10th Grade - Gateway 2

The StudySync materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria for texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend and analyze complex texts proficiently.

StudySync materials include opportunities for both close reading and independent reading and allowing choices for students. The materials have a logical sequence of texts that allow students to read complex texts independently and proficiently by the end of the year. The materials include texts connected by a topic and an Essential Question in each unit. The materials include six topics—The Power of Communication, Moving Forward, The Persistence of Memory, The Ties that Bind, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, and Origin Stories.

Texts are connected by cohesive topics/themes/lines of inquiry. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, students focus on fiction as a genre and the Essential Question, “Why do words matter?” Eleven texts connect to the theme and include opportunities to read across genres and/or text types, including but not limited to an excerpt from the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the story “She Unnames Them,” by Ursula K. Le Guin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, texts are organized around how culture influences one's goals. In the excerpt from Night, Wiesel’s fellow citizens turn against him based on his culture, and his goal then becomes surviving the concentration camps and even “moving forward” after the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp. Other texts centered around the unit’s Essential Question include the epic Rámáyana, by Válmíki, the speech “A Plea for Global Education,” by Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and the short story “Civil Peace,” by Chinua Achebe.
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, students focus on “Surrealism” as a genre and the Essential Question, “How does the past impact the future?” Twelve texts connect to the theme, and the unit includes opportunities to read across genres and/or text types, including but not limited to: an excerpt from “By Any Other Name,” the graphic memoir Persepolis, and the poem “Love Is Not All,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
• In Unit 4, The Ties that Bind, students read a speech from the play As You Like It, Act II, Scene vii, by William Shakespeare. The story highlights a young man's coming of age experience, and how his life goes through stages, a common practice in Sheaskesperean time. The lesson centers around visualization. The students visualize what is written in the text “using the idea of the world as a stage” and make connections to how life plays out in social media today. Additional texts that connect to the unit’s Essential Question include the tragedy Antigone by Sophocles, the drama Hotel Rwanda, by Keir Pearson and Terry George, and the short story “People Should Not Die in June in South Texas,” by Gloria Anzaldúa.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, students focus on “Cross-cultural Texts” as a genre and the Essential Question, “What are the ingredients of culture?” Twelve texts connect to the theme, including opportunities to read across genres and/or text types, including but not limited to: the poems “Parsley,” “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica,” Wordsworth's “Lines Written in Early Spring,” and a nonfiction article “The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science.”
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, the Essential Question is “How does who we were guide who we will become?” The unit supports the common theme that every life plays out like a story which includes a beginning, middle, and end, life’s journey, and why it matters by asking the questions: Why do origin stories matter? Why do we care about where we came from—as individuals, as family members, as community members, as a nation? How does knowing our origin stories help us in life? Students complete an analysis across cultures encouraging consideration of how the influence of the past is understood in the present while reading texts such as the poems “The City that Never Stops Giving,” by Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay and “Past and Future,” by Sarojini Naidu, as well as the novel The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan.

The StudySync instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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.

StudySync materials provide students the opportunity to apply their understanding of the skill(s) they have learned in conjunction with the text by participating in the Close Read of each text and using the Skills Focus questions to focus their second reading and annotation of the text. These questions guide students as they analyze and apply the author’s craft purposefully in preparation for their own written and oral projects and responses. Upon completion of the Close Read and Skills Focus Questions, students demonstrate their understanding of the author's purpose and craft by responding to a writing prompt. Students frequently respond to writing prompts throughout the year and track their work in their Writer’s notebook. By the end of the year, most items are embedded in students’ work rather than taught directly, increasing student independence.

For most texts, students are asked to analyze language and/or author’s word choice (according to grade-level standards). Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• The materials contain coherently sequenced questions and tasks that address language and/or word choice. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, after reading “The Power of the Hero’s Journey,” by Louise Munson, students use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. Students use a checklist for Context Clues to make meaning of language. For example, students note words with similar denotations that seem to differ slightly in meaning.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, students read “Maple Sugaring (in Aunt Alberta’s Backyard),” by Diane Burns and analyze language, style, and audience. Students complete a Your Turn task by rereading lines from a poem and answering the following questions: “How does the poet’s word choice contribute to the tone of the poem? Which lines from the poem best illustrate your answer from Part A?”

For most texts, students analyze key ideas and details, structure, and craft (according to grade-level standards). Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• The materials contain coherently sequenced questions and tasks that address key ideas and details. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, students read an informational text, “Facial expressions—including fear—may not be as universal as we thought” and complete the Your Turn task by rereading paragraphs and answering the following questions: “Part A: What of the following most clearly states the central idea of these paragraphs? Part B: Which of the following statements BEST supports the central idea in Part A?” After reading and discussing “Seeing at the Speed of Sound,” by Rachel Kolb, students restate the text’s key ideas and details. Students participate in Text Talk and respond to the following questions: “How does lipreading strain Kolb’s sense of sight? What mixed feelings does Kolb have about the fact that lip readers can understand only 30 percent of spoken words? How does Kolb’s experience at her summer camp change her sense of self? Why does Kolb’s chat with Daniel make her so happy? Based on Kolb’s experience, what is the best way to help a hearing-impaired person participate in conversation?”
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, after reading and discussing ”The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science,” by Cary Funk and Brian Kennedy, students make and confirm predictions as they read, understand, and analyze key details. Students respond to the following Text Talk questions: “What major changes have taken place in the American food scene in the past two decades, according to the article? How have American eating habits responded to these widespread changes in the food scene? How do Americans judge their own eating habits? Does your experience of American food culture match what you read about in ‘The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science?’ Why or why not?”
• The materials contain coherently sequenced questions and tasks that address structure. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, students read the poem “Rámáyana,” by Válmíki. During a Skill lesson on poetic elements and structure, students learn about meter, rhyme scheme, and poetic form. Finally, they answer the following questions to analyze the structure of the poem: “Based on this selection, which of the following statements best describes an aspect of the poem’s structure? Which of the following most accurately describes the effect of the break in meter in line 138?” After rereading “The Power of the Hero’s Journey,” students complete the Skill: Informational Text Structure lesson during which they analyze how the author uses claims and ideas in an informational text. Students use a set of questions to discuss text structure. An example of one of the discussion questions is “How did the text structure help support the author’s purpose?”
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, students read “Lines Written in Early Spring,” by William Wordsworth independently. Through literary analysis, students demonstrate their understanding of the author’s poetic elements and structure to explore the theme: “In Wordsworth’s poem ‘Lines Written in Early Spring,’ the speaker sees a conflict between the natural world around him and the behaviors of humankind. How does Wordsworth use poetic devices and structure to contrast the natural world with the culture of humankind?” After reading and discussing ”The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science,” by Cary Funk and Brian Kennedy, students identify and analyze informational text elements in “The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science.” Students then discuss the Skill Model questions: “How does the reader analyze the first subheading in the article? How does the reader analyze the use of a graphic feature in the text? How will this thinking help the reader analyze other informational text elements?”
• The materials contain coherently sequenced questions and tasks that address craft. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, after rereading and discussing “Seeing at the Speed of Sound,” by Rachel Kolb, students identify and understand the connotative and denotative meanings of words while reading. Questions include: “How does the reader determine the connotative and denotative meaning of a word he is unsure of? How does the reader determine the precise denotative meaning and the connotative meaning of a word that he knows but is being used in an unfamiliar way? How will this thinking help the reader analyze other words in the text?”
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, after reading and discussing ”The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science,” by Cary Funk and Brian Kennedy, students use contextual meaning, a dictionary, or other analysis to clarify and validate the meanings of technical language in the text while responding to the following questions: “How does the reader analyze technical terms to determine meaning? How does the reader determine the tone of the text using technical language? What makes the tone of this article different from the tone of a court opinion or a memoir? How will this thinking help the reader analyze other technical language in the text?”

The StudySync instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

StudySync materials provide students with the opportunity to deep dive into various reading skills and deepen their analysis of texts through the Skill Lessons. Tasks associated with these lessons include analyzing language, discussing the impact of word choice, identifying key ideas and details, and analyzing structure and craft. Paired texts usually provide opportunities for students to compare and contrast while practicing a reading skill across texts or a genre. Think questions frequently include higher-level questions that students complete independently after practicing skills previously covered in the unit or across the school year. Throughout all the units of study, students engage in a variety of writing activities in response to the reading of texts, including note-taking, annotating, creating short constructed responses, and completing Extended Writing Projects.

• Sets of questions and tasks provide opportunities to analyze within single texts. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, students assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text during the independent reading of Night, by Elie Wiesel. Students answer a series of questions during the reading, such as “The use of repetition in the passage below (paragraphs 1-8) adds to the development of the text mainly by _____. The author suggests the aggressiveness of the SS officers mainly by _____.”
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memory, students read an excerpt from the autobiographical text The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, by Salvador Dalí. Students annotate the text and identify examples of descriptive language and imagery. Teachers may utilize prompts to encourage students who are struggling with visualizing. Further prompts are available to help students discuss events from the text. Multiple-choice questions assess students’ comprehension of the text. Later they “review the text to identify two elements of style and two major concepts of the literary focus.”
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students read “The Nose,” by Nikolai Gogol independently and analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of the text. Students answer questions, such as “What does the following passage (paragraph 34) mainly reveal about Kovalev? When he first notices that his nose is missing, what is Kovalev’s main concern?” before completing a writing task. Students then complete a literary analysis prompt: “Nikolai Gogol's absurdist satire, ‘The Nose’ is a forerunner of the genre known as magical realism. In what ways does Gogol's story of General Kovalev reflect the traits of magical realism while putting forth a particular point of view of Russian society? Incorporate textual evidence that supports your claim.”
• Sets of questions and tasks provide opportunities to analyze across multiple texts. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:
• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, students read the poem “A Voice,” by Pat Mora alongside Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention.” The texts follow an independent read of Martin Luther King Jr. 's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Students complete multiple Skill Lessons that help them deepen their analysis of the text. They focus on author’s purpose, point of view, and language, style, and audience, before comparing and contrasting the texts through a series of multiple-choice questions, such as “Which of the following best summarizes the central ideas of King’s letter and Henry’s speech and how they are related?” To wrap up their analysis, students write about language, shared concepts, and themes in all three texts. The materials include guidance for teachers to assist students who are struggling with the prompt. Students also compare within and across genres using multiple texts such as “The Story of Vision,” by Francis La Fleche, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, and Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Students compare characters and themes and analyze hallmark elements of modernist and postmodernist literature. Each text has questions and tasks that guide the reader through the text. Then, students write a literary analysis comparing similar themes presented in the two novel excerpts.
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memory, students read excerpts from Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, and Rock, Ghost, Willow Deer: A Story of Survival, by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. Students analyze all three texts and discuss allusions, characters, and story structure. The associated writing prompt tasks students with analyzing how a quote from one text “connects to the unique and shared experiences of the people or characters depicted in the graphic novel Persepolis, the memoir Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival, and the novel The God of Small Things.” Students must support their ideas with evidence from all three texts. The guidance included within the materials recommends that teachers support struggling students by breaking down the prompt into discussion questions.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, students read the poems “Melons,” by Matsuo Bashō and “Parsley,” by Rita Dove together. Students respond to multiple-choice questions that ask students about the structure and language used in the poems. One example of such a question is “Which of the following sentences best explains the paradox in haiku 659?” The materials provide support for teachers to help students understand the meaning of the poems. To close out the texts, students write a literary analysis responding to the following prompt: “Write a literary analysis in which you interpret the meaning of this symbol and explain how the poet uses it to develop a specific theme.”

The StudySync instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills (e.g., combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

StudySync materials provide students the opportunity to apply previously practiced skills from the Integrated Reading and Writing lessons during the Extended Writing Project or Extended Oral Project. The lessons incorporate questions for consideration and oral or written tasks that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic or theme. The lessons and Extended Writing or Oral Projects relate to each unit’s Essential Question. Earlier questions and tasks give the teacher usable information about the student's readiness (or whether they are “on track”) to complete culminating tasks. The questions students consider in each lesson, as well as the writing and discussion prompts associated with the texts students read, relate to the Essential Question and the common theme woven throughout each unit. Teachers can determine their students’ readiness during the completion of these tasks and provide support when necessary to help them achieve proficiency with the longer culminating tasks.

Culminating tasks are provided, and they are multifaceted, requiring students to demonstrate mastery of several different standards at the appropriate grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, students begin the unit reading a paired selection—the poem “I Am Offering This Poem,” by Jimmy Santiago Baca and the short story “She Unnames Them,” by Ursula K. Le Guin. Both texts help students gain understanding around the Essential Question, “Why do words matter?” After reading both texts, students respond to a compare and contrast prompt, discussing “how writers use language to develop themes and ideas and how those words give the themes and ideas power.” During the Extended Writing Project, students explore the power of communication in texts they covered in the unit. The literary analysis essay prompt integrates students’ reading and writing skills as they “Select two or three works from this unit in which individuals’ language has a powerful impact on themselves, another individual, or their community.... make a claim about what exactly is the power of language and explain how that power is demonstrated in each of the selections.”
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, students focus on the literary period of ancient and classical literature, reading texts such as Republic, by Plato, as they explore the Essential Question, “How does culture influence your goals?” Students compose an informational essay in response to the question “How does community influence our goals?” during the Extended Writing Project. Students select three texts from the unit and describe the challenge the communities face, as well as how specific individuals assist in overcoming the challenge. This task integrates reading and writing skills.
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, students focus on surrealist literature while probing the Essential Question, “How does the past impact the future?” Students begin the unit with a paired selection that contains the memoir “By Any Other Name,” by Santha Rama Rau and the informational text “Rituals of Memory,” by Kimberly Blaeser. Skill lessons on informational text structure, figurative language; and language, style, and audience support students in analyzing “how the author uses figurative language and develops, refines, and shapes ideas.” Students draw upon their reading and writing skills as they cite evidence in response to an explanatory prompt on the figurative language that Blaeser uses.
• In Unit 4, The Ties that Bind, students read and discuss texts such as Hotel Rwanda, by Keir Pearson and Terry George, as they investigate the Essential Question, “What brings us back to one another?” During the Extended Oral Project, students craft an argumentative oral presentation in response to the question “How can listening to another person’s story instruct us?” Students utilize multiple sources of information to demonstrate how listening to another person’s story can instruct us. Students learn more about the interviewee’s life experiences and how these shaped his or her values. This task integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, students explore the Essential Question, “What are the ingredients of culture?” as they focus on the literary period of cross-cultural literature and read texts, such as “The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science,” by Cary Funk & Brian Kennedy, “Chinese Cooking,” by Chen Jitong, and the novel excerpt Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, by Lizzie Collingham. At the end of the unit, students complete an Extended Writing Project, during which they plan and write an argumentative essay in response to the following prompt: “To what extent can you get to know a group of people through their food?” This task integrates reading and writing skills.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students focus on the literary period of magical realist literature as they seek to answer the Essential Question, “How does who we were guide who we will become?” After reading “A Quilt of a Country,” by Anna Quindlen, students complete lessons on figurative language, word patterns and relationships, and arguments and claims and write in response to an explanatory prompt on how the structure of the essay helps develop the author’s central idea. Students complete an Extended Writing Project, during which students craft an informative research essay in response to the question, “What do origin stories reveal about our perceptions of the world?” Students choose one origin story relating to a religion, culture, or nation they would like to learn more about and research the origin story to present their findings. This task integrates reading and writing.

The StudySync instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, consistent approach for students to regularly interact with word relationships and build academic vocabulary/language in context.

StudySync materials allow students to revisit certain vocabulary words across multiple texts within each unit or across the school year. The instructional materials include opportunities to practice Academic Vocabulary during Skill lessons at the beginning of the unit and review Academic Vocabulary at the end of the unit. The materials attend to content vocabulary essential to understanding the text and analyzing the purpose of word choices. Vocabulary instruction and practice accompany the core program's selections to build vocabulary knowledge and improve students’ abilities to access complex texts. Opportunities for students to determine the meaning of vocabulary words using context clues consistently are available.

Vocabulary is repeated in various contexts (before texts, in texts, etc.) and across multiple texts. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• Vocabulary is repeated in contexts (before texts, in texts, etc.).
• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, students complete a Skill: Academic Vocabulary lesson, learning the meanings of ten Academic Vocabulary words. Students use the Academic Vocabulary words in a variety of contexts. Terms students learn during the lesson include advocate, decade, globe, hierarchy, incidence, migrate, paradigm, successor, and voluntary. A model is available for students to learn Academic Vocabulary to help them discuss issues related to government and society. In the Your Turn section of the lesson, students answer questions: “Determine the correct vocabulary word to complete each sentence. The show at the museum presented changes in fashion from the 1920s up through the current _____.” After students complete a close read of “She Unnames Them” by Ursula K. LeGuin, they respond to a writing prompt which includes an Academic Vocabulary term from the previous list: “The plot of ‘She Unnames Them,’ which centers on the voluntary unnaming of Eve and the animals, plays an important role in communicating a theme concerning hierarchy. Using ‘She Unnames Them’ and ‘I Am Offering This Poem’ as sources, discuss how writers use language to develop themes and ideas and how those words give the themes and ideas power.”
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, The Big idea, which is before students begin to read the text, features skill Academic Vocabulary. In this section, the teacher introduces and models the vocabulary and the students practice. Teachers divide the vocabulary words into two lists, pair students, and give each student one half of the list. Teachers challenge students to have a casual conversation with each other that uses every word on their list. Students should aim to insert their vocabulary words in a way that sounds natural. Teachers may turn this activity into a game, allowing partners to award each other points if they effectively use each word on their list.
• In Unit 4, The Ties That Bind, students engage in a Skill lesson on figurative language after reading the drama Antigone, by Sophocles. Students focus on figurative meanings of metaphors, similes, and personification in this lesson. In the Model section, students learn how to recognize phrases in the form of oxymorons and euphemisms and consider questions like, “Why does the author use a figure of speech rather than literal language?”
• Vocabulary is repeated across multiple texts.
• Unit 1, The Power of Communication, students complete a Skill: Academic Vocabulary lesson, learning the meanings of ten Academic Vocabulary words, and exploring how the Academic Vocabulary words are used in a variety of contexts. Terms students learn during the lesson include advocate, decade, globe, hierarchy, incidence, migrate, paradigm, successor, and voluntary. After students independently read Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, they respond to a writing prompt that includes an Academic Vocabulary word: “The passage conveys his perspective on his journey into the unknown as he experiences new regions of the globe. How does the author characterize the narrator through the historical setting?” The materials include an additional opportunity for students to see the word globe in the context of a writing prompt. Then, after a close read of an excerpt from Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, students respond to a writing prompt which includes the same Academic Vocabulary word. “Compare similar themes about masculinity in these two fiction excerpts representing different cultural views from different parts of the globe. Respond by analyzing how the authors show these different cultural perspectives and what the details reveal about the worlds the characters live in.”
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, students complete a close read of “Rituals of Memory,” by Kimberly Blaeser. Students use context clues to make predictions about the boldfaced vocabulary words. Examples of vocabulary words include: deduced, emerged, oblivious, intricate, and tangibles. During the Reading Quiz, students match each vocabulary word to its corresponding definition. After students independently read an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, they again use context clues to make predictions about the boldfaced vocabulary words. These include oblivious, enzymes, genome, haywire, and chromosomes. The materials provide an additional opportunity for students to learn the vocabulary word oblivious.
• In Unit 4, The Ties That Bind, students read two plays, written by William Shakespeare, which are As You Like It, Act II, Scene vii and Macbeth, Act I, (Scene iii), and address “the cumulative impact of the words” after closely reading Macbeth. Based on the similar experiences of the characters, students are introduced to the Academic Vocabulary word encounter and are urged to use this word in their written literary response that addresses both texts.

Students are supported to accelerate vocabulary learning with vocabulary in their reading, speaking, and writing tasks. Opportunities are present for students to learn, practice, apply and utilize vocabulary in multiple contexts. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, students read Plato’s speech The Republic before completing a Skill: Context Clues lesson to determine word meanings. Students apply their understanding of word meaning as they discuss and write in the Close Read: The Republic lesson. Students begin the Concept Definition video where they learn about common context clues such as definition, example, and comparison and contrast. Students follow up this video with a vocabulary activity involving applying common context clues by matching meaning to the type of clue. In the next section of the lesson, students use a context clue checklist to note and determine word meaning. One item students need to note is signal words that cue a type of context clue. Students finish the lesson with a multiple-choice assessment applying new knowledge about word meaning. Students accelerate vocabulary learning while reading, speaking in Turn and Talk opportunities, and writing as they practice annotating.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, students complete a lesson about Academic Vocabulary—Debating with Others—during which students learn ten words: adapt, clarify, confirm, contradict, convert, deny, eliminate, infer, somewhat, and thereby. A model is available to help students “better understand the academic texts that you read and will make you sound more authoritative when you write and speak for academic purposes.” Then, students complete a Your Turn section of the lesson in which they answer questions to demonstrate their understanding of the Academic Vocabulary. During a first read of “The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science,” by Pew Research Center, students use context clues to make predictions about the boldfaced vocabulary word contradictory. At the end of the unit, students complete a Vocabulary Review of the same Academic Vocabulary words. During the Your Turn section, students sort the vocabulary words to demonstrate a positive connotation or negative connotation.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students begin the unit with a list of 10 Academic Vocabulary terms. Throughout the unit, teachers may spiral back to the terms in discussions. At the end of the unit, students complete a Vocabulary Review. They engage with various vocabulary strategies demonstrating their comprehension, including finding words’ origins, putting words in the context of a graphic, and acting the words out. They categorize the words before finally responding to a discussion prompt about themes from the unit. Teachers encourage students to use as many vocabulary terms as possible, and write in response to the following prompt: "Reflect on your experience. How many vocabulary words were you able to incorporate? How comfortable did you feel recalling and using these words? What strategies were beneficial in learning these words, and what will you adjust in the future?”

The StudySync instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan to 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.

StudySync materials provide students the opportunity to participate in a wide range of writing tasks, including short-response questions, Think questions, and Extended Writing Projects throughout the year. The tasks vary in length and purpose and help students develop their informational and narrative writing skills. Students must defend their writing and ideas with textual evidence. Extended Writing Projects walk students through each stage of the writing process and allow students to monitor their progress with rubrics, checklists, and graphic organizers. Writing instruction and assignments scale up in difficulty throughout the year.

Writing instruction supports students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the year. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, students complete an Extended Writing Project. This culminating writing task focuses on informational writing styles and asks students to answer the following prompt: “How does community influence our goals?” Students complete prewriting activities including organizing their ideas and developing a thesis statement. They also read a Student Model and annotate for organizational structure and the parts of an essay. Multiple Skill lessons help them identify supporting details and develop strong introductions, transitions, and conclusions. After submitting the first draft, students revise their work before editing and publishing.
• In Unit 4, The Ties that Bind, students read an excerpt from Firoozeh Dumas’s Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America alongside an excerpt from Larissa FastHorse’s Cherokee Family Reunion. Students dive into the tone of informational texts through direct instruction and Collaborative Conversations with fellow students. They write in response to the following prompt: “Select examples of language in each of these texts used to convey an embarrassed tone. Then, write a response in which you analyze how those examples of language contribute to the tone.” Once students complete their essays, they give and receive feedback from others and reflect on the feedback on their essays.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred and Blended, students continue to receive similar supports found at the beginning and middle of the unit to teach and develop their writing. Students evaluate the effectiveness of informational text skills. Students gain practice in developing this complex skill using the text “The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science,” by Cary Funk & Brian Kennedy. There are many lessons connected to this text, but the Skill lessons that help students better evaluate informational texts are Skill: Technical Language and Skill: Informational Text Elements. In the Skill: Informational Text Elements lesson, students identify and determine how the author includes elements, such as subject, key details, and other features such as charts or photos.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students complete an End-of-Unit Assessment with grade-level-appropriate passages and writing prompts to assess their performance. The assessment includes short responses requiring evidence from the passage to support students’ responses. Question 40 includes writing “a research report on how the past and present can affect the future.” Students read three passages, and the task requires “at least two examples from the unit texts.” The task aligns with grade-level writing standards. A Writer’s Checklist with reminders is available for students as additional support, and the instructional materials include an exemplary response and explanation/rationale for teachers when scoring student work.

Instructional materials include a variety of well-designed guidance, protocols, models, and support for teachers to implement and monitor students’ writing development. For example, some examples are as follows:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, the unit design includes an introduction of a grade-level skill and then multiple practice opportunities for applying those same skills in writing. Students learn and study the Skill lesson on theme after reading the novel excerpt She Unnames Them, by Ursula K. Le Guin. The next text that they read is a short story “Story of a Vision,” by Francis La Fliche, and students use their prior Skill lesson on theme to respond to a literary analysis prompt. During the Close Read of Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe and Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, students explain how similar themes about masculinity are developed in both texts through characterization in a short written response. The Optional pre-write activity with the graphic organizer allows students to use a Venn Diagram to begin planning their responses. The instructions prompt teachers to remind students to look at both texts and their annotations for textual evidence to support their ideas.
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, one autobiographical essay, “Seeing at the Speed of Sound,” by Rachel Kolb, includes multiple lessons to develop grade-level writing skills. The First Read lesson provides teachers with a lesson plan that begins with the learning objective, applicable standards, time frame expectations, and suggested grouping for activities within the lesson. Teachers follow a four-part lesson with support to guide students who need extra assistance. Sample answers are available for teachers. For instance, in step four of this lesson, students respond to Think questions relating to the standards taught in the lesson, and the materials provide teachers with possible answers to the skill questions that require students to use evidence from the text. Other lessons that build students' writing skills with this text include Skill: Connotation and Denotation, where a student model provides guidance, Skill: Media, and Close Read. These lessons are well-designed as students now apply what they have learned during their response to an argumentative prompt on which medium, the essay or video, is more effective for conveying a character’s challenges.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students complete a Timed Writing: Zoos as the final piece of the Instructional Path within Integrated Reading and Writing. The Timed Writing takes place before an End-Of-Unit Assessment. Students respond to a writing prompt, and a graphic organizer assists students with “track[ing] the ways in which the author uses features of argumentative writing to build an argument.” The Teacher Edition includes the following additional guidance: “Scaffolds are provided to assist students as they practice timed writing. To replicate the testing environment, turn off scaffolds, but allow students to ask clarifying questions about unknown words or phrases in the prompt.”

The StudySyncinstructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to develop and synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials.

StudySync materials provide opportunities for students to engage in online research and discussion around Blast topics and cite evidence from multiple sources in Extended Writing Projects and Extended Oral Projects. Materials support teachers in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge of different aspects of a topic. The research for each Blast gives students direct links. As students work on culminating tasks that require research, the prompts give them suggestions on figures, topics, or themes to help them begin. Teacher-facing materials provide instructors with guidance on how to help struggling students complete their research, along with scaffolds to build student independence. The Extended Writing Projects and Extended Oral Projects that are at the end of the units require students to go through the entire writing process, and they work together in groups or pairs for editing and revising tasks. They are required to synthesize information from multiple texts in the unit, and must often include outside research as well. The materials provide guidance and support to teachers, including but not limited to, questions to prompt student thinking, graphic organizers to assist students, and an option for teachers to provide various scaffolds for students.

Research projects are varied throughout materials, and students are provided with opportunities for both “short” and “long” projects across the course of a year and grade bands. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• Students have opportunities to engage in “short” projects across grades and grade bands.
• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, within the Big Idea Blast: Discovering DNA, students participate in informal research. After exploring background information, research links provide students access to sources that provide additional insight into the topic. After assigning, teachers have the option to jigsaw the research links; the materials provide guidance. Each group can research a different link and discuss the source’s information, using the following questions as a guide: “What are the source’s key ideas? What evidence from the source is new or interesting to you? How does the source help to answer the driving question?” Examples of links students can explore include but are not limited to: “Everyone on Earth is related to everyone else, DNA shows,” by Eryn Brown and “Deciphering the Genetic Code,” by American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks. Then, students write a 140-character response to the question “How is DNA a common language?”
• In Unit 3, The Persistence of Memories, students complete a Big Idea Blast: The Persistence of Memories. Students explore background information and research links about a topic and respond to the following question: “How does the past impact the future?” Examples of links students explore during their research process include but are not limited to: “Birth of Memory: Why Kids Forget What Happened Before Age 7,” by Kate Gammon and “What Your Most Vivid Memories Say About You,” by Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students complete the Big Blast after rereading Anna Quindlen’s essay “A Quilt of a Country.” Students read an informational text to gather information on Generation Z, Millennials, and The Greatest Generation. Students highlight information in the text that answers the driving question “What issues shape your generation’s worldview?” Teachers have the option to place students in six small groups to jigsaw their research link and answer questions on key ideas, new information of interest, and connections to answer the driving question.
• Students have opportunities to engage in “long” projects across grades and grade bands.
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, during the Extended Writing Project found at the end of this unit, students gather ideas and information from multiple resources to describe the challenge of individuals in their goal to help their communities. Students analyze the connection between individual and community goals. Students utilize a graphic organizer in their planning, adding thoughts on the thesis, the main idea in evidence from first, second and third sources, and concluding thoughts. Three Skill lessons in this project, Organizing Informative Writing, Thesis Statement, and Supporting Details, provide students with a wealth of information to pull from in order to complete this project.
• In Unit 4, The Ties that Bind, students complete an argumentative oral presentation for the Extended Oral Project. Students must interview someone in their life whom they respect and include evidence from three research sources. Sources may include “diverse media formats.” The speech is a multistep assignment, carrying students through the writing process as well as research protocols.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, students engage in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes as they conduct research during the Extended Writing Project. During the Plan lesson, students practice annotating research writing with a Student Model. The Teacher Edition provides questions with sample answers to help students understand how to research and take notes: “What information did Josh include on each source card? How did that information help Josh? What information did Josh include on each note card? How did that information help Josh? How did reviewing note cards help Josh synthesize information?”

The StudySync instructional materials reviewed for Grade 10 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.

StudySync materials provide students with the opportunity to participate in independent reading selections within each unit. These selections pair with a core text that receives full instructional support; students also participate in a Self-Selected Blast at the end of each unit. Students may access texts in the StudySync library for self-selected reading; these texts “fit with the theme and Lexile range for that particular unit, so teachers can be sure the options are appropriate for their students.” The Pacing Guide has been updated to include the Self-Selected Readings and the Program Guide now includes a section titled Building an Outside Independent Reading Program. There is a tracking system to track independent reading.

Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, The Power of Communication, supports are in place to foster independent reading, such as during the independent read of “The Story of a Vision,” by Francis La Fleche, when the materials include guidance that reminds students to monitor comprehension by “using background knowledge to make inferences about anything that is not directly stated.” “Text Talk questions help teachers gauge student comprehension of a text, but additional questions for beyond grade-level students encourage deeper consideration of a text, allowing students to begin preliminary analysis.” Another option for students is the self-selection of the excerpt from Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak. The StudySync Library provides an option to “Add to bookshelf” and annotate the text. The selection is an excerpt from the novel, and students should be able to complete it within the same class period. The materials do not indicate if any additional time should be allotted outside of class for students to complete the selections and what to anticipate for independent reading.
• In Unit 2, Moving Forward, supports are in place for students to independently read a variety of interactive digital texts to explore the Essential Question, “How does culture influence your goals?” The poem “The Gathering Place,” by Amanda Gorman, the speeches “Valedictorian Address at Anacostia High School,” by Rashema Melson, “A Plea for Global Education,” by Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Global Vision, and “Remarks at the UN General Assembly,” by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are all read alongside texts that include Skill Lessons and Close Reads. An excerpt from Night, by Elie Wiesel and the short story “Civil Peace,” by Chinua Achebe are read independently without paired texts. While independently reading, students are encouraged to annotate and identify the following: context clues for vocabulary, questions about the text, key details, and examples of descriptive language. Teacher-facing materials provide teachers guidance. For example, “Project exemplar questions as a model for students as they continue reading.” Following each independent read, students assess their comprehension through a short online quiz or written response.
• In Unit 3, Persistence of Memories, supports are in place for students to read an independent reading selection paired with a core text that receives full instructional support. For example, students “Analyze Differing Perspectives” when independently reading By Any Other Name, by Santha Rama Rau paired with “Rituals of Memory,” by Kimberly Blaeser. The materials offer additional supports for students to identify informational text structure, determine figurative meanings of words and phrases in the text, and analyze the cumulative effect of specific word choices on style, meaning, and tone. The independent reading schedule also includes a Self-Selected Blast at the end of each unit. In Unit 3, the materials recommend options to select another related text by asking questions, such as “Am I curious about what life might be like growing up in a different country? Then, we suggest A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.”
• In Unit 4, The Ties the Bind, supports are in place for students to independently read a variety of interactive digital texts to explore the Essential Question, “What brings us back to one another?” The speech from As You Like It (Act II, Scene vii), by William Shakespeare, an excerpt from Cherokee Family Reunion, by Larissa Fasthorse, and short stories “People Should Not Die in June in South Texas,” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Sabado Gigante,” by Daniel Chacón are all read alongside other texts that include Skill Lessons and Close Reads. Students independently read the poems “On the Painting of the Sistine Chapel,” by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Translated by John Frederick Nims) and “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye; these selections are not paired with other texts. While independently reading, students are encouraged to annotate and identify the following: context clues for vocabulary, questions about the text, key details, and examples of descriptive language. Teacher-facing materials provide this guidance, “Ask small groups to provide examples of inferences they have made and textual evidence they used to support their inferences. Project exemplar inferences as a model for students as they continue reading.” Following each independent read, students assess their comprehension through a short online quiz or written response.
• In Unit 5, Chopped, Stirred, and Blended, reading materials span a wide volume of texts, offering students the freedom to choose independent reading selections through the StudySync library as they self-monitor while reading, creating an appropriate balance of choice and independent reading at an appropriate level of complexity. Examples of independent selections within the unit include “Florida’s Edible Wild Plants: A Guide to Collecting and Cooking,” by Peggy Sias Lantz, a poem “Ethiopia,” by Audre Lorde, and “Chinese Cooking,” by Chen Jitong. Examples of self-selected texts connecting to the genre include but are not limited to: Little Bee: A Novel, by Chris Cleave, “When Chocolate Was Medicine: Colmenero, Wadsworth, and Dufour,” by Christine Jones, and an excerpt from The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.
• In Unit 6, Origin Stories, supports are in place for students to independently read a variety of interactive digital texts to explore the Essential Question, “How does who we were guide who we will become?” The poems “The City that Never Stops Giving,” by Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay and “Past & Future,” by Sarojini Naidu, the speech “Worship the Spirit of Criticism: Address at the Pasteur Institute,” by Louis Pasteur, and the excerpt from Najla Said’s memoir Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an American-Arab Family are all independently read alongside other texts that include Skill Lessons and Close Reads. The short story “The Nose,” by Nikolai Gogol and informational text “Creation Myths from Around the World,” by Angie Shumov are read independently without paired texts. While independently reading, students are encouraged to annotate and identify the following: context clues for vocabulary, questions about the text, key details, and examples of descriptive language. Teacher-facing materials provide teachers guidance, such as “Ask small groups to provide examples of questions they have generated and why they asked them. Project exemplar questions as a model for students as they continue reading.” Following each independent read, students assess their comprehension through a short online quiz or written response.