instructional Path includes teacher resources, such as Lesson Plans, that demonstrate the role of specific ELA standards in each lesson. The beginning of each lesson includes a learning objective indicating what students will be able to do during and after the completion of the lesson. The materials note specific standards at the start of each lesson plan and again in each section of the lesson. The reasoning and correlating standards are located under Introduce the Text. For example, in the SyncStart lesson for “Marigolds,” by Eugenia Collier the reasoning for the activity is to “make connections to the video preview” and the correlating standards are RL.9-10.1 and SL.9-10.2.

The StudySync instructional 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.

StudySync materials provide an additional resource for educators “Research-Base Alignments: A Summary of Research in Secondary School (Grades 6-12) English Language Arts” to provide a summary of key points in Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening, and Media and Technology. The research in the documents includes “reports, experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, reviews of research, and opinion pieces written by those considered experts within the field of literacy.” StudySync uses research-based strategies to show that content-specific knowledge is highly correlated with vocabulary, and both contribute to reading comprehension and inferencing skills. The curriculum uses strategies such as repeated reading for fluency, using grammar in context to enhance basic skills, and encouraging readers to engage with a text by activating their schema.

Materials contain explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies. For example, some examples include the following:

• StudySync uses the research theory, by Shen, in English Language Teaching that suggests there is a reciprocal relationship between knowledge, vocabulary, and reading and writing achievement. Readers engage with a text by activating background knowledge. “Schema is the technical term used by cognitive scientists to describe how people process, organize, and store information in their heads” (Shen, 2008, p. 104).
• Handbook of Writing Research (2015) synthesizes current knowledge on writing development and instruction at all grade levels. Timothy Shanahan provides information relating to relationships between reading and writing development. StudySync incorporates this key point into writing instruction: “Research has long found many connections and correlations between reading and writing” (Shanahan, 2015).
• “Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices” (2008) is a practice guide that presents specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations that educators can use to improve literacy levels among adolescents in upper elementary, middle, and high schools. StudySync includes a key point in Research Recommendations for Vocabulary: “The What Works Clearinghouse Improving Adolescent Literacy guide (Kamil et al., 2008) considers the level of evidence “strong” in their recommendation for explicit vocabulary instruction in the upper elementary, middle, and high school grades.”
• StudySync references the article, “Is fluent, expressive reading important for high school readers?” (2012) from the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy and utilizes research recommendations for instructional fluency methods, such as repeated readings. The article recommends these methods “at the secondary level, especially with students who struggle with fluency and reading comprehension” (Paige, Rasinski, & Magpuri-Lavell, 2012, p. 72).
• “Surface, Deep, and Transfer? Considering the Role of Content Literacy Instructional Strategies” (2017), an article by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and John Hattie published in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, provides information relating to content literacy instructional practices. StudySync includes a key point in comprehending literary and informational text: “Because each discipline has its own purpose and structure, it necessarily requires different literacy skills and abilities to create, communicate, and evaluate knowledge, and students may require different strategies to deepen their understanding of text as they gain more knowledge about a topic” (Frey, Fisher, Hattie, 2017).
• “When is a verb? Using functional grammar to teach writing” (2007), an article by Fearn and Farnan in the Journal of Basic Writing, focuses on the argument against Identification, Description, Definition (IDD) by arguing that there can be a positive interaction between grammar instruction and writing performance if the grammar is functional and used for writing purposes. “Teaching basic skills, such as grammar within the context of writing—instead of teaching them in isolation—has been shown to enhance writing performance” (Fearn & Farnan, 2007).

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

StudySync materials provide assessment opportunities to measure student progress, such as a Readiness Screener, Reading Comprehension Diagnostic, and Benchmarks for each grade level; ACT, SAT, and State Test Preparations; and EL End-of-Unit assessments that teachers can assign as Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Advanced High. Summative assessments, such as the Extended Writing and Oral Projects at the end of each unit, provide opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency in skills they practice during instruction. Formative assessments, such as the text questions, quick Checks for Success, and turn-and-talk activities, allow teachers to monitor student progress and provide timely feedback.

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 2, The Call to Adventure, during the Close Read of “The Journey,” by Mary Oliver, students complete the Skills Focus questions that formatively assess their understanding of the unit’s genre focus and/or the standard which was the focus of the lesson. Examples for this lesson include the Skill: Poetic Elements and Structure Question: “Annotate a stanza in ‘The Journey’ to contrast its structure with the structure of a stanza in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.’ After reading each stanza aloud, explain how the structure affects the pacing, mood, or meaning.” The materials provide teachers with an exemplary response to grasp the level of students’ understanding.
• In Unit 3, Declaring Your Genius, students complete a Timed Writing: College Admissions lesson. During this lesson, students plan and write a response in a timed writing situation. The lesson allows time for peer review following the timed writing, which includes providing substantive feedback to two peers and students reflecting on the feedback they receive. Peer Review Instructions include but are not limited to the following: “How well does the writer clearly state his or her own perspective on the issue? How well does the writer analyze the relationship between his or her perspective and at least one other perspective?”

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

The StudySync Student and Teacher Edition include standards listed under tasks within the assessment that, when clicked, provide details about the standard addressed in each task of the formative and summative assessments. StudySync also includes an assess component where teachers can find all the assessments and view the correlated standards assessed. Formative assessments include First Reads, Close Reads, Blasts, and lesson tasks. Summative assessments include Extended Writing Projects, Extended Oral Projects, and End-of-Unit Assessments.

Materials offer ongoing formative and summative assessments. Assessments clearly denote which standards are being emphasized. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Divided We Fall, students independently read Sara Abou Rashed’s poem, “Welcome to America.” After reading, students answer quiz questions as a formative assessment. Questions include the following: “Which of these inferences about the speaker is best supported by the following passage (lines 3–9)?” and “The author most likely uses the following (lines 38–39) to show.” The questions allow teachers to see student mastery of CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.3, and CCRA.R.6. Students can see the standards associated with each quiz question at the bottom of their screens. The Lesson Plan also provides an answer key for teachers that shows which standards are emphasized by each question.
• In Unit 4, The Art of Disguise, teachers can utilize the Grade 9 Pacing Guide to note which standards were addressed during the summative Research Writing Project. For example, when looking at the editing and publishing component of the writing process within this project, teachers may view the skill and standard instruction to discover that L.9-10.3A and L.9-10.1B are addressed.
• In Unit 5, The Dance of Romance, students complete a Close Read of an excerpt from Love in a Headscarf, by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed. The final assignment for the unit text has students write a rhetorical analysis in response to a prompt. Student-facing and teacher-facing materials denote that the assessment addresses the following standards: RI.9-10.1, RI.9-10.4, RI.9-10.6, and W.9-10.1.

The StudySync 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.

StudySync materials provide data tracking tools in StudySync that allow teachers to use information from formative assessments throughout the units. Data-tracking tools like the Gradebook display more than just raw scores for students. They also breakdown student scores against standards and skills. The tool is color-coded so teachers can easily spot student needs according to standards. Green denotes that a student is on track for grade-level mastery or beyond. A yellow box denotes that a student may require scaffolded instruction to get back on track toward grade-level performance. Finally, the color red indicates that an instructor should use diagnostic assessments to determine whether the student requires foundational skill intervention. Teachers may filter assessments in the Assess section where they can also utilize Screening, and Diagnostic and Benchmark Assessments. The materials include teacher guidance on student mastery of standards for assessments such as quizzes, skills mastery checks, and Extended Writing Projects. The Grade Level Pacing Guide includes time for review and reteaching, which allows teachers to reteach those concepts that students struggled with earlier in the unit. StudySync provides teachers with Spotlight Skill lessons to reteach and remediate. Every unit culminates with the End-Of-Unit-Assessment that provides teachers with the student's current understanding of unit standards and provides reports for students and teachers highlighting skill strengths, skill deficiencies, standard, and skill proficiency levels and across unit growth.

Materials offer ongoing formative and summative assessments. Assessments provide sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 2, The Call to Adventure, under the Assess tab, there are 17 assessments for Grade 9, including Benchmark - Grade 9 - Forms 1, 2, and 3. These benchmarks are intended to be given to students after completing Unit 2 and then again after completing Unit 4. The assessment allows teachers to view student progress across benchmark standards in Language, Reading for Information, Reading Literature, and Writing. The Details section guides teachers to encourage students to view their scores for each question. The materials provide explanations for each question’s responses.
• In Unit 4, The Art of Disguise, during the Skill: Dramatic Elements and Structure lesson, students complete an assessment after rereading, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene II), written by William Shakespeare. Students take the Your Turn multiple choice quiz, which provides the teacher with information about students' understanding of dramatic elements and structure. The lesson plan provides teachers with an answer key to guide students in their understanding of the skill.

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

StudySync materials include a variety of opportunities, such as a Readiness Screener and End-of-Unit assessments, to monitor student progress. Beginning of the year assessments include the Reading Comprehension Diagnostic and the Maze Fluency Assessment. The Benchmark Assessment monitors students' progress in standards mastery throughout the school year. The materials include data tracking tools with day-to-day student performance on all standards, which teachers may use to guide instructional decisions.

Materials should include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Divided We Fall, in the independent read of “The Future in My Arms” by Edwidge Danticat, at the end of the lesson, students write a personal letter that demonstrates their understanding of how their own experiences and hopes may parallel the author. The Lesson Plan includes checks for understanding, such as a Text talk, reading comprehension questions, and Collaborative Conversations that are designed to ensure students have the knowledge to complete the objective of the lesson. For example: “Text Talk—What is Danticat worried will happen if her niece is born while Danticat is away for the summer?” and “Collaborative Conversation—Post the writing prompt to generate a discussion in small groups. Ask students first to break down the prompt.”
• In Unit 2, The Call to Adventure, teachers can chart outcomes toward key learning standards when students complete an Extended Writing Project. Students follow a consistent Instructional Path with each unit, including Plan, Draft, Revise, and Edit and Publish. Teachers can track student growth toward proficiency of grade level reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language standards throughout the informative writing process.
• In Unit 6, Human Potential, students read an excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird independently, and teachers can review the answers to quiz questions to determine students' ability to read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences to it: “Which of the following inferences is best supported by the first paragraph of the excerpt?”

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

StudySync materials provide teachers with the opportunity to differentiate within each lesson, and guidance is available for teachers for scaffolding, including offering options for instructional routines and questions to prompt thinking. There are instructional options for English learners: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced-High. There are also proficiency levels for Below Level: Approaching and Above Level: Beyond. Teachers can customize lessons when assigning, such as increasing the length limit for Blast responses from 140 characters to 280 characters. Teachers can add and remove standards associated with the Blast assignment, add additional instructions/teacher’s note, show scaffolds to students who need them, and select a Lexile to change the background.

Materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of a range of learners so that they demonstrate independent ability with grade-level standards. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 2, The Call to Adventure, during the first read, students independently read and annotate an excerpt of “The Journey,” by Mary Oliver. The lesson plan also provides teachers with instructions on how to accommodate all levels of ELL with their reading. For example, Beginning and Intermediate ELL students read the ELL text synopsis instead of the text. Teachers encourage students to use a dictionary or thesaurus as they read. Approaching, Advanced, and Advanced-High ELL students use the visual glossary for support as they read.
• In Unit 4, The Art of Disguise, after students complete the independent read of The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil, they engage in a Text Talk. The materials provide an additional Text Talk extension activity for Beyond-grade-level students. “Ask each Beyond-grade-level student to write one additional discussion question. Then, have one or two students facilitate a discussion, using their questions to guide the conversation.”
• In Unit 6, Human Potential, as students prepare to read the excerpt from Maus by Art Spiegelman, the teacher shares information with them to provide context and create an accessible entry point for the text. Examples of shared information include: “In Maus, Art Spiegelman tells the story of his parents’ experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust. He also explores his own relationship with his father. Since he is a comic book artist, he chose to use the form of the graphic novel to tell the story. The format allows him to combine visuals and text to explore the emotions and experiences of his characters.”

The StudySync 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.

StudySync materials provide teachers the opportunity to differentiate instruction for all learners. Each lesson can be modified to support four levels of English Language Learners—Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Advanced-High. When instructors change the proficiency level of the lessons, the readings, assignments, and scaffolds adjust accordingly. Additionally, all Lesson Plans include suggestions for scaffolding each activity to meet the needs of English Language Learners and Approaching students.

Scaffolds include visual glossaries, text synopses, Spanish cognates, speaking frames, sentence frames, word banks, and differentiated questions. Each unit includes a folder of 20 ELL Resources lessons. These lessons are more targeted and aimed at helping students develop their language skills. The lessons can be taught alongside the core ELA program, allowing students to practice language skills and strategies while also working on grade-level standards.

The StudySync 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.

StudySync materials provide advanced opportunities for students during Blasts. Each Blast can be customized. Teachers may select the highest Lexile of the three options to change the background. With regard to quantitative text complexity measures, this option ensures students are in the appropriate stretch Lexile band. Lesson Plans include suggestions for differentiation for Beyond-grade-level students, and the Teacher Edition tab within each Assignment includes a column specific for differentiation with the Beyond suggestions and questions. The activities offered for Beyond-grade-level students are designed to take them further into the content of a lesson should they complete the activity before other students. The Beyond supports challenge students to stretch their thinking and add more opportunities for collaborative, creative engagement.

Materials regularly include extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Divided We Fall, students complete the First Read of an excerpt from the memoir Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt. The Lesson Plan offers suggestions for differentiation with Beyond-grade-level readers. For example, to support the development of background knowledge and cultural awareness, the materials suggest Beyond students complete Writer’s Notebook Roulette. Teachers give students time to “free-write and build on classmates’ ideas in their Writer’s Notebooks in response to the following question: ‘Should world leaders make it their mission to eliminate outbreaks of typhoid and other infectious diseases, even if their own countries are not widely affected? Why or why not?’”
• In Unit 4, The Art of Disguise, students complete a Skill: Story Structure lesson to analyze “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe. The Teacher Edition provides suggestions for differentiation with Beyond-grade-level readers. For example, students can draw on learning from previous lessons, and teachers “challenge students to write down in their Writer’s Notebooks misconceptions their peers might have about non-linear plots as compared to linear plots.” Additional guidance is available for teachers, such as “Have students meet to choose the two or three misconceptions they think are the most common. Then, have students present these misconceptions to the class.”
• In Unit 6, Human Potential, students independently read “The Girl Who Can,” by Ama Ata Aidoo. The Lesson Plan offers suggestions for differentiation with Beyond-grade-level readers, such as a Writer’s Notebook Roulette: “Give students time to freewrite and build on classmates’ ideas in their Writer’s Notebooks in response to the following question: ‘What qualities might children possess that enable them to be effective teachers to adults at times?’ Each student will be given two minutes to respond in his or her own notebook. At the end of two minutes, they will pass their notebooks to the student on their left. Students will be given time to read what was written and one minute to add more information. Switch one more time.”

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

StudySync materials provide opportunities for individual, partner, small group, and whole class work. Each teacher lesson includes suggestions for grouping, providing instructional opportunities in a variety of settings. Suggestions for grouping along with available scaffolds for each group are listed next to each activity. Scaffolds include speaking frames, discussion guides, and probing questions.

Materials provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies. For example, some examples include the following:

• In Unit 2, The Call to Adventure, students read an excerpt from Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. During the Collaborative Conversation activity, students form groups to discuss a prompt before writing a response. The Lesson Plan encourages teachers to “work directly with Beginning and Intermediate students as a group. Use the discussion guide and speaking frames to facilitate the discussion.”
• In Unit 3, Declaring Your Genius, students read “An Indian Father’s Plea,” written by Robert Lake-Thom. During the First Read, students read and annotate “on their own.” Student guidance encourages the use of the annotation tool as they read with three specific purposes in mind. As students independently work, the teacher moves around the room and checks for success while providing definitions to key terms and showing examples of annotation ideas.
• In Unit 6, Human Potential, students read the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst. After a Close Read, students work in groups to discuss the text and annotate the first Skills Focus prompt. The Lesson Plan suggests that teachers allow English Level Learners to continue working in groups for the remaining three Skills Focus prompts. Teacher guidance includes, “Work directly with students to read and annotate the paragraphs identified in the differentiated Skills Focus questions. You may wish to model the annotation for the first one or two paragraphs. Then, allow students to finish annotating in groups. Focus on questions 1 through 4.”