English 6-12

English Curriculum 2013

English/ Language Arts Philosophy

A literate classroom environment is built around the philosophy that reading

and writing skills are best learned in authentic situations that have meaning

for the learner. Our mission as educators is to provide an integrated approach to teaching and learning English/language arts. This is based on the principle

that listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing are the foundations of

effective communication. Curriculum and instruction in this environment will reflect

the

knowledge

that

students

learn

language

and

communication skills through meaningful contexts and experiences.

develop

Students in the Colchester Public Schools will read closely to determine what

a text says explicitly, make logical inferences and meaningful connections, and cite specific evidence to support conclusions. Students will write effectively to achieve a specific purpose, considering audience and intent. Students will gain

cultural knowledge, develop the ability to evaluate arguments, and learn to surmount challenges posed by complex texts through wide and deep reading of texts of steadily increasing sophistication. To become college and career

ready, our students will grapple with works of exceptional craft extending

across genres, cultures, and centuries; such works offer profound insight into the human condition and serve as models for students’ own thinking and writing.

COLCHESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM Program Goals As a result of Colchester’s English/ Language Arts program, students will: 1. comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of styles and genres. 2. construct effective arguments and convey complex information. 3. independently discern a speaker’s key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions. 4. articulate their own ideas, build on others’ ideas and confirm understanding. 5. demonstrate command of standard English; acquire and use a broad vocabulary in written and oral expression. 6. read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise. 7. adapt their communication in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline. 8. set and adjust purpose for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use as warranted by the task. 9. be engaged, open-minded, and critical readers and listeners. 10. cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. 11. employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. 12. acknowledge and explore widely divergent cultures and diverse experiences in order to learn and collaborate in the classroom, community, and workplace.

1. Creativity and Innovation Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students: a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. d. identify trends and forecast possibilities. 2. Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students: a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems. 3. Research and Information Fluency Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students: a. plan strategies to guide inquiry. b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. c. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. d. process data and report results. 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students: a. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions. d. use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions. 5. Digital Citizenship Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students: a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology. b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity. c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning. d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. 6. Technology Operations and Concepts Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students: a. b. c. d.

understand and use technology systems. select and use applications effectively and productively. troubleshoot systems and applications. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

© 2007 International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE® is a registered trademark of the International Society for Technology in Education.

ANCHOR STANDARDS FOR READING

Key Ideas and Details

1

Read and closely determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2

Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas

3

Analyze in detail where, when, why, and how events, ideas, and characters develop and interact over the course of a text.

Craft and Structure

4 5

6

Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and explain how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7

Synthesize and apply information presented in diverse ways (e.g., through words, images, graphs, and video) in print and digital sources in order to answer questions, solve problems, or compare modes of presentation

8

Delineate and evaluate the reasoning and rhetoric within a text, including assessing whether the evidence provided is relevant and sufficient to support the text’s claims. (nonfiction)

9

Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. (C1: text-to-text)

Range and Level of Text Complexity

10

Read complex texts independently, proficiently, and fluently, sustaining concentration, monitoring comprehension, and when useful, rereading.

©Nancy Boyles2012

COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS & LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES, SCIENCE, AND TECHNICAL SUBJECTS

STANDARDS FOR

English Language Arts 6–12


College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading The grades 6–12 standards on the following pages define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards below by number. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.

Key Ideas and Details 1.

Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2.

Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3.

Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Craft and Structure 4.

Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5.

Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6.

Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

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Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7.

Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.*

8.

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

9.

Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

* Please see “Research to Build Knowledge” in Writing and “Comprehension and Collaboration” in Speaking and Listening for additional standards relevant to gathering, assessing, and applying information from print and digital sources.

Note on range and content of student reading To become college and career ready, students must grapple with works of exceptional craft and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, and centuries. Such works offer profound insights into the human condition and serve as models for students’ own thinking and writing. Along with high-quality contemporary works, these texts should be chosen from among seminal U.S. documents, the classics of American literature, and the timeless dramas of Shakespeare. Through wide and deep reading of literature and literary nonfiction of steadily increasing sophistication, students gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge, references, and images; the ability to evaluate intricate arguments; and the capacity to surmount the challenges posed by complex texts.


Reading Standards for Literature 6–12

RL

The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.

Grade 6 students:

Grade 7 students:

Grade 8 students:


Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

1.

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

1.

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

2.

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

2.

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

2.

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

3.

Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

3.

Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).

3.

Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

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Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

4.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.

4.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

5.

Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

5.

Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.

5.

Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.

6.

Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

6.

Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

6.

Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.


Reading Standards for Literature 6–12 Grade 6 students:

RL

Grade 7 students:

Grade 8 students:


Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.

7.

Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).

7.

Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

8.

(Not applicable to literature)

8.


8.


9.

Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.

9.

Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.

9.

Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new.

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

10.

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

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10.

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

10.


Reading Standards for Literature 6–12

RL

The CCR anchor standards and high school grade-specific standards work in tandem to define college and career readiness expectations—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity.

Grades 9–10 students:



Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

1.

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2.

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

2.

Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

3.

Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

3.

Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

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Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

4.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)

5.

Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

5.

Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

6.

Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

6.

Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).


Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).

7.

Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

8.


8.


9.

Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

9.

Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.

10.

By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10.

By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.


Reading Standards for Informational Text 6–12 Grade 6 students:

RI

Grade 7 students:

Grade 8 students:


Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

1.

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

1.

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

2.

Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

2.

Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

2.

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

3.

Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).

3.

Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).

3.

Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

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Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.

4.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

4.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

5.

Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.

5.

Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.

5.

Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept.

6.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

6.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.

6.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.


Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

7.

Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).

7.

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.

8.

Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

8.

Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.

8.

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

9.

Compare and contrast one author’s presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).

9.

Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.

9.

Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

10.

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.


By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

10.


Reading Standards for Informational Text 6–12

RI





Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

1.

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2.

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

2.

Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

3.

Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

3.

Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

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6-12 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS | READING: INFORMATIONAL TEXT


Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

4.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

5.

Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

5.

Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

6.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

6.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.


Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.

7.

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

8.

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

8.

Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses).

9.

Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts.

9.

Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

10.

By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.


By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.


College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing The grades 6–12 standards on the following pages define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards below by number. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.

Text Types and Purposes* 1.

Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

2.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

3.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Production and Distribution of Writing 4.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5.

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

6.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

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6-12 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS | WRITING

Research to Build and Present Knowledge 7.

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

8.

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

9.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Range of Writing 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

*

These broad types of writing include many subgenres. See Appendix A for definitions of key writing types.

Note on range and content of student writing For students, writing is a key means of asserting and defending claims, showing what they know about a subject, and conveying what they have experienced, imagined, thought, and felt. To be college- and careerready writers, students must take task, purpose, and audience into careful consideration, choosing words, information, structures, and formats deliberately. They need to know how to combine elements of different kinds of writing—for example, to use narrative strategies within argument and explanation within narrative— to produce complex and nuanced writing. They need to be able to use technology strategically when creating, refining, and collaborating on writing. They have to become adept at gathering information, evaluating sources, and citing material accurately, reporting findings from their research and analysis of sources in a clear and cogent manner. They must have the flexibility, concentration, and fluency to produce high-quality firstdraft text under a tight deadline as well as the capacity to revisit and make improvements to a piece of writing over multiple drafts when circumstances encourage or require it.


Writing Standards 6–12

W

The following standards for grades 6–12 offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades. The expected growth in student writing ability is reflected both in the standards themselves and in the collection of annotated student writing samples in Appendix C.

Grade 6 students:

Grade 7 students:

Grade 8 students:

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Text Types and Purposes 1.

Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly. b. Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.

1.

Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

1.

Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

2.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c. Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented.

2.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/ effect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c. Use appropriate transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented.

2.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented.



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Grade 6 students:

Grade 7 students:

Grade 8 students:

Text Types and Purposes (continued) 3.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

3.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.

3.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events. d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.

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Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

4.


4.


5.

With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 6 on page 53.)

5.

With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 7 on page 53.)

5.

With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 8 on page 53.)

6.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.

6.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.

6.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.



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Grade 6 students:

Grade 7 students:

Grade 8 students:

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Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

7.

Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation.

7.

Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

8.

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.

8.

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

8.

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

9.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres [e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories] in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics”). b. Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not”).

9.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grade 7 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history”). b. Apply grade 7 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g. “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims”).

9.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grade 8 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new”). b. Apply grade 8 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced”).

10.

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

10.


Range of Writing 10.




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Text Types and Purposes 1.

Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. a. Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

1.

Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. a. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

2.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

2.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).



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Text Types and Purposes (continued) 3.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole. d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

3.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution). d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

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4.


5.

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 9–10 on page 55.)

5.

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 11–12 on page 55.)

6.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

6.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.


Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

7.

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

8.

Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

8.

Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.



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Research to Build and Present Knowledge (continued) 9.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]”). b. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning”).

9.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”). b. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court Case majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy [e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses]”).

10.

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Range of Writing

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10.

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.


College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening

Note on range and content of student speaking and listening

The grades 6–12 standards on the following pages define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards below by number. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.

To become college and career ready, students must have ample opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations—as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner—built around important content in various domains. They must be able to contribute appropriately to these conversations, to make comparisons and contrasts, and to analyze and synthesize a multitude of ideas in accordance with the standards of evidence appropriate to a particular discipline. Whatever their intended major or profession, high school graduates will depend heavily on their ability to listen attentively to others so that they are able to build on others’ meritorious ideas while expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Comprehension and Collaboration 1.

Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

2.

Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

3.

Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

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Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas 4.

Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5.

Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

6.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

New technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and have tightened their link to other forms of communication. The Internet has accelerated the speed at which connections between speaking, listening, reading, and writing can be made, requiring that students be ready to use these modalities nearly simultaneously. Technology itself is changing quickly, creating a new urgency for students to be adaptable in response to change.


Speaking and Listening Standards 6–12

SL

The following standards for grades 6–12 offer a focus for instruction in each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.

Grade 6 students:

Grade 8 students:

Grade 7 students:

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Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. b. Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. c. Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion. d. Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.

1.

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. b. Follow rules for collegial discussions, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. c. Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed. d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others and, when warranted, modify their own views.

1.

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. b. Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented.

2.

Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.

2.

Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.

2.

Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.

3.

Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

3.

Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

3.

Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced.


Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

4.

Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

4.

Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

5.

Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.

5.

Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

5.

Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

6.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 6 Language standards 1 and 3 on page 53 for specific expectations.)

6.


6.



Speaking and Listening Standards 6–12

SL




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Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. b. Work with peers to set rules for collegial discussions and decision-making (e.g., informal consensus, taking votes on key issues, presentation of alternate views), clear goals and deadlines, and individual roles as needed. c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions. d. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.

1.

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, wellreasoned exchange of ideas. b. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decisionmaking, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. d. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

2.

Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.

2.

Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

3.

Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

3.

Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.


Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

4.

Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

5.

Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

5.

Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

6.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 9–10 Language standards 1 and 3 on page 54 for specific expectations.)

6.

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 11–12 Language standards 1 and 3 on page 54 for specific expectations.)


College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language The grades 6–12 standards on the following pages define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards below by number. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.

Conventions of Standard English 1.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

2.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Knowledge of Language 3.

Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

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Vocabulary Acquisition and Use 4.

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

5.

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

6.

Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Note on range and content of student language use To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions of standard English. At the same time, they must come to appreciate that language is as at least as much a matter of craft as of rules and be able to choose words, syntax, and punctuation to express themselves and achieve particular functions and rhetorical effects. They must also have extensive vocabularies, built through reading and study, enabling them to comprehend complex texts and engage in purposeful writing about and conversations around content. They need to become skilled in determining or clarifying the meaning of words and phrases they encounter, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies to aid them. They must learn to see an individual word as part of a network of other words—words, for example, that have similar denotations but different connotations. The inclusion of Language standards in their own strand should not be taken as an indication that skills related to conventions, effective language use, and vocabulary are unimportant to reading, writing, speaking, and listening; indeed, they are inseparable from such contexts.


Language Standards 6–12

L

The following standards for grades 6–12 offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades. Beginning in grade 3, skills and understandings that are particularly likely to require continued attention in higher grades as they are applied to increasingly sophisticated writing and speaking are marked with an asterisk (*). See the table on page 56 for a complete listing and Appendix A for an example of how these skills develop in sophistication.

Grade 6 students:

Grade 8 students:

Grade 7 students:

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Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, possessive). b. Use intensive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves). c. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person.* d. Recognize and correct vague pronouns (i.e., ones with unclear or ambiguous antecedents).* e. Recognize variations from standard English in their own and others’ writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language.*

1.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Explain the function of phrases and clauses in general and their function in specific sentences. b. Choose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas. c. Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers.*

1.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Explain the function of verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives) in general and their function in particular sentences. b. Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice. c. Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood. d. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood.*

2.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements.* b. Spell correctly.

2.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives (e.g., It was a fascinating, enjoyable movie but not He wore an old[,] green shirt). b. Spell correctly.

2.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. b. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission. c. Spell correctly.

3.

Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. a. Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.*

3.

Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. a. Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact).

Knowledge of Language 3.

Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. a. Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/ listener interest, and style.* b. Maintain consistency in style and tone.*



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Grade 6 students:

Grade 8 students:

Grade 7 students:

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Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 6 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., audience, auditory, audible). c. Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

4.

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., belligerent, bellicose, rebel). c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

4.

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede). c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

5.

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., personification) in context. b. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words. c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty).

5.

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., literary, biblical, and mythological allusions) in context. b. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonym/antonym, analogy) to better understand each of the words. c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., refined, respectful, polite, diplomatic, condescending).

5.

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute).

6.

Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

6.


6.




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Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Use parallel structure.* b. Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent; noun, relative, adverbial) to convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or presentations.

1.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested. b. Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references (e.g., Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.

2.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use a semicolon (and perhaps a conjunctive adverb) to link two or more closely related independent clauses. b. Use a colon to introduce a list or quotation. c. Spell correctly.

2.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Observe hyphenation conventions. b. Spell correctly.

3.

Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. a. Vary syntax for effect, consulting references (e.g., Tufte’s Artful Sentences) for guidance as needed; apply an understanding of syntax to the study of complex texts when reading.

Knowledge of Language

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3.

Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. a. Write and edit work so that it conforms to the guidelines in a style manual (e.g., MLA Handbook, Turabian’s Manual for Writers) appropriate for the discipline and writing type.



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Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical; advocate, advocacy). c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, or its etymology. d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

4.

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., conceive, conception, conceivable). c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage. d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

5.

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the text. b. Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

5.

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text. b. Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

6.

Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

6.

Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.


Language Progressive Skills, by Grade The following skills, marked with an asterisk (*) in Language standards 1–3, are particularly likely to require continued attention in higher grades as they are applied to increasingly sophisticated writing and speaking.

Standard L.3.1f. Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement. L.3.3a. Choose words and phrases for effect. L.4.1f. Produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run-ons. L.4.1g. Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to/too/two; there/their). L.4.3a. Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.* L.4.3b. Choose punctuation for effect. L.5.1d. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense. L.5.2a. Use punctuation to separate items in a series.† L.6.1c. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person. L.6.1d. Recognize and correct vague pronouns (i.e., ones with unclear or ambiguous antecedents). L.6.1e. Recognize variations from standard English in their own and others’ writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language.

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L.6.2a. Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements. L.6.3a. Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.‡ L.6.3b. Maintain consistency in style and tone. L.7.1c. Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers. L.7.3a. Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy. L.8.1d. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood. L.9–10.1a. Use parallel structure.

*

Subsumed by L.7.3a Subsumed by L.9–10.1a ‡ Subsumed by L.11–12.3a †

Grade(s) 3

4

5

6

7

8

9–10

11–12


Standard 10: Range, Quality, and Complexity of Student Reading 6–12 Measuring Text Complexity: Three Factors Qualitative evaluation of the text: Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands Quantitative evaluation of the text: Readability measures and other scores of text complexity Matching reader to text and task:

Reader variables (such as motivation, knowledge, and experiences) and task variables (such as purpose and the complexity generated by the task assigned and the questions posed)

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6-12 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS | READING STANDARD 10

Note: More detailed information on text complexity and how it is measured is contained in Appendix A.

Range of Text Types for 6–12 Students in grades 6–12 apply the Reading standards to the following range of text types, with texts selected from a broad range of cultures and periods.

Literature

Informational Text

Stories

Drama

Poetry

Literary Nonfiction

Includes the subgenres of adventure stories, historical fiction, mysteries, myths, science fiction, realistic fiction, allegories, parodies, satire, and graphic novels

Includes one-act and multi-act plays, both in written form and on film

Includes the subgenres of narrative poems, lyrical poems, free verse poems, sonnets, odes, ballads, and epics

Includes the subgenres of exposition, argument, and functional text in the form of personal essays, speeches, opinion pieces, essays about art or literature, biographies, memoirs, journalism, and historical, scientific, technical, or economic accounts (including digital sources) written for a broad audience


Texts Illustrating the Complexity, Quality, and Range of Student Reading 6–12 Literature: Stories, Dramas, Poetry

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1869) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (1845)

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1915) 6–8

Informational Texts: Literary Nonfiction

“Letter on Thomas Jefferson” by John Adams (1776)

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973) Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (1975) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (1976)

“Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940” by Winston Churchill (1940) Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry (1955) Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck (1962)

9–10

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1592)

“Speech to the Second Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry (1775)

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)

“Farewell Address” by George Washington (1796)

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)

“Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln (1863)

“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (1906)

“State of the Union Address” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1941)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

“Hope, Despair and Memory” by Elie Wiesel (1997)

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6-12 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS | READING STANDARD 10

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975)

11– CCR

Note:

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1820)

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1848)

Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)

“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson (1890)

“Society and Solitude” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1857)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

“The Fallacy of Success” by G. K. Chesterton (1909)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

Black Boy by Richard Wright (1945)

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959)

“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell (1946)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003)

“Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” by Rudolfo Anaya (1995)

Given space limitations, the illustrative texts listed above are meant only to show individual titles that are representative of a range of topics and genres. (See Appendix B for excerpts of these and other texts illustrative of grades 6–12 text complexity, quality, and range.) At a curricular or instructional level, within and across grade levels, texts need to be selected around topics or themes that generate knowledge and allow students to study those topics or themes in depth.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION GRAMMAR PROGRESSION SKILLS CHART Grade 6 Mechanics: capitalization, spelling, punctuation Usage: Direct, indirect object Predicate nominative/adjective Pronoun antecedent/ agreement Subject/verb agreement Use of subjective and objective pronouns Parts of speech Phrases: Infinitive Prepositional Clauses: Dependent/subordinate Independent Sentence purpose Declarative, exclamatory, imperative, interrogative Sentence structure Complex, compound, compound-complex, simple Sentence variety Sentence beginnings, sentence combining Syntax techniques Repetition Analysis of a text Meaning and effect related to parts of speech and phrases Grade 7 Grade 6 skills plus the following Parts of speech Phrases Appositive Sentence structure Loose/cumulative, Periodic Syntax techniques Reversal – inverted order Analysis of a text Meaning and effect related to clauses and sentences

Grade 8 Grade 7 skills plus the following Phrases: Gerund Infinitive Participial Syntax techniques Omission Asyndeton (deliberate omission of conjunctions for effect) Parallelism Polysyndeton (use of several conjunctions for effect) Grade 9 Grade 8 skills plus the following Syntax techniques Antithesis Juxtaposition Omission—ellipses Repetition anaphora (repetition of words at the beginning of phrases) epistrophe or antistrophe (repetition of words at the end of phrases) Analysis of a text Meaning and effect related to syntax

Grade 10 Grade 9 skills plus the following Phrases: Absolute Sentence Structure Antithetical Balanced Syntax techniques Rhetorical fragment Rhetorical question Analysis of a text Rhetorical analysis focused on syntax

THE FIVE STEPS OF THE WRITING PROCESS STEP 1: PREWRITING

THINK

• • • • •

Decide on a topic to write about. Consider who will read or listen to your written work. Brainstorm ideas about the subject. List places where you can research information. Do your research.

STEP 2: DRAFTING

WRITE

• • • •

Put the information you researched into your own words. Write sentences and paragraphs even if they are not perfect. Read what you have written and judge if it says what you mean. Show it to others and ask for suggestions.

STEP 3: REVISING

MAKE IT BETTER

• • • • • •

Read what you have written again. Think about what others said about it. Rearrange words or sentences. Take out or add parts. Replace overused or unclear words. Read your writing aloud to be sure it flows smoothly.

STEP 4: PROOFREADING

MAKE IT CORRECT

• • • • •

Be sure all sentences are complete. Correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Change words that are not used correctly. Have someone check your work. Retype or rewrite it correctly and neatly.

STEP 5: PUBLISHING

SHARE THE FINISHED PRODUCT

• • • • • •

Read your writing aloud to a group. Create a book of your work. Send a copy to a friend or relative. Put your writing on display. Illustrate, perform, or set your creation to music. Congratulate yourself on a job well done!

Freshman Literary Terms

Sophomore Literary Terms

Junior Literary Terms

Senior Literary Terms

Characterization Flat/Round Static/Dynamic Foil Stock Protagonist Antagonist Plot Elements Exposition Rising Action Conflict Falling Action Foreshadowing Flashback Theme Setting Irony Tone Diction Dialect Idiom Denotation Connotation

Characterization Direct Indirect Point of View Imagery Irony Mood Tone Symbolism Theme Allusion Allegory Hyperbole Understatement Sound Devices Alliteration Assonance Consonance Figurative Language Metaphor Simile Personification Rhetoric (Introductory) Author’s Purpose Audience Ethical Appeals Emotional Appeals Logical Appeals

Point of View Narrator’s Credibility Aristotle’s Rules for Tragedy Catharsis Hamartia Hubris Tragic Hero Recognition Reversal Eponym Allusion Epiphany Symbolism Theme Author’s Purpose Epigram Proverbs Sound Devices Alliteration Assonance Consonance Rhyme Irony Zeitgeist Foreshadowing/Flashback Suspense Mood /Tone Imagery Allegory Rhetorical Appeals Ethical Appeals Emotional Appeals Logical Appeals Subject/Context Speaker/Audience

Characterization Motivation Plausibility Point of View Narrator’s Credibility Aristotle’s Rules for Tragedy Catharsis Hamartia Hubris Tragic Hero Recognition Reversal Determining Author’s Purpose Determining Fact and Opinion Imagery Point of View Shift Rhetorical Shift Tone Determined through diction, imagery, detail, point of view, and syntax Allusion Argumentation Emotional Appeals Ethical Appeals Logical Appeals Irony Dramatic Situational Verbal Symbolism

English Common Core Standards How the LMC can support the Common Core Standards Selected samples – Other connections available Common Core Standard

CC.9-10.L.3.a Knowledge of Language: Write and edit work so that it conforms to the guidelines in a style manual (e.g., MLA Handbook, Turabian's Manual for Writers) appropriate for the discipline and writing type.

Bacon LMC Lessons & American Assoc. of School Librarians Standards

*Lessons: Citation/Copyright/Plagiarism 1.3.1 Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers. 1.3.3 Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information. 3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.

CC.11-12.R.I.7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

*Lessons: Website Evaluation/Database Use/Better Search Techniques 1.1.4 Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. 1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness to needs, importance, and social and cultural context.

CC.9-10.SL.5 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

*Lessons: Use of21st Century web tools/Web 2.0/ Use of digital Media (i.e. Animoto, Glogs, animation) 1.3.5 Use information technology responsibly.

CC.11-12.SL.5 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information. 3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess. 4.1.7 Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information.

CC.9-10.W.8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. CC.11-12.W.8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.

*Lessons: Advanced Search Skills/ Research Skills & Techniques/Using the Library of Congress Online (primary sources)/Citation/Plagiarism 1.1.4 Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. 1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness to needs, importance, and social and cultural context. 1.3.1 Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers. 1.3.3 Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information. 3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly. 3.3.7 Respect the principles of intellectual freedom.

CC.9-10.W.1 Text Types and Purposes: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

*Lessons: Public Speaking/Persuasive Speech/ Debate/Visual Literacy & Rhetoric/ Web Tools 2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings. 3.1.3 Use writing and speaking skills to communicate new understandings effectively.

CC.9-10.W.6 Production and Distribution of Writing: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

*Lessons: Visual Literacy & Rhetoric/ Web Tools & Technology& Web 2.0/Digital Citizenship 1.1.8 Demonstrate mastery of technology tools to access information and pursue inquiry. 1.3.5 Use information technology responsibly. 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information. 2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings. 3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess. 3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly. 4.3.1 Participate in the social exchange of ideas, both electronically and in person.

CC.9-10.W.7 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

*Lessons: Research Skills & Techniques/ Evaluating Website 1.1.1 Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects and make the real world connection for using this process in own life. 1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning. 1.1.3 Develop and refine a range of questions to frame search for new understanding. 1.1.4 Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. 1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness to needs, importance, and social and cultural context. 1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning. 1.2.3 Demonstrate creativity by using multiple resources and formats.

CC.9-10.W.9 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Locating Non Textual Sources 1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness to needs, importance, and social and cultural context. 1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.

CC.9-10.W.9.a Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Apply grades 9-10 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]”).

Lessons: Using creative Internet tools

CC.11-12.W.9 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Draw evidence form literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

*Lessons: Research Skills & Techniques/ Evaluating Website

4.1.3 Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres.

1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness to needs, importance, and social and cultural context.

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 1 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Skills Grammar

Resources

Assessments

Sentence structures: declarative,

Write Source 2000

Edit/Revise Benchmarks

interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative.

G.U.M. (Instruction and Practice for

Quizzes

Parts of Speech: noun, verb, adjective,

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics) –Zaner-

adverb, conjunction, pronoun

Blosser

Subjects and Predicates

Sentence Composing for Elementary

Ending marks of punctuation

School: A Worktext to Build Better

C.C. Language 1, 2

Sentences by Don and Jenny Killgallon

Common Formative Assessments Written responses Common Core sample assessments

The Ultimate Homework Book: Grammar, Usage, & Mechanics by Marvin Terban (Scholastic) Laying the Foundations materials Reading Informational Texts

National Geographic Kids Denote unknown words

Scholastic

Annotate for a purpose

Jamestown Publisher

Determine main idea/Central idea

Daybook

Written responses (Journal Responses and

Text structure: titles, subtitles, supporting,

Reader’s Handbook

Formal Writing)

pictures, maps,

Workout: Skills Review & Practice Reading graphs

Grade 6

Cite specific textual evidence

by Coach

C.C. Informational Texts 2, 4, and 5

Interdisciplinary articles with other content areas Great Books Laying the Foundations materials Various on-line resources for non-fiction and current event articles Read all About It: Great Read-Aloud Stories, Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for Preteens and Teens -edited by Jim

Common Formative Assessments

Laying the Foundations assessments

Cold Read – Small Group/Individual Answers

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 1 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Trelease Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 Reading Literature

Literal, inferential meaning of texts

Novel choices:


Establishing plot line (focus on conflict and

Freak the Mighty

suspense)

Where the Red Fern Grows

Point of view

Freak the Mighty Common Core Literature

Setting

Guide

Written responses

Author’s craft

That’s a Great Answer! Teaching Literature


Sensory appeals/Imagery

Response to K-

Study Island

Citing evidence

Figures of speech: simile, personification,

3, ELL, and Struggling Readers by

onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance,

Nancy Boyles

metaphor

Daybook

Central idea

Great Books

Summary

Read all About It: Great Read-Aloud

Denote unknown words

Stories, Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for

Annotate for a purpose

Preteens and Teens -edited by Jim

Character: antagonist/protagonist

Trelease

Flashback

Novelinks.org (Freak the Mighty and

Mood

Where the Red Fern Grows)

C.C. Literature 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Laying the Foundations materials (Where the Red Fern Grows and Freak the Mighty)

Cold Read – Small Group/Individual Answers

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 1 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Speaking and Listening

Pose questions Listen to ideas of others

Laying the Foundations materials

Participation rubrics

Contribute in group discussion.

Great Books

Project presentation rubric

Relate speaker’s tone, and pitch to convey

Audio and video clips

meaning Present information orally

C.C. Speaking and Listening 1, 4 Vocabulary

Denote unknown words

Laying the Foundations assessments: Where

Analyzing prefixes, roots, and suffixes as

Weighty Word Book

the Red Fern Grows

clues to meanings

Dictionary


Vocabulary used in literature and

Thesaurus

Guide Assessments

informational texts

The Reader’s Journey by Harvey Daniels


Consult reference materials, both in print

and Grant Wiggins (Prentice Hall)

and digital


C.C. Language 4, 5, 6

Guide Reviser’s Toolbox by Barry Lane The Ultimate Homework Book: Grammar, Usage & Mechanics by Marvin Terban

Writing

Writing process: pre-writing, drafting,

Web-based tools (Edmodo)

CBAS Write

revising, editing,

Writing Process Wheels

Written process pieces

and reflecting

Graphic Organizers

Common Core sample assessments for

Explanatory format using source(s) to

Exemplars

Informative/Explanatory

support their ideas

Reviser’s Toolbox by Barry Lane


After the End by Barry Lane

Journal Responses

A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer

Rubrics from Review, Practice, & Mastery of

Within You by Ralph Fletcher

Common Core English Language Arts State

Review, Practice, & Mastery of Common

Standards – Perfection Learning

C.C. Writing 2, 4, 5, 6

publishing, sharing,

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 1 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? OTHER

Core English Language Arts State Standards – Perfection Learning Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (for teacher inspiration) Spelling

Locate and use resources to spell accurately

Dictionary

Written responses

Keep personal spelling lists

Thesaurus

Writing Rubrics

journals/binders C.C Language 2

Technology

Video clips Use as applicable to enhance/aid

Audio clips

understanding of ideas

Blogs

Use to aid communication with written and

Edmodo

spoken language

C.C. Writing 6,8

Assessed within authentic performance tasks

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 2 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively?

Skills:

Resources

Assessments

Write Source 2000


Building upon, and continuing with skills from marking period 1, these

new skills will be added Grammar

to instruction. Parts of Speech: personal pronouns Subjective, objective, and vague pronouns Commas: dialogue Quotation marks: dialogue and work citations Ellipses Homophones Simple sentences Sentence variety

G.U.M. (Instruction and Practice for Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics) –Zaner-Blosser

Written Responses Laying the Foundations materials CBAS Write program (web-based program) Daily Oral Language Practice

Common Core sample Assessments Quizzes/tests

C.C. Informational texts 4, 5 C.C. Language 1, 2, 3, Reading Informational Texts

Text structure Purpose for reading Point of view Main/ central idea Discern relevant from irrelevant details Cite specific textual evidence

Articles from: Jamestown Publisher Daybook Reader’s Journey (Prentice Hall) Magazine articles, such as "National Geographic" and "Newsweek" Read All About It: Great Read Aloud Stories, Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for Preteens and Teens – edited by Jim Trelease Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State

Common Formative Assessments Study Island Written responses Common Core sample assessments Laying the Foundations

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 2 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 C.C. Informational Texts Workout: Skills Review and Practice Reading 1, 2, 4, 6, 5 Grade 6 -by Coach C.C. Language 5 Interdisciplinary articles with other content areas Various on-line resources for non-fiction and current events articles

Reading Literature

Author's Craft Point of View: first person, second person, third person, omniscient Theme Character development: -flat/round -motivation Cite specific textual evidence Discern relevant from irrelevant details Inference Figures of Speech: simile, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, diction, metaphor, repetition C.C. Literature 2, 3, 4, 6 C.C. Language 5

assessments

Short stories: “Before We Were Free” (Daybook lesson 1) "All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten"


Novel choices: Freak the Mighty Where the Red Fern Grows Dandelion Wine

Written responses Common Core sample Assessments

Other Classroom Sources: Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 Reader’s Journey (Prentice Hall) Reader's Handbook Daybook Great Books Freak the Mighty Common Core Literature Guide The Reader’s Journey Selected Children's Stories (My Brother Martin, The Story of Ruby Bridges, etc.)

Study Island


Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 2

Speaking and Listening

What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Pose questions Web-based tools Listen to the ideas of others Audio and video clips Contribute in group Great Books discussions Laying the Foundations materials Relate speaker's tone and pitch to convey meaning Present findings orally

Participation rubrics Project presentation rubrics

C. C. Speaking and Listening 1, 2,3, 4, Vocabulary Denote unknown words in texts Analyze prefixes, roots, and suffixes as clues to meanings Vocabulary used in literature and informational texts Consult reference materials, both in print and digital

Writing (plan, draft, revise, edit, publish, reflect)

C.C. Language 4, 5, 6 Narrative Written response to literature and non-fiction texts Choosing format for a specific audience, purpose and task Reflection writing

Fictional Literature: Freak the Mighty, Where the Red Fern Grows, or other texts Non-fiction articles Weighty Word Book Dictionary Thesaurus Internet On-line websites Word walls

Laying the Foundations Assessments Word walls Common Formative Assessments Common Core samples Study Island

C-BAS Edmodo Writing Process wheels

Writing Prompt & Edit/Revise Benchmarks

Graphic Organizers

CBAS Write

Exemplars-model writing

Written process pieces

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 2 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Voice Reviser’s Toolbox and After the End by Barry Lane Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You by Ralph Fletcher C.C. Writing 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 9, 10

Spelling

Locate and use resources to spell accurately Keep personal spelling lists

Dictionary Thesaurus Journal/binders

Journal responses Common Core Formative Assessments for Informative/Explanatory Writing Written responses Writing Rubrics

C.C. Language 2 Technology Use as applicable to enhance/aid understanding of ideas Use to aid communication with written and spoken language

C.C. Writing 6, 8 C.C. Speaking and Listening 2, 5

C-BAS Video Clips Audio Clips Blogs

Assessed within authentic performance tasks (finished products such as essays, presentations, journal responses to video and audio tasks)


Skills:

Resources:

Assessments:

Write Source 2000


Building upon, and continuing with skills from marking periods 1 and 2,

new

Grammar

these skills will be added to instruction. Direct/Indirect Objects Clauses: Dependent/Independent


Formal Written Pieces


Common Core sample Assessments

Sentences: Complex and Compound Introduce CompoundComplex

CBAS Write program (web-based program) Quizzes/tests Daily Oral Language Practice

Sentence combining Phrases: Prepositional/Infinitive

Sentence Composing for Elementary School: A Worktext to Build Better Sentences by Don and Jenny Killgallon

Parts of Speech: Preposition Teaching the Boring Stuff Series: Commas by Randy Larson

Reading Informational Texts

C.C. Informational texts 5 C.C. Language 2, 3

The Ultimate Homework Book: Grammar, Usage & Mechanics by Marvin Terban (Scholastic)

Cause/Effect Argumentation: Trace and Evaluate an

Articles from: Jamestown Publisher Daybook


Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 3 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Argument in Text, Emotional Appeals, Logical Appeals, Call to Action C.C. Informational Texts 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 C.C. Language 5

Reading Literature


Foreshadowing Emotional Appeals/Logical Appeals Compare and Contrast texts of different genres on a similar theme

Reader’s Journey (Prentice Hall) Magazine articles, such as "National Geographic" and "Newsweek" Read All About It: Great Read Aloud Stories, Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for Preteens and Teens – edited by Jim Trelease Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 Workout: Skills Review and Practice Reading Grade 6 -by Coach Interdisciplinary articles with other content areas Various on-line resources for non-fiction and current events articles

Study Island Written responses



Other Classroom Sources: Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 C.C. Literature 1, 2, 4, 5, Reader’s Journey (Prentice Hall) 6 Reader's Handbook C.C. Informational Texts 8 Daybook C.C. Language 5 Great Books Freak the Mighty Common Core Literature Guide The Reader’s Journey Selected Children's Stories Listen to and evaluate the Web-based tools arguments of others Audio and video clips Pose questions Great Books

Common Core sample assessments Laying the Foundations assessments

Study Island Written responses Common Core sample Assessments Laying the Foundations assessments

Participation rubrics Project presentation

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 3 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Contribute in group discussions Relate speaker’s tone and pitch to convey meaning Extrapolate and evaluate evidence to support claims Present findings orally Interpret information from diverse media and texts

Laying the Foundations materials Possible Computer Programs: Movie Maker 3, Power Point, Microsoft Word, etc.

rubrics

Fictional Literature: Freak the Mighty, Where the Red Fern Grows, or other texts Non-fiction articles Weighty Word Book Dictionary Thesaurus Word walls The Ultimate Homework Book: Grammar, Usage & Mechanics by Marvin Terban

Laying the Foundations Assessments

C-BAS Edmodo


C. C. Speaking and Listening 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Vocabulary Denote unknown words in texts Analyze prefixes, roots, and suffixes as clues to meanings Key Vocabulary used in literature and informational texts Consult reference materials, both in print and digital


C.C. Language 4, 5, 6 Persuasive/Argumentative -emotional appeals - logical appeals - call to action (request) Repetition Use of Commentary

Word walls Common Formative Assessments Use of new vocabulary in formal and informal written work (rubrics)

Writing Process wheels CBAS Write Graphic Organizers

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 3 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Transitions Precise Diction Dialogue Unity in Composition C.C. Writing 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10

Written process pieces Exemplars-model writing Laying the Foundation: Diction Lesson Reviser’s Toolbox by Barry Lane After the End by Barry Lane

Journal responses Common Core Formative Assessments for Informative/Explanatory Writing

Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You by Ralph Fletcher

Spelling


Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott Dictionary Thesaurus Digital Tools Journal/binders

Written responses

C-BAS Video Clips Audio Clips Blogs Various Computer Programs: Movie Maker 3, Power Point, Microsoft Word, etc. Edmodo


Writing Rubrics




Skills:

Resources:

Assessments:

Write Source 2000


Building upon, and continuing with skills from marking periods 1 and 2,

new

these skills will be added to instruction. Grammar Pronoun/Antecedent agreement Delete Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person Predicate nominatives/adjectives Semicolons and Colons C.C. Language 1, 2, 3


Formal Written Pieces


Common Core sample Assessments

CBAS Write program (web-based program) Quizzes/tests Daily Oral Language Practice Sentence Composing for Elementary School: A Worktext to Build Better Sentences by Don and Jenny Killgallon Teaching the Boring Stuff Series: Commas by Randy Larson

Reading Informational Texts

Connotation Bias Compare/Contrast 2 or more authors’

The Ultimate Homework Book: Grammar, Usage & Mechanics by Marvin Terban (Scholastic) Articles from: Jamestown Publisher Daybook Reader’s Journey (Prentice Hall)

Common Formative Assessments Study Island

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 4 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? presentation of an event

Magazine articles, such as "National Geographic" and "Newsweek" Read All About It: Great Read Aloud Stories, Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for Preteens and Teens – edited by Jim Trelease Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 Workout: Skills Review and Practice Reading Grade 6 -by Coach Interdisciplinary articles with other content areas Various on-line resources for non-fiction and current events articles

Written responses

Symbolism Idiom Tone/Mood Allusion



C.C. Literature 4, 5

Other Classroom Sources: Crosswalk Coach for the Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6 Reader’s Journey (Prentice Hall) Reader's Handbook Daybook Great Books Freak the Mighty Common Core Literature Guide The Reader’s Journey Selected Children's Stories Web-based tools Audio and video clips Great Books Laying the Foundations materials

Written responses Common Core sample Assessments

C.C. Informational Text 9 Literature 4

Reading Literature


Compare information from diverse media and texts C. C. Literature 6

Common Core sample assessments Laying the Foundations assessments

Study Island


Participation rubrics Project presentation rubrics

Grade 6 Curriculum Map: Quarter 4 What do good readers do to understand text? What do good writers do to communicate effectively? Possible Computer Programs: Movie Maker 3, Power Point, Microsoft Word, etc. Vocabulary Denote unknown words in texts Analyze prefixes, roots, and suffixes as clues to meanings Key Vocabulary used in literature and informational texts Consult reference materials, both in print and digital


C.C. Language 4, 5, 6 Vary sentence structure Text Organization Patterns: Spacial Order of Importance Chronological

Fictional Literature: Freak the Mighty, Where the Red Fern Grows, or other texts Non-fiction articles Weighty Word Book Dictionary Thesaurus Word walls The Ultimate Homework Book: Grammar, Usage & Mechanics by Marvin Terban

Laying the Foundations Assessments

C-BAS Edmodo


Word walls Common Formative Assessments Use of new vocabulary in formal and informal written work (rubrics)

Writing Process wheels CBAS Write Graphic Organizers Written process pieces

Narrative Imitate Authors’ Styles

Exemplars-model writing Laying the Foundation: Style/Voice Lesson Reviser’s Toolbox by Barry Lane After the End by Barry Lane

C.C. Writing 3, 4 Language 3

Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You by Ralph Fletcher

Journal responses Common Core Formative Assessments for Informative/Explanatory Writing


Spelling



Written responses



Writing Rubrics




Spelling



Written responses



Writing Rubrics



Grade 7 Language Arts

QUARTER 1: Background/ Point of View

Focus question: How does background affect perspective?

Grammar

Informational Text

Skills

Resources

Assessments

(See Grammar Scope and Sequence)

Write Source (online) brainpop, towson.com

Study Island Edit and Revise

Articles from online resources, newspapers, and magazines to enrich interdisciplinary work and fictional readings: tweentribune.com, dogonews.com Colchester school web page/ Live Binder (differentiated article sets) Norwich Bulletin/Hartford Courant Up Front/ Scope/Action

Benchmark #1

Short stories: suggested titles for grouping “Fall of the House of Usher” “Cask of Amontillado” or other Poe titles

Novel response (paper bag book project, book group bi-weekly assignments and projects)

Focus on commas, apostrophes, capitalization, run-ons and fragments. Close reading of nonfiction articles. Synthesize information from multiple texts and explain similarities and differences in how a concept is expressed. Annotate for main ideas, questions, and connections. Provide a summary of the text. Identify perspective/point of view and how it influences understanding and bias. Determine tone through diction, imagery, and detail.

Literature

Determine tone through diction, imagery and detail. Identify perspective/point of view and how it influences understanding and bias. Compare/contrast characters’ perspectives. Identify and select texts based on genre. Investigate and analyze historical perspectives in multiple texts; evaluate how authors of fiction use or alter history. Identify theme and its development Provide summary of the text. Apply information in

one text to a similar situation or concept in another. Recommend books to others and explain reasons. Form opinions about texts and persuade others about a point of view. Identify components of plot diagram and apply to literature.

High interest novels/class novel Independent student novels

Responses to literature incorporating textual evidence.


QUARTER 1: Background/ Point of View

Engage audience through a rap or parody (of character, storyline). Vocabulary

Identify how vocabulary is used to affect tone/mood. Use cueing systems and context clues to determine meanings of words.


Write a well-structured piece using persuasive strategies.Paraphrase information and incorporate quotations. Write a well-structured narrative developing a real or imagined experience. Establish a context and point of view. Write from more than one point of view. Write character sketches including external and internal traits.

Spelling Technology

Interdisciplinary


Homophones Frequently misspelled words Evaluate the effectiveness of presentation, style and content of film, television or internet site (including Prezi, glogster)

Greek and Latin Roots (see appendix) prefixes (ex, un, fore, dis, pre, a) *use of graphic organizers to define each and show words that incorporate each prefix “Scoop” packet/ transitional language list Possible creative writing entry guidelines: Norwich Bulletin spooky story Incredible Shrinking Notes/differentiated nonfiction articles (Live Binder/Columbia Reading and Writing Project See Grammar Scope and Sequence Flocabulary- “The Pit and the Pendulum” rap Persuasive essay: State essay Geography article Article on abiotic vs. biotic factors, cells Book groups Great Books Formal/informal speeches

Vocabulary foldable/charts/ quizzes

State project CBAS Writing Benchmark #1 Scary stories/ cliffhangers


QUARTER 2: Conflict

Focus question: How does conflict lead to changes in our perspective? Skills

Resources

Grammar

See Grammar Scope and Sequence

Write Source

Informational Text

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of the text. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose and how that position differs from others. Analyze how 2 authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts. Analyze the structural elements of a variety of texts and how they shape character or plot. Respond to literal and inferential questions with explicit and implicit evidence from the text. Analyze the impact of rhyme and repetition on a verse or stanza. Analyze how a poem’s form or structure contributes to its meaning. Determine figurative, denotative, and connotative meanings. Ongoing instruction from vocabulary in texts Greek/Latin word origins

American Revolution biographies

Literature

Vocabulary

Dickens Biography Victorian Traditions/ Socio-Economic Differences

American Revolution novels Victory or Death Michael Vey “Medicine Bag” “After Twenty Years” “A Christmas Carol”

Assessments



Spelling Technology

QUARTER 2: Conflict

Conduct short or long research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources, and generating additional related focus questions for further research and investigation. Greek / Latin word origins

American Revolution,\ newspaper

Compare a written story or drama to a filmed or staged version, analyzing effects of techniques on each medium.

“Christmas Carol”

Interdisciplinary

American Revolution Newspaper

MID YEAR ASSESSMENT

WATER performance task

Compare/contrast paper


QUARTER 3: Information/ Knowledge

Focus Question: How does a variety of information form our perspective? Skills

Resources

Grammar


Write Source

Reading NonFiction

Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development. Objectively summarize a text. Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how sections contribute to the whole and the development of ideas. Determine author’s purpose in writing a text. Literary & mythical allusion Hyperbole, situational irony Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g. how setting drives plot) Determine theme and analyze its development. Analyze how author develops and contrasts points of view of different characters or narrators. Analyze the impact of rhyme and repetition on a verse or stanza. Analyze how a poem’s form or structure contributes to its meaning.

Articles: Upfront Daybook

Reading Fiction

Short stories: excerpts from Whodunnit 5 Minute Mysteries, One Hour Mysteries, Night Terrors: Stories of Suspense and Substance, Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (play version) “Year of Impossible Goodbyes” (Daybook) Historical Fiction – “The Highwayman” Novel choices from the following for Literature Circles: Hit and Run, Face on the Milk Carton, Theodore Boone, selections by Margaret Peterson Haddix Poetry and drama titles

Assessments

CBAS Benchmark #3: Reading


Read Aloud (oral language)

Vocabulary


QUARTER 3: Information/ Knowledge

Evaluate ideas, themes, and issues across texts. Explain how authors, illustrators and filmmakers express political and social issues. Ongoing vocabulary instruction from vocabulary in novels. Study of Greek/Latin roots Write fictional and nonfiction pieces, which may include mystery, persuasive, and informative. Introduce the topic clearly. Organize ideas. Develop the topic with relevant facts. Use appropriate transitions to create cohesion. Provide a concluding statement that supports the explanation presented.

Mystery Writing

Use technology to produce and publish writing, link to and cite sources as well as collaborate with others. (Expose to) Science: solving mysteries History: civil rights, Presidents

Video – “The Highwayman”

Spelling Technology

Interdisciplinary

CBAS online writing benchmark


QUARTER 4: Acceptance/ Communication

Focus Questions: How do people communicate their perspectives effectively? Why is it important to recognize and accept different points of view? Skills Resources Grammar


Write Source

Reading NonFiction

Analyze interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text. Analyze the impact of specific word choice on meaning and tone. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether reasoning is sound and evidence relevant and sufficient. Evaluate how an author’s experience, culture, heritage, values, assumptions and beliefs bias meaning. Judge the validity of the evidence an author uses to support his/her position, (dated, biased, inaccurate) and justify the conclusion. Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place or character with a historical account of the same period to understand how authors of fiction use or alter history. Explain how readers’ experiences, ethics, values, assumptions, and beliefs influence interpretation of a

Articles: Upfront

Reading Fiction

Short stories: various “Cinderella” tales, Daybook multicultural excerpts, Teacher-selected multicultural short stories Selected titles from Perfection Learning Anthology, A House Divided

Teacher selected poetry and drama

Assessments

Research paper


QUARTER 4: Acceptance/ Communication

text.

Read Aloud (oral language) Vocabulary

Ongoing instruction from reading selections Greek/Latin word origins


Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Use logical reasoning. Establish and maintain a formal style. Use precise language. Persuasive writing related to interdisciplinary readings and current events.

Spelling Technology

Interdisciplinary

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources using search terms effectively and assessing the credibility and accuracy of each source. Quote using standard format for citation.

• •

Seventh Grade Literary Magazine Free Choice

Research paper

Grade 8 English

quarter 1

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves?

Common Core State Standard

Skills

Reading Standards for Literature (CCSS)

Annotation Inference Prediction Summary Archetype— character, setting, journey of the hero Character— antagonist/protago nist,

CC #1—Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CC #2—Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. CC #3—Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. CC #4—Determine the meaning f words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. CC #5—Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. CC #6—Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

dynamic/static, epiphany, flat/ round, motivation Imagery Mood Plot—conflict, flashback, foreshadowing, suspense Point of View— perspective, person Setting Theme Tone—diction, imagery, detail and vocab Figures of Speech— metaphor, simile,

Resources

Assessments

Novels may include:

Essays

Dovey Coe (F. O’Roark Dowell) Thief of Always (C. Barker) Nothing But the Truth (Avi) Great Book Series (selected titles) Z for Zachariah (R. O’Brien)

Grade 8 English

quarter 1

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? hyperbole, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia Allusion— historical, literary, mythological Argumentation— cause/effect, compare/ contrast, classification Symbolism Literary Forms— drama, fiction, nonfiction, verse Characterization (direct and indirect) Dialogue Writing Standards (CCSS) CC #1—Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claims, counterclaims, reasons and evidence.

Persuasive— challenge, deductive/ inductive reasoning, defend, persuasive appeals, request (embedding narrative and descriptive

Quarterly persuasive prompt Teacher made prompts based on novels

Essays

Grade 8 English

quarter 1

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? d. Establish and maintain a formal style e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. CC #4—Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. CC #5—With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. CC #6—Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. CC #10—Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

as necessary) Multiple Mode— expressive, imaginative, personal Process of Composition— prewriting (consideration of audience, determination of purpose, generation of ideas, selection of topic), drafting (extended time, timed), revision (concision, content, organization, precise diction, sentence variety, unity), editing (mechanics, sentence structure, usage)

Language Standards (CCSS) CC #2—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. b. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission

Mechanics— capitalization, punctuation, spelling Parts of Speech

May include: Warriner’s English Grammar and

Weekly quizzes Unit Test

Grade 8 English

quarter 1

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? c. Spell correctly CC #4—Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiplemeaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies a. Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase b. Use common, grade appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word c. Consult general and specialized reference materials, both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase CC #5—Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings a. Interpret figures of speech in context b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words c. Distinguish among the connotations of words with similar denotations CC #6—Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Sentences— declarative, exclamatory, imperative, interrogative Sentence structure— complex, compound compoundcomplex, periodic,

Composition G.U.M Write Source 2000 Sentence Composing (Killgallon)

loose/cumulative, simple Independent/depen dent clauses Analysis of a Text (meaning and effect, related to parts of speech, phrases, clauses and sentences)

Speaking and Listening Standards (CCSS) CC #1—Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and

Paraphrasing Seminar/Discussio n Diction Style/Voiceselection of detail,

Socratic guidelines

Rubric (see unit plan)

Grade 8 English

quarter 1

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? reflect on ideas under discussion b. Follow rules for collegial discussion and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented. CC #4—Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant, evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation CC #6—Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate

selection of vocabulary Appeals— emotional, ethical, logical

Grade 8 Language Arts Essential questions: Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves?

Common Core State Standard

Skills

Reading Standards for Literature (CCSS)

Allusion Apostrophe Paradox

CC#7—Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text of script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors. CC#9—Analuze how a modern work of fiction on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new. Reading Standards for Informational Texts (CCSS)

Annotation Fact v Opinion CC#1—Cite textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what Main Idea the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Summary CC#2—Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the Detail course of the text; including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an Diction objective summary of the text. (connotation/de CC#4—Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, notation, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact dialect, of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions euphemism, to other texts. idiom, CC#5—Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, vocabulary) including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key Tone concept. Classification Historical allusion Compare/Contr ast Oxymoron Determining Audience Determining Author Purpose

Resources

quarter 2

Assessment s

Grade 8 Language Arts Essential questions: Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? Generalization

Writing Standards (CCSS)

Deductive/Indu ctive reasoning Emotional appeals Ethical appeals Logical appeals

CC #1—Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using Sentence accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the Variety topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claims, counterclaims, reasons and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. CC #4—Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. CC #5—With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. CC #6—Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. CC #10—Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Mechanics Language Standards (CCSS) Usage CC#1—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English (direct/indirect grammar and usage when writing or speaking. objects,

Non-fiction articles include topical issues from the following: Scholastic Upfront, Scope, Rolling Stones, Time, Newsweek

quarter 2

Grade 8 Language Arts Essential questions: Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? a.

Explain the function of verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives) in general and their function in particular sentences b. Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice (d) Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood. CC #2—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. b. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission c. Spell correctly CC #4—Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies a. Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase b. Use common, grade appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word c. Consult general and specialized reference materials, both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase CC #5—Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings a. Interpret figures of speech in context b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words c. Distinguish among the connotations of words with similar denotations CC #6—Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

predicate nominatives/adj ectives, pronoun/antece dent agreement, subject/verb agreement, use of subjective and objective pronouns) Phrases (appositive, gerund, infinitive, participial, prepositional) Clauses (dependent/sub ordinate, independent)

quarter 2

Grade 8 Language Arts Essential questions: Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? Speaking and Listening Standards (CCSS)

CC #1—Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion b. Follow rules for collegial discussion and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented. CC #4—Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant, evidence, sound valid reasoning, and wellchosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation CC #6—Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate MID YEAR

quarter 2

Socratic Seminar

Concision Elaboration Precise diction Paraphrasing Use of evidence Use of commentary Clarifying Persuasive Appeals

EXAM

Topical articles which may include: Scholastic Upfront, Scope, Rolling Stones, Time, Newsweek

Perf assessment: SPORTS

Grade 8 Language Arts Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? Common Core Standards

quarter 3

Skills

Resources

Assessments

Elements of Literature

Poetry CFA (pre-post test)

Reading Standards for Literature (CCSS) CC #1—Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CC #5—Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph (stanza) in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept. CC#6—Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. CC#9—Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation (poetry v. nonfiction)

Dialogue Irony (situational, verbal, sarcasm)

Websites (see unit plan)

Diction: connotation and denotation Selected poetry

Reading Standards for Informational Text (CCSS) CC #3—Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events. CC #4—Determine the meaning of words

Advertisements, Diction (connotation, denotation, Travel brochures, dialect, euphemism, idiom, vocabulary) various websites, newspapers and Poetry Vocabulary magazine articles,

Grade 8 Language Arts Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves?

and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. CC# 7--Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (print, or digital text, video or multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea) CC#9-- Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation. Writing Standards (CCSS)

quarter 3

encyclopedia entries Structural elements: Introduction (thesis) Body (incorporation of quotes, topic sentences, use of commentary, use of evidence) Conclusion

Write Source CC#3—Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and

Sentence Variety Exper. Original form and structure Imitation of Stylistic modes Selection of details and vocabulary Figures of Speech Use of literary elements/techniques Sound Devices Figurative language Patterns (spatial, etc)

Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition

Poetry portfolio


reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.

CC#4—Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience CC#5—With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. CC#6—Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing

quarter 3

Transitions Multiple Modes: Descriptive, expressive, imaginative, personal Style & Voice Poetry language: such as Alliteration Assonance Consonance Meter Onomatopoeia Rhyme Rhythm


quarter 3

and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. CC #10—Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Speaking and Listening Standards (CCSS) Selected poetry CC#1—Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade appropriate topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly a. Come to the discussion prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion b. Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and

Imitation of stylistic model Deductive/Inductive reasoning Persuasive Appeals (emotional, logical, ethical)

Scope, Upfront articles


quarter 3

comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented CC#5—Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest. CC#6—Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate

Language Standards (CCSS) CC#1—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking CC #2—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. b. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission c. Spell correctly

Editing (mechanics, sentence structure, usage)

Syntax Techniques: Omission, asyndeton, parallelism, polysyndeton, repetition, reversal (inverted order) Usage Direct/Indirect objects

Grade 8 Language Arts Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? CC #4—Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies a. Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase b. Use common, grade appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word c. Consult general and specialized reference materials, both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase CC #5—Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings a. Interpret figures of speech in context b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words c. Distinguish among the connotations of words with similar

quarter 3

Predicate nominatives/Adjectives Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Subject/Verb Agreement Use of Subjective and Objective pronouns


denotations CC #6—Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

quarter 3


quarter 4

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? Common Core Standards

Skills

Resources

Reading Standards for Literature (CCSS) CC #1—Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CC #5—Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. CC#7—Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or idea CC#10—By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently

Annotation Determining author purpose

Variety of novels on Holocaust/WWII to include: Night, Soldier X, Devil’s Arithmetic, Diary of Anne Frank

Determining fact v. opinion Denotation

Reading Standards for Informational Text (CCSS) CC#2—Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective

Annotation Determining Author purpose Determining fact v. opinion Diction skills Connotation

Supporting nonfiction on the topic of the Holocaust and WWII to include: Hitler Youth, D-Day,

Assessments


quarter 4

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? summary of a text CC #3—Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas and events. CC #4—Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. CC#5—Analyze in detail the structre of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept CC#6—Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints CC# 7--Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (print, or digital text, video or multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea) CC#9-- Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.

Denotation

Ethics of research Evaluation of sources Use of print sources Use of the internet

One Survivor Remembers, Second World War Online resources from National Holocaust Museum, Museum of Jewish Heritage


quarter 4

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? CC #10—By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Writing Standards (CCSS) CC #1—Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claims, counterclaims, reasons and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. CC#2—Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas,

Sentence Variety Introduction-thesis Body-incorporation of quotes, topic sentence, use of commentary, use of evidence Conclusion Elements of research Evaluation of sources Use of print sources Use of the internet Documentation Revision of Multiple Drafts Concision, content, organization, unity Editing

Materials vary due to student chosen research topics based on individual novel from the Holocaust/WWII unit

Performance task of cited, research paper (See rubric in unit)

Grade 8 Language Arts Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? concepts, and information through the selection, organizations, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow: organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting, graphics, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension b. Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesions and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domainspecific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented. CC#4—Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose,

quarter 4

Grade 8 Language Arts Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? and audience CC#5—With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. CC#6--Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. CC#7—Conduct short research projects to answer a questions (including a selfgenerated question)., drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. CC#8—Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. CC#9—Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis,

quarter 4


quarter 4

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? reflection, and research.

Speaking and Listening Standards (CCSS) CC#2—Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats and evaluate the motives behind its presentation CC#3—Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced. CC#4—Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation CC#5—Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest. CC#6—Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating

Persuasive—challenge, deductive/inductive reasoning, defend, persuasive appeals (logical, ethical, emotional), request)

National Holocaust Museum online archives Museum of Jewish Heritage online archives

Oral presentation performance task (see unit rubric)


quarter 4

Who am I? How do people overcome challenges? What is truth? How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? command of formal English when indicated or appropriate Language Standards (CCSS) CC#1—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking CC #2—Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. CC#3—Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening CC#4—Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 readings and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. CC#6—Acquire and use accurately gradeappropriate general academic and domainspecific words and phrases: gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression

Mechanics Syntax techniques—omission, asyndeton, parallelism, polysyndeton, repetition, reversal Research based Documentation Sentence Variety Analysis of a Text: meaning and effect related to parts of speech, phrases, clauses, and sentences

Warriner’s English and Grammar Composition LTF: sentence variety “tool box”

Performance task research paper—grammar component (see rubric)

Book length Non-Fiction and Short Stories Grade 9 English, Semester 1 What is the nature of “truth”? Common Core Standards

Skills

Resources

Assessments

R.IT.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. W.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Annotate with purpose

A Night to Remember

Formative Assessments and Progress Monitoring

Write to develop and express new learning

Black Boy Travels with Charly

L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

R.IT.6 Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g. a section or chapter) R.IT.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of a text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings It’s Not About the Bike

R.IT.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

R.IT.4 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are mafe, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

A Hole in My Life

Evaluate stylistic decisions.

McDougal Littell Anthology Grade 9 – various short stories, essays, poems. Newsprint _______ (Great Books anthologies)

Identify author’s purpose/theme

Make connections between fiction and non-fiction. Evaluate the products of their peers.

K-W-L Worksheets Anticipation Guides 4-corner exercises Formative Literary Term Assessment Pre-Reading Activites like “Probably passage” or “Tea party” Dialectical Journals for reading assignments Guided/independent annotation Comprehension Quizzes/Checks (formative or summative) Whole-Class Vocab practice

Technology:

Exit Slips

Teacher Tube

Polls (in-class, formal/informal, virtual)

TED.ed Talks Additional Resources:

R.IT.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of a text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. SL.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 9 topics, texts, and issues,

Summer reading essay

Vocabulary Lists (Literary Terms) Teacher-generated handouts, notes, etc.

Class discussions (fishbowl)

Authentic Performance Tasks Students will take on the role of a peer mediator. They will be asked to arbitrate an incident between two students. Students will read and

Book length Non-Fiction and Short Stories Grade 9 English, Semester 1 What is the nature of “truth”? building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. SL.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

analyze varying accounts of one event. Based on their understanding of bias, manipulation, persuasion, etc. they will develop an intervention plan. This plan will provide an authentic solution to the conflict, and an explanation of how they arrived at the solution. Additionally, students will need to present their findings to their peers in verbal presentation format.

Unit Test or Assessment Summative assessment including analysis of non-fiction piece with a focus on identifying purpose. Personal Narrative. (Rubric Attached)

Historical Fiction Unit Grade 9 English, Semester 2 How can I relate to characters who are from a different time or place than I? What universal conflicts do we share?

Common Core Standards WS.2.Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Skills Write to develop and express new learning

L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. R.IT.1 ite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. R.L.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with multiple of conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.) WS.6.Use technology, including the internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Analyze and apply literary terms to their novel

Assessments

Text Options: Of Mice and Men

Formative Assessments and Progress Monitoring

Great Expectations

K-W-L Worksheets

Power of One

Anticipation Guides

Once and Future King

4-corner exercises

McDougal Littell Anthology Grade 9 – various short stories, essays, poems.

Formative Literary Term Assessment

Technology: Create a documentary in order to teach others about their learning.

Databases Cameras/Phones Teacher Tube TED.ed Talks

WS.7.Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Additional Resources: Vocabulary Lists (Literary Terms) Teacher-generated handouts, notes, etc.

SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media (eg. Textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. R.L.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with multiple of conflicting motivations)

Resources

Make connections to their novel.

Pre-Reading Activites like “Probably passage” or “Tea party” Rough draft of “I-Search” (common assessment) to determine strengths and weaknesses. Dialectical Journals for reading assignments Dialogue Journals for Documentary Comprehension Quizzes/Checks (formative or summative) Whole-Class Vocab practice

Historical Fiction Unit Grade 9 English, Semester 2 How can I relate to characters who are from a different time or place than I? What universal conflicts do we share? develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.)

Exit Slips Polls (in-class, formal/informal, virtual)

R.L.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary for the text. R.IT.2 Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. S.L.1 Initiate an d participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 9 topics, texts, and issues, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. SL. 4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

Class discussions (fishbowl)

Evaluate the products of their peers.

Unit Test or Assessment Summative assessment reflecting analysis of the novel and accompanying non-fiction, short stories, poetry, etc. I-Search paper relevant to the novel. (teacher-developed list, with potential for individual choices) See attached assignment and rubric .

Persuasion Unit Grade 10 English, Semester 1 What is the difference between arguing and argumentation?` How do I select rhetorical devices to make effective arguments? What makes a persuasive argument? What is the author’s purpose and how does the author fulfill that purpose? Common Core Standards RS.IT.5. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter). RS.IT.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. RS.IT.8Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning. RS.IT.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

Skills Identify rhetorical devices and author’s choices.

Resources A variety of essays, cartoons, editorials, and speeches.

Assessments Formative Assessments and Progress Monitoring: KWL- Awareness of argumentation, audience, purpose, and rhetoric through viewing or reading cartoons, editorials, essays, or advertisements.

Evaluate examples of persuasive speeches for the author’s use of rhetorical devices.

RS.IT.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

Apply new knowledge by crafting persuasive letters/essays.

RS.IT.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RS.IT.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an

Deliver persuasive speech orally using rhetorical strategies.

Read historical essays and speeches. Discover author’s use of rhetoric, connotation, and message. AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS Students will write persuasive letters. Students will deliver a persuasive speech

Persuasion Unit Grade 10 English, Semester 1 What is the difference between arguing and argumentation?` How do I select rhetorical devices to make effective arguments? What makes a persuasive argument? What is the author’s purpose and how does the author fulfill that purpose? objective summary of the text. RS.IT.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

Explain what makes an effective argument. Recognize examples of effective rhetorical strategies and/or devices.

RS.IT.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. R.S.IT.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning. RS.IT.8. Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses). RS.IT.9. Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts.

Identify and use the three appeals writers use to persuade.

Unit Test or Assessment: Create and deliver a persuasive speech with visuals. Create a persuasive advertisement or present appeals in a n advertisement or political cartoon. Write a persuasive essay or letter such as defend, challenge, and qualify essay or the CAPT Interdisciplinary Writing essay.

Thematic Analysis Grade 10 English, Semester 2 What is the author’s message? How does the text connect to you and the real world? Common Core Standards

Skills

Resources

Assessments

RS.IT.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Identify a theme in a work.

Resources and Materials

Formative Assessment and Progress Monitoring

RS.IT.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Cite evidence and defend their Fahrenheit 451 opinion or ideas.

Harrison Bergeron To Kill a Mockingbird

Identify theme in Fahrenheit 451 through devices such as “Black Men in Public Places” characterization, symbolism, title, mood, tone, and motif. Documentaries Identify theme in To Kill a Mockingbird through devices such as The Children’s March characterization, symbolism, title, mood, tone, and motif. A Time for justice

RS.L.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. RS.L.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Identify theme in “Harrison Bergeron.”

Make connections between text, self, and world.

Poetry/Music- Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday

Unit Test or Assessment: Thematic analysis essay.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Students will select a non-fiction article and compare to text relating to theme. Defend, challenge, qualify essay. Analysis essay.

Rhetoric Unit Grade 11 English, Semester 1 What is the writer’s purpose in writing/creating a text? How do authors use various strategies to manipulate the reader? How does the style and content of a text impact its rhetorical effectiveness? Common Core Standards

Skills

Resources

Assessments

RS. IT.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

Describe three forms of appeals of argument (ethos, pathos, logos), the various appeals and how are used

The following list of resources and materials can be used to teach the skills and meet the Common Core Standards.

Formative Assessments and Progress Monitoring:

Chart the rhetorical triangle and significance. RS.IT.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. RS.IT.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

Students will be able to identify writer’s central claims, evidence of claims, and assumptions. Students will be able to identify the point of view, and assess narrator reliability and credibility.

Quizzes Possible Resources:

-St. Crispin’s Day Speech

Journal entries (Ex. Persuasive Letters to real or fictional people that are rhetorically effective or NOT rhetorically effective)

-Julius Caesar Speech: Friends, Romans, Countrymen

Close reading and annotation (focusing on identifying rhetorical strategies)

-King Priam’s Speech (The Illiad)

Discussions about the rhetorical effectiveness of various texts.

-Existing and topical resources (newspapers, magazines, television ads, etc.)

-Lou Gehrig’s Speech -Toyota Ad

RS.IT.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

-Rosa Parks Cartoon -The Crucible by Arthur Miller

RS.IT.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Students will analyze time, place, setting for contextualization of writer’s purpose.

-Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ mayaangeloueulogyforcorettaking.htm

Exit tickets Unit Test or Assessment: Unit tests or projects include rhetorical analysis of a speech and a visual, including an evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the piece.

Rhetoric Unit Grade 11 English, Semester 1 What is the writer’s purpose in writing/creating a text? How do authors use various strategies to manipulate the reader? How does the style and content of a text impact its rhetorical effectiveness?

RS.IT.2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. RS.IT.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

Evaluate the purpose of a text based on the audience, context, and use of persuasive appeals. Evaluate the effectiveness of a text based on the audience, context, and use of persuasive appeals.

RS.IT.5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging. RS.IT.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

RS.IT: Reading Standing for Informational Text Grades 6-12

“America Needs its Nerds,” New York Times, 1990 “All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Nerd,” New York Times, 1990 Excerpt from “Is Google Evil?” Mother Jones, 2006

Argumentative Writing Unit Junior Grade 11, Semester 2 How do we synthesize various sources of information to create a written piece? How do we select rhetorical devices to make a strong and effective argument in a thesis driven response? Common Core Standards WS.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic). WS.1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. a. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and

Skills Students will be able to synthesize various sources to support a thesis.

Resources From The Language of Composition: Synthesizing Sources

Assessments Formative Assessments and Progress Monitoring:

From The Language of Composition: Thematic chapters with related texts, excerpts, cartoons, etc. Topics: Education

Various formative assessments:

Work

Journal entries

Community Gender

Quizzes

Practice writing thesis statements.

Sports and Fitness Language Science and Technology Popular Culture Nature Politics

CSDE Sample Lesson: Making Students will be able to write a thesis driven response that effectively analyzes and synthesizes multiple sources.

Meaning of Text through Rhetorical Devices o Alexie, “Indian Education” (from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven) o

Anaya, “Take the Tortillas Out of

Practice gathering evidence from texts. Close reading and annotation (focusing on identifying evidence) Discussions about the correlations between various texts. Intro/Exit Quizzes Unit Test or Assessment:

Argumentative Writing Unit Junior Grade 11, Semester 2 How do we synthesize various sources of information to create a written piece? How do we select rhetorical devices to make a strong and effective argument in a thesis driven response?

evidence. b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. WS.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentiethcentury foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”). b. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court Case majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works

Your Poetry” o

Students will be able to evaluate the credibility of various sources and texts.

Angelou, “Champion of the World” (from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)

o

Audism Unveiled (documentary)

o

Bhatt, “Search for My Tongue”

o

Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban

o

Haley, Roots excerpt(s)

o

Nieves, “Puzzle”

o

Tan, “Fish Cheeks”

o

Tan, “Mother Tongue”

Unit tests or projects include a synthesis essay. Students analyze and evaluate multiple sources to write a thesis driven response.

Argumentative Writing Unit Junior Grade 11, Semester 2 How do we synthesize various sources of information to create a written piece? How do we select rhetorical devices to make a strong and effective argument in a thesis driven response?

WS.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentiethcentury foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”). b. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court Case majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works

Students will be able to identify and create claims, as well as defend them, to write an argument.

WS: Writing Standards Grades 6-12

Justice, Authority and the Tragic Hero: A Study of Humanity Grade 12 English, Semester 1

• • • • • •

Can wanting something too much lead us to do things against our nature? Why are people motivated to create an appearance that is different from reality? What happens when people or our lives themselves do not meet our expectations? Is justice an unattainable ideal in the real world? Can a lust for power lead to loss of humanity? How does a character cause his/her own downfall?

• • • • • •

How much influence do humans have over their own lives? Is it always good to know the truth? How does one know oneself? When dark secrets are revealed, how does society deal with them? When dark secrets are revealed, how do individuals deal with them? How are a country's leaders a reflection of that country, both its soul and its populace?

• • •

Common Core Standards

Skills

Resources

RS.L.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Demonstrate after reading understanding and interpretation of fiction texts.

Plays • Hamlet –William Shakespeare • Oedipus the King – Sophocles • Antigone –Sophocles Non-Fiction Texts • “Objections to the Elizabethan Theater” by the Mayor of London (1597 • “On Boy Actors in Female Roles” –Lisa Jardine • “On Shakespeare’s Characters” –Samuel Johnson • “On Repression in Hamlet” –Sigmund Freud • “On Producing Hamlet”

RS.L5. Analyze how an author’s Demonstrate fluency and comprehension in reading. choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. RS.L.7. Analyze multiple

Analyze the effectiveness, in

When leaders act wrongly, what should be done? When one discovers darkness within oneself, what is to be done? How do you know when something is true? How is truth identified?

Assessments

Formative Assessments and Progress Monitoring PRE-ASSESSMENT (KWL, pre-tests, anticipation guides) Anticipation Guide Drew Villager Activity KWL Journals, exit slips, quizzes) Fever Chart Quotation Identification Quizzes Weird Word Log Exit Slips Unit Test or Assessment

Justice, Authority and the Tragic Hero: A Study of Humanity Grade 12 English, Semester 1 terms of literary quality, the interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded author’s use of literary devices. or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) RS.L.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Define by example the terms tragedy and tragic hero

RS.L.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Compare the Aristotelian and Renaissance models of tragedy

–Jan Kott “A Film Diary of the Shooting of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet” – Russell Jackson • “On the Value of Comedy in the Face of Tragedy” –James Kincaid • “Ophelia’s Desperation” –Joan Montgomery Byles • “Ophelia’s Mad Speeches” –Sandra K. Fisher • “On Tragic Character” –Aristotle • “On the Oedipus Complex” –Sigmund Freud • “On Oedipus the King as a Political Play” – David Wiles • “The Major Critical Issue in Antigone” – R.G.A. Buxton “The Function of the Chorus in Antigone” –Cynthia P. Gardener •

Essay: Individual Responses to authority loom large in these works of literature. Research how contemporaries of characters regarded individuals’ responsibility to their kings and their kings obligations to them. Given that context, how do you judge the behavior of (Hamlet, Oedipus, Creon, Claudius) as kings/rulers in their respective societies. “In Search of a Theme” presentations Thematic analysis essay Essay: Which film most accurately depicts Shakespeare’s vision? (with the understanding that a students has identified what that vision is) Essay: Analysis of how works of literature reflect universal themes (Fate, “Blindness”, Arrogance, Temper, Crime and Punishment), comparing and contrasting the times in which the plays were written with present day and drawing on informational texts to support

Justice, Authority and the Tragic Hero: A Study of Humanity Grade 12 English, Semester 1 argument. WS.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. WS.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation. RS.IT.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

Identify and discuss the characteristics of plays that mark them as tragedies.

WS.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a

Discuss the techniques playwrights use to convey character and character relationships to his audience.

Essay: Student’s own literary criticism of a play, modeled after non-fiction perspectives Match.com/E-Harmony Project

Trace characters’ evolving psychological and emotional state and how their condition is reflected in their soliloquies.

Justice, Authority and the Tragic Hero: A Study of Humanity Grade 12 English, Semester 1 problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events. RS.L.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Identify and analyze the use of comic relief (as representative of Greek and Shakespearean tragedy)

Argument and Persuasion Grade 12 English, Semester 2

What is the “argument” of the story? What literary strategy and devices does the author use to achieve his purpose (or make his/her “argument”)?

In what ways are these narratives more or less effective than an explicit argument? What does role does ethos play in your own attempts to persuade?

What role does narrative play in your attempt to persuade? What matters about the audience that you are attempting to persuade?

How do you establish your ethos? Common Core Standards R.IT.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

Skills Identify types of p.o.v.

R.IT.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

Explain what is gained by author’s p.o.v.

R.IT.5 Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

Infer/explain author’s intent

Resources Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama. A&P Rose for Emily Greasy Lake Advice to trial lawyers: Opening Statements

Assessments Formative Assessment and Progress Monitoring Elements of narrative k-w-l (rhetorical triangle, satire, literary terms) write original narrative analyze for literary elements Quizzes Discussion Practice close reading/annotation Read/identify/discuss/literary devices Unit Test or Assessment: “Should Luke remain in school” synthesis essay which

Argument and Persuasion Grade 12 English, Semester 2 R.IT.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

Recognize satire

R.IT.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

Analyze satire

R.IT.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. R.IT.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. W.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of

Identify exposition, character, setting, p.o.v and explain role and relation to purpose of piece.

Write persuasively employing a clear understanding of logos,

asks students to create a persuasive essay convincing Board of Education members whether a student should be allowed back to school after reading/synthesizing a series of documents including the first amendment, NFA’s dress code, and a variety of newspaper articles.

Argument and Persuasion Grade 12 English, Semester 2 substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

pathos, and ethos.

UNIT PLANNING ORGANIZER, COLCHESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUBJECT

English #1-Quarter 1

GRADE/COURSE

6th

UNIT OF STUDY

Essential Skills-Writing

UNIT TYPE PACING (# DAYS)

TOPICAL

X

SKILLS-BASED

THEMATIC

35 days; concurrent with unit #2

OVERARCHING STANDARDS W1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or text, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. W4. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions demonstrating subject under investigation. SL1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others; ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS W 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension b. Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c. Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented. W4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.) W5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should

demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 6 on page 53.) W6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting. W8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources. SL1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. b. Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. CONCEPTS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL KNOW)

How to support and document thinking about current issues with relevant and sufficient evidence from resources.

SKILLS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO DO)

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL 1-6

Revise

apply, analyze, create

Peer Review

understand, apply, analyze, evaluate

Edit Sentence structures: declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative.

understand, apply,

Parts of Speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, pronoun Subjects and Predicates Ending marks of punctuation

Cite Text

understand, analyze, evaluate

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

What do good writers do to communicate effectively?

Good writers research and document information in order to communicate their understanding and position on current issues.

ASSESSMENTS PRE-ASSESSMENT (KWL, pre-tests, anticipation guides)

PROGRESS MONITORING (journals, exit slips, quizzes)

Pre Test-Writing Process

Peer Review of first drafts

“Cold Read” articles related to current issue

Conferencing to guide revisions Quizzes CFA’s (Organization” & “Introductions”)

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Final Essay-Explanatory Essay on exotic pets following Smarter Balanced Informative-Explanatory Writing Rubric

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.)

Essay

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Read articles regarding current issue

RESOURCES and MATERIALS

“Killer Pets” Scholastic “Exotic Animals as Pets”

Research

http://www. aspca.org/adoption/adoptiontips/exotic-animals.aspx

Plan Media Center-Research Sheets Drafting Explanatory Writing Organizer

Peer Review

Hooks/Thesis Statement worksheets CBAS Write (web based site)

Revision Peer Review Activity/Worksheet Editing Sentence structures: declarative, interrogative, exclamatory,

lst drafts

and imperative. Parts of Speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, pronoun Subjects and Predicates Ending marks of punctuation

Final Copy

2nd drafts

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners)

Study Island (web based program) CBAS Write (web based program)

VOCABULARY thesis statement revise peer review edit

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) CBAS Write (web based program)



GRADE/COURSE

6th

UNIT OF STUDY

Essential Skills Reading: Character & Setting


TOPICAL

X

SKILLS-BASED

THEMATIC

2-3 weeks; concurrent with Unit #1

OVERARCHING STANDARDS R1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. R4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. SL1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. W9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS RL1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RL2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. RL4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone. SL1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. SL1a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.

CONCEPTS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL KNOW)

How to Close Read in order to interact and respond effectively to text in order to recognize setting and understand character.



Denote

remember, understand

Annotate

understand, analyze, create

Cite text

understand, apply

Sensory Appeals

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

understand, apply, analyze, evaluate

BIG IDEAS

What do good readers do to understand text?

Good readers will implement strategies that will help them effectively respond to literature.



Anticipation guide

Entrance slips

Cold read pretest for analysis of setting and character

Vocabulary Quizzes Content Quizzes Class Discussion

Journaling

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Unit Test-Assessing denotation and annotation of setting and character via cold read.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Character stick figure (record evidence from their reading to support character traits) Small Group Project: "Three Levels of Reading" -concentric circle activity that utilizes vocabulary for denoting, annotating, and connotating meaning from text. (Laying the Foundation, Foundation Lesson)

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS

Denotation for new vocabulary

Chapter 1 of class novel (Freak the Mighty/Where the Red Fern Grows)

Annotation for evidence of setting and character traits

"Highlighting and Annotation Tips" (Laying the Foundation, Foundation Lesson)

"Sensory Appeals" study of the senses to deepen comprehension

(Laying the Foundation, Foundation Lesson)

study of setting to deepen comprehension

Study Island Lesson Study Island On-line Games & Practice


Alter the number of examples students need to offer for evidence when citing text. Adjust the vocabulary list in complexity and quantity. Study Island (web based program)

VOCABULARY Denote/Denotation Annotate/Annotation Content Vocabulary Sensory

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) Independent Reading



GRADE/COURSE

6th

UNIT OF STUDY

Mood


TOPICAL

X

SKILLS-BASED

THEMATIC

2 weeks

OVERARCHING STANDARDS R4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. R7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. S1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS RL1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RL4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone. SL1a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. SL1c. Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.


How to develop deeper meaning in what you are reading by identifying the mood.



Recognize mood in a variety of print and nonprint texts.

Understand Apply Analyze

BIG IDEAS

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS How do authors, artists, and composers create mood?

Authors, artists, and composers use word choice to convey mood.



Parts of Speech Pre-Test

small group—locate and identify passages

KWL Setting

journaling—use of music and art to document emotional expression class discussion UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Unit Test-assessing mood via cold read

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) written response with textual evidence demonstrating how parts of speech and setting effect the mood within independent, self selected reading

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Write a Journal Entry describing mood while listening to music.

Make a list of nouns, adjectives, and verbs to describe the details in a picture. Use those words to write how the picture makes you feel.

Grieg: “In the Hall of the Mountain King” Peer Gynt Sweet No.1

Using Parts of Speech to Analyze a Visual Text Activity (LTF Lesson)

Find examples from the text that describe the setting. Then tell how the setting affects the mood. Meet in small groups to share findings.

Setting and Mood Activity (Freak the Mighty Literature guide), Independent Reading Books

Students identify mood from various reading passages by responding in writing to specific questions.

Study Island


Various levels of Independent Reading Books Study Island

VOCABULARY mood noun adjective verb setting



English #4-Quarter 1 and 2

GRADE/COURSE

6th

UNIT OF STUDY

Literary Devices, Figures of Speech


TOPICAL

X

SKILLS-BASED

THEMATIC

35 days

OVERARCHING STANDARDS R4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. W4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. W.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS

RL1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RL4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone. RL5. Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot. RL4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone)

RL5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. W4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.) W5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 6 on page 53.) W6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.


How to develop deeper meaning in reading by identifying and analyzing literary devices. In addition, students will know how to incorporate literary devices in choice writing pieces.



Recognize the following literary devices/figurative language and explain how they help the reader understand the text.

Understand

Simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, and personification

Analyze

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS What do good readers and writers do to communicate effectively? How does figurative language deepen comprehension and communication of ideas?

Apply

Evaluate

BIG IDEAS Good writers use literary devices/figurative language to help the reader develop deeper understanding of the text.



Figurative Language Pre Test

Journaling Quizzes Small Group Activities to practice figurative language identification

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Final Assessment -Students will cold read a poem, identify three different literary devices, and explain how these devices helped them better understand the text

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Final Copy Free Choice Writing Piece -focus on literary devices used in their writing

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Create Flash Cards for the Literary Devices

Figurative Language Activity (Read various passages and identify which literary device is being used and write an analysis describing why the literary device is used/how it affects the story)

Quizlet.com (online program)

Freak the Mighty Literature Guide

Identify and analyze the above Literary Devices in independent reading selections.

Independent Reading Books

In small groups, identify Literary Devices and their meaning in poetry

Strategies for Interpreting Poetry (LTF Foundation Lesson-Middle School) Poem: “Wintertime” by Robert Louis Stevenson Poems, and Newspaper Pieces for Preteens and Teens – edited by Jim Trelease

Free Choice Writing Selection -integrate literary device use

Writer’s Workshop


Various levels of Independent Reading Books Poem: Adventures With Books Writing Choice

VOCABULARY Simile Metaphor Personification Onomatopoeia Alliteration Assonance



English

GRADE/COURSE

7

UNIT OF STUDY

Internal and External Traits and how they motivate characters/people


THEMATIC 4 weeks

ANCHOR STANDARDS (College and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core)

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS (Reading Literature and Informational Text, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Language)

R1. Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. W1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. L3A . Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.

CONCEPTS (by the end of this unit, SKILLS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS STUDENTS WILL KNOW) WILL BE ABLE TO…) Internal traits External traits

Identify and analyze internal and external traits in self and character from reading selection.

Inferences Main idea/detail

Analyze information from a non-fiction text and use it to understand character motivation in a fictional text.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL 1-6 2, 4 2, 4

3, 6

Write persuasively and narratively using all traits of writing. Create effective thesis and topic sentences. Compare and contrast two different texts. Use evidence to support a claim.

3 4 3

Determine appropriate text based on interest and readability.

3

Summarize a text and determine the theme.

1,2

Understand the vocabulary in a grade-level text

1

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

How do internal/external traits shape a character?

Internal and external traits affect the motives and decisions of people/characters.

How is analysis of information useful when creating an effective argument?

Understanding humans’ internal and external traits will lead to increased awareness of others’ choices.

ASSESSMENTS

PRE-ASSESSMENT (KWL, pre-tests, anticipation guides) CFA on literary terms (internal, external, inference, main idea) Story graphic organizer of summer reading book

PROGRESS MONITORING (journals, exit slips, quizzes) Journal entry indicating application of literary terms - using 0, 1, 2, scale for assessment purposes. Exit slip about internal/external character traits.

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Self-assessment on editing/revising, written responses to text Quiz on run-on sentences and fragments Written persuasive essay using the writing process Post-test on literary terms Written assessment of characterization within text AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Write an internal/external analysis of self Create an avatar/Facebook page for a character in a text Write a rap about character

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Modeling of character analysis by teacher with class text

Class texts: Suggested examples include: Michael Vey or other current young adult text

Group project - character analysis

Incredible shrinking notes

Read and annotate informational text.

Tourette's article and video

Choose a character and trace his/her changes through course of text.

Student-chosen independent reading books

Write a thesis about character development and support it with details from the text. Online and in class discussions of characters’ traits. Choose examples of external and internal character traits from the class text and find evidence to support the development of that trait in a text. Apply external/internal traits to themselves, others, and characters within free-choice texts.

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) LTF activities Alternative articles on similar topics (e.g., Tourette's and non-fiction articles related to science and social studies Grouping of students - student-choice or teacher-choice Framed paragraph writing for the character essay and state report (e.g., Students who struggle with writing get a frame for the essay and add in their own information.)

VOCABULARY The following are examples from the 2012-13 school year: prefixes - ex, in arche, re., un, pre novel - steadfast, rendered, reputed, entourage, culmination, ineligible, sidled, furrowed, barrage, incredulously transitional phrases vocabulary from content area reading EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, using technology, and for enrichment) State project (history project) - including self-assessment Informational text - close reading and/or annotation of articles supporting science and history Enrichment - student research choice - exploration of interest/skill and presentation in January School-wide Bi-weekly Skill - connections to content area


Language Arts

GRADE/COURSE

7

UNIT OF STUDY

How a person's/character's background influences perspective (Poe)/Unit 2


TOPICAL

X

SKILLS-BASED

X

THEMATIC

5 weeks

OVERARCHING STANDARDS (K-12) Reading 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. 9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Writing 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, wellchosen details, and well-structured event sequences. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. 10 . Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter t time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Speaking and Listening 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually,

quantitatively, and orally. 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. Language 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS (Gr. 7) Reading 3. Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot) 9. Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.

Speaking and Listening 1a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. b. Follow rules for collegial discussions, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. c. Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed. 2. Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.

Writing 1b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

3a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events. 9a. Apply grade 7 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history”). Language

1b. Choose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas. 2a. Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives (e.g., It was a fascinating, enjoyable movie but not He wore an old[,] green shirt). b. Spell correctly.

Reading 3. Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). 6, Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text. 7. Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film). 9. Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.


Point of view

Mood/Inference

Setting/Imagery



Show an understanding of point of view by using textual references.

2

Be able to infer, using source material, and analyze why author might have picked a particular viewpoint.

3,4

Analyze and cite examples from text that illustrates reader and author's mood.

4, 5

Use sensory details with the intent of eliciting imagery and specific mood in the minds of readers through written cliffhanger/new ending. Match the writing style of an author, and create/write an authentic conclusion.

Identify and list key elements of plot line from a Poe short story.

Plotline

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS How does one's background affect perspective? How does knowledge of language allow reader to attain deeper understanding of text? How does author’s choice of diction affect the reader?

4, 5, 6

4,6

1,2,4

BIG IDEAS A person’s background affects his/her beliefs and perspectives. An author's choice of words impacts the experience of the reader.



CFA - literary terms

Entrance slips

Anticipation guide - E. A. Poe

Exit slips Vocabulary quizzes on Poe stories and poems

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Plotline – Students create a plotline that reflects understanding of a teacher selected Poe short story. Peer/self assessment of effectiveness of mood and imagery in student generated story Post test on second set of literary terms.(See attached in appendix)

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Create and present an alternative and believable ending to “Night Burial". Create a cliff hanger short story. Edit and revise own and peer generated story. Students will consider how word choice impacts reader experience/mood, will evaluate the effectiveness of sensory language/details included and effectively use 6+1 Traits of Writing.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES Students read and annotate biographical pieces about Poe. Group discussion on differentiated non-fiction articles on premature burial, Poe’s life, and theories regarding his death. Prior to reading, clarify meaning of unknown words.

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS "Night Burial" by Ken Siebert "Fall of the House of Usher" - READ Magazine version, excerpt from original - LTF , cassette audio tape, Possible additional options

Identify and analyze how medical advancements have assisted in eliminating the fear of premature burial.

"Annabel Lee"

Read/listen to/ view and evaluate various presentations of Poe stories. (written/video/audio)

Read if You Dare - 12 Twisted Tales from the editors of READ Magazine.****

Discuss the impact of point of view and descriptive details in Poe’s stories and how these create a particular mood.

"Tell Tale Heart" cassette, video

Compare and contrast the effectiveness of multimedia presentations using appropriate grammatical conventions.

Big Book of Foldable by Dinah Zike

Students study vocabulary and create foldables following Marzano's approach. Write a cliffhanger using literary elements of suspense learned. (Appropriate grammatical conventions are expected, along with variety of sentence structures.) Write a conclusion for a peer’s cliffhanger maintaining the author’s craft and style. (Appropriate grammatical conventions are expected.) Students critically analyze and evaluate peer ending to their own cliffhanger. Oral sharing of the final cliffhanger using both voices. Students will learn in a variety of ways the correct

" The Pit and The Pendulum" - cassette, Flocabulary

Non fiction articles on premature burial in 1800's.

usage of: appositives, apostrophe usage with possessives, subject-verb agreement.


Poe biographical articles - leveled texts Premature burial - leveled text and interest based articles Grouping for activities (student choice and/or teacher choice)

VOCABULARY

To be taken from reading selections (melancholy, pallor, languishes, agitation) Prefixes - ex: in, (insufferable), trans (translucent) Samples will vary based on selections read

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for enrichment) History of Halloween articles - Read and analyze Write a Poe-like macabre poem. Biography book report - oral presentation Poe biographies History of premature burial - non-fiction articles Opportunities for interdisciplinary connections Informational texts - supporting science and history (biotic/abiotic factors, geography)


Language Arts

GRADE/COURSE

7

UNIT OF STUDY

Knowledge and experiences and their impact on perspective. Unit 3


TOPICAL

X

SKILLS-BASED

X

THEMATIC

4-5 weeks

OVERARCHING STANDARD Literature 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Writing 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Reading 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. Speaking and Listening 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS Language 1c. Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers.* 2a. Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives (e.g., It was a fascinating, enjoyable movie but not He wore an old[,] green shirt). b. Spell correctly. 3a. Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.* 4c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. 5c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., refined, respectful, polite, diplomatic, condescending). 6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. Writing 1a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose

and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 7 on page 53.) 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Reading for Literature 1. Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 3. Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes thecharacters or plot). Reading for Informational Text 3. Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events). 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone. 8. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims. Speaking and Listening 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 7 Language standards 1 and 3 on page 53 for specific expectations.)


Pathos and Logos



Effectively use pathos and logos appeals in persuasive writing and/or oral debate by citing relevant evidence from the text to best demonstrate the perspective of the author.

3

Analyze how figurative and connotative language impact the readers’ understanding and interpretation of events.

3,4

Use the writing process to write an effective

persuasive essay from the point of view of a Patriot or Loyalist to convince fellow colonists to join their cause.

4,5

Theme

Identify the author’s theme with specific textual support.

2,3

Tone

Analyze and provide proof of how tone impacts character development, plot, audience, and mood.

2,5

Compound/complex sentences

Flashback

Foreshadowing

Discriminate between tone and mood, and identify words applying to each term. Identify and cite the use of flashback. Evaluate the purpose for including a flashback within a piece.

2,5

4

Identify and cite the use of foreshadowing. Evaluate the purpose of including foreshadowing within a piece. ,4

Organization of text and effective use of transitions

Identify and analyze author’s organization and use of transitions.

Use digital media or writing to demonstrate knowledge of themes and literary devices.

6

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

How does a person’s knowledge and experience impact their perspective?

How do both positive and negative experiences change a person’s perspective?

Knowledge and experience impact a person’s way of seeing the world and how they interact with others. Positive and negative experiences affect a person’s views, interactions with others, behaviors and habits, decisions and life choices.

ASSESSMENTS PRE-ASSESSMENT (KWL, pre-tests, anticipation guides) Pre-writing – Do you think people can experience dramatic change in a short period of time? OR Can new experiences and differences in circumstance cause change in a person’s life? CFA – literary terms (theme, tone, flashback, foreshadowing, pathos, logos) Anticipation guide – introduce four themes evident in much of Dicken’s work. ( social injustice, generosity of spirit, wealth and happiness are not always connected, the importance of forgiveness 4-Corners(See attached 4-Corners strategy)

PROGRESS MONITORING (journals, exit slips, quizzes) Student classwork response to text based questions scored holistically

Exit slips

Graphic organizers showing students’ beliefs based on life experiences

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays)

Post test on literary terms showing identification and application Literature response- students cite examples from text of each of the four themes Teacher and student assessment of student creations reflecting their understanding of the play. Annotation of original excerpt of play and comparison to other versions

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) CBAS- opportunities for multiple drafts made available through instant feedback from modern technology Comparison of movie to play version/ contrast differences of “A Christmas Carol”.


LEARNING ACTIVITIES Learning Activities Online/ class discussion of theme and its relevance to plot. Watch video presentation Mary Poppins trailers of tone and mood to identify tone and mood and relate it to “A Christmas Carol.” Summary of Scrooge’s character based on excerpt from original piece. Extract and cite relevant evidence using parenthetical citation from original text to support analysis of character. Define teacher selected vocabulary from “Marley’s Ghost”. Include prefixes that

Use of Edmodo Resources and Materials Edmodo/class discussion

You Tube

LTF excerpt from “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

apply to the vocabulary given. Read, discuss, and analyze the themes of “Marley’s Ghost” and their development over the course of the story. Compare and contrast Scrooge and Fred’s views on Christmas (Two Voice Poem) Fishbowl discussion: Critique Scrooge’s life choices in Act II. How much did they affect his present character? Explore, annotate, and share pertinent information from differentiated biographies of Charles Dickens to see the impact of Dickens’ life in his writing. ***Explore, annotate, and share through writing and discussion information gathered from differentiated text. ***Trace and evaluate arguments and claims in text assessing whether the reasoning is sound and evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.

*** Students will learn in a variety of ways the correct usage of: pronoun-antecedent agreement, compound -complex sentences, dangling and misplaced modifiers.

See attached appendix for vocabulary and prefixes.

“Marley’s Ghost” from Read magazine

“A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley” from Novellinks.org http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/bleakhouse/animation.shtml

Differentiated biographies of Charles Dickens

*** Differentiated nonfiction texts on Patriots and Loyalists as well as prerevolutionary war causes

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) Use “The Many Faces of Scrooge” (pictures from Novellinks.org) to help ELL and struggling learners to understand the protagonist. Use Washington Times article, “The Many Faces of Scrooge” for the higher level learners. Use “The Many Faces of Scrooge” from open.salon.com for multilevel learners. Leveled nonfiction articles on Charles Dickens and/or traditions and customs of Victorian England. Differentiated versions of “The Christmas Carol” including plays, movies, original text, excerpts from original text, and picture books. .

VOCABULARY miser, apparition, appalling, obscure, dismal prefixes – inter, aud, dis,

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) History - Patriot /Loyalist debate, letters effectively use 6+1 Traits of Writing.

Compare and contrast Poe and Dickens’ backgrounds and the impact of their life experiences on their writing Students act out scenes from “A Christmas Carol” adding their own props, costumes to show their understanding of plot, character, theme, and mood.


English

GRADE/COURSE

8th/ Language Arts

UNIT OF STUDY

Literature- novel unit How Characters Face Challenges


THEMATIC 5 Weeks

ANCHOR STANDARDS (College and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core) Reading 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Speaking and Listening 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. Writing 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS (Reading Literature and Informational Text, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Language) Reading Literature 1. Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. 3. Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. 5. Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. 6. Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor. Speaking and Listening 1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. b. Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented 4. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 8 Language standards 1 and 3 on page 53 for specific expectations.) Writing 5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 ) 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.


Literature follows 5 specific elements of plot development.

Mood and tone are revealed through language choices and diction

Characters evolve as evidenced by the language used to describe them and the mood and tone of the novel.

SKILLS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO…)


•

Map the plot line of a novel including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution

application/

•

Identify examples of figures of speech and apply to own writing

•

Analyze how diction, imagery, and figures of speech impact mood and tone

•

Identify the author's use of direct and indirect characterization

•

Make inferences about character and identify textual evidence for support

•

Identify theme and evaluate its universality

•

Annotate for figurative language, character traits, connotation/denotation, and plot

•

Establish the point of view in a literary selection through close reading of text.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

application/ synthesis synthesis/ knowledge understanding analysis understanding /evaluating

understanding

BIG IDEAS

•

How do people overcome challenges?

•

•

What is truth?

•

•

How do we influence others?

•

•

What is the value of human

•

People overcome challenges through their character and their relationships with others Truth is different for each individual based on their character, experiences and perception We influence others through character, power, money and actions. Human relationships impact lives positively

relationships?

and negatively

ASSESSMENTS PRE-ASSESSMENT (KWL, pre-tests, anticipation guides) •

anticipation guide for specific novel unit

PROGRESS MONITORING (journals, exit slips, quizzes) Examples include: •

dialectical journal

•

concept maps

•

Socratic seminar/ discussion

•

Annotations

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) •

Essay writing (descriptive, narrative) to apply figurative language (LTF frame for essay: In title_, author , uses figurative language to create a mood of ______________. Using relevant quotations and insightful commentary, write a paragraph in which you explain how the author uses patterns of ______________ to achieve this purpose.)

•

Essay (Character analysis) with specific, textual, evidence cited to support character inferences/ development.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) May include: •

multiple intelligences project with presentation to address theme, plot, or character

•

obituary/epitaph to address character in a text

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Dialectical journals—(while reading) --keeping track of character traits, evidence, page number and commentary --summary of key event with commentary at the end of chapter (draw pictures)

Various novels to include: •

Thief of Always Clive Baker

•

Dovey Coe- O'Rourke

•

Z for Zachariah- O'Brien

•

Poetry selections from online sources

•

various LTF resources/short stories which may include:

--compare/contrast characters Guided Annotation --guided reading , text-dependent questions Socratic seminar --student led discussion on questions posed Modeling --modeling use of figurative language --finding examples from text --modeling how to create simile --modeling using student work to show examples of using figurative language

“The Shipping News,” “Edna’s Ruthie,” “The White Circle”


•

Guided reading comprehension question

•

graphic organizers for writing, character, and plot organization

•

modified essay/rubric

•

vocabulary scaffolding

VOCABULARY •

figures of speech terms- metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, imagery

•

content/novel vocabulary

•

plot terms- exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution

•

annotation

•

character terms- protagonist, antagonist, dynamic, static, round, flat, motivation, epiphany

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, using technology, and for enrichment) May include: •

poetry use of figures of speech

•

research/background on nuclear usage w/ Z for Zachariah

•

current nonfiction articles and issues


English

GRADE/COURSE

8th

UNIT OF STUDY

Writing/Language Usage


SKILLS-BASED 5 Weeks

ANCHOR STANDARDS (College and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core) Writing 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Speaking and Listening 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS (Reading Literature and Informational Text, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Language) Language 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

a. Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. b. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission. c. Spell correctly. 6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. Writing 1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. d. Establish and maintain a formal style. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. 4.Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Speaking/Listening 4. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 8 Language standards 1 and 3 on page 53 for 3 on page 53 for specific expectations.)

CONCEPTS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL KNOW) Steps of written composition


•

use the composition process

application

•

identify use of diction (connotation and denotation) and analyze the use of diction to convey meaning

knowledge/ analysis

•

apply persuasive appeals in written and oral forms

•

use proper mechanics in writing

•

identify parts of speech and independent and dependent clauses

How authors use word choice to convey meaning How to use persuasive appeals to address audience How to use Standard English mechanics

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL 16

•

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS How do we influence others? How do we express ourselves? How do people overcome challenges?

application

application knowledge

apply a variety of sentence structures

application

BIG IDEAS We can influence others through the use of persuasive appeals and diction Using Standard English conventions and the writing process, people are able to express themselves People overcome written language challenges through the use of Standard English conventions



•

CFA—parts of speech, mechanics

•

Drafting

•

KWL—writing process

•

Revision process

•

CBAS--September

•

Peer self-assessment feedback form

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Essay-persuasive CBAS revised Grammar test—Parts of speech, Sentence structure, Independent/Dependent clause, mechanics

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Use of persuasive appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) to create “advertisement” performance


LEARNING ACTIVITIES •

Killgallon’s Sentence Composing

--modeling various sentence structures

•

Warriner’s Grammar and Composition

--finding examples from texts

•

G.U.M.

•

Write Source 2000

•

LTF grammar lessons

•

•

Modeling

Note Taking --teacher notes based on skills introduced

•

Manipulatives --sentence strip activities

•

Daily homework and practice activities --variety of assignments based on daily lesson Diction analysis (LTF) DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners)

•

Scaffolding for breaking down writing prompt

•

Graphic organizers for writing

•

Modified essay/rubric

•

Alternative assignments/rubrics for grammar

•

IEP goal

VOCABULARY •

Process of composition terms—prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing

•

Diction—connotation/denotation

•

Persuasive Appeals—challenge, deductive, inductive, defend, logos, ethos, pathos request

•

Parts of speech terms/sentence types

•

Independent/Dependent Clause

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, using technology, and for enrichment) •

Individual research to support persuasive appeals

•

Time for the writing process: think, draft, review, revise, edit , publish

ENGLISH UNIT PLANNING ORGANIZER SUBJECT

English

GRADE/COURSE

8th Grade Language Arts

UNIT OF STUDY

Holocaust—literature/term paper

UNIT TYPE

THEMATIC

PACING (# DAYS)

Approximately 10 weeks

OVERARCHING STANDARDS By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word of phrase important to comprehension or expression COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS Literature 2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. 5. Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. 10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories , dramas, and poem, at the high end of grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. Informational Text 1. Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

3. Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas and events. 6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. 7. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or idea. 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced. 9. Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation. Writing 1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow: organize ideas, concepts and information into broader categories: include formatting, graphics and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic e. Establish and maintain a formal style f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented. 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience 5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. 6. Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships

between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. 7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources using such terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Speaking and Listening 2. Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats and evaluate the motives behind its presentation. 3. Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced. 4. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. 5. Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. Language: 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. 3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading or listening.

CONCEPTS (STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW)

•

•

•

•

SKILLS (STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO DO)

What are research ethics and why are they important How to evaluate sources for research and analyze its credibility and usefulness When and how to use print sources verses internet sources Accurately cite textual evidence and create connection to discussion

• • • •

• • • •

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL

Understanding/application Identify and use the ethics of research Analysis/application/synthesis Evaluate and analyze research sources Knowledge/understanding Use and cite both print and Application internet sources Utilize the structural Application elements in writing a research paper Knowledge/application (introduction, thesis, body, Application quotes, citations, etc.) Take notes from research Analysis/Synthesis materials Analysis/Synthesis Create in-text citations Defend ideas in discussion Analyze and question ideas of others

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

What it truth?

Using reliable sources helps to clarify sides of an issue

How do we express ourselves?

From research you can create an informed opinion on an issue Citing sources helps to strengthen your position and bolster your credibility

ASSESSMENTS PRE-ASSESSMENT

PROGRESS MONITORING

CFA—Holocaust content and research methodology

Note taking Drafting Writing process Thesis statement development UNIT ASSESSMENT

Research paper with visual/oral presentation (see rubric) Socratic Seminar discussion for Night (see rubric)—topics may vary based on direction of class

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Literature: • • • • • • •

Night by Elie Wiesel (Lit#10) Guided reading (oral/written) questions (Lit #10) Independent choice novel on related topic (may be non-fiction) (Lit #10) Close readings (Lit #2), (IT #3) Text annotation on character relationships and changes (Lit #2) (IT#3)(IT#6) Development/textual support of theme (Lit #2) Analyze differences between memoir and other writing styles (Lit #5)

Non-fiction: • •

•

Supporting nonfiction text on Holocaust subtopics (IT#8) (IT#9)(W#8)(W#9) Socratic Seminar method discussion relating rights v. responsibilities (Thematic)(SL#2)(SL#3)(SL#4) Text annotation (Lit #2), (IT#1), (IT#3)

Text Options: • • • • •

Night (all)--Wiesel Devil’s Arithmetic--Yolen Jacob’s Rescue –Drucker/Halperin Dawn/Day—Wiesel Other texts: student selected—teacher approved

Technology: • • • •

ELMO SmartBoard Teacher Tube Media data bases

Writing: • • • • • • • • •

Creation of thesis questions(W#7) Creation of thesis statements(W#7) Evaluation of resources (IT#6)(W#8)(W#9) Note taking/paraphrasing (IT #1)(IT#8)(IT#9) Use of quotations and in-text citations (MLA) (IT#6) Creation of research paper that supports thesis statement (W#1)(W#2) Creation of Works Cited page (MLA)(W#8) Editing content for clarity (W#4)(L#2)(L#3) Editing and revising for publication (W#4)(W#5)(W#6)

Additional Resources:

•

Speaking/Listening: •

• •

•

Physical representation of student learning through the use of technology/visual display (IT#7)(SL#2)(SL#5) Oral presentation of learning (SL#4)(SL#6)(L#3) Evaluation of peer work (SL#2)(SL#3)

• •

Use of USHMM and Jewish Heritage Museum websites Guest speakers: Mrs. Henny Simon (Holocaust survivor) and Mr. Ben Cooper (Liberator) PowerPoints: Imperialism, Nationalism and WWI and Rise to Power Diary of Anne Frank (movie)

DIFFERENTIATION Expanded reading levels (Titles to include: Number the Stars-Lowry, Memories of Anne Frank-Gold, and others for struggling readers/ Also: Day-Wiesel, The Book Thief-Zusak, Man’s Search for MeaningFrankl, and others for accelerated readers) Scaffolding for thesis statement writing Guided close reading Group/Team pairing based on strengths and weaknesses IEP/504 Accommodations

ENRICHMENT/EXTENSION Text complexity increased Inclusion of sentence variation as component of term paper rubric Presentation to history class when appropriate Found Poem INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS Unit does not coincide chronologically to US history curriculum, but students will see the connection between WWI and WWII Relate learning back to unit when required Vocabulary Concept Vocabulary: Aryan Anti-Semitism bigotry bystander/upstander collaborators concentration camp discrimination “Final Solution” genocide ghetto Holocaust Nazi pogrom perpetrators prejudice propaganda Rescuers liberators resistance scapegoat Literary Vocabulary: Kabbalah fascism revelation SS Talmud Zionism compatriots

edict pillage premonition truncheon Rubrics included:       

Research Paper rubric Note taking rubric Outline rubric Works Cited Rubric Visual Display Rubric Oral Presentation Rubric Socratic Seminar Rubric

Holocaust Literature Research Rubric: Memoir Analysis—What is Truth? Thesis Statement:__________________________________________________________________

Beginning 0-6

Developing 6-8

Accomplished 8-9

Required Components 55%

Thesis and questions incompletely addressed

Thesis addressed; lack of clarity and strong support; fair use of resources

Thesis addressed and most questions answered; use of good resources

Aesthetics, Organization, Audience 15%

Weak introduction or conclusion; weaker style

Introduction and conclusion included; some awareness of audience

Included introduction and conclusion; awareness of audience

Mechanics 15%

Little or no evidence of editing or revising; difficult to read

Errors in mechanics; paper lacks editing and revising

Few errors in mechanics; some evidence of editing and revising; paper is fluent

Citations (Works Cited and In-Text) 10% Required Elements 5%

No citations or use of outside resources

Errors in citation format, poor use of resources

Some errors in MLA format; few resources utilized

Missing required pieces

Some required elements included

Most required elements included

Exemplary 9-10 Clear, well supported answer to thesis and questions; use of reputable and scholarly resources Strong introduction and conclusion; strong writing style and awareness of audience No errors in capitalization/ punctuation; writing is clear and fluent; strong evidence of editing and revising Multiple, quality resources used and cited correctly using MLA format Final copy, all drafts, bibliography, note cards, rubric

Note Taking Rubric

Unsatisfactory

Developing

Progressing

Mastered

0

1

2

3

Unsatisfactory

Developing

Progressing

Mastered

0

1

2

3

Headings (all information included) Subtopics (information organized) Phrases (all info in phrase form—NO PLAGIARSM) Depth (required info covered with depth) Grade:___________ Outline Rubric (15%)

Proper Format Used (minimum 2 facts/heading) Content (accurate/informative/ applicable) Neatness (typed/no major errors)

Grade:____________

Works Cited Rubric

Format (page title, MLA form, double spaced btwn entries, 2nd line indented, punctuation, ABC order) Content (reliable sources, minimum required, varied) Grade:_________

Unsatisfactory

Developing

Progressing

Mastered

0

1

2

3

Visual Display Rubric

Quality of Chosen Visuals (title, maps, timeline, chart, photos, quote, etc.) Neatness (evidence of plan) Creativity/Aesthetics (follows outline, interesting, works with topic) Cohesiveness (all info is germane to the topic) Clarity (info is clear and sequential) Accuracy (all info is verified) Audience (display is approp. for audience)

Grade:_________

Unsatisfactory

Developing

Progressing

Mastered

0

1

2

3

Oral Presentation Rubric

Content 50% Introduction (interesting, topic identified, previews main point, estab. credibility) Content (clear, well supported, accurate coverage) Closure (main points reviewed, closure) Public Speaking 50% Eye Contact/ Engagement of audience Diction (contributes to effectiveness, no distracting vocalized pauses—um, uh, er) Body Language (gestures, facial expressions enhances) Clarity (clear sound, no mispronunciations) Audience (adapted for group) Visual Aids (visual enhances and supports presentation) Time (prepared, within limits) Grade:________

Unsatisfactory

Developing

Progressing

Mastered

0

1

2

3

Socratic Seminar Rubric Developing Viewpoint presented

Expand on viewpoint

Makes general statement about topic/text; may lack clarity Restates viewpoint expressed

Proficient Clear general to specific statement about topic/text

Clear specific statement about topic/text that references text

Builds upon idea/viewpoint already expressed Able to interpret statement to bring about clarity

Restates viewpoint and builds upon with new ideas Able to interpret statement to bring about clarity by illustrating with examples of details Uses example from outside text for support which directly connects to text Agrees/disagrees by restating original claim and then creating own support Asks questions to challenge peers Able to restate point and create a question which asks peer to defend or clarify reasoning/statement Statement language is independently clarified to increase peer understanding Specific page/paragraph number cited

Interprets Statement

Able to restate statement

Analogy/Example

Uses an example from outside text for support

Uses an example from the text for support

Agrees/Disagree with Support

Agrees/Disagrees and can restate claim

Agrees/Disagrees and supports

Questions

Asks question about text “What? Why?” style

Asks questions of peers for clarity Makes a proposal for peer to defend citing a specific point previously made

Constructively challenges

Defines terms

Able to clarify language use with prompt

References text

General reference

Behaviors: Eyes, affirmation, awareness of others, positive body language

Advanced


English

GRADE/COURSE

8 Language Arts

UNIT OF STUDY

Poetry


TOPICAL

× SKILLS-BASED

THEMATIC

5 weeks

ANCHOR STANDARDS (College and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core) Reading 1. Read and closely determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and explain how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. 9.Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate. 5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Writing 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Speaking and Listening 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS (Reading Literature and Informational Text, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Language Reading 1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. 5. Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept. 4. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. 6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. Language 4a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. 4d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

Writing 4, 5, 6 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.) 5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 8 on page 53.) 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.




Authors use diction to convey meaning.

Identify how authors use diction to convey meaning in poetic form.

Understanding Analyzing

Authors use figurative language to create images for readers.

Identify and apply figures of speech in others’ writing and their own writing.

Understanding Applying Creating

Authors use sound devices to appeal to readers’ senses and to manipulate language.

Authors use figures of speech and sound devices to convey meaning in a concise manner. Authors use alliteration, assonance, consonance, meter, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, apostrophe, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, allusion, irony, symbolism, imagery, detail, and hyperbole in poems to create

Imitate an author’s style.

Applying Creating

Identify and apply sound devices in others’ writing and in their own.

Understanding Applying Creating

Identify and analyze how authors use the devices to create meaning, mood, tone, or perspective in poems.

Understanding Evaluating

meaning, mood, tone, perspective in poetry.

BIG IDEAS

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Authors use diction, figurative language, and sound devices to challenge readers’ beliefs.

What is truth? How do we express ourselves?

Authors use a variety of poetic forms to express their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.

Who am I?

Authors use diction, figurative language, and sound devices to discover and express who they are.


PROGRESS MONITORING (journals, exit slips, quizzes) •

Poetry CFA – poetic devices • •

Quizzes Annotations

Concept maps

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) • •

Imitation of a poem

Creating a poetry portfolio using figurative language, sound devices, and diction

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Dramatic reading of own poem or a published poem.


•

Guided annotation – guided reading, think/pair/share Socratic seminar – student led discussion on questions posed •

Modeling

- model a dramatic reading - find figurative language in guided lessons - model how to analyze a poem for rhyme and rhythm •

Guided writing practice

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS Various poems/nonfiction to include: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams versus sales advertisement for a wheelbarrow “Willow and Ginkgo” by Eve Merriam with descriptions of the trees “Knoxville, Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni and the history of Knoxville, Tennessee from the tourism bureau “The Esquimos Have No Word for ‘War’” by Mary Oliver LTF Resources may include: Friendship Poems, Charting the Direction of a Poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, “The Sprinkler”, “The World Is Not a Pleasant Place” and “Sestina” Graphic organizers Writing Poetry by Shelley Tucker Audacious Poetry by Greta Barclay Lipson Calliope by Greta Barclay Lipson Teaching Poetry by Jacqueline Sweeney

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) •

Graphic organizers to note-take and write poetry •

Modified dramatic reading •

•

Vocabulary scaffolding

Extra time/access to computer lab

VOCABULARY Figures of speech – alliteration, assonance, consonance, meter, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, apostrophe, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, allusion, irony, symbolism, imagery, detail, hyperbole

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, using technology, and for enrichment) May include: • • •

Independent study of poet

Poetry writing for additional purposes (publication, contests)

Background research on poets and the time period in which they are writing

UNIT PLANNING ORGANIZER SUBJECT

English Language Arts

GRADE/COURSE

Grade 9

UNIT OF STUDY

Historical Fiction


Genre-Based 10-13 instructional days

OVERARCHING STANDARDS By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grade 9 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (9.R.L.10) By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed a he high end of the range. (9. R.I. 10) Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose or audience. (9.W.5) Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word of phrase important to comprehension or expression (9.L.6) COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS Priority Standards Determine a them or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary for the text. (9. R.L. 2) Analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with multiple of conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.) (9. R.L.3) Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (9. R.I. 1) Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary

of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. (9. R.I. 2) Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. (9.W. 2) Use technology, including the internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically. (9.W.6) Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a selfgenerated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. (9.W.7) Initiate an d participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 9 topics, texts, and issues, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. (9. S.L. 1) Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task. (9. SL.4) Make strategic use of digital media (eg. Textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. (9.SL.5) Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (9.L.1) Supporting Standards Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impace of specific word choices onmeaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone.) (9. R.L. 4) Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. (9. R.I. 6) Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. (9.W.2b) Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. (9.W.2c)

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (9.W.4) Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. (9.W.8) Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 9–10 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 54 for specific expectations.) (9.SL.6) Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (9.L.2) Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (9.L.4) CONCEPTS (STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW)



The structure of an I-Search paper.


Remember

How to use technology to present information

Analyze and apply literary terms to their novel

Understand

Create a documentary in order to teach others about their learning.

Apply

What universal conflicts are and how they can connect to them. Grade level literary terms

Make connections to their novel. Evaluate the products of their peers.

Historical context of their novel

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS How can I relate to characters who are from a different time or place than I? What universal conflicts do we share?

Analyze Evaluate Create

BIG IDEAS Despite changes in technology and modern comforts, the human condition will always face the same challenges: love, fear, betrayal, violence, friendship, etc.



K-W-L Worksheets

Dialectical Journals for reading assignments

Anticipation Guides

Dialogue Journals for Documentary

4-corner exercises

Comprehension Quizzes/Checks (formative or summative)

Formative Literary Term Assessment Pre-Reading Activites like “Probably passage” or “Tea party” Rough draft of “I-Search” (common assessment) to determine strengths and weaknesses.

Whole-Class Vocab practice Exit Slips Polls (in-class, formal/informal, virtual) Class discussions (fishbowl)

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) 1.

Summative assessment reflecting analysis of the novel and accompanying non-fiction, short stories, poetry, etc.

2. I-Search paper relevant to the novel. (teacher-developed list, with potential for individual choices) See attached assignment and rubric . AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Students will create a documentary that informs their peers about their I-Search topic. Students will understand that their documentaries will then be offered as cross-curricular teaching tools. Additionally, these documentaries will be posted virtually and used within the “Flipped Classroom” model. In other words, students will view a documentary of their choice (not their own) and reflect upon new learning.


LEARNING ACTIVITIES Creating contextual meaning through whole-class and small-group activities such as: KWL, LGL (List, Group, Label), 4-corners, etc.

Text Options:

Guided Close reading activities to build awareness of author’s craft.

Great Expectations

Class discussions to promote alternative points of view and deeperunderstanding of text.

Once and Future King

Respond to open-ended prompts using appropriate textual support. Annotate texts (guided and independent) Use relevant and accurate internet resources to research topics related to their I-Search paper. Presentation from LMC specialist in preparation for documentary creation. Examine student examplars as models for I-Search and Documentary Peer editing of student products during the revision process Students participate in a “flipped classroom” by viewing peer documentaries and documenting new learning.

Of Mice and Men

Power of One

McDougal Littell Anthology Grade 9 – various short stories, essays, poems. Technology: Databases Cameras/Phones Teacher Tube TED.ed Talks Additional Resources: Vocabulary Lists (Literary Terms) Teacher-generated handouts, notes, etc.

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) All IEP and 504 modifications will be recognized and utilized. Reading assignments will be adjusted as needed for lexile, complexity, and interest. Teachers will use appropriate scaffolding and be prepared to modify their pacing. Teachers can use grouping creatively and proactively to support academic strengths and build up academic weaknesses.

VOCABULARY Characterization

Plot Elements

Flat/Round

Exposition

Static/Dynamic

Rising Action

Foil

Conflict

Stock

Falling Action

Protagonist Antagonist Foreshadowing

Flashback

Theme

Setting

Irony

Tone

Diction Dialect Idiom Denotation Connotation

*Additional Text-specific Vocabulary Words *Root of the Week

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) The authentic performance task lends itself to strong interdisciplinary connections, particularly with social studies/history classes. Students may choose to read additional novels by the same author as a way of deepening their appreciation of a particular author’s style. Students may challenge themselves technologically by including more elaborate special effects into their documentary or working with more advanced digital software editing programs available in the LMC. Students may connect ??


English Language Arts

GRADE/COURSE

Grade 9

UNIT OF STUDY

Book length Non-Fiction and Short Stories


Genre-Based 10-13 instructional days

OVERARCHING STANDARDS By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grade 9 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (9.R.L.10) By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed a he high end of the range. (9. R.I. 10) Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose or audience. (9.W.5) Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word of phrase important to comprehension or expression (9.L.6) COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS Priority Standards Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of a text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. (9.R.I.2) Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (9. R.I. 1) Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. (9.W. 2) Initiate an d participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and

teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 9 topics, texts, and issues, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. (9. S.L. 1) Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task. (9. SL.4) Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (9.L.1) Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. (9.R.I. 3) Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter) (9.R.I.5) Supporting Standards Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. (9. R.I. 6) Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. (9.W.2c) Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (9.W.4) Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 9–10 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 54 for specific expectations.) (9.SL.6) Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (9.L.2) Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (9.L.4) CONCEPTS (STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW)



The annotation process

Annotate with purpose

Remember

How to structure their writing:


Understand

Identify author’s purpose/theme

Apply

-

Structure of formal paragraphs

-

-

(intro., body, etc.)

Evaluate stylistic decisions.

Analyze

The relationship between topic sentences and a thesis

Make connections between fiction and nonfiction.

Evaluate

Use of transition verbs

Evaluate the products of their peers.

Create

How bias impacts non-fiction Grade level literary terms Context of their non-fiction piece

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

BIG IDEAS

What is the nature of “truth”?

Truth is shaped by context, bias, information, and experience.



Summer reading essay

Dialectical Journals for reading assignments

K-W-L Worksheets

Guided/independent annotation

Anticipation Guides

Comprehension Quizzes/Checks (formative or summative)

4-corner exercises Formative Literary Term Assessment Pre-Reading Activites like “Probably passage” or “Tea party”

Whole-Class Vocab practice Exit Slips Polls (in-class, formal/informal, virtual) Class discussions (fishbowl)

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) 1.

Summative assessment including analysis of non-fiction piece with a focus on identifying purpose.

2. Personal Narrative. (Rubric Attached)

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Students will take on the role of a peer mediator. They will be asked to arbitrate an incident between two students. Students will read and analyze varying accounts of one event. Based on their understanding of bias, manipulation, persuasion, etc. they will develop an intervention plan. This plan will provide an authentic solution to the conflict, and an explanation of how they arrived at the solution. Additionally, students will need to present their findings to their peers in verbal presentation format.


LEARNING ACTIVITIES Creating contextual meaning through whole-class and small-group activities such as: KWL, LGL (List, Group, Label), 4-corners, etc.

Text Options:

Guided Close reading activities to build awareness of author’s craft.

A Hole in My Life

Class discussions to promote alternative points of view and deeper understanding of text.

It’s Not About the Bike

Respond to open-ended prompts using appropriate textual support. Annotate texts (guided and independent) Fishbowl discussions assessing the truth of various written pieces

A Night to Remember

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Black Boy Travels with Charly McDougal Littell Anthology Grade 9 – various short stories, essays, poems. Newsprint

Chalkboard Splash

_______ (Great Books anthologies)

Think-Pair-Share

Technology:

Journal Responses to related articles

Teacher Tube TED.ed Talks Additional Resources: Vocabulary Lists (Literary Terms) Teacher-generated handouts, notes, etc.

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) All IEP and 504 modifications will be recognized and utilized. Reading assignments will be adjusted as needed for lexile, complexity, and interest. Teachers will use appropriate scaffolding and be prepared to modify their pacing. Teachers can use grouping creatively and proactively to support academic strengths and build up academic weaknesses. Use of formative assessments to individualize instruction

VOCABULARY Characterization

Plot Elements

Flat/Round

Exposition

Static/Dynamic

Rising Action

Foil

Conflict

Stock

Falling Action

Protagonist Antagonist Foreshadowing

Flashback

Theme

Setting

Irony

Tone

Diction Dialect Idiom Denotation Connotation

*Additional Text-specific Vocabulary Words *Root of the Week

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) Students may choose to read additional novels by the same author as a way of deepening their appreciation of a particular author’s style. Students could take part in research projects related to larger social issues (ie. Stuebenville rape case) in which they are still asked to evaluate the truth and implement a solution Watch news programs and read editorials in order to identify purpose as well as bias.


English

GRADE/COURSE

Sophomore

UNIT OF STUDY

Persuasion


SKILLS-BASED variable

OVERARCHING STANDARDS Reading 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Craft and Structure 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS Reading Standards for Informational Text 6–12 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. 3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper). 5. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by

particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter). 6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning. 8. Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses). 9. Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts. CONCEPTS (By the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL KNOW)

SKILLS (By the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO)

Identify rhetorical devices and author’s choices. Identify, analyze, and Evaluate examples of persuasive speech for the apply rhetorical author’s use of rhetorical devices. strategies and elements. Apply new knowledge by crafting persuasive letters/essays. Deliver persuasive speech orally using rhetorical strategies. Explain what makes an effective argument. Recognize examples of effective rhetorical strategies and/or devices. Identify and use the three appeals writers use to persuade.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL Understand

Evaluate

Apply Apply

Understand

Apply

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

What is the difference between arguing and argumentation? How do I select rhetorical devices to make effective arguments? What makes a persuasive argument?

Specific strategies that writers use make for persuasive argumentation.

The most effective speeches are based on strong rhetorical devices.

What is the author’s purpose and how does the author fulfill that purpose?


PROGRESS MONITORING

KWL- Awareness of argumentation, audience, purpose, and rhetoric through viewing or reading cartoons, editorials, essays, or advertisements.

Read historical essays and speeches. Discover author’s use of rhetoric, connotation, and message.

UNIT ASSESSMENT

Create and deliver a persuasive speech with visuals. Create a persuasive advertisement or present appeals in a n advertisement or political cartoon. Write a persuasive essay or letter such as defend , challenge, and qualify essay or the CAPT Interdisciplinary Writing essay. AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS Students will write persuasive letters. Students will deliver a persuasive speech

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


KWL- What makes an argument persuasive? KWL- What makes a persuasive argument effective? Reading a variety of complex texts and understanding the context and purpose of the text. Read arguments to determine strategies the authors use to make them effective position papers. Listen to or read speeches that are persuasive. Students will bring in editorials, advertisements, and political cartoons and show their understanding of the three appeals.

A variety of essays, cartoons, editorials, and speeches.

DIFFERENTIATION/ INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

The complexity of the documents (lexile) and the expectations will be modified to reflect student ability levels. Pacing, review, extended time, modeling, and extra help. VOCABULARY

ENRICHMENT/EXTENSION Reading and writing editorials.

Logos, Pathos, Ethos, Audience, Context, Rhetoric, Purpose

Looking at historical documents and essays as a social studies connection.


English

GRADE/COURSE

Sophomore

UNIT OF STUDY

Thematic Analysis


SKILLS-BASED 20-25 class periods

ANCHOR STANDARDS Reading 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. Language 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. COMMON CORE STANDARDS Reading Literature 3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. Reading Informational Texts 2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CONCEPTS (By the end of this unit, students WILL KNOW)

Identify, analyze, and apply thematic elements.

SKILLS (By the end of this unit, students WILL BE ABLE TO)

Identify a theme in a work.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL

Analyze

Cite evidence and defend their opinion or ideas.

Understanding

Make connections between text, self, and world. Apply

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

What is the author’s message? How does the text connect to you and the real world?

Great literature has a theme and a message that applies to the real world.


PROGRESS MONITORING

Identify theme in “Harrison Bergeron.”

Identify theme in Fahrenheit 451 through devices such as characterization, symbolism, title, mood, tone, and motif.

Or, identify theme in “Black Men in Public Places.”

Identify theme in To Kill a Mockingbird through devices such as characterization, symbolism, title, mood, tone, and motif.

UNIT ASSESSMENTS Thematic analysis essay. Students will select a non-fiction article and compare to text relating to theme. Defend, challenge, qualify essay. Analysis essay.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES Identify literary devices and author’s craft to identify theme and message. Teacher modeling think aloud with poetry and/or short stories. Writing a thesis statement. Develop an analysis. Cite evidence from text and non-fiction sources. Write a conclusion.

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS Texts Harrison Bergeron To Kill a Mockingbird Fahrenheit 451 “Black Men in Public Places” Documentaries The Children’s March A Time for justice

Characterization, plot development activities.

Poetry/Music- Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday

Tone and mood shift.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

DIFFERENTIATION AND INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

Short story or novel chosen for class interest and ability. Pacing, review, extended time, modeling, and extra help.

VOCABULARY Content vocabulary: defining terms such as segregation and Jim Crow.

ENRICHMENT/EXTENSION Current and relevant articles and media Background non-fiction articles for each novel. Historical documents from Free at Last- Great Books.


English

GRADE/COURSE

Junior 132,133,134

UNIT OF STUDY

Rhetorical Analysis


SKILLS-BASED Core unit varies- skills ongoing

ANCHOR STANDARDS (College and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core) 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.* 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. 2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and

refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10). 5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging. 6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. 7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem. CONCEPTS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL KNOW)



An author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective.

Describe three forms of appeals of argument (ethos,pathos, logos), the various appeals and how are used

UNDERSTANDING

How style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of a text in which an author’s rhetoric is particularly effective.

Chart the rhetorical triangle and significance.

Informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through: -Effective selection of content -Effective organization of content -Effective analysis of content

Precise language, domainspecific vocabulary, and techniques to manage the

Students will be able to identify writer’s central claims, evidence of claims, and assumptions. Students will analyze time, place, setting for contextualization of writer’s purpose. Students will be able to identify the point of view, and assess narrator reliability and credibility. Evaluate the purpose of a text based on the audience, context, and use of persuasive appeals. Evaluate the effectiveness of a text based on the audience, context, and use of persuasive appeals.

REMEMBERING APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS EVALUTATION

complexity of the topic, including: -Three forms of rhetorical devices -Rhetorical triangle -Rhetorical analysis -Speaker, Audience -Context -Bias -P.O.V

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

What is the writer’s purpose in writing/creating a text?

All writing is rhetorical writing and has a purpose-audience-subject.

How do authors use various strategies to manipulate the reader?

Authors carefully utilize persuasive appeals based on the audience and context for specific purposes.

How does the style and content of a text impact its rhetorical effectiveness?


PROGRESS MONITORING

Anticipation Guide


KWL

Quizzes

Think-Pair-Share

Journal entries (Ex. Persuasive Letters to real or fictional people that are rhetorically effective or NOT rhetorically effective) Close reading and annotation (focusing on identifying rhetorical strategies) Discussions about the rhetorical effectiveness of various texts. Exit tickets UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays)

Unit tests or projects inclu de rhetorical analysis of a speech and a visual, including an evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the piece.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Scavenger hunt for rhetorical style using popular mediums Annotations of short works Student-created propaganda Development of a synthesis essay

LEARNING ACTIVITIES Analyze a variety of fiction and nonfiction sources for rhetorical devices and effectiveness. Developing close reading techniques to determine author’s purpose. Do rhetorical analysis of: essays, print and television ads, short stories, film clips, and or novels Suggested Activities: -Collaboration with Library Media Specialists: Visual Literacy and Rhetoric/Web Tools and Technology Web 2.0/Digital Citizenship -LTF: Close Reading and Composition+ -LTF Close Reading: Fact or Opinion and Author’s Purpose -Close Reading Foundation Lesson: Persuasive Appeals -Close Reading Foundation Lesson: Author’s Purpose -LTF: Structure and Persuasion (Module 10) -LTF: How to Write a Rhetorical Summary -LTF: Finding Appeals in Contemporary Speeches -LTF: Using Logical, Emotional, and Ethical Appeals -Close Reading: Understanding Appeals -LTF: Rhetorical Claims in Quotations (Warm Up-Activity) -The Language of Composition: Lou Gehrig’s Speech -The Language of Composition: Toyota Ad

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS Possible Resources: -Existing and topical resources (newspapers, magazines, television ads, etc.) -St. Crispin’s Day Speech -Julius Caesar Speech: Friends, Romans, Countrymen -King Priam’s Speech (The Illiad) -Lou Gehrig’s Speech -Toyota Ad -Rosa Parks Cartoon -The Crucible by Arthur Miller -Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ mayaangeloueulogyforcorettaking.htm “America Needs its Nerds,” New York Times, 1990 “All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Nerd,” New York Times, 1990 Excerpt from “Is Google Evil?” Mother Jones, 2006

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) Each class will use appropriate strategies for scaffolding and support. All IEP and 504 modifications will be recognized and used. Each level class will choose appropriate lexile texts for instruction.

VOCABULARY Terms associated with rhetoric, including ethos, logos, pathos, context, speaker, audience, bias, etc.

ENRICHMENT/EXTENSION Grouping Leveled Texts for advanced readers Connections to additional examples of rhetoric in the media, non-fiction, etc. All texts regardless of subject are rhetorical in nature. Suggested Art Connections: Using Parts of Speech to Analyze a Visual Text


English

GRADE/COURSE

Junior 132,133,134

UNIT OF STUDY

Argumentative Writing


SKILLS-BASED VARIES

OVERARCHING STANDARDS 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. a. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text,

create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. d. Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic). 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. a. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”). b. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court Case majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works


Analyze complex ideas, concepts, and information to write clearly and accurately through: -Effective selection of content -Effective organization of content -Effective analysis of content How to find sources and determine the credibility of different sources.


Students will be able to synthesize various sources to support a thesis. Students will be able to write a thesis driven response that effectively analyzes and synthesizes multiple sources. Students will be able to evaluate the credibility of various sources and texts. Students will be able to identify and create claims, as well as defend them, to write an argument.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY LEVEL 1-6 UNDERSTANDING REMEMBERING APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS EVALUATION

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BIG IDEAS

How do we synthesize various sources of information to create a written piece?

Synthesize various sources and ideas to create an original product or argument.

How do we select rhetorical devices to make a strong and effective argument in a thesis driven response?

Cite appropriate sources with standard citation form. Organize the argument in a logical and persuasive form with evidence and support.



Anticipation Guide


KWL

Quizzes

Think-Pair-Share

Journal entries Practice writing thesis statements. Practice gathering evidence from texts. Close reading and annotation (focusing on identifying evidence) Discussions about the correlations between various texts. Intro/Exit Quizzes

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) Unit tests or projects include a synthesis essay. Students analyze and evaluate multiple sources to write a thesis driven response.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) Scavenger hunt for credible sources Practice using various databases Annotations of short works Development of a synthesis essay

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Web Quest for Credible/Reliable Sources Collaboration with Library Media Specialists: Website Evaluation/Database Use/BetterSearch Techniques Synthesis of various sources (fiction, nonfiction, video clips, cartoons, etc.) Practice writing thesis statements. Practice identifying evidence for a purpose. LTF: Writing the Argumentative Essay (Foundation Lesson) LTF: Claims in a Visual Text (Warm Up Activity) LTF: Concession and Counterargument (Module 12) LTF: Defend, Challenge, Qualify LTF: Fire and Ice: How Argument Reveals Man CSDE Sample Lesson: Making Meaning of Text through Rhetorical Devices CSDE Sample Lesson: Developing Questions for Student-Based Inquiry

From The Language of Composition: Synthesizing Sources From The Language of Composition: Thematic chapters with related texts, excerpts, cartoons, etc. Topics: Education Work Community Gender Sports and Fitness Language Science and Technology Popular Culture Nature Politics CSDE Sample Lesson: Making Meaning of Text through Rhetorical Devices o Alexie, “Indian Education” (from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven) o Anaya, “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” o Angelou, “Champion of the World” (from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) o Audism Unveiled (documentary) o Bhatt, “Search for My Tongue” o Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban o Haley, Roots excerpt(s) o Nieves, “Puzzle” o Tan, “Fish Cheeks” o Tan, “Mother Tongue”

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) Pacing, review, extended time, modeling, leveled texts, and extra help.

VOCABULARY Logical argument, citation of sources, credibility of sources, reliability, persuasion, synthesis, rhetorical devices.

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) Leveled or more complex texts or materials, independent research in topics of interest, publication in school or online venues.


English

GRADE/COURSE

English 12 (all levels)

UNIT OF STUDY

Justice, Authority and the Tragic Hero: A Study of Humanity


THEMATIC 20 Class Periods (eight weeks)

ANCHOR STANDARDS (College and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core) 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. 9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS (Reading Literature and Informational Text, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Language) Reading Standards for Literature: 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. 5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. 7. Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) Reading Standards for Informational Texts 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn 5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging. 6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective,

analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. Writing Standards 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information. 8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation. Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. b. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

CONCEPTS (by the end of this unit, STUDENTS WILL KNOW) •

Identify, analyze, and apply elements of drama to understand and appreciate author’s intent

•

Conventions of dramatic writing

•

How conventions of theatrical writing differ from traditional narrative

•

Comprehensi on of historical dramas and tragedy

•

How informational texts and nonfiction perspectives influence a reader’s response to drama



•

Demonstrate after reading understanding and interpretation of fiction texts.

1- Rememb er

•

Demonstrate fluency and comprehension in reading.

•

Analyze the effectiveness, in terms of literary quality, the author’s use of literary devices.

2- Understa nd

•

Define by example the terms tragedy and tragic hero

•

Compare the Aristotelian and Renaissance models of tragedy

•

Identify and discuss the characteristics of plays that mark them as tragedies.

•

Trace characters’ evolving psychological and emotional state and how their condition is reflected in their soliloquies.

•

Discuss the techniques playwrights use to convey character and character relationships to his audience.

•

Identify and analyze the use of comic relief (as representative of Greek and Shakespearean tragedy)

3- Apply 4- Analyze 5- Evaluate 6- Create

BIG IDEAS

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS •

Can wanting something too much lead us to do things against our nature?

• • • •

•

Playwrights have an uncanny ability to provide a window into the human soul, the human condition, and the human experience.

Why are people motivated to create an appearance that is different from reality?

•

Cultural and historical knowledge contributes to the analysis and appreciation of literature.

What happens when people or our lives themselves do not meet our expectations?

•

Perspective alters meaning.

•

Humans are not consistently logical, fair, or predictable.

•

Literature provokes a discussion of fate and/or the consequences of choice.

•

Valid judgments are text supported.

Is justice an unattainable ideal in the real world? Can a lust for power lead to loss of humanity?

•

How does a character cause his/her own downfall?

•

Good literature is timeless and models the consequences of choice and action.

•

How much influence do humans have over their own lives?

•

Literature, no matter the genre or date of the writing, is a study of man’s nature.

•

Is it always good to know the truth?

•

•

How does one know oneself?

Knowing the culture, author’s background, and historical context of a writing enhances appreciation and understanding.

•

When dark secrets are revealed, how does society deal with them?

•

Literature may inform, criticize, and enlighten as well as entertain.

•

When dark secrets are revealed, how do individuals deal with them?

•

Communication often includes implicit information as well as explicit information.

•

Drama is written for performance on the stage, not reading on the page.

•

Appreciating drama means accepting the conventions of the stage, such as the fourth wall-concept, asides, soliloquies, stage directions, and director’s license.

•

How are a country's leaders a reflection of that country, both its soul and its populace?

•

When leaders act wrongly, what should be done?

•

When one discovers darkness within oneself, what is to be done?

•

In drama characterization is developed through speech and action, not narration.

•

How do you know when something is true? How is truth identified?

•

Drama is a present-tense medium.

•

Good drama is timeless and models the consequences of our choices and actions.



• Anticipation Guide

• Fever Chart

• Drew Villager Activity

• Quotation Identification Quizzes

• KWL

• Weird Word Log • Exit Slips

UNIT ASSESSMENTS (tests, essays) •

Essay: Individual Responses to authority loom large in these works of literature. Research how contemporaries of characters regarded individuals’ responsibility to their kings and their kings obligations to them. Given that context, how do you judge the behavior of (Hamlet, Oedipus, Creon, Claudius) as kings/rulers in their respective societies.

•

“In Search of a Theme” presentations

•

Thematic analysis essay

•

Essay: Which film most accurately depicts Shakespeare’s vision? (with the understanding that a students has identified what that vision is)

•

Essay: Analysis of how works of literature reflect universal themes (Fate, “Blindness”, Arrogance, Temper, Crime and Punishment), comparing and contrasting the times in which the plays were written with present day and drawing on informational texts to support argument.

•

Essay: Student’s own literary criticism of a play, modeled after non-fiction perspectives

•

Match.com/E-Harmony Project


LEARNING ACTIVITIES



Socratic Seminar

PLAYS

•

Four-Corner Discussion

•

Fishbowl

•

Survey of Sayings by Shakespeare

• Hamlet –William Shakespeare • Oedipus the King –Sophocles • Antigone –Sophocles Non-Fiction Texts

•

Identification of Speaker

•

Character Committees

•

Scenes in Action

•

A Play in Search of a Theme

•

Ordering of Events

•

•

Improvisation

•

Changing/Assuming Perspective

• •

•

Talk Show

•

Translating Shakespeare

•

Alternate Tragic Hero

•

Peer Feedback

• • •

• • • • • • • •

“Objections to the Elizabethan Theater” by the Mayor of London (1597 “On Boy Actors in Female Roles” –Lisa Jardine “On Shakespeare’s Characters” – Samuel Johnson “On Repression in Hamlet” –Sigmund Freud “On Producing Hamlet” –Jan Kott “A Film Diary of the Shooting of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet” –Russell Jackson “On the Value of Comedy in the Face of Tragedy” –James Kincaid “Ophelia’s Desperation” –Joan Montgomery Byles “Ophelia’s Mad Speeches” –Sandra K. Fisher “On Tragic Character” –Aristotle “On the Oedipus Complex” –Sigmund Freud “On Oedipus the King as a Political Play” –David Wiles “The Major Critical Issue in Antigone” – R.G.A. Buxton “The Function of the Chorus in Antigone” –Cynthia P. Gardener

Fiction/Poetry

•

“Mark on the Wall” Virginia Wolf Short Story

•

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” –T.S. Eliot

•

Friendly Shakespeare: “Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard” Did Polonius deserve to die? “Gertrude Talks Back”Hamletology

• •

•

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) •

No-Fear Shakespeare

•

Each class will use appropriate strategies for scaffolding and support.

•

All IEP and 504 modifications will be recognized and used.

•

Each level class will choose appropriate lexile texts for instruction.

•

Formative Assessments will support progress monitoring and will allow for early intervention using:

•

Choice of materials based on students’ interests and abilities.

•

Leveled Texts

•

Grouping

•

Intro and Exit Quizzes or Tests

•

Exit Tickets

•

Supplement with audio and visual aids

VOCABULARY •

Literary terms relating to drama

•

Tragic Hero (Greek and Renaissance)

•

Content Vocabulary:

Example from Hamlet: liegemen

apparition

usurpest

martial

portentous

harbingers

visage

filial

obsequious

retrograde

jocund

calumnious

libertine

censure

importuned

wassail

sepulcher

harrow

rankly

lazar

unaneled

importunity precepts prodigal interred enmity pernicious

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, using technology, and for enrichment) •

Encountering Drama: A Visual Portfolio of Hamlet in Popular Culture and Performance

•

“A Humerous Distillation of Antigone” –Maurice Sagoff (concept of a Shrinklet)

•

“On Oedipus the King” –Muriel Rukeyseyer

•

Ten Things I Hate About You

•

The Lion King

•

Shakespeare in Love

•

Other Articles of media

•

The King Must Die” by Elton John

•

The Simpsons (Season 13, Episode 14)

•

Theatrical Releases:

• • • • • •

•

Laurence Olivier, 1948 Grigori Kozintsev, 1964 Tony Richardson, 1969 Franco Zeffirelli, 1990 Kenneth Branagh, 1996 Michael Almereyda, 2000


English

GRADE/COURSE

Senior

UNIT OF STUDY

Argument/persuasion/story telling


THEMATIC Core unit varies- skills ongoing

ANCHOR STANDARDS (college and Career Readiness Standards 1-10 from the Common Core) 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, larger portions of the text (e.g .chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. 1.Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 4. Produce clear and coherent writing which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

COMMON CORE STATES STANDARDS Reading Informational Texts 1.

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. 3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. 4. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

5. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to

advance that point of view or purpose. Writing Standard 1.

Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.


literary techniques such as character, setting, p.o.v



Identify types of p.o.v.

REMEMBERING

Explain what is gained by author’s p.o.v.

UNDERSTANDING

Recognize satire

APPLICATION

Manipulation of chronology to achieve purpose

Analyze satire

ANALYSIS

Satire

Infer/explain author’s intent

SYNTHESIS

Elements of argument

EVALUTATION

Elements of narrative

Identify, exposition, character, setting, p.o.v and explain role and relation to purpose of piece.

Relationship of argument and narrative

Write persuasively employing a clear understanding of logos, pathos, and ethos.

Various p.o.v

Logos, pathos, ethos Counter-argument/inoculation

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS What is the “argument” of the story? What literary strategy and devices does the author use to achieve his purpose (or make his/her “argument”)?

BIG IDEAS All stories make arguments using various literary and linguistic and strategies and devices? Argument often relies on narrative to be effective. Everything is an argument.

In what ways are these narratives more or less effective than an explicit argument?

What does role does ethos play in your own attempts to persuade? How do you establish your ethos? What role does narrative play in your attempt to persuade? What matters about the audience that you are attempting to persuade?


PROGRESS MONITORING

Elements of narrative

Quizzes

k-w-l (rhetorical triangle, satire, literary terms) write original narrative, analyze for literary elements

Discussion Practice close reading/annotation Read/identify/discuss/literary devices

Identify literary terms and devices in stories Employ literary terms and devices in own short fiction Read/discuss/employ elements of analysis including rhetorical triangle

rhetorical

Develop close reading techniques for fiction and argument. Suggested Activities(Rose for Emily): •

Close read opening of story

•

Infer and interpret from close reading of opening

•

Independent reading of entire story

•

Discuss role of p.o.v.

•

Create chronology of events

•

Introduce trial assignment

•

Read advice to trial lawyers

Suggested Activities (Greasy Lake): •

Close read/discuss opening of story

•

Answer interpretive questions in writing

•

Introduce Boyle quotation on satire

•

Introduce ban/not to ban assignment

•

Annotate for evidence of satire

UNIT ASSESSMENT “Should Luke remain in school” synthesis essay which asks students to create a persuasive essay convincing Board of Education members whether a student should be allowed back to school after reading/synthesizing a series of documents including the first amendment, NFA’s dress code, and a variety of newspaper articles.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE TASKS (projects, research papers, etc.) • • • •

Write opening statements Peer critique with opening statement criteria Revise/edit final copy opening statement Write persuasive letter to Bd. Of Ed.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES


Read and discuss literary terms and devises (as Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, and

per pre-assessement) Identify literary terms and devices in stories Employ literary terms and devices in own short fiction Read/discuss/employ elements of rhetorical analysis including rhetorical triangle Develop close reading techniques for fiction and argument. Suggested Activities(Rose for Emily): •

Close read opening of story

•

Infer and interpret from close reading of opening

•

Independent reading of entire story

•

Discuss role of p.o.v.

•

Create chronology of events

•

Introduce trial assignment

•

Read advice to trial lawyers

Suggested Activities (Greasy Lake): •

Close read/discuss opening of story

•

Answer interpretive questions in writing

•

Introduce Boyle quotation on satire

•

Introduce ban/not to ban assignment

•

Annotate for evidence of satire

CHECK FOR EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES IDENTIFYING SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES SUMMARIZING AND NOTETAKING REINFORCING EFFORT, PROVIDING

drama. A&P Rose for Emily Greasy Lake Advice to trial lawyers: Opening Statements

RECOGNITION HOMEWORK AND PRACTICE NONLINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION COOPERATIVE LEARNING SETING OBJECTIVES, PROVIDING FEEDBACK GENERATING AND TESTING HYPOTHESES CUES, QUESTIONS, ADVANCE ORGANIZERS INTERDISCIPLINARY NON-FICTION WRITING

CHECK FOR USE OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNING SKILLS TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY EFFECTIVE ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION ACCESSING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION

DIFFERENTIATION (Please include intervention strategies for ELL, struggling learners) Each class will use appropriate strategies for scaffolding and support. All IEP and 504 modifications will be recognized and used. Each level class will choose appropriate lexile texts for instruction. Formative Assessments will support progress monitoring and will allow for early intervention using: -Choice of materials based on students’ interests and abilities. -Leveled Texts -Grouping -Intro and Exit Quizzes or Tests -Exit Tickets -Supplement with audio and visual aides

VOCABULARY Terms associated with literary and rhetorical analysis

EXTENSION OF LEARNING (opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and for enrichment) Grouping Leveled Texts for advanced readers Connections to additional examples of rhetoric in the media, non-fiction, etc.

Grade 6 Assessment

GRADE: Sixth Grade PETS IN THE CLASSROOM TEACHER GUIDE NAME OF ASSESSMENT: Reading Informational Texts and Argument Writing Performance Assessment STANDARDS ASSESSED:   

Students will cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (RI.6.1) By the end of the year, students will read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (RI.6.10) Students will write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. (W.6.1)

Depth of Knowledge Level of task: Levels 2-4 Task Details:  

Duration of administration: Two class periods across one or two days Materials needed:  Video to stream:  “Why Dogs Reduce Stress in the Classroom”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAO8i7s1uWU  Text: “Should You Have a Pet in Your Classroom?” excerpted from article by The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science  Text: “Leave Animals Out of the Classroom,” adapted from an article by the World Society for the Protection of Animals  Alternate Text: “Pets in the Classroom,” adapted from globalanimal.org (this could be used either as a stand-alone pre-assessment text, or substituted for one of the other text/task sets in the post-assessment)  Student booklet for responses  Loose leaf paper

Important Note: Here are three options for assessment plans using these texts and tasks. The same rubrics will apply across any of these assessment plans. 

Plan 1) Give the same two texts and tasks as a pre-assessment and post-assessment.



Plan 2) Give two of the texts and tasks as a pre-assessment, and substitute the alternate text (with its reading task) for one text/task in the post-assessment.



Plan 3) Have students read one of the texts only as a pre-assessment, using the related reading task and the same writing task.

TCRWP 6th Grade Reading Informational Texts and Argument Writing Performance Assessment – DRAFT – 10-26-12

1

Explanation of Standards Alignment: RI.6.1. Students will cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 

Students will write in response to prompts to analyze explicit and implicit information from the text. They will also cite textual evidence from sources and analyze that evidence when supporting their position in an argument essay.

RI.6.10: By the end of the year, students will read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (RI.6.10) 

Students will read a grade-level text and respond to prompts to demonstrate comprehension of that text.

W.6.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. 

Students will write an argument essay on the topic of whether or not pets should be allowed in the classroom, prompted to support their position with clear reasons and relevant evidence from provided sources.


2

Suggested Teacher Prompts **Note: please alter and make note of alterations based on your own conversational style and the ways in which you’ve talked about reading and writing nonfiction in your own classroom. The tasks below could be administered in many different ways.** Preparation for video and readings: o Cue the video: “Why Dogs Reduce Stress in the Classroom” o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAO8i7s1uWU o Make copies for every student of the article(s). (See assessment plan options on first page of this document to choose article(s).) o Make copies for every student of the student response booklet - one-sided copying so that students may write on the backs of pages if necessary. (Booklet is attached to the end of this document.) Possible Introduction to Assessment: “You’re going to have a chance to show off what you know about doing quick, on-the-run, intensive research, and composing a persuasive argument. Over the next couple of periods, you’ll encounter a few texts that present different possible positions and supporting reasons and evidence about whether or not pets in the classroom are a good idea. It will be up to you to really analyze the information and ideas, so that you can state your own claim and justify it, using researched evidence. For each text, you’ll respond to questions that ask you to analyze the author’s claims and cite specific details from the text that support those claims. Then you’ll have some time to look over your research. Then, we’ll imagine that our school is taking a stand on whether or not to allow animals in classrooms. You will write a persuasive essay to send to the principal, arguing one side. You’ll want to acknowledge the sides of the argument, cite research that backs your claim, and make a persuasive claim for either allowing pets in classrooms, or banning pets in classrooms. Today is part one of this research project. You’ll have a chance to watch a video and read two texts today, and to respond to questions that prompt you to analyze the texts and cite the important text details.” Introduction and Tasks 1-2: Approximately 45 minutes total time Introduction: Video text: watching and listening to gather information for essays “You’re about to watch a video titled “Why Dogs Reduce Stress in the Classroom.” As you watch, think about the important ideas and information in the video. After the second viewing, fill in the outline in your booklet to capture one reason and more than one piece of evidence that the video offers to teach us why dogs reduce stress in classrooms. Be sure to include accurate text details – more than one - in your response. I’m showing it twice so that you have a chance to write down exact quotes the second time through. You may decide to use some of this evidence for your own essay.” Task 1 – Reading to gather information for essays Text: “Should You Have a Pet in Your Classroom?”


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“Now you’ll have a chance to study an article about pets in classrooms. After reading this, fill in the outline in your booklet, finding a reason the article gives for why schools should allow pets in classrooms, and writing a quote from the article that explains that reason. Remember to quote directly so that you capture exactly what the text said. You may decide to use some of this evidence for your own essay.” Task 2 – Reading to gather information for essays Text: “Leave Animals Out of the Classroom” “Now you’ll have a chance to study another article about pets in classrooms. After reading this, choose one piece of evidence the author gives to support the central idea of the article. Write to analyze how this evidence supports the author’s position on this topic. Again, you may decide to use some of this evidence for your own essay.” Task 3: Approximately 45 minutes Task 3: Argument Writing “Researchers, you’ve done some good research now by studying this information and the ideas of these authors. Now you’ll want to take a position on whether or not to allow pets in classrooms. First, you’ll want to look over your summaries and notes, and the texts as well if you’d like, and decide, based on the best evidence from both articles, which side of the argument you will take up. Then, imagine that you are writing an essay to send to the principal, clearly stating one side of this argument in a convincing way, and supporting that claim with strong evidence you’ve gathered in your research. You’ll want to include information and details from the articles and video to support your claim. Use as much loose leaf paper as you need for this writing. You’ll want to take a few minutes to plan how your draft will go, and remember what you know about writing convincing arguments, including…” Point to chart with standards…  Introduce the claim and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.  Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.  Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons, such as for example, for instance, in addition, moreover, etc.  Maintain the formal style of a persuasive essay/letter  Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument  Cite the texts you read and watched – quote accurately and refer correctly to the text where you found the quote.


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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Sixth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Student Packet Response to video “Why Dogs Reduce Stress in the Classroom” What is one important reason that this text gives for why dogs reduce stress? Name the reason and list more than one detailed example or other specific evidence the video gives to support that reason. According to the video, what is one important way that dogs reduce stress in the classroom? ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ What examples or other specific evidence does the video give to support this? 

Example or evidence: ______________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 1: Response to “Should You Have a Pet in Your Classroom?” This article presents and explains many reasons for keeping pets in classrooms. The outline below shows one reason from the article, and a quote from the article that helps explain that reason. Complete the outline below with another reason from the article, and at least one quote from the article to explain or support that reason. According to the article, why should schools allow pets in classrooms? One reason the article gives is…_ Pets in classrooms teach children responsibility._

Write a quote from the article that explains or supports this reason. 

“Raising pets in the classroom helps students to understand the needs of the animals and how much commitment is truly needed to keep animals comfortable and healthy.”

According to the article, why should schools allow pets in classrooms? Another reason the article gives is…__________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________

Write a quote from the article that explains or supports this reason. 

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 2: Response to “Leave Animals Out of the Classroom” The author of this text takes a clear position on this topic. However, there are places in the text that mention the other side. Use the table below to record quotes from the text that show both sides of this argument. Animals should not be in classrooms

Animals should be in classrooms

Quote from the text that show this side:

Quote from the text that show this side:

The author of this text takes a clear position on this topic. What is one piece of evidence from the article that supports the author’s clear position on whether we should have animals in classrooms? ________________________________________________________________________

How does this evidence support the author’s position on whether or not we should have animals in classrooms? (Continue on the back of this page for more space.) ________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 3: (use looseleaf paper for this) Imagine that your task is to convince your school principal either to allow pets in classrooms, or not allow pets in classrooms, based on the video and articles that you used for research. Write an argument essay stating and explaining your position on this issue. Make sure you clearly state a claim supporting pets in classrooms or not allowing pets in classrooms, and then support that claim with evidence from the texts you’ve read and watched. Be sure to:       

Quickly plan how you will organize this letter – use the space below to plan. Introduce the claim and organize the reasons and evidence clearly. Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons, such as for example, for instance, in addition, moreover, etc. Maintain the formal style of a persuasive essay/letter. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument. Quote directly from the texts you read and watched.

Plan for argument essay:

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



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Pets Enhance Learning Adapted from petsintheclassroom.org Caring for pets in the classroom improves school attendance, teaches children about responsibility, supports students’ self-esteem, and develops strong human animal bonds. All of this means that pets are not only good for households, but are also good for classrooms. Pets enrich classroom experiences and provide new ways for students to learn. It’s official. Studies show that children from families with pets are better equipped to fight off infection than kids from non-pet households, showing significantly higher levels of immune system performance. When school attendance records were compared side by side, researchers discovered that kids with pets averaged more days at school every year than their pet-free counterparts. The study also showed that kids turn to their pets for emotional well-being, with 40% of children choosing pet companionship when feeling down. Kids were also found to seek out their pets when feeling tired, upset, scared or lonely, and 53% of respondents said they enjoy doing their homework with pets nearby. “Being around animals is extremely good for children,” says Dr. Harvey Markovitch, a pediatrician and editor of The Archives of Disease in Childhood. “They are good for morale, and teach children about relationships and about the needs of another living being. Learning to care for a pet helps them to learn how to care for people.” Nobody enjoys being treated roughly. Kids soon learn that if they want to be liked and trusted by the family cat, they’ll need to treat her carefully and kindly. This sort of training benefits all kids, but is especially important to small boys who don’t often get the chance in our society to practice nurturing skills as girls do. Helping to take care of a pet gives a child a sense of pride and accomplishment, especially if the animal is able to return the affection. Shari Young Kuchenbecker, Ph. D., research psychologist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, says, “The child who cares for a pet knows that what he does matters, and so he’ll want to do more of it. The more successfully he feeds, walks, or emotionally bonds with the pet, the more confident he’ll feel.” In fact, studies conducted by the Waltham Centre have shown that children with pets have higher levels of self-esteem than those without pets. Even a small child can begin to learn to care for the needs of another living being. Whether helping to empty a cup of dry kibble into the rabbit’s bowl, or filling the hamster’s water bottle, it’s never too early to start teaching kids proper animal care. Of course, parents or teachers must monitor all pet care carried out by children. Kids should be expected to fulfill their responsibilities, but when the inevitable slip-ups occur, adults shouldn’t make too much of a fuss. Instead, children just need to be reminded that the pet was counting on him.

Lots of animals such as cats, dogs, and guinea pigs love human contact and can become a child’s best buddy. Kids can even develop strong human animal bonds with non-responsive animals such as fish or turtles. These relationships help to strengthen a child’s social skills, giving them the potential to do better in a school setting. Whether its math (“How much does a hamster weigh?”) or science, (“What does a snake eat?”) geography (“What part of the world do ferrets come from?”) or grammar (“What words would we use to describe a goldfish?”) Students will approach learning all these subjects with a new enthusiasm and interest. Students can even create presentations about classroom pets in order to teach other students in the school. Students who have no experience with animals in their home environments can see, feel, touch, and make connections to animals and nature when classrooms have animals. Studies have shown that the presence of animals tends to lessen tension in classrooms. Students learn that their behavior and actions directly affect others and that all living things need more than just food and water for survival. Classroom pets increase students’ understanding of the feelings and needs of others – both humans and animals.

Should You Have A Pet In Your Classroom?

There are many reasons for keeping live animals in the classroom. Students of all ages can benefit from being exposed to other forms of life. The primary justification, although not the only one, is that live animals in the classroom teach children responsibility. There are many ways of doing this, but classroom pets are an engaging way to motivate students to take an active role in the class and to realize how important it is to be consistent when taking care of another creature. All too often children and adults alike desire to have pets, but without understanding the commitment level needed and the large responsibility affiliated with pet ownership. Sadly many pets suffer greatly from mismanagement, neglect, and abandonment. Raising pets in the classroom helps students to understand the needs of the animals and how much commitment is truly needed to keep animals comfortable and healthy. Another justification for keeping and maintaining animals in the classroom is building empathy within students. Empathy gives students the ability to feel what others feel, whether it an animal or a fellow student. Developing this sometimes missing aspect in children may help the issues around bullying. Bullying can spill over into the animal world where people physically harm animals for varying reasons. Building empathy will enhance the desire to be a responsible pet owner and treat animals with respect, understand their needs and meet those needs; hopefully this will spill over into the human world. A final fundamental justification for the inclusion of animals in the classroom is the limited exposure that students have to live animals. This point is especially true in larger, urban centers. Students from small, rural communities might also have limited exposure to live animals, unless from a farming background. Some students have a "squashing the bug" mentality toward live animals due to this lack of connection. Bringing animals into the classroom can help expose students to the natural world around them and encourage an active and kind participation in it. In conclusion, there are many therapeutic benefits to associating children and school with pets. I encourage you to read about many of the advantages of classroom pets at the National Pet Week website. This resource package is not intended to advocate the captivity of wild species, rather to foster a respect for animals through the use of classroom pets.

Excerpted from “Caring for Animals: A Guide to Pets in the Classroom,” published by The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), 2008.

Response to “Pets Enhance Learning” This article presents and explains many reasons for keeping pets in classrooms. The outline below shows one reason from the article, and a quote from the article that helps explain that reason. Complete the outline below with another reason from the article, and at least one quote from the article to explain or support that reason. Write to explain how the quote you chose supports the author’s point. According to the article, why should schools allow pets in classrooms? One reason the article gives is…_ Kids with pets are healthier._

Write a quote from the article that explains or supports this reason.

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“Studies show that children from families with pets are better equipped to fight off

infection than kids from non-pet households, showing significantly higher levels of immune system performance.”

According to the article, why should schools allow pets in classrooms? Another reason the article gives is…______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________

Write a quote from the article that explains or supports this reason.



________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

How does this quote support the author’s point about pets in the classroom? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

Leave Animals out of the Classroom Animals in the classroom: Issues and Alternatives [Adapted from an article by the World Society for the Protection of Animals] At the end of every school year, shelters across the country are flooded with hamsters, mice, rabbits, gerbils, fish, guinea pigs, and reptiles that are no longer needed or wanted in the classroom. Many teachers believe keeping an animal in the classroom is a good way to teach students to be more responsible, more respectful, and more aware about animals. But the learning environment can turn sour when the classroom pet becomes too big a burden and must be surrendered to the local animal shelter. Despite teacher’s good intentions, keeping a classroom pet puts the animals at serious risk for neglect and substandard care. Once animals are in the classroom, important aspects of their nature are ignored completely. For example, hamsters and most small animals are nocturnal, yet they are kept in brightly lit classrooms and removed from their cages during the day. Birds tend to be sensitive to drafts and changes in air temperature, but climate control is normally regulated by the students’ comfort levels, not the animals’ needs. Furthermore, animals are removed from their habitat, and placed in cages. Classroom pets are often neglected during school breaks and holidays. Many suffer from missed meals, unsanitary living conditions and lack of climate control. If left alone for a weekend, pets can be literally starving or dehydrated come Monday morning. A fire or power outage can also be deadly to an animal that is left alone in a building overnight or on weekends. Animals’ health can also be compromised when caregivers fail to address their nutritional needs. Inadequate veterinary care also leads to failed health of classroom pets. Many animals actually die in classroom environments, which is not only a terrible fate for the animals but a devastating experience for the students. Filling the role of classroom pet or mascot can be extremely stressful on an animal. Going from five days of noise to two days of isolation is particularly traumatic and confusing. Constant poking and handling can also be taxing on an animal. Furthermore, keeping animals in a classroom poses serious health risks for students. Recently there have been reports of Salmonella, caused by having reptiles in the classroom. Students with asthma and or allegories can be adversely affected by the presence of an animal in the classroom. Becoming more responsible and respectful towards others is important for a child’s educational and personal development. Classroom pet duties, however, are not an appropriate method for instilling values. The learning process is inherently filled with mistakes and failures, which are appropriate in normal life circumstances; but is it fair to allow a mistake by a child to result in the suffering of a dependent animal?

There are far more constructive ways to learn about living beings than by keeping animals in the classroom. Here are some suggested alternatives: 

Observe animals in their natural surroundings.

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Sponsor an animal in its environment.

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Take a trip to an animal wildlife rehabilitation center.

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Bring an animal specialist in.

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Take a virtual reality tour of an animal’s habitat.

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Bring animals into the classroom through books, magazines, etc.

Cell Phones in School—Yes or No?

Cell phones are convenient and fun to have. However, there are arguments about whether or not they belong in schools. Parents, students, and teachers all have different points of view. Some say that to forbid them completely is to ignore some of the educational advantages of having cell phones in the classroom. On the other hand, cell phones can interrupt classroom activities and some uses are definitely unacceptable. Parents, students, and teachers need to think carefully about the effects of having cell phones in school.

Some of the reasons to support cell phones in school are as follows: •

Students can take pictures of class projects to e-mail or show to parents.

•

Students can text-message missed assignments to friends that are absent.

•

Many cell phones have calculators or Internet access that could be used for assignments.

•

If students are slow to copy notes from the board, they can take pictures of the missed notes and view them later.

•

During study halls, students can listen to music through cell phones.

•

Parents can get in touch with their children and know where they are at all times.

•

Students can contact parents in case of emergencies.

Some of the reasons to forbid cell phones in school are as follows: •

Students might send test answers to friends or use the Internet to cheat during an exam.

•

Students might record teachers or other students without their knowledge. No one wants to be recorded without giving consent.

•

Cell phones can interrupt classroom activities.

•

Cell phones can be used to text during class as a way of passing notes and wasting time.

Based on what you read in the text, do you think cell phones should be allowed in schools? Using the lists provided in the text, write a paragraph arguing why your position is more reasonable than the opposing position.

Item Number: 43019 Item Name: Writing – Cell Phones Score Point s 2

Organization

Evidence/Elaboration

The response: • maintains consistent focus on the topic, purpose, or main idea • has a logical organizational pattern and conveys a sense of wholeness and completeness • provides transitions to connect ideas

The response: • provides appropriate and predominately specific details or evidence • uses appropriate word choices for the intended audience and purpose

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The response: • demonstrates some focus on the topic, purpose, or main idea; lapses may occur • shows an uneven organizational pattern • provides weak or inconsistent transitions

The response: • provides mostly general details and evidence, but may include extraneous or loosely related details • has a limited and predictable vocabulary that may not be consistently appropriate for the intended audience and purpose

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The response: • demonstrates little or no focus • has little evidence of an organizational pattern • provides poorly utilized or no transitions

The response: • includes few supporting details that may be vague, repetitive, or incorrect or that may interfere with the meaning of the text • has an inappropriate vocabulary for the intended audience and purpose

GRADE 6 ASSESSMENT “Planes on the Brain” by Elisabeth Deffner Kimberly Anyadike and her older sister, Kelly, have taken sibling rivalry to new heights. Sky-high, in fact. On her 16th birthday, Kelly set a world record. She became the youngest African American female to fly four different fixed-wing aircraft in one day. Naturally, that inspired Kimberly to brainstorm ways to top her sister's achievement.

At age 15, Kimberly became the youngest African American female to pilot a plane from coast to coast. "It was something that had never been done before by someone as young as me," she explains. Don't let their friendly rivalry fool you. The Anyadike (pronounced on-yah-DEE-kay) sisters learned to fly together at Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum (TAM) in Compton, California. They took lessons in the same plane at the same time. Their flight achievements earned them each a place in the record books -- but at TAM, setting records is nothing new. In fact, the sisters first heard about TAM when they read about another record-breaker who'd learned to fly there. At age 14, Jonathan Strickland became the youngest African American male to pilot a plane and a helicopter on the same day. Jonathan's story inspired Kimberly to make one of her biggest dreams come true. She'd always wanted to fly. Ever since she learned to write, she's included "jet pack" on her Christmas list! So she asked her mom if they could check out TAM, where Jonathan had gotten his aviation start. She and her sister took a demo flight -- and the rest is history. (Literally!)

"We've been hooked on flying ever since," says Kimberly, now 17, with a giggle. "We got bit by the flight bug!"

Movie stunt pilot Robin Petgrave founded TAM in 1998. Kids in the program learn more than just how to fly. They also learn how to set goals and make a plan to achieve them. For example, flight lessons cost money. Future pilots earn "museum dollars" by doing tasks around the museum, going through the flight simulator program, and doing community

GRADE 6 ASSESSMENT service. Kids even earn museum dollars when they get tutoring help with their schoolwork! After they've earned enough, they can use those dollars to pay for a flight lesson. While they're learning to fly, they're also learning about aviation history.

They learn about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military airmen in the United States. Kids at TAM have even been able to meet some of them.

These pilots trained and fought during World War II, but the dangers of wartime weren't the only challenges they faced. They also encountered racism. In fact, the Army Air Corps called the African American pilot training program "the Tuskegee Experiment" because they weren't sure the trainees could be successful pilots. But "they were amazing," says Kimberly. "They beat all odds."

That's why she dedicated her record-breaking flight to the Tuskegee Airmen: "to show them their legacy still lives on," she explains.

And they wanted to show her that they supported her as she tried to set an aviation record. Each time Kimberly landed on her flight from California to Virginia, Tuskegee Airmen met her plane. The Anyadike sisters didn't set their aviation records at the same time, but two other TAM alumni did. Jimmy Haywood, then 12, and Kenny Roy, then 14, flew together to Canada. There, Roy became the youngest African American in the United States to earn his solo pilot's license. Haywood piloted the plane that flew Roy to Canada and back, making him the youngest African American to pilot a plane on a round-trip international flight.

"It challenges you, being here [at TAM1." says Roy. Kids at TAM know that if they want to fly, they can -- they just have to work for it. They can earn the museum dollars to pay for lessons. They can come up with a plan and break an aviation record. Once they do that, they know they can do anything if they set their minds to it. For instance, Kimberly Anyadike plans to become a heart surgeon. Kenny Roy, now 21, is a college student in the Air Force Reserve. He plans to become an Air Force officer and, later, a commercial pilot. (And maybe his little brother, Jeremiah Esters, 7, will follow in his footsteps. He's studying aviation at TAM now.)

GRADE 6 ASSESSMENT Flying has changed these kids' lives -- and setting records was just the icing on the cake.

That's exactly how it ought to be, says Petgrave. "We're not really all about the records," he explains. "These kids have been exposed to aviation at such a young age, they look at things differently." And from their point of view, the sky is no longer the limit. FAST FACTS

When Kimberly Anyadike made her record-breaking flight, it was in a Cessna 172 named after Tuskegee Airman Major Levi Thornhill -- and Thornhill himself accompanied her on the 13-day flight. Young pilot Kenny Roy in the cockpit and in control.

Kelly Anyadike (left) and Jonathan Strickland (right) are two young pilots who were able to achieve their flight dreams thanks to Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum founded by Robin Petgrave (center). Volunteers, staff, board members, parents, young pilots, and Tuskegee Airmen come together to support Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum.

The Tuskegee Airemen made history by being the first African Americans to serve in the U.S. Army as fighter pilots. Petgrave and his proteges, Kenny, Kelly, Jonathan and Jimmy (left to right), pose by their favorite means of getting around -- a plane! ~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth Deffner has interviewed kids who have done amazing things like medal at the Paralympics, break world records, and even become mayor. She writes from her home in Orange, California. Copyright of Faces (07491387)

GRADE 6 ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS:

1. How does the author emphasize the point that the TAM program was a positive influence on the sisters’ lives? Use details from the text to support your answer.

2. Highlight the parts of the text that provide evidence to support the idea that the Tuskegee Airmen were historically important. 3. What does the author mean by “the sky is no longer the limit”? How does the meaning apply to the Anyadike sisters? Use details from the text to support your response.

Grade 7 Assessment

GRADE: Seventh Grade WATER Teacher's Guide NAME OF ASSESSMENT: Reading Informational Texts and Argument Writing Performance Assessment STANDARDS ASSESSED:   

Students will cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (RI.7.1) By the end of the year, students will read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (RI.7.10) Students will write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. (W.7.1)

Depth of Knowledge Level of task: Levels 2-4 Task Details:  

Duration of administration: Two class periods across one or two days Materials needed: o Video to stream: “CNN: Most Bottled Water Is Tap” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saSgpX186MM&feature=related o Text: “Goodbye, Bottled Water?” o Text: “International Bottled Water Association Statement” o Alternate Text: “Bottled Versus Tap: Which Is Safer?” (this could be used either as a stand-alone pre-assessment text, or substituted for one of the other text/task sets in the post-assessment) o Student booklets (attached to the end of this document)

Important Note: Here are three options for assessment plans using these texts and tasks. The same rubrics will apply across any of these assessment plans. 

Plan 1) Give the same two texts and tasks as a pre-assessment and post-assessment.

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Plan 2) Give two of the texts and tasks as a pre-assessment, and substitute the alternate text (with its reading task) for one text/task in the post-assessment.

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Plan 3) Have students read one of the texts only as a pre-assessment, using the related reading task and the same writing task.

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Explanation of Standards Alignment RI.7.1. Students will cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 

Students will write in response to prompts to analyze explicit and implicit information from the text. They will also cite textual evidence from sources and analyze that evidence when supporting their position in an argument essay.

RI.7.10: By the end of the year, students will read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (RI.7.10) 

Students will read a grade-level text and respond to prompts to demonstrate comprehension of that text.

W.7.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. 

Students will write an argument essay on the topic of whether or not to ban bottled water in schools. They will base their argument on evidence from the provided texts, and will consider the counter-argument in their essay.

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Suggested Teacher Prompts (tips in italics, possible language to kids in quotes): **Note: Suggested teacher prompts follow – please alter and make note of alterations based on your own conversational style and the ways in which you’ve talked about reading and writing nonfiction in your own classroom. The tasks below could be administered in many different ways.** Preparation for the Assessment: o Make one-sided copies of student booklet – (see student booklet template at the end of this document) o Have loose leaf paper available for essay writing. o Cue the video “CNN: Most Bottled Water is Tap” for streaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saSgpX186MM&feature=related o Make copies of the articles for students: o “Goodbye, Bottled Water?” o “International Bottled Water Association Statement” o Chart expectations for argument writing:  Quickly plan how your argument will go: how your reasons and evidence will be grouped and organized and how you’ll acknowledge the opposing position.  Introduce a position and acknowledge the opposing position.  Support the position using accurate, relevant sources.  Use words, phrases, and clauses to provide clear transitions and connections between ideas and evidence.  Establish and maintain a formal style.  Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports your argument. Introduction to the assessment: Take a few minutes to introduce the whole of the assessment to the kids. It might sound something like: “You’re going to have a chance to show off what you know about doing quick, on-therun, intensive research, and composing an argument essay. Over the next couple of periods, you’ll encounter a few texts that will provide you with information and claims about the pros and cons of bottled water. It will be up to you to really analyze the information and ideas, so that you can state your own claim and justify it, using researched evidence. For each text, you’ll have a chance to respond to prompts that ask you to identify and explain key details in the text that support central ideas. Then you’ll have some time to look over your research. Then, we’ll imagine that our school is hosting a debate about whether or not schools should ban bottled water. You have to decide which side of the debate to argue. You can take the position that bottled water should be banned – in which case you want to really gather convincing evidence from your research. Or you can make a claim to support bottled water in school – in which case you also want convincing evidence. 3

One thing to tell you ahead of time – part of what makes a convincing argument is the ability to acknowledge the opposing claim and reasons, and refute those. So no matter which side you end up taking, be alert during your research for evidence that could be used for either side of the argument. This period is part one of this research project. You’ll have a chance to watch a video and read two texts today, and to write to explain key details that help support the different points of view on this topic. At a later time, you’ll write your position paper, or essay. You’ll have a chance then to look over your notes and any of the texts again. Task 1: Response to video “CNN: Most Bottled Water is Tap” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saSgpX186MM&feature=related “You’re about to watch a news video about the relationship between bottled water and tap water. As you watch, think about the important ideas and information in the video. After I show the video a second time, write a central idea that this video teaches us, and fill in the outline with specific examples or evidence that the video gives to support that idea.” Task 2: Response to “Goodbye, Bottled Water?” “Now you’ll have a chance to study an article about bottled water. After reading this, write two reasons that the article gives for why bottled water is a problem. For each reason, write a quote from the article that explains or supports that reason.” Task 3: Response to “Statement from International Bottled Water Association” “Now you’ll have a chance to read a response from the International Bottled Water Association regarding a state attorney general’s decision to allow a town to ban bottled water. Read to find the strongest evidence that the Bottled Water Association gives in defense of bottled water. Write to explain why this evidence is convincing.” Task 4 – Argument Essay: Should We Ban Bottled Water in Schools? “Researchers, you’ve done some good research now by studying this information and the ideas of these authors. Imagine that you are preparing for a debate, and that you have to take a stance on whether schools should or shouldn’t ban bottled water, using evidence from the texts you’ve watched and read. Write an argument essay that you could read at the debate. First, you’ll want to look over your reading responses and the texts, and take a clear position on this issue. You’ll want to clearly support one side of this argument, supporting that claim with convincing evidence you’ve gathered in your research. You’ll want to include relevant information and details from the articles and video to support your claim, citing the source accurately. You’ll also want to acknowledge the other side of the argument. Remember what’s expected in argument writing: Read from chart 4

Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Seventh Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Student Packet Task 1: Response to “CNN: Most Bottled Water is Tap” This video informs us about bottled water. What is a central idea in this video about bottled water? What is a central idea about bottled water in this video? ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________

What examples or specific evidence does the video give to explain or support this? 





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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________

Task 2: Response to “Goodbye, Bottled Water?” This article presents and explains many reasons why drinking bottled water is a problem. Complete the outline below with more than one reason that the article gives supporting this idea, and at least one quote from the article to explain or support that reason. According to the article, why is bottled water a problem? One reason the article gives is…__________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Write a quote from the article that explains or supports this reason. 

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

According to the article, what is another reason why bottled water is a problem? Another reason the article gives is…__________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Write a quote from the article that explains or supports this reason. 

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 3: Response to “International Bottled Water Association Statement” In this statement, the International Bottled Water Association attacks a town’s decision to ban bottled water and defends bottled water as a necessary product. What is the strongest piece of evidence that the International Bottled Water Association gives in support of bottled water? Quote directly to capture the exact words that the author uses. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What makes this evidence convincing? Write to analyze how this quote supports the International Bottled Water Association’s position that bottled water should not be banned. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 5: (use loose leaf paper for this) Argument Essay: Your task is to take a position on whether or not bottled water should be banned in schools. Write an argument essay in which you clearly state your position either for or against bottled water in schools, and then support that claim with evidence from the texts you’ve read and watched. Be sure to:     

Quickly plan how your argument will go: how your reasons and evidence will be grouped and organized and how you’ll acknowledge the opposing position. Introduce a clear position and acknowledge the opposing position. Support the position by referring to and accurately citing relevant sources. Use words, phrases, and clauses to provide clear transitions and connections between ideas and evidence. Establish and maintain a formal style. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports your argument.

Plan for argument essay:

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Bottled versus tap: Which is safer? Elena Conis, Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2008 Those ubiquitous plastic water bottles have been increasingly criticized in recent years. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, among others, have banned them from purchase with city funds. A few trendsetting restaurants, and even some markets and hotels, have banned them too. The trend has left many consumers wondering: Isn't bottled safer than tap? "Bottled water isn't any safer or purer than what comes out of the tap," says Dr. Sarah Janssen, science fellow with the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco, which conducted an extensive analysis of bottled water back in 1999. "In fact, it's less well-regulated, and you're more likely to know what's in tap water." Bottled and tap water come from essentially the same sources: lakes, springs and aquifers, to list a few. In fact, a significant fraction of the bottled water products on store shelves are tap water -filtered and treated with extra steps to improve taste. It's not news to anyone that tap water can taste funky (too much chlorine, usually) or look discolored (from air bubbles or rust in pipes). But generally, that doesn't mean it isn't safe to drink, says Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water with the Environmental Protection Agency. The great majority of the tap water in the country meets the EPA's drinking-water standards, which regulate the levels of roughly 90 different contaminants, including germs such as giardia, heavy metals such as lead and dozens of industrial chemicals. "If a utility is doing its job and it's well funded, they can take all this stuff out," says Elizabeth Royte, author of "Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It." Different states do face different contaminants, of course, and the national standards don't cover everything that could possibly get into public water supplies. California, for example, has its own standards to regulate levels of the gasoline additive MTBE and the industrial chemicals called perchlorates. But these state rules don’t solve the problem of aging pipes that carry water from public lines into people's homes, which can leach copper and lead. Plus, there are certain contaminants water treatment plants don’t take out, such as medications that wash into the sewers through human waste or drugs dumped down the drains. An investigation by the Associated Press this year found traces of pharmaceuticals in drinking-water supplies that serve more than 41 million Americans.

In light of such facts, bottled water may seem preferable. But coming as it does from many of the same sources as tap, bottled water is subject to many of the same contaminants, Grumbles notes. It's held to essentially the same standards as tap water. And while large public water supplies are often tested for contaminants up to several times a day, the FDA requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year or once every four years, depending on the contaminant. Tap water suppliers are also required by law to publish and circulate an annual Consumer Confidence Report, which states their sources of water and any contaminants found. The FDA doesn't require this of bottled-water makers, and though inspectors can drop in on water-bottling plants, such visits are assigned low priority, FDA press officer Michael Herndon says. Companies also aren't required to share any contamination episodes with their customers. In its favor, bottled water isn't subject to contamination from lead in residential pipes. But it may contain chemicals that leach out of plastic bottles, which are often made of PET, or polyethylene terephthalate. The amounts are well below toxic levels, but microwaving a bottle or leaving it in the sun or a hot car can accelerate the process. Bottled water hasn't been vilified for its health risks, however. Rather, it's the environmental toll of mass consumption (Americans have consumed more than 9 billion gallons so far this year) that's driving some consumers back to the tap. In California alone, more than 1 billion water bottles are thrown out annually, according to the California Department of Conservation. Nationwide, just 15% of the tens of billions of bottles consumed each year are recycled. The Pacific Institute, a research group based in Oakland, calculates that in 2006, manufacturing those billions of bottles required 17 million barrels of oil. Which relates to the final argument against bottled water: cost. Price it by the gallon, and water in those single-serve bottles is more expensive than even today's high-priced gasoline. Tap water, on the other hand, "is one of the best bargains American consumers can find," Grumbles says.

Response to “Bottled versus Tap” This article presents different points of view on the question of whether bottled water is a better choice than tap water. Use the table below to record quotes from the text that show both sides of this argument. Bottled water is not a better choice than tap water

Bottled water is a better choice than tap water

Quote from the text that shows this side:

Quote from the text that shows this side:

This article presents both sides of this argument. What is one piece of evidence from the article that strongly supports one or the other position on whether bottled water is or isn’t a better choice than tap water? ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ How does this evidence support a position on whether or not bottled water is a better choice than tap water? (Continue on the back of this page for more space.)

____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________

Statement from International Bottled Water Association regarding Concord, Massachusetts Ban of Bottled Water For Immediate Release: September 5, 2012 Alexandria, VA – The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) today issued the following statement regarding today’s decision by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to support banning bottled water sales in Concord: We are disappointed in the decision by the state Attorney General to approve the amendments to the bylaws of the Town of Concord, Massachusetts, that ban the sale of bottled water in single-serve PET bottles within the town, and we are exploring all available options to continue to oppose the by-law. People need to drink more water. The consumption of water, whether from the bottle or the tap, is a good thing and supports people’s pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. Any actions that discourage people from drinking bottled water are not in the public interest. People choose bottled water for several reasons, including its refreshing taste, reliable quality, zero calories and additives, and convenience. Banning or restricting access to bottled water in the marketplace directly impacts the right of people to choose the healthiest beverage on the shelf. And for many, bottled water is a critical alternative to other packaged beverages, which are often less healthy. Bottled water must therefore be available wherever packaged beverages are sold. For those who want to eliminate or moderate calories, sugar, caffeine, artificial flavors or colors, and other ingredients from their diet, choosing bottled water is the right choice. In fact, since 2000, approximately 73% of the growth in bottled water consumption has come from people switching from carbonated soft drinks. That’s the equivalent of avoiding an additional 280 calories per person, per week. The bottled water industry supports a strong public water system. However, the water from public water systems is often compromised after emergency situations or natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, floods, tornados, fires, or boil alerts). During these times, bottled water is a necessary and reliable “second source” option to deliver clean, safe drinking water. This ban deprives residents of the option to choose their choice of beverage and visitors, who come to this birthplace of American independence, a basic freedom gifted to them by the actions in this town

Statement from International Bottled Water Association regarding Concord, Massachusetts Ban of Bottled Water For Immediate Release: September 5, 2012 Alexandria, VA – The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) today issued the following statement regarding today’s decision by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to support banning bottled water sales in Concord: We are disappointed in the decision by the state Attorney General to approve the amendments to the bylaws of the Town of Concord, Massachusetts, that ban the sale of bottled water in single-serve PET bottles within the town, and we are exploring all available options to continue to oppose the by-law. People need to drink more water. The consumption of water, whether from the bottle or the tap, is a good thing and supports people’s pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. Any actions that discourage people from drinking bottled water are not in the public interest. People choose bottled water for several reasons, including its refreshing taste, reliable quality, zero calories and additives, and convenience. Banning or restricting access to bottled water in the marketplace directly impacts the right of people to choose the healthiest beverage on the shelf. And for many, bottled water is a critical alternative to other packaged beverages, which are often less healthy. Bottled water must therefore be available wherever packaged beverages are sold. For those who want to eliminate or moderate calories, sugar, caffeine, artificial flavors or colors, and other ingredients from their diet, choosing bottled water is the right choice. In fact, since 2000, approximately 73% of the growth in bottled water consumption has come from people switching from carbonated soft drinks. That’s the equivalent of avoiding an additional 280 calories per person, per week. The bottled water industry supports a strong public water system. However, the water from public water systems is often compromised after emergency situations or natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, floods, tornados, fires, or boil alerts). During these times, bottled water is a necessary and reliable “second source” option to deliver clean, safe drinking water. This ban deprives residents of the option to choose their choice of beverage and visitors, who come to this birthplace of American independence, a basic freedom gifted to them by the actions in this town

more than 200 years ago. It will also deprive the town of needed tax revenue and harm local businesses that rely on bottled water sales.

Goodbye, Bottled Water? San Francisco mayor calls for change By Gail Hennessey July 2, 2007 Source: Scholastic News Online Did you know that you could be harming the environment when you drink a bottle of water? It’s estimated that 30 billion single-serving bottles of water are gulped down each year in the United States. If you are like most people, you throw away that bottle when you're finished. Mayor Gavin Newsom, of San Francisco, California, thinks it's time for a change. He has banned city government from using public money to purchase bottled water for its employees. According to a statement from the Mayor’s office, “More than 1 billion plastic water bottles end up in California’s landfills each year, taking 1,000 years to biodegrade and leaking toxic additives such as phthalates into the groundwater.” The mayor also cites the cost of fuel to transport the bottled water as a factor in his decision. "All of this waste and pollution are generated by a product that by objective standards is often inferior to the quality of San Francisco’s pristine tap water,” read Mayor Newsom's executive order. To encourage people in San Francisco to cut down on their use of plastic water containers, residents who sign an online pledge can receive a stainless-steel recyclable container from the city. "We must all do our part to reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on the environment,” Laura Spanjian, of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission told Scholastic News Online. "This is really a movement. And San Francisco wants citizens and students in other cities to be leaders of a movement to change how people think about bottled water.” A big environmental problem, according to experts, is that people don't recycle their plastic bottles. "Only about 14 percent of single-serving plastic water bottles are recycled." Jennifer Gitlitz, research director for Container Recycling Institute (CRI) told Scholastic News Online. "Therefore, about 86 percent of the water bottles sold are wasted: landfilled, incinerated, or littered.” The CRI tracks the total number of wasted beverage cans and plastic bottles that go into U.S.

landfills every year with a minute-by-minute count. The current count for this year shows more than 64 billion wasted cans and bottles! The International Bottled Water Association said that its organization applauds San Francisco’s efforts but believes that governmental officials ought to push harder to improve recycling rates for all consumer packaging, not just plastic water bottles. Return to Tap Water Several other mayors are focusing on a return to tap water. Last fall, Mayor Ross Anderson, of Salt Lake City, Utah, asked its 2,500 city workers to voluntarily stop buying bottled water. "We are raising awareness [about] the serious environmental issues [related] to using bottled water,” Patrick Thronson, communications director for Mayor Anderson, told Scholastic News Online. Thronson explained that 1.5 million barrels of petroleum are used to produce plastic water bottles in the United States each year. “That’s enough to supply 250,000 homes with electricity for a year or 100,000 cars with gasoline for a year,” said Thornson. Mayor Anderson, along with two other mayors, introduced a resolution at the recent US Conference of Mayors calling for the promotion of tap water over bottled water. The resolution passed.

Grade 8 Assessment

GRADE: Eighth Grade SPORTS Teacher Guide NAME OF ASSESSMENT: Informational Reading and Research-Based Argument Essay Writing Performance Assessment STANDARDS ASSESSED:   

Students will quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. (RI.8.1) Students will read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grade 6-8 complexity band independently and proficiently. (RI.8.10) Students will write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. (W.8.1)

Depth of Knowledge Level of task: Levels 2-4 Task Details:  Duration of administration: Three class periods, recommended across two days  Time of year when administered: December  Materials needed: Video clip "Notebook: Kids and Sports" Video from CBS news (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV-WqlorsBM)  Video clip "Sports: How Much Is Too Much?" Video from KCRA.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrP68OD355w)and video projection  “What in the Name of High School Football” by Hank Hill  “Are High School Sports Good For Kids?” by Daniel Gould, Ph.D.  Alternate text: “High School, College Football Comes With Risk” by Jeffrey Perkel (Note: this text could be used as a pre-assessment text or substituted for the Hank Hill article in a post-assessment.) Explanation of Standards Alignment RI.8.1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.  Students will respond to text-dependent questions that prompt them to analyze explicit and implicit evidence from a grade-level text.  In their argument essays, students will call on their research, analyzing the claims from source articles, and citing the textual evidence from those sources that most strongly support the claim of the source author as well as their own arguments. RI.8.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6-8 complexity band independently and proficiently.  Students will read and respond to a grade level text, demonstrating comprehension. W.8.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.  Students will write a research-based argument essay.

Overview of Assessment **Note: Suggested teacher prompts follow – please alter and make note of alterations based on your own conversational style and the ways in which you’ve talked about reading and writing nonfiction in your own classroom. The tasks below could be administered in different ways.** Preparation for the Assessment: o Make copies of student packets –(see student packet template at the end of this document) o Have loose leaf paper available for essay writing and if students need more writing space for their summary writing. o Cue the videos (see materials information for URLs) o Make copies of the articles for students: o “What in the Name of High School Football” by Hank Hill o “Are High School Sports Good For Kids?” by Daniel Gould, Ph.D. o Chart expectations for argument writing: o Quickly make a plan to organize your argument and your evidence o Introduce your topic o Take a position: make clear what you are arguing for or against o Organize your reasons and supporting details in paragraphs o Use relevant information from the sources you studied to support your claim o Acknowledge and refute the counterclaim o Include direct quotes from sources o Maintain an essayist’s tone o Use transitional words and phrases o Write a conclusion Suggested Introduction: “Students, we are about to start a quick research project together. This project will give us the chance to do a lot of different things. You’ll have the opportunity to learn some new ideas, and to think through different sides of an important issue: high school sports. I think you’ll be surprised by how rapidly, efficiently, and wisely you can research and argue a position.” “A lot of this work will feel like some of the work that we have been doing all unit long with our research-based argument essays. For this mini-research project, you will be investigating some of the research on youth sports. Some of these ideas you’ll encounter are in support of sports programs and others argue that sports programs can be harmful for students. It’s a complicated subject.” “This assessment will feel like a mini-research project, where you will have to understand, weigh, and communicate the value of youth sports based on the information presented in the digital sources, articles, and charts that you will experience. You’ll call on all you know about not just reading sources, but reading them critically, really analyzing their validity.” “Once you’ve researched some of the issues related to youth sports, you are going to use the information that you discover to choose a side. You will eventually use all the facts and statistics that you learn to present a written argument to a school board, your mayor, or the editor of a newspaper on the subject of high school sports. Because you’ll be writing these arguments based on your research, you’re going to want to be able to quote experts, and reference important facts and details that will convince your audience. So during the research period, use what you know

about taking notes to get all the detailed information and specific references that you may want to use in your letter. Again, it is important that you use facts, ideas, quotes, and statistics from the texts AND NOT JUST YOUR OWN OPINION to help you construct your argument. It’s also important that you analyze your sources, not just refer to them.” “I want you to know some things about what we are about to do before we start. First, this miniproject might feel like a test just because you’ll be working independently, but it’s not the kind of test that just gives you a grade or a score. This experience will allow us to see all that you can do as a reader, as a writer, and as a thinker. At the end of our units, we will try this again and you will see how much you’ve grown. It will also allow me to learn more about what I can do to help you become an even more powerful writer and student.” Video text as introduction to the topic: Video #1: “Notebook: Kids and Sports” “We’re going to watch a video that introduces some ideas and information about the topic of kids and sports. You’ll have the opportunity to watch this two-minute video twice. You will probably just watch the video the first time, think about it, and take notes during your second viewing. Don’t forget, if you hear important quotes, record them and make it clear that you’re quoting directly, so you can accurately quote from the video later when you write your essay.” Video#2: “Sports: How Much Is Too Much?" “Let’s watch a second video. Remember, you are researchers right now, trying to gather information about the pros and cons of sports for young people. The second time we watch, take notes, including any quotes or statistics that you might cite in your essay.” Task 1: Response to: “What in the Name of High School Football” Task 2: Response to: “Are High School Sports Good for Kids?” “You have the opportunity now to add to your research by reading two articles about sports in high school. Respond to the questions and be sure to use details from the texts and to explain how those details support the authors’ central ideas. You may decide to use some of this text evidence and your analysis of it in your argument essay.” Task 5: Writing a Research-Based Argument Essay “Imagine that your school district is going to make a decision about continuing to fund sports programs in the schools. You have a chance to write an argument essay that will be read to the mayor, printed in the paper, or presented to the head of the school board or PTA. Your essay should state a position or claim by taking a clear side, back it up with research, and refute the other side of the argument. Your job is to argue whether, overall, sports are more helpful or harmful to young people. Use what you know about argument essay writing to structure your writing. Be sure to back up your claim with reasons and evidence, supported by facts and details, and analysis of sources from your research. Be sure also to: (point to chart)”

Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Eighth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Student Packet Note-taking from videos Use the space below to write down quotes and other important information that you might want to use in your argument essay. Remember you will have to take a position about whether sports are more helpful or harmful for kids. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 1: Response to Reading: “What in the Name of High School Football” by Hank Hill The author of this article claims that: “I am against the unfair and lopsided allocation of community resources to varsity sports that benefit one select group of students over another.” Choose the quote from below that you feel most strongly supports this claim and write to explain why it is effective. Quote#1: Quote#1:“Our “Ourschool schoolwill willshell shellout out$26,000 $26,000this thiswinter winteralone alonetotopay payforforiceicetime timeforforthe hockey teams.teams. That’sThat’s beforebefore even aeven dollar is spent on coaches, insurance, transportation, the hockey a dollar is spent on coaches, insurance, and equipment. At the end of the season, that $26,000 will literally be water vapor. The transportation, and equipment. At the end of the season, that $26,000 will literally be drama department limps along without even a decent set of body microphones for water vapor. The drama department limps along without even a decent set of body productions which include 50 students at a time.” microphones for productions which include 50 students at a time.” Quote#2: “The athletic program at MVRHS has become almost a religion. The administration openly concedes that our mostly sleep-deprived student body – many of whom catch a 6:20 a.m. school bus – is the result of a forced homage to sports. The school day must start that early so athletes who travel off the Vineyard for away games limit their missed classes.” Quote# _____ strongly supports the author’s claim. This is effective evidence because… _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Task 2: Response to Reading: “Are High School Sports Good for Kids?”, by Daniel Gould, PH.D. The author of this article makes points on both sides of this issue. Fill in the table below to provide at least one reason and piece of evidence that the author offers on each side of the argument. Then write to answer the question: which evidence is stronger and why? High School Sports Are Good for Kids

High School Sports Are Not Good for Kids

Reason:

Reason:

Evidence:

Evidence:

Which evidence from this article is the strongest? What makes this evidence convincing? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________

Task 3: (use loose leaf paper for this) Argument Essay: Imagine that your school district is going to make a decision about continuing to fund sports programs in the schools. You have a chance to write an argument essay that will be read to the mayor, printed in the paper, or presented to the head of the school board or PTA. Your letter should state a position or claim by taking a clear side, back it up with research, and refute the other side. Thinking about all you’ve learned about this issue in the past couple of days, your job is to argue whether, overall, sports are more helpful or harmful for young people. Use what you know about argument essay writing to structure your writing. In your essay, remember to: o o o o o o o o o o

Quickly make a plan to organize your argument and your evidence Introduce your topic Take a position: make clear what you are arguing for or against Organize your reasons and supporting details in paragraphs Use relevant information from the sources you studied to support your claim Acknowledge and refute the counterclaim Include direct quotes from sources Maintain an essayist’s tone Use transitional words and phrases Write a conclusion

Plan for essay:

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Name: ____________________________________________ Class: _______________ Reading Response: “High School, College Football Comes with Risk” The author of this article presents the risks for young people playing football along with some benefits. Fill in the table below to provide at least one reason and piece of evidence that the author offers on each side of the issue. Then write to answer the question: which evidence is stronger and why? There are serious risks for young people However, young people shouldn’t stop who play football. playing football. Reason: Reason:

Evidence:

Evidence:

Which evidence from this article is the strongest? What makes this evidence convincing? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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What in the Name of High School Football? By Hank Hill Literary Cavalcade, Nov/Dec2002, Vol. 55, Issue 3 My high school is an athletocracy. Sports are well-celebrated. The arts and academics are simply tolerated. Football players are princes; artists are stepchildren. The hockey team walks on water. Musicians just walk. My yardstick is a glance at the amount of community recognition and resources dedicated to each. Don’t get me wrong. Our high school has one of the strongest academic and arts programs. Our artists and musicians consistently win awards when matched against their greater statewide peers. Our scholars are many and perform admirably on a wide array of Advanced Placement courses and national tests. But you would hardly know it. With Martha’s Vineyard Regional High (MVRHS) sports, win or lose, you cannot escape the news. The deaf can almost hear the cheers. The blind would tire at the week-afterweek, above-the-fold, page-one photos of ball- catching/throwing/whacking. The local cable television channel repeats both the JV and Varsity football games a half dozen time a week. Ditto for field hockey and soccer. The advertising banners on that same channel flash accolades for sports teams from local businesses 24 hours a day. Each Friday before football games, the school is decorated with banners and streamers and mug shots of football players. And on autumn Mondays, the heroes (as defined by catching a TD pass or two) are again up on the walls as icons. Winter and spring have a new cast of poster boys. Yet only a few weeks ago, 16 MVRHS vocalists and instrumentalists auditioned for the competitive All Cape & Islands music festival. And the judges selected a remarkable 16 of 16. Unheard of success. And yet not a mention in the local papers. Not a word on the radio. Not a sentence in the principal’s address. Not a squeak on the morning announcements. Not a face on the wall. The gift of music came wrapped in silence. The only recognition was a list of names taped to the music-room door and a story I jammed in as editor of the school newspaper. Imagine the hoopla if the entire starting offense plus defensive backfield of the football team (that’s 16 give or take the particular defense) were selected as All-Cape League All-Stars. A parade down Main Street with fire engine sirens blaring would only begin the excess. Again do not misunderstand me. I am not against athletics. The single greatest factor in preventing the nation’s number one killer – heart disease – is regular and vigorous exercise, and that gets my vote. In junior high school I played baseball and lacrosse and loved it. Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox’s baseball stadium, is among my favorite places on earth. I am against the unfair and lopsided allocation of community resources to varsity sports that benefit one select group of students over another. I believe colleges are even-handed when slicing the pie. Not MVRHS.

Our school will shell out $26,000 this winter alone to pay for ice time for the hockey teams. That’s before even a dollar is spent on coaches, insurance, transportation, and equipment. At the end of the season, that $26,000 will literally be water vapor. The drama department limps along without even a decent set of body microphones for productions which include 50 students at a time. Two Advanced Placement English seminars were compressed into one unwieldy class this year as a cost-cutting measure. And the hockey players skate on $26,000 that by March will evaporate into thin air. The athletic program at MVRHS has become almost a religion. The administration openly concedes that our mostly sleep-deprived student body – many of whom catch a 6:20 a.m. school bus – is the result of a forced homage to sports. The school day must start that early so athletes who travel off the Vineyard for away games limit their missed classes. The result of this catering to sports is bleary-eyed students and an overall depression of academic performance for everyone. This is an accepted cost of athletics. Absurd. Without even addressing the actual “value” of competitive athletics or the arts, consider just the numbers: Band, orchestra and jazz have a total of about 120 kids times three full seasons of participation in my school. Freshman chorus, mixed-chorus, and Minnesingers (vocal performing group) have at least an equal number times three seasons. Yet the music students have to fight for a group lesson while the sports training programs rival that of an NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I team. Meanwhile, an educational crisis is looming. As more and more master teachers retire, MVRHS cannot find veteran replacements – the cost of buying a home here is unaffordable for most teachers. Last year, an advertised math position drew only a single applicant. Yet instead of taking the lead from our sister island, Nantucket, which has followed the example of the best private schools by building teacher housing on school property, MVRHS is poised to bulldoze the last, prized acres of undeveloped school land and expand the athletic fields even further at huge expense. Good teachers benefit all students. Varsity sports only benefit some. I am not suggesting eliminating or even cutting down any MVRHS sports programs. Not at all. I am simply stating that to expand an already large athletic department is, by definition, at the expense of the arts and academics. It’s time the Martha’s Vineyard athletocracy take the perennial advice of all wrestling coaches: Time to go on a little diet.

Are High School Sports Good For Kids? By Daniel Gould, Ph.D. Director, Institute for the Study of Youth Sports (http://www.educ.msu.edu/ysi/parents/FAQ/askexperts2.htm) High school sports are an integral part of the fabric of Americans society with over 5 million youth participating in any school year. Here in Michigan almost 300,000 young people take part in high school sports every year. Moreover, school sports are justified because of their potential educational benefits. For example, the mission statement of the National Federation of State High School Activity Associations indicates that it promotes “participation and sportsmanship” in an effort to “develop good citizens through interscholastic activities which provide equitable opportunities, positive recognition and learning experiences to students while maximizing the achievement of educational goals.” Not only are school sports justified on educational grounds, but researchers have shown that participation in them and other extracurricular activities have positive effects on adolescents. For example, a multiyear study conducted in Michigan has shown that children who participate in sports have increased educational aspirations, closer ties to school and increased occupational aspirations in youth. It has been demonstrated, then, that school sports participation has a number of desirable benefits. This does not mean, however, that school sports are not without problems. An overemphasis on winning, year-round single sport participation, and difficulties finding qualified coaches are but a few of concerns facing leaders in the area. The over-emphasis on winning issue is especially significant as when this occurs the educational objectives for involvement are often forgotten. And while principals, athletic directors, and coaches have the ultimate responsibility for keeping winning in the proper perspective and must be held accountable for their actions, let’s not place all the blame on them. The general public, parents and society is placing more emphasis on winning than ever before which, at times, pressures athletic personnel to deviate from the athlete-centered educational and personal development mission. We cannot let this happen. The educational objectives of high school sports must be recognized and placed in the forefront. This does not imply that winning is unimportant and should not be emphasized at all. Leading youth development experts contend that one of the potential benefits of sports participation is the development of initiative or the ability to set and go after goals, which is part of the competitive process. Moreover, in a recent Institute for the Study of Youth Sports investigation of outstanding high school coaches who were recognized for the character and citizenship building contributions to players we found that these individuals were highly successful (winning over 70% of their games). They stressed winning, but never put winning before the personal and educational development of their players. Instead, they maintained a strong 1

educational philosophy and did not just talk about building character in their players, but took daily actions to do so while at the same time pursuing excellence. The bottom line is that high school sports are still a highly desirable activity for students to participate in and should be supported for their educational benefits. However, we as taxpayers and proponents of positive youth development must insist that their educational objectives always come first. We cannot knowingly or unknowingly let winning become the only goal and must support school district, athletic director and coach efforts to always put the education and development of the student-athlete first.

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High School, College Football Comes With Risk By Jeffrey Perkel HealthDay Reporter – ABC News THURSDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) – With the school football season just around the corner, a new study is raising awareness of the risks associated with playing the game. Researchers found that college football players get injured more often than their high school counterparts, but high school athletes are more likely to end up severely injured. The new findings also point to "where the focus should be in terms of prevention," said Dr. Cynthia LaBella, medical director of the Institute for Sports Medicine at Children's Memorial Hospital, in Chicago. She was not involved in the study, which is published in the August issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine. A second report on youth sports injuries was also released Thursday, this time by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That study, published in this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that boys aged 10 to 14 were most likely to end up in the nation's emergency departments with a traumatic brain injury, and that activities such as bicycling, horseback riding, football, basketball and use of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) were most often to blame. The football study was led by R. Dawn Comstock, a primary investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Her team collected injury reports for the 2005-2006 football season from 100 high schools and 55 colleges across the country via two Internetbased systems -- the High School Reporting Information Online (RIO) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance System, respectively. Based on almost 1,900 injury reports submitted to the RIO, the researchers estimate there were 517,726 football-related injuries during the 2005-2006 season at the high school level across the United States. The NCAA system logged more than 3,500 injuries in its database during the same period. Not unexpectedly, college players were about twice as likely to injure themselves as high school students, Comstock said, suffering 8.6 injuries per 1,000 "athlete-exposures" (a practice or competition), compared with high school athletes' 4.36 injuries/1,000. But the researcher said she was surprised to find that the distribution of injuries differed, with fractures, concussions, and season-ending injuries more common among high school athletes. For instance, injuries to the lower leg, ankle and foot were common at both the high school and college levels. But while the knee is the second most-injured site among high school players, hip and thigh injuries were more common in college athletes. The study comes on the heels of findings released in July that found a much higher rate of catastrophic head injury among high school football players compared to college players. LaBella noted that, if anything, this study is underestimating injuries at the high school level, because only schools with an athletic trainer on staff were included. It's possible that such schools have better resources and equipment than less well-funded schools, she said. According to Comstock, the impetus behind this study was the lack of any injury reporting system at the high school level to match the NCAA's, which has been in place for more than 20 years.

"We set out to replicate the NCAA system at the high school level," Comstock explained. "That's important, because right now, rules, protective equipment, and education at the high school level are largely based on information collected on college athletes, and high school athletes are not merely miniature versions of their collegiate counterparts." High school athletes are less physically mature and have less muscle mass than collegiate athletes, for instance. They also have incomplete growth plates, meaning their bones are still developing. Inexperienced athletic techniques can also exacerbate their risk of injury, Comstock said. But better coaching might help. For instance, Comstock noted that most injuries occurred during tackles, and that the most injured positions were running backs and linebackers. "So, at the high school level, especially with younger players, coaches can make sure the athletes are very well-coached in the technique of tackling and are physically able to perform a tackle before they are allowed to play." The CDC study showed that football is just one of many recreational activities in which young people can suffer serious harm. Poring over data from 2001-2005 from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System--All Injury Program, the researchers looked at the causes of almost 208,000 nonfatal sports and recreation-linked brain injuries. Kids aged 10 to 14 were at highest risk for these injuries, and males accounted for more than 70 percent of head trauma cases, the CDC report found. Activities linked to high rates of emergency department admissions for brain trauma included ATV use, use of mopeds/dirtbikes/minibikes, bicycling, golf and scooter use. So, sports and recreation can cause injury, the experts say, especially when safety equipment is lacking or safety rules are ignored. And yet Comstock also emphasized that parents should not use her team's study as an excuse to take their children out of football. "We have an epidemic of obesity in this country, and sports is one of the best ways for kids to incorporate exercise in their lives," she said. "Parents can help keep kids safe by making sure they wear all the appropriate protective equipment, and that their protective equipment fits properly and is in good repair." LaBella added that parents can also help their children by ensuring that they maintain good physical conditioning year-round, are properly coached in techniques such as tackling and falling, and – perhaps most important – that they tell someone, whether a parent, coach, or athletic trainer, if they are injured, especially in the head. In the case of a concussion, the consequences of returning to the field before the injury has healed can range from post-concussive disorder (which includes chronic headaches, memory problems, sleep disturbances and depression) to, rarely, death, in the event of a secondary injury. "Encourage your child to let you know if they have pain or if they notice something different after a hit or a game," LaBella said. "It is not your job to know if something is important – let the medical professionals make that decision."

Grade 9 Assessment

Shoot-Out by Guy Martin The New Yorker | June 2009

Inside the world of a killer high-school assassination game. Killer, the last-man-standing game of water-pistol ambush, has become a key endof-the-year ritual in several New York City high schools. At St. Ann’s, a private school in Brooklyn Heights, the game lasts two and a half weeks and is especially ferocious. Over the years, students there have developed a seventeen-point rule book, a map of the safe zones around the school, an entry fee (currently twenty dollars per team; it goes into the winners’ pot), and a nonplaying senior-class “judge,” to arbitrate disputed kills and rule violations. The judge also makes a pie chart of death—the order of killing assignments, which he or she then distributes to squads shortly before opening day. “I’m looking for some good massacres early,” this year’s judge said as the competition began, the second week in May. (Summoning what his classmates referred to as his “inner lawyer,” he asked that his name not be used.) “I’ve arranged at least one boyfriend -girlfriend kill that could be interesting.” Initially, each team of up to four students is given only the identities of its immediate prey. All other players are anonymous, so that in the days leading up to the game the school becomes a souk of intelligence-gathering and disinformation. In 2007, Jake Protell, a freshman, distinguished himself by ferreting out the itinerary of a field trip that two targets were taking to Tel Aviv. Protell took a car to Newark Airport, found the victims before they passed through security, and dispatched them using two bathtub “squirt fish.” “I had to get special permission from the judge for the squirt fish, because I didn’t want to take my gun anywhere near an El Al counter,” Protell, now a junior, recalled, as he paced Pierrepont Street, three water guns shoved inside the pocket of a hoodie. Eighteen squads of assassins signed up for Killer 2009, a total of seventy players, creating a pot of three hundred and sixty dollars. The first week kicked off with the upperclassmen’s swift massacre of the less disciplined freshman teams. There were a couple of tenacious ninth-grade holdouts, though. Willis Cohen, age fifteen, just five feet six and a hundred and thirty pounds, was gumming up the works for a team of seniors assigned to kill him. Since the start of the game, the twelfth graders had been sleeping on futons in a couple of vans borrowed from their parents, the better to pull off a stoop-side ambush and avoid being ambushed

themselves. They had to take Cohen out before they could move on to their next victims. At 10:30 P.M. on a Wednesday, tree of the four seniors, armed with Walgreensissue water pistols, staked out Cohen’s house in a blue Toyota minivan. The idea was to use a cell phone to call the Cohens’ landline, posing as Cohen’s teammate Dominic, using Dominic’s caller I.D. The call had been engineered from a remote computer by a squad member with prodigious hacking skills. “We want to get Cohen out on the stoop, or learn whether he’s sleeping at home,” Tuck Gaisford, the seniors’ driver said. The call went through. But Cohen’s mom—who had earlier driven her son and a teammate to a kill in SoHo—had been tipped off. The brownstone remained dark, and the seniors spent the night on a cul-de-sac in the Heights. Meanwhile, Jake Protell and his squad—Paulie Lowther, Charlotte Istel, and Mark Croitoroo—mowed through entire teams, racking up thirteen kills in four days. In five hours on Memorial Day, Lowther, a member of the winning teams from 2007 and 2008, shot a boy sitting on his stoop in Boerum Hill, a second as he ventured from his country house to Cobble Hill, and a third whom he duped into coming to a party in the village. Willis Cohen was finally killed through no fault of his own. He woke up and, as usual, hopped a neighbor’s fence and exited through a neighbor’s house. He caught a livery cab on Amity Street and headed north to the Heights. He knew he was in trouble when his driver refused to raise the windows. A member of the Gaisford team shot him in the chest through the cab’s passenger side window as he pulled up to the school. “I told the driver to pull over on the other side of the street, but he wouldn’t do it,” Cohen said, the wet splotch drying in the center of his T-shirt. In the end, the Protell-Lowther team won, with twenty-one kills. They celebrated with a spaghetti dinner. In the late innings of Killer season, some kids occasionally sleep in the deeper recesses of St. Ann’s itself. The game’s valedictory message is built into its architecture: school is the safe ground. And, keen as the graduating seniors may be to leave, the game tells them that the world outside is not.

ASSESSMENT TASK: Grade 9 In your group 1. Read the text closely and annotate it. What is the text saying? Re-tell it to a partner. Be sure not to add your opinion, just reference the text and what it is saying. 2. Re-read the text. Summarize it in a short paragraph and state what the central idea is in a sentence or two. (What is it starting to be about? How does the text support that idea?) Converse with a partner about what the article says and suggests. Note differing points of view. Is the article what you thought it was about? Or are other ideas coming through more strongly? ON YOUR OWN: Examine how individuals, events, and ideas interact and develop through the course of the text. Note the sequence of events, cause and effect, and relationships and connections. Interpret language and meaning of the words the author uses. Pay attention to how the text is structured; assess the author’s point of view.

Go to www.youtube.com/?v=pVKnF26Qffm and view the video. Compare it to the article, “Shoot Out.” You may compare characters, tone, and the difference between video and a written article. Analyze the texts’ differing purposes in a concise, well-written essay.

Grade 10 Assessment

Diamonds in the Sky—Grade 10 assessment

Stars are not the only objects that glitter in the dark night sky. Scientists have discovered that diamonds are plentiful in outer space. Some of these space diamonds are called “nanodiamonds” because they are incredibly small. A nanodiamond is millions of times smaller than a grain of sugar—more or less the size of a strand of DNA. Nanodiamonds are stardust, created when ancient stars exploded long ago, disgorging their remaining elements into space. Other space diamonds are huge—the size of whole planets—while some may exist in liquid or frozen form. Scientists even suggest that planets in our own solar system may have oceans filled with chunks of frozen diamond “ice.” Diamonds are so common throughout the universe because they are a pure form of one of the universe’s most common elements: carbon. Diamonds have a number of amazing properties: they are extremely hard and transparent, and can withstand radioactivity, corrosive acids, and other powerful forces. Diamonds conduct electricity more readily than copper, and are also the best natural conductor of heat that we know of—which is why diamonds feel cool to the touch. Like a prism, diamonds produce rainbows from white light. The melting point of a diamond, 7,362 degrees Fahrenheit, is higher than that of any other known substance. Graphite and diamonds share the same chemistry—both are carbon. The difference lies in the arrangement of the carbon atoms, known as their “molecular structure.” Extreme forces are required to transform dark, soft graphite—the stuff used in pencil lead—into hard, brilliant diamonds. A diamond is formed when carbon is exposed to immense pressure and extreme heat—conditions found hundreds of miles below the surface of the Earth, where most natural diamonds are formed. The heat and pressure squeeze the carbon atoms into a dense, crystalline structure. In the comic books, Superman could create a diamond by simply squeezing carbon in his bare hands, but it normally takes billions of years for carbon to become a diamond. In space, diamonds are born more quickly. Scientists believe space diamonds often crystallize in no more than a millionth of a millionth of a second, when dust grains containing carbon smash together at extremely high speeds. Another hypothesis for how space diamonds are formed involves the shock waves released by an exploding star, which cook and compress carbon dust until it becomes a diamond. In the 1980s, geologists discovered microscopic diamonds embedded in meteorites that had fallen out of the sky, some with the same chemistry as natural diamonds found on earth. Scientists believe these diamonds were created when meteorites collided with asteroids in our solar system. Other diamonds found inside meteorites, however, contain a mixture of xenon gas found only in outer space. These diamonds are useful to scientists because they provide clues about the composition of stars and the history of the universe.

A rare form of diamond found in Brazil and the Central African Republic—called a “carbonado diamond” because of its black color—also appears to have extraterrestrial origins. The hydrogen found in these diamonds indicates that they were probably formed in hydrogen-rich interstellar space. Scientists believe that these black diamonds were once the size of asteroids before they exploded upon impact with the Earth’s surface. Astronomers studying Uranus and Neptune think that diamond icebergs may drift in sparkling diamond oceans on these carbon-rich planets. While this sounds incredible, scientists have discovered that, given the right conditions, it is possible to liquefy a diamond. To test this, nuclear scientists used lasers to recreate the extremely high heat and pressure of Uranus and Neptune. Using a normal diamond, they heated it to a temperature of 50,000 degrees and applied pressure equal to 11 million times the pressure on Earth. Under these conditions, the diamond first melted, then froze into icy chunks. In this way, scientists proved that diamonds can melt, freeze, and behave like water. Scientists have even discovered a diamond planet in our galaxy, 4,000 light years from earth and about five times larger than our own planet. It is heavier than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Astronomers believe that this diamond planet formed when the carbon core of a massive star collapsed and became a diamond under intense gravitational pressure. Besides being beautiful to contemplate, space diamonds teach us important lessons about natural processes going on in the universe, and suggest new ways that diamonds can be created here on Earth.

Read the sentence from the text. Then answer the question. “Nanodiamonds are stardust, created when ancient stars exploded long ago, disgorging their remaining elements into space.” Based on the context of the sentence, what is the most precise meaning of disgorging? a. Scattering randomly b. Throwing out quickly c. Spreading out widely d. Casting forth violently

Which of the following best identifies what the discovery of diamond icebergs teaches us about the nature and properties of diamonds?

a. Diamonds have a changeable state of matter b. Diamonds can reach sizes larger and heavier than the Earth. c. Diamonds found on Earth can originate from distant parts of space. d. Diamonds help scientists better understand the formation of galaxies.

Read this sentence from the passage.

“Besides being beautiful to contemplate, space diamonds teach us important lessons about natural processes going on in the universe, and suggest new ways that diamonds can be created here on Earth.”

Explain how information learned from space diamonds can help scientists make diamonds on Earth. Use evidence from the passage to support your answer.

The following paragraph is an excerpt from a student's report about plant life the southern United States. After reading the paragraph, you will identify details that are unnecessary and explain why they should be removed.

The Invasion of Kudzu

In 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hosted the Centennial Exposition in honor of the country’s 100th birthday. The Japanese constructed one of the most popular exhibits, primarily due to an amazing vine called kudzu. For centuries, the Japanese used the pea vine for many purposes, including medicine, but what attracted the Americans the most were the sweet-smelling purple flowers that covered the vine. The warm, moist climate of the southern states—from Georgia to Florida and north to the Carolinas—was the most hospitable part of the US for the vine. Temperatures in Georgia can reach into the 90s, and the humidity is often above 90%. Residents all over the southeast began planting kudzu. The vine’s success caught the attention of many, including Channing Cope who promoted its use for erosion control and animal feed, especially during the Great Depression. Because of the depression, many homes were left abandoned, so there was not anyone to care for them and keep the plants properly groomed. No one predicted, however, that the vine would end up taking over. The vines slowly engulfed pine forests, telephone poles, and even houses, leading to the destruction of native plant life. Pines are not the only trees in the South, however. There are about 250 species of trees in Georgia alone. As kudzu out-competed the local plants, it deprived them of nutrients and, especially, sunlight. Kudzu now covers over 7 million acres of land, and it continues to expand at the rate of 150,000 acres annually. That is almost one foot per day! Attempts to kill it have proven difficult, as it is immune to most herbicides; thus, kudzu continues to smother the southern states. Researchers continue to search for a solution to “the vine that ate the South,” but the answer is nowhere in sight.

In the space below, identify the sentences from the paragraph that are unnecessary, and briefly explain why each one should be removed.

The following excerpt is from a writer’s first draft of a narrative essay. Read the excerpt. Then rewrite it, revising it to correct errors.

I had no idea what to expect when I walked into the arena. There were people everywhere, most of them clad in brightly colored jersey’s with different players’ names on the back of them. There were some names I couldnt even pronounce. Me and my friend made our way to the corridor that led to the ice rink. The minute I stepped through the doorway, I could feel a rush of cold air hit my face. I could actually smell the ice! I never thought ice had a smell, but it really does. The next thing I noticed was the size, of the ice rink. There were lines and circles painted all over it, and I knew immediately I wouldn’t understand the rules. We found our seats, and it wasn’t long before the game started. We sat so close to the action that I felt as if I was right in the middle of it, the action was so intense it was hard to follow the puck, keep an eye on the players, and to figure out which team was ahead. When the home team scored a goal. The entire arena erupted with cheering that was so loud, I bet it was heard across town. by the end of the game, I felt so many emotions: delight, disappointment, fear, and excitement. Mostly, though, I felt in awe of the athletes who played this game. They are much more tougher than I ever expected. I suspect others new to hockey will be as impressed as me by this fast, interesting game.

Now rewrite the excerpt, revising it to correct errors.

Grade 11 Assessment

Grade 11 Performance Task Nuclear Power: Friend or Foe? [Taken from the Smarter Balanced Released Items, 2013]

Task Overview (20 minutes for classroom activity, 120 minutes for performance task = 140 total minutes) Classroom Activity (20 minutes) Using visual stimuli (chart and photo), the teacher invites students to share prior knowledge of nuclear power. By way of class discussion, and in order to contextualize the examination of stimuli in Part 1, students are reminded of two basic understandings about nuclear power: 1) that it is one among several ways that societies produce electricity and 2) that its use is controversial.

Part 1 (50 minutes) Students examine and take notes on the stimuli, a series of Internet sources that present both sides of the nuclear debate. Constructed-response questions call upon the students to summarize and evaluate the presented sources.

Part 2 (70 minutes) Students refer to their notes as needed to compose a full-length argumentative report. Students are allowed access to the stimuli they examined in Part 1. Pre-writing, drafting, and revisions are involved.

Scorable Products Student responses to the constructed-response research questions at the end of Part 1 and the report completed in Part 2 will be scored. Notes completed in Part 1 and pre-writing and drafting in Part 2 will not be scored.

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Grade 11 Performance Task Teacher Preparation / Resource Requirements This is a computer-based test that requires an interface for each test-taker. The testing software will include access to spell check, but not to grammar check. The teacher should ensure that sufficient blank paper and writing tools are available for student note-taking. Ideally, the teacher has access to a projector and PowerPoint-like software for presenting images in the introductory Classroom Activity, but these images can also be distributed as handouts.

Teacher Directions for the Classroom Activity Introductory Classroom Activity (20 minutes)  Present on a projector (or distribute a handout of) the pie chart on the production of electricity in the U.S. (see attached).  After giving students a moment to look at the chart, ask, “What do you think this chart is telling us? What would you guess that its title or caption is?”  After taking a few responses, affirm or state that the chart provides data on where electricity comes from in the United States.  Invite students to briefly define the various kinds of energy sources that appear on the chart: hydroelectric, renewables, nuclear, etc.  Ask, “Which of the sources accounts for just over 19% of America’s electricity?”  After a student has identified nuclear power, ask, “What do you know about nuclear power? How does it produce electricity?”  While students share what they know about the technology of nuclear power, show them the photograph of the functioning nuclear power plant, the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania (see attached). (Explain that the white emissions are steam.)  If students do not know anything about nuclear power technology, tell them that it comes from a device (a nuclear reactor) that creates a chain reaction that breaks up the nucleus of an atom so that it produces energy. Usually heat from this process is used to generate electricity.  Say to the students, “In the performance task that you are going to participate in today, you will learn more about nuclear power and the debate over its pros and cons. Eventually, you will need to take a position on whether we should encourage or discourage the use of nuclear power, and you will defend your point of view in an argumentative report. It is important to know that, as the pie chart indicates, nuclear power is one way that our country currently gets its electricity. Some people support it and think it might even be a bigger piece of the pie. Others oppose it and would like to see it disappear from the pie chart altogether.”

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Grade 11 Performance Task

Directions for beginning You are chief-of-staff for your local congresswoman in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has called you into her office to outline an urgent project. “I have received advance notice,” she says as you sit down, “that a power company is proposing to build a nuclear plant in the southeastern corner of our state. The plan will be announced to the public tomorrow morning, and citizens and journalists will want to know what my position is on this controversial issue. To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about it. We currently don’t have any nuclear power plants in this state, so I haven’t taken time to consider the issue deeply.” “I need you,” she continues, “to conduct a brief survey of the pros and cons of nuclear power. Summarize what you have learned and report back to me this afternoon.” Back in your office, you enter “nuclear power pros and cons” into a Google search engine, and it returns what looks like a promising mix of articles, videos, and data charts. You must review and evaluate these sources and summarize their arguments—both pro and con—before reporting back to the congresswoman. You have been provided with and are encouraged to use a note-taking guide that will help you gather and process your findings.

Research Questions After you have reviewed the research sources, answer the questions below. Your answers to these questions will be scored. Also, they will help you think about the sources you have read and viewed, which should help you write your report. Answer the questions in the spaces provided below each question. 1. From the sources you have reviewed, summarize 3 major arguments that support, and 3 major arguments that oppose, the use of nuclear power for generating electricity. For each of the arguments, cite at least one source that supports this fact or point of view. Argument / Fact in Favor of Nuclear Power 1. 2. 3. Argument / Fact in Opposition to Nuclear Power 1. 2. 3.

Source Supporting This Argument

Source Supporting This Argument

2. Evaluate the credibility of the arguments and evidence presented by these sources. Which of the sources are more trustworthy and why? Which of the sources warrant some skepticism because of bias

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Grade 11 Performance Task or insufficient evidence?

Your Assignment Back in the congresswoman’s office, you start to hand her your notes on the pros and cons of nuclear energy, but she waves away your papers. “Some emergency meetings have come up and I don’t have time to review your research notes,” she says. “Instead, go ahead and make a recommendation for our position on this nuclear power plant. Should we support the building of this nuclear plant in our state, or should we oppose the power company’s plan? Be sure that your recommendation acknowledges both sides of the issue so that people know that we have considered the issue carefully. I’ll review your report tonight and use it for the press conference tomorrow morning.” Write an argumentative report that recommends the position that your congresswoman should take on the plan to build a nuclear power plant in your state. Support your claim with evidence from the Internet sources you have read and viewed. You do not need to use all the sources, only the ones that most effectively and credibly support your position and your consideration of the opposing point of view.

Report Scoring Your report will be scored on the following criteria: 1. Statement of purpose / focus and organization: How well did you clearly state your claim on the topic, maintain your focus, and address the alternate and opposing claims? How well did your ideas logically flow from the introduction to conclusion using effective transitions? How well did you stay on topic throughout the report? 2. Elaboration of evidence: How well did you elaborate your arguments and discussion of counterarguments, citing evidence from your sources? How well did you effectively express ideas using precise language and vocabulary that were appropriate for the audience and purpose of your report? 3. Conventions: How well did you follow the rules of usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling?

Now begin work on your report. Manage your time carefully so that you can: • • •

plan your report write your report revise and edit for a final draft

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Grade 11 Performance Task Note-Taking Guide

Research Source

Published by . . .

Arguments for Nuclear Power

Arguments against Nuclear Power

How reliable is the evidence from this source?

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Grade 11 Performance Task Source information:

Nuclear power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13– 14% … James Hansen on Nuclear Energy - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=alrxqx_B34s Nov 16, 2010 - 1 min - Uploaded by Newsweek Magazine “NASA’s premier climate change expert believes that next-generation, safe nuclear power is an option which we need to develop. And it is being …” LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Against plans for nuclear power plant ottumwacourier.com/letters/.../Against-plans-for-nuclear-power-plant Mar 17, 2012 – I would like to comment on Mid-American Energy's intent to build a nuclear power plant in Iowa. We already have one nuclear plant in Palo, … Look inside Fukushima's meltdown zone a year later - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6oQAyunXqk Feb 28, 2012 - 3 min - Uploaded by CNN CNN's Kyung Lah reports from the meltdown zone. ... Look inside Fukushima's meltdown … The Truth About Nuclear Power - Reason.com reason.com/archives/2011/03/25/the-truth-about-nuclear-power The chart here uses data compiled from various sources to compare the deaths per unit of energy produced. Deaths resulting from the production of nuclear power are over 4000 times less than the rate of death resulting from the production of energy from coal.… LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Nuclear a cost-effective energy source ... www.washingtontimes.com/.../nuclear-a-cost-effective-energy-source… Jan 3, 2012 – The truly rational view of Mario Salazar on nuclear power should be a lesson on dispassionately ... The Washington Times ... LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Nuclear a cost-effective energy source ... to the real alternatives of burning gas, oil and coal, and much more reliably than alternatives like wind and solar.

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Source: U.S. EPA, eGRID, year 2005 data.

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Grade 11 Performance Task Task Specifications: Title: Nuclear Power: Friend or Foe? Grade: 10/11 Claim(s): 2: Students can produce effective and well-grounded writing for a

Primary Target(s):

CCSS/Standard(s): DOK: Difficulty: Score Points: Task Source:

range of purposes and audiences. 4: Students can engage in research/inquiry to investigate topics and to analyze, integrate, and present information. These claims and targets will be measured by scorable evidence collected. Claim 2 7: COMPOSE FULL TEXTS: Write full persuasive pieces/arguments about topics or texts, attending to purpose and audience: establishing and supporting a claim, organizing and citing supporting evidence (from texts when appropriate) from credible sources, and providing a conclusion appropriate to purpose and audience. 8: LANGUAGE & VOCABULARY USE: Strategically use precise language and vocabulary (including academic and domain-specific vocabulary and figurative language) and style appropriate to the purpose and audience when revising or composing texts. 9: EDIT/CLARIFY: Apply or edit grade-appropriate grammar, usage, and mechanics to clarify a message and edit narrative, informational, and persuasive/argument texts. Claim 4 2: ANALYZE/INTEGRATE INFORMATION: Gather, analyze, and integrate multiple sources of information/evidence to support a presentation on a topic. 3: EVALUATE INFORMATION/SOURCES: Evaluate relevancy, accuracy, and completeness of information from multiple sources. 4: USE EVIDENCE: Cite evidence to support arguments or conjectures. W-1a–e, W-4–9, L-1–3, L-6, RI-7, RLiteracy-7, WLiteracy-8–9 4 Medium Up to 10 SBAC / Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, & Equity (SCALE) Performance Tasks

Item Type: Target-specific attributes Students with visual impairments may need alternative formats to (e.g., accessibility access written texts, graphic stimuli, and video or audiovisual issues): material. Students with physical or other impairments may need to be provided with appropriate alternative means to entering lengthy text using a keyboard. Grade Level of Stimuli: 9–10

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Grade 11 Performance Task Stimuli: Authentic Internet sources pre-selected and presented to the students as the top hits of a simulated Google search. Should present a range of media that includes text, video, and data charts. Collectively, the sources must provide an overview of the topic and present both sides of the controversy. Sources must also vary in terms of their credibility and reliance on evidence. See attached PDF for a draft of an example. Links are functioning and open actual Internet sources that could be used for this task. How this task contributes In order to complete the performance task, students 1. Evaluate and to sufficient evidence for select information from a series of sources 2. Write an argumentative the claims: report effectively demonstrating • a clearly-established claim about the topic • presentation of relevant supporting evidence, details, and elaboration consistent with the position, sources, purpose, and audience • effective organization of ideas • adherence to conventions and rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics • control of language for purpose and audience Task Notes: This task attempts to address the challenge of assessing real-life research skills within the constraints of a standardized, on-demand test. The use of a simulated Internet search result pointing to authentic Internet sources allows the task designer to recreate the challenges posed by research in the real world: namely, most of it is now done on the Internet, which requires vigilance and skill in evaluating the reliability of what you find there. In this way, students are asked not simply to synthesize the stimuli, but to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the stimuli before synthesizing a subset of the presented sources.

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Grade 11 Performance Task Scoring information for questions: 1. Claim 4, Target 4 2-point Research (Grades 6–11) Use Evidence Rubric (Claim 4, Target 4)

2

The response gives sufficient evidence of the ability to cite evidence to support arguments and/or ideas.

1

The response gives limited evidence of the ability to cite evidence to support arguments and/or ideas.

0

A response gets no credit if it provides no evidence of the ability to cite evidence to support arguments and/or ideas.

2. Claim 4, Target 3 2-point Research (Grades 6–11) Evaluate Information/Sources Rubric (Claim 4, Target 3)

2

The response gives sufficient evidence of the ability to evaluate the credibility, completeness, relevancy, and/or accuracy of the information and sources.

1

The response gives limited evidence of the ability to evaluate the credibility, completeness, relevancy, and/or accuracy of the information and sources.

0

A response gets no credit if it provides no evidence of the ability to evaluate the credibility, completeness, relevancy, and/or accuracy of the information and sources.

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Grade 11 Performance Task Rubric and scoring information for full-write:

4-Point Argumentative Performance Task Writing Rubric (Grades 6–11)

Statement of Purpose/Focus and Organization

Score

4

3

2

1

NS

The response is fully sustained and consistently and purposefully focused:  claim is clearly stated, focused, and strongly maintained  alternate or opposing claims are clearly addressed  claim is introduced and communicated clearly within the purpose, audience, and task

The response is adequately sustained and generally focused:  claim is clear and mostly maintained, though some loosely related material may be present  context provided for the claim is adequate within the purpose, audience, and task

The response is somewhat sustained and may have a minor drift in focus:  may be clearly focused on the claim but is insufficiently sustained, or  claim on the issue may be somewhat unclear and/or unfocused

The response may be related to the purpose but may provide little or no focus:  may be very brief  may have a major drift  claim may be confusing or ambiguous

Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing

The response has an evident organizational structure and a sense of completeness, though there may be minor flaws and some ideas may be loosely connected:  adequate use of transitional strategies with some variety to clarify the relationships between and among ideas  adequate progression of ideas from beginning to end  adequate introduction and conclusion  adequate, if slightly inconsistent, connection among ideas

The response has an inconsistent organizational structure, and flaws are evident:  inconsistent use of transitional strategies and/or little variety  uneven progression of ideas from beginning to end  conclusion and introduction, if present, are weak  weak connection among ideas

The response has a clear and effective organizational structure creating a sense of unity and completeness:  consistent use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas  logical progression of ideas from beginning to end  effective introduction and conclusion for audience and purpose  strong connections among ideas, with some syntactic variety

The response has little or no discernible organizational structure:  few or no transitional strategies are evident  frequent extraneous ideas may intrude

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Score

4

3

2

1

NS

The response provides thorough and convincing support/evidence for the writer’s claim that includes the effective use of sources, facts, and details. The response achieves substantial depth that is specific and relevant:  use of evidence from sources is integrated, comprehensive, relevant, and concrete  effective use of a variety of elaborative techniques

The response provides adequate support/evidence for the writer’s claim that includes the use of sources, facts, and details. The response achieves some depth and specificity but is predominantly general:  some evidence from sources is included, though citations may be general or imprecise  adequate use of some elaborative techniques

The response provides uneven, cursory support/evidence for the writer’s claim that includes partial or uneven use of sources, facts, and details. The response achieves little depth:  evidence from sources is weakly integrated, and citations, if present, are uneven  weak or uneven use of elaborative techniques

The response provides minimal support/evidence for the writer’s claim that includes little or no use of sources, facts, and details:  Use of evidence from sources is minimal, absent, incorrect, or irrelevant

Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing

Evidence/Elaboration

4-Point Argumentative Performance Task Writing Rubric (Grades 6–11)

The response clearly and effectively expresses ideas, using precise language:  use of academic and domain-specific vocabulary is clearly appropriate for the audience and purpose

The response adequately expresses ideas, employing a mix of precise with more general language:  use of domain-specific vocabulary is generally appropriate for the audience and purpose

The response expresses ideas unevenly, using simplistic language:  use of domain-specific vocabulary may at times be inappropriate for the audience and purpose

The response’s expression of ideas is vague, lacks clarity, or is confusing:  uses limited language or domain-specific vocabulary  may have little sense of audience and purpose

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Grade 11 Performance Task 2-Point Argumentative Performance Task Writing Rubric (Grades 6-11) Score

2

Conventions

The response demonstrates an adequate command of conventions: 



errors in usage and sentence formation may be present, but no systematic pattern of errors is displayed and meaning is not obscured

1 The response demonstrates a partial command of conventions: 

errors in usage may obscure meaning



inconsistent use of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

NS Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing

adequate use of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

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Grade 12 Assessment

Annie Dillard - “Living Like Weasels” – Grade 12 Exemplar from EngageNY

Learning Objective: The goal of this four-day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they’ve been practicing on a regular basis to discover the rich language and life lesson embedded in Dillard’s text. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will be equipped to unpack Dillard’s essay. When combined with writing about the passage, students will learn to appreciate how Dillard’s writing contains a deeper message and derive satisfaction from the struggle to master complex text. Reading Task: Rereading is deliberately built into the instructional unit. Students will silently read the passage in question on a given day—first independently and then following along with the text as the teacher and/or skillful students read aloud. Depending on the difficulties of a given text and the teacher’s knowledge of the fluency abilities of students, the order of the student silent read and the teacher reading aloud with students following might be reversed. What is important is to allow all students to interact with challenging text on their own as frequently and independently as possible. Students will then reread specific passages in response to a set of concise, text-dependent questions that compel them to examine the meaning and structure of Dillard’s prose. Vocabulary Task: Most of the meanings of words in this selection can be discovered from careful reading of the context in which they appear. Teachers can use discussions to model and reinforce how to learn vocabulary from contextual clues, and students must be held accountable for engaging in this practice. Where it is judged this is not possible, underlined words are defined briefly for students in a separate column whenever the original text is reproduced. At times, this is all the support these words need. At other times, particularly with abstract words, teachers will need to spend more time explaining and discussing them. In addition, for subsequent readings, high value academic (‘Tier Two’) words have been bolded to draw attention to them. Given how crucial vocabulary knowledge is to students’ academic and career success, it is essential that these high value words be discussed and lingered over during the instructional sequence. Sentence Syntax Task: On occasion students will encounter particularly difficult sentences to decode. Teachers should engage in a close examination of such sentences to help students discover how they are built and how they convey meaning. While many questions addressing important aspects of the text double as questions about syntax, students should receive regular supported practice in deciphering complex sentences. It is crucial that the help they receive in unpacking text complexity focuses both on the precise meaning of what the author is saying and why the author might have constructed the sentence in this particular fashion. That practice will in turn support students’ ability to unpack meaning from syntactically complex sentences they encounter in future reading. Discussion Task: Students will discuss the passage in depth with their teacher and their classmates, performing activities that result in a close reading of the text. The goal is to foster student confidence when encountering complex text and to reinforce the skills they have acquired regarding how to build and extend their understanding of a text. A general principle is to always 1

reread the portion of text that provides evidence for the question under discussion. This gives students another encounter with the text, reinforces the use of textual evidence, and helps develop fluency. Writing Task: Students will paraphrase different sentences and sections of Dillard’s text, complete a series of journal entries, and then write an informative essay detailing why the author chose the title, “Living Like Weasels”. Teachers might afford students the opportunity to rewrite their essay or revise their in-class journal entries after participating in classroom discussion, allowing them to refashion both their understanding of the text and their expression of that understanding. Outline of Lesson Plan: This lesson can be delivered in four days of instruction and reflection on the part of teachers and their students. Reasons for extending the discussion of “Living Like Weasels” might include allowing more time to unpack the rich array of ideas explored in this piece, taking more time to look closely at academic vocabulary and figurative language employed by Dillard, or participating in a writing workshop to strengthen students’ writing pieces. Standards Addressed: The following Common Core State Standards are the focus of this exemplar: RI.11-12.1, RI.11-12.2, RI.11-12.3, RI.11-12.4, RI.11-12.5, RI.11-12.6; W.11-12.2, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.5; SL.11-12.1, SL.11-12.4; L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.4, L.11-12.5, L.11-12.6.

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The Text: Dillard, Annie. “Living Like Weasels” Exemplar Text

Vocabulary

1 A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label. 2 And once, says Ernest Thompson Seton—once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won. I would like to have seen that eagle from the air a few weeks or months before he was shot: was the whole weasel still attached to his feathered throat, a fur pendant? Or did the eagle eat what he could reach, gutting the living weasel with his talons before his breast, bending his beak, cleaning the beautiful airborne bones?

Twisted Decoration that hangs from a necklace

3 I have been reading about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance. 4 Twenty minutes from my house, through the woods by the quarry and across the highway, is Hollins Pond, a remarkable piece of shallowness, where I like to go at sunset and sit on a tree trunk. Hollins Pond is also called Murray's Pond; it covers two acres of bottomland near Tinker Creek with six inches of water and six thousand lily pads. In winter, brown-and-white steers stand in the middle of it, merely dampening their hooves; from the distant shore they look like miracle itself, complete with miracle's nonchalance. Now, in summer, the steers are gone. The water lilies have blossomed and spread to a green horizontal plane that is terra firma to plodding blackbirds, and tremulous ceiling to black leeches, crayfish, and carp. 5

Indifference Solid earth Shaking

This is, mind you, suburbia. It is a five-minute walk in three directions to rows of 3

houses, though none is visible here. There's a 55 mph highway at one end of the pond, and a nesting pair of wood ducks at the other. Under every bush is a muskrat hole or a beer can. The far end is an alternating series of fields and woods, fields and woods, threaded everywhere with motorcycle tracks—in whose bare clay wild turtles lay eggs. 6 So. I had crossed the highway, stepped over two low barbed-wire fences, and traced the motorcycle path in all gratitude through the wild rose and poison ivy of the pond's shoreline up into high grassy fields. Then I cut down through the woods to the mossy fallen tree where I sit. This tree is excellent. It makes a dry, upholstered bench at the upper, marshy end of the pond, a plush jetty raised from the thorny shore between a shallow blue body of water and a deep blue body of sky. 7 The sun had just set. I was relaxed on the tree trunk, ensconced in the lap of lichen, watching the lily pads at my feet tremble and part dreamily over the thrusting path of a carp. A yellow bird appeared to my right and flew behind me. It caught my eye; I swiveled around—and the next instant, inexplicably, I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me.

Luxurious; Structure that juts out over the water

Soft moss

8 Weasel! I'd never seen one wild before. He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizard's; he would have made a good arrowhead. There was just a dot of chin, maybe two brown hairs' worth, and then the pure white fur began that spread down his underside. He had two black eyes I didn't see, any more than you see a window. 9 The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous shaggy wild rose bush four feet away. I was stunned into stillness twisted backward on the tree trunk. Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key. 10 Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on an overgrown path when each had been thinking of something else: a clearing blow to the gut. It was also a bright blow to the brain, or a sudden beating of brains, with all the charge and intimate grate of rubbed balloons. It emptied our lungs. It felled the forest, moved the fields, and drained the pond; the world dismantled and tumbled into that black hole of eyes. If you and I looked at each other that way, our skulls would split and drop to our shoulders. But we don't. We keep our skulls. So. 4

11 He disappeared. This was only last week, and already I don't remember what shattered the enchantment. I think I blinked, I think I retrieved my brain from the weasel's brain, and tried to memorize what I was seeing, and the weasel felt the yank of separation, the careening splash-down into real life and the urgent current of instinct. He vanished under the wild rose. I waited motionless, my mind suddenly full of data and my spirit with pleadings, but he didn't return. 12 Please do not tell me about "approach-avoidance conflicts." I tell you I've been in that weasel's brain for sixty seconds, and he was in mine. Brains are private places, muttering through unique and secret tapes—but the weasel and I both plugged into another tape simultaneously, for a sweet and shocking time. Can I help it if it was a blank? 13 What goes on in his brain the rest of the time? What does a weasel think about? He won't say. His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose leaf, and blown. 14 I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget about it. That is, I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular--shall I suck warm blood, hold my tail high, walk with my footprints precisely over the prints of my hands?--but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive. The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel's: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will. 15 I missed my chance. I should have gone for the throat. I should have lunged for that streak of white under the weasel's chin and held on, held on through mud and into the wild rose, held on for a dearer life. We could live under the wild rose wild as weasels, mute and uncomprehending. I could very calmly go wild. I could live two days in the den, curled, leaning on mouse fur, sniffing bird bones, blinking, licking, breathing musk, my hair tangled in the roots of grasses. Down is a good place to go, where the mind is single. Down is out, out of your ever-loving mind and back to your careless senses. I remember muteness as a prolonged and giddy fast, where every moment is a feast of utterance received. Time and events are merely poured, unremarked, and

Without dignity

Something said

5

ingested directly, like blood pulsed into my gut through a jugular vein. Could two live that way? Could two live under the wild rose, and explore by the pond, so that the smooth mind of each is as everywhere present to the other, and as received and as unchallenged, as falling snow? 16 We could, you know. We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—even of silence—by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse. This is yielding, not fighting. A weasel doesn't "attack" anything; a weasel lives as he's meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity.

Flexible

17 I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you're going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles.

Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. 6

Day One: Instructional Exemplar for Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” Summary of Activities  (BEFORE Day One) Teacher introduces the essay with minimal commentary and has students read it for homework  (ON Day One) Teacher or skillful reader then reads the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text  Teacher asks the class to complete an introductory journal entry and discuss a set of text-dependent questions  For homework, teacher asks students to complete another journal entry Text Passage under Discussion

Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students

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Text Passage under Discussion 1 A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more stalks bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label...

1. Read the essay out loud to the class as students follow along in the text. Asking students to listen to “Living Like Weasels” exposes them to the rhythms and meaning of Dillard’s language before they begin their own close reading of the passage. Speaking clearly and carefully will allow students to follow Dillard’s essay, and reading out loud with students following along improves fluency while offering all students access to this complex text. Accurate and skillful modeling of the reading provides students who may be dysfluent with accurate pronunciations and syntactic patterns of English. 2. Introduce journaling and have students complete their first entry: In your journal, write an entry on the first paragraph of Dillard’s essay describing what makes a weasel wild. Students will be keeping a running journal charting their ongoing exploration of critical moments in the text. The process of journaling brings to the fore the tension that Dillard is exploring in her essay—choosing to live like a weasel (in the moment and unreflective) while writing about that choice (in a highly reflective and self conscious way). Students should consistently be reminded to include textual evidence in their journals to back up their claims and avoid non-text based speculation (i.e. no answers of the sort “Weasels are wild because they live outdoors and are not pets”). Below is some possible evidence that students may include in their first entry: • • • • • • •

“sleeps in his underground den” “he lives in his den for two days” “he stalks” “dragging the carcasses home” “Obedient to instinct” “he bites his prey” “ splitting the jugular vein at the throat” “crunching the brain at the base of the skull”

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Text Passage under Discussion 1 A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more stalks bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label. 2 And once, says Ernest Thompson Seton—once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won. I would like to have seen that eagle from the air a few weeks or months before he was shot: was the whole weasel still attached to his feathered throat, a fur pendant? Or did the eagle eat what he could reach, gutting the living weasel with his talons before his breast, bending his beak, cleaning the beautiful airborne bones?

3. Ask the class to answer a small set of text-dependent guided questions and perform targeted tasks about the passage, with answers in the form of notes, annotations to the text, or more formal responses as appropriate. As students move through these questions and reread Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels”, be sure to check for and reinforce their understanding of academic vocabulary in the corresponding text (which will be boldfaced the first time it appears in the text). At times, the questions themselves may focus on academic vocabulary. (Q1) What features of a weasel’s existence make it wild? Make it violent? This question harkens back to the journal entry students wrote and helps to emphasize the alien nature of a weasel’s existence. The teacher should be sure to highlight specific examples from the text if students overlook them: • “sleeps in his underground den” • “he lives in his den for two days” • “he stalks” • “dragging the carcasses home” • “Obedient to instinct” • “he bites his prey”

Twisted

Decoration that hangs from a necklace

(Q2) What instances in the text show a display of weasels being “obedient to instinct”? The following stories vividly illustrate the instinctual nature of weasels to hold on no matter what, hinting at the final paragraphs, where Dillard encourages her reader to live like a weasel and choose a life that is worth holding onto. • “he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label” • “a man shot an eagle…and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat” (Q3) At what point does the author start speaking about herself? What is the focus of her observations? Once students find this section (“I would like to have seen that eagle from the air”), they can be led in a discussion of the markedly different tone it sets, as well as identifying Dillard’s concerns (not the callous death of the eagle, but imagining different outcomes regarding what happened to the weasel attached to the eagle’s neck). The appearance of her voice at this juncture foreshadows how Dillard will move later in the essay from factual descriptions to speculative observations (and finally to admonition). 9


Text Passage under Discussion 3 I have been reading about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance. 4 Twenty minutes from my house, through the woods by the quarry and across the highway, is Hollins Pond, a remarkable piece of shallowness, where I like to go at sunset and sit on a tree trunk. Hollins Pond is also called Murray's Pond; it covers two acres of bottomland near Tinker Creek with six inches of water and six thousand lily pads. In winter, brown-and-white steers stand in the middle of it, merely dampening their hooves; from the distant shore they look like miracle itself, complete with miracle's nonchalance. Now, in summer, the steers are gone. The water lilies have blossomed and spread to a green horizontal plane that is terra firma to plodding blackbirds, and tremulous ceiling to black leeches, crayfish, and carp.

(Q4) Why is this shift to first person important? What significance do these observations hold? The shift to first person happens in the middle of the paragraph, almost as if the author was stealthily slipping into the conversation. It becomes apparent with her continued presence, however, that she is here to stay, and her involvement with and ideas on the weasels, the environment, and eventually herself are central to her overall message. (Q5) What features of Hollins Pond does Dillard mention? This sets the stage for the intro. of the human and man-made in paragraphs 5 and 6. • “a remarkable piece of shallowness” “the water lilies” • “covers two acres… with six inches of water and six thousand lily pads” • “In winter, brown-and-white steers stand in the middle of it”

Indifference

Solid earth; Shaking

[Reading intervening paragraphs.] 7 The sun had just set. I was relaxed on the tree trunk, ensconced in the lap of lichen, watching the lily pads at my feet tremble and part dreamily over the thrusting path of a carp. A yellow bird appeared to my right and flew behind me. It caught my eye; I swiveled around—and the next instant, inexplicably, I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me.

Soft moss

(Q6) What evidence is there in paragraphs 5 and 6 regarding a human presence at the pond? • “a 55 mph highway at one end” “Under every bush...a beer can” • “motorcycle tracks… motorcycle path” “Two low barbed-wire fences” This question requires students to methodically cite evidence to completely answer the question. It also highlights the emphasis that Dillard is putting on this human involvement in the natural setting she just took the time to describe in paragraph 4. (Q7) Dillard is careful to place these opposing descriptions (of the natural and man made) side-by-side. How does this juxtaposition fit with or challenge what we have already read? Why might she have chosen this point in the text for these descriptions? These questions push students to see the connection between the natural and the man made. It also generates evidence for their HW journal entry and introduces them to these ideas in a class setting before they have to grapple with them on an individual level at home. (Homework) In your journal, write an entry describing how Dillard connects the constructed world with the world of nature in paragraphs 5 and 6 of her essay. Good answers will identify the way in which natures uses humans and humans use nature; excellent answers will also include how Dillard, at the end of paragraph 6, employs “manmade” adjectives like “upholstered and “plush” when describing the natural world. 10

Day Two: Instructional Exemplar for Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” Summary of Activities  Teacher introduces the day’s passage with minimal commentary and students read it independently  Teacher or skillful reader then reads the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text  Teacher asks the class to discuss a set of text-dependent questions and to complete another journal entry Text Passage under Discussion


8 Weasel! I'd never seen one wild before. He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizard's; he would have made a good arrowhead. There was just a dot of chin, maybe two brown hairs' worth, and then the pure white fur began that spread down his underside. He had two black eyes I didn't see, any more than you see a window.

1. Introduce the passage and students read independently. Other than giving the brief definitions offered to words students would likely not be able to define from context (underlined in the text), avoid giving any background context or instructional guidance at the outset of the lesson while students are reading the text silently. This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Dillard’s prose. It is critical to cultivating independence and creating a culture of close reading that students initially grapple with rich texts like Dillard’s novel without the aid of prefatory material, extensive notes, or even teacher explanations.

9 The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous shaggy wild rose bush four feet away. I was stunned into stillness twisted backward on the tree trunk. Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key.

2. Read the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text. Asking students to listen to “Living Like Weasels” exposes them a second time to the rhythms and meaning of Dillard’s language before they begin their own close reading of the passage. Speaking clearly and carefully will allow students to follow Dillard’s narrative, and reading out loud with students following along improves fluency while offering all students access to this complex text. Accurate and skillful modeling of the reading provides students who may be dysfluent with accurate pronunciations and syntactic patterns of English.

[Reading intervening paragraphs.] 13 What goes on in his brain the rest of the time? What does a weasel think about? He won't say. His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose leaf, and blown.

3. Ask the class to answer a small set of text-dependent guided questions and perform targeted tasks about the passage, with answers in the form of notes, annotations to the text, or more formal responses as appropriate. As students move through these questions and reread Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels”, be sure to check for and reinforce their understanding of academic vocabulary in the corresponding text (which will be boldfaced the first time it appears in the text). At times, the questions themselves may focus on academic vocabulary. 11

Text Passage under Discussion


12

8 Weasel! I'd never seen one wild before. He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, softfurred, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizard's; he would have made a good arrowhead. There was just a dot of chin, maybe two brown hairs' worth, and then the pure white fur began that spread down his underside. He had two black eyes I didn't see, any more than you see a window.

(Q8) What comparisons does Dillard make to describe the weasel in paragraph 8? What is the effect of using this many comparisons instead of one or two? • “thin as a curve” “a muscled ribbon” • “brown as fruitwood” “his face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizard’s” • “he would have made a good arrowhead” This analysis sets up a later question on similes and metaphors and helps to establish a tone of close reading for the day. Aside from this, it shows just how closely Dillard was tuned in to the weasel. She saw small subtleties, and she wants students to “see” them too, for these are the details that will eventually bring her message together. Choosing one comparison would not have accomplished this feat.

9 The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous shaggy wild rose bush four feet away. I was stunned into stillness twisted backward on the tree trunk. Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key.

(Q9) Describe what is meant by being “stunned into stillness” drawing on evidence from paragraph 10. A close analysis of this passage will examine how Dillard moves from literal to figurative descriptions of the impact of seeing the weasel and being “stunned into stillness”.

[Reading intervening paragraphs.] 13 What goes on in his brain the rest of the time? What does a weasel think about? He won't say. His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose leaf, and blown.

(Q10) When she sees the weasel Dillard says, “I've been in that weasel's brain for sixty seconds.” What did she find there? Students should notice that once the weasel disappears, Dillard’s mind is “suddenly full of data,” foreshadowing the fact that the brain of the weasel was a “blank tape” revealing only the “urgent current of instinct.” The discussion could go on to elaborate on Dillard’s reaction to the experience—her dismissal of psychological explanations in favor of describing it as “a sweet and shocking time”. Teachers could end the discussion by pointing out that while the weasel doesn’t think, it does keep a “journal”, segueing to that night’s homework assignment Homework: In your journal, write an entry describing the effect of seeing the weasel. What experience does Dillard compare it to, and how is this an apt comparison? Some evidence that students might cite includes the following: • “a clearing blow to the gut” “it emptied our lungs” “the world dismantled” • “a bright blow to the brain, or a sudden beating of brains” • “the charge and intimate grate of rubbed balloons” • “It felled the forest, moved the fields, and drained the pond” • “I retrieved my brain from the weasel's brain” • “my mind suddenly full of data and my spirit with pleadings” • “the weasel and I both plugged into another tape...Can I help it if it was a blank?”

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Day Three: Instructional Exemplar for Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” Summary of Activities  Teacher introduces the day’s passage with minimal commentary and students read it independently  Teacher or skillful reader then reads the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text  Teacher asks the class to discuss a set of text-dependent questions and to complete another journal entry Text Passage under Discussion 14 I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget about it. That is, I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular-shall I suck warm blood, hold my tail high, walk with my footprints precisely over the prints of my hands?-but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive. The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel's: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will.

Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students 1. Introduce the passage and students read independently. Other than giving the brief definitions offered to words students would likely not be able to define from context (underlined in the text), avoid giving any background context or instructional guidance at the outset of the lesson while students are reading the text silently. This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Dillard’s prose. It is critical to cultivating independence and creating a culture of close reading that students initially grapple with rich texts like Dillard’s novel without the aid of prefatory material, extensive notes, or even teacher explanations. 2. Read the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text. Asking students to listen to “Living Like Weasels” exposes them a second time to the rhythms and meaning of Dillard’s language before they begin their own close reading of the passage. Speaking clearly and carefully will allow students to follow Dillard’s narrative, and reading out loud with students following along improves fluency while offering all students access to this complex text. Accurate and skillful modeling of the reading provides students who may be dysfluent with accurate pronunciations and syntactic patterns of English.

[Read intervening paragraphs.] 17 I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you're going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles.

3. Ask the class to answer a small set of text-dependent guided questions and perform targeted tasks about the passage, with answers in the form of notes, annotations to the text, or more formal responses as appropriate. As students move through these questions and reread Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels”, be sure to check for and reinforce their understanding of academic vocabulary in the corresponding text (which will be boldfaced the first time it appears in the text). At times, the questions themselves may focus on academic vocabulary.

14


Text Passage under Discussion 14 I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget about it. That is, I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular--shall I suck warm blood, hold my tail high, walk with my footprints precisely over the prints of my hands?--but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive. The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel's: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will. [Read intervening paragraphs.] 17 I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you're going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles.

(Q11) What was the purpose of Dillard coming to Hollins Pond? • “to forget… how to live” “learn something of mindlessness” • “I would like to live as I should” “the purity of living in the physical sense” • “open to time and death painlessly” “the dignity of living without bias or motive” • “noticing everything, remembering nothing” • “choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will”

Without dignity

(Q12) Find evidence for what Dillard means by “living in necessity” in paragraph 14, and put her ideas into your own words in a brief two or three sentence paraphrase • “to forget...how to live” “the purity of living in the physical sense” • “mindlessness” “the dignity of living without bias or motive” Insisting that students paraphrase Dillard at this point will solidify their understanding of Dillard’s message, as well as test their ability to communicate their understanding fluently in writing. Teachers should circulate and perform “over the shoulder” conferences with students to check comprehension and offer commentary that could lead to on-the-spot revision of their “translation” of Dillard’s ideas. (Q13) In paragraph 15, Dillard imagines going “out of your ever-loving mind and back to your careless senses.” What does she mean by “careless” in that sentence, and how is that reflected in the rest of the paragraph? On a literal level, Dillard means that living by one’s senses is to set aside human cares and concerns and merely live in the moment. On a figurative level, she seems to imply that one can see more by caring less. Advanced students would bring in evidence from before the quote, e.g. “I should have gone for the throat...I should have lunged” and “mute and uncomprehending.” (Q14) Dillard urges her readers to “stalk your calling” by “plug[ging] into” your purpose—yet she describes this process as “yielding, not fighting.” What message is she trying to convey with these words? By returning to the opening symbol of the weasel dangling from the eagle’s neck, Dillard illustrates the sort of tenacity she’s asking of her readers in pursuing their own purpose. Homework: Dillard revisits the opening image of a weasel dangling from the neck of an eagle in the final paragraph of her essay, but this time substituting the reader. In your journal, describe how that image contributes to your understanding of her overall message. 15

Day Four: Instructional Exemplar for Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” Summary of Activities  Teacher asks the class to discuss a set of text-dependent questions and to complete their final journal entry  Teacher leads a discussion on students’ journal entries Text Passage under Discussion 1 A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label.

[Read intervening paragraphs.] 17 I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you're going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles.

Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students (Q15) At what points in the text does Dillard use similes and metaphors to describe the weasel? Why does she choose figurative language to do this? • “like a stubborn label“ “a fur pendant” “thin as a curve” “a muscled ribbon” • “brown as fruitwood” “his face...small and pointed as a lizard’s” • “he would have made a good arrowhead” Dillard’s point in describing the weasel through metaphors is two fold; first, she cannot see what it is like to be a weasel, as there is no conscious mind there comparable to a humans; second, she wants to describe the weasel vividly in order to make her ultimate comparison of what it would be like to be a person living like a weasel. (Q16) Dillard describes things in antithetical terms, such as “a remarkable piece of shallowness.” How do phrases like this help advance her observations regarding what it is like to live like a weasel? • “two lovers, or deadly enemies” “very calmly go wild” • “the perfect freedom of single necessity” Examining how Dillard writes also serves the function of exploring the central paradox of the essay—choosing a life of necessity, or in Dillard’s particular case, reflectively writing about being inspired by the unreflective life of a weasel living by its instincts. (Q17) Dillard also employs reflexive structures such as, “I startled a weasel who startled me.” Identify an additional instance of this. What is the purpose of these sentences? • “I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me” (paragraph 7) These instances are a great way of introducing reflexive self-consciousness into the discussion. This is an advanced concept, so if students struggle, you may have to help them with a basic understanding: Seeing the weasel helps Dillard become more aware of her own presence and helps her to “see” herself in a new, and more transparent manner. It returns her to her own sense of self and provides a space for reflection - It “startles” her very self.

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Text Passage under Discussion


1 A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label.

(Q18) Paragraphs 12 and 13 contain several questions instead of statements. What is the effect of using questions rather than declarations at this point in the essay? Students should recognize that the questions are a way to trail off or to make things seem inconclusive. In this way, Dillard is pushing readers to consider these questions on their own - to ponder them and to come to some of their own conclusions - much like she wants her readers to do with their own lives.

[Read intervening paragraphs.]

(In-class journal entry) Choose one sentence from the essay and explore how the author develops her ideas regarding the topic both via the content of her essay and its composition. If students struggle with locating a sentence, here are some examples: • “The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons” • “I remember muteness as a prolonged and giddy fast, where every moment is a feat of utterance received” • “If you and I looked at each other that way, our skulls would split and drop to our shoulders. But we don't. We keep our skulls. So.”

17 I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you're going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles.

(Q19) Dillard provides a plot summary early and efficiently in paragraph 3 (“I have been reading about...”) and returns to the visions of the weasel in paragraph 7. This helps to effectively bracket the description of Hillis Pond with mention of looking at the weasel. Why does she give readers this “bare bones” summation and why does she do so at this point in the text? In other words, what is the effect of bracketing the discussion of Hollis Pond with mention of the weasel?

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Writing Assessment Guidance for Teachers and Students

Students should write an adequately planned and well-constructed informative essay regarding the meaning of the essay’s title - “Living Like Weasels”. Why has the author chosen this title? Why is it significance? Students should include at least three pieces of evidence from the text to support their thoughts. Strong essays should explore the desire for humans to live (like weasels) by instinct and necessity. Students may also choose to describe the choice humans have to “latch on” to the life they choose and how Dillard symbolically represents that choice. Whatever avenue students choose, they must cite three pieces of textual evidence and clearly explain the connection between their evidence and how this supports their ideas on the essay’s title. If teachers assign this essay for homework, they could have a writing workshop the following day, where students provide feedback to their classmates regarding their essay. Following this, students may be given the opportunity to revisit their essay for homework. Teachers could also assign the prompt as an in-class essay, but also use the following day for peer-to-peer feedback.

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Appendix A: Extension Readings “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full-blown roses stained and lost through age. He was speckled and barnacles, fine rosettes of lime, and infested with tiny white sea-lice, and underneath two or three rags of green weed hung down. While his gills were breathing in the terrible oxygen --the frightening gills, fresh and crisp with blood, that can cut so badly--

I thought of the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers, the big bones and the little bones, the dramatic reds and blacks of his shiny entrails, and the pink swim-bladder like a big peony. I looked into his eyes which were far larger than mine but shallower, and yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses of old scratched isinglass. They shifted a little, but not to return my stare. --It was more like the tipping of an object toward the light. I admired his sullen face, the mechanism of his jaw, and then I saw that from his lower lip --if you could call it a lip grim, wet, and weaponlike, hung five old pieces of fish-line, or four and a wire leader

with the swivel still attached, with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line, frayed at the end where he broke it, two heavier lines, and a fine black thread still crimped from the strain and snap when it broke and he got away. Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw. I stared and stared and victory filled up the little rented boat, from the pool of bilge where oil had spread a rainbow around the rusted engine to the bailer rusted orange, the sun-cracked thwarts, the oarlocks on their strings, the gunnels--until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go.

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“What is it like to be a bat?” by Thomas Nagel Conscious experience is a widespread phenomenon. It occurs at many levels of animal life… the fact that an organism has conscious experience at all means, basically, that there is something it is like to be that organism… [A]nyone who has spent some time in an enclosed space with an excited bat knows what it is to encounter a fundamentally alien form of life… [they] present a range of activity and a sensory apparatus so different from ours that the problem I want to pose is exceptionally vivid (though it certainly could be raised with other species). Now we know that most bats (the microchiroptera, to be precise) perceive the external world primarily by sonar, or echolocation, detecting the reflections, from objects within range, of their own rapid, subtly modulated, high-frequency shrieks. Their brains are designed to correlate the outgoing impulses with the subsequent echoes, and the information thus acquired enables bats to make precise discriminations of distance, size, shape, motion, and texture comparable to those we make by vision. But bat sonar, though clearly a form of perception, is not similar in its operation to any sense that we possess, and there is no reason to suppose that it is subjectively like anything we can experience or imagine. This appears to create difficulties for the notion of what it is like to be a bat. We must consider whether any method will permit us to extrapolate to the inner life of the bat from our own case… Our own experience provides the basic material for our imagination, whose range is therefore limited. It will not help to try to imagine that one has webbing on one's arms, which enables one to fly around at dusk and dawn catching insects in one's mouth; that one has very poor vision, and perceives the surrounding world by a system of reflected high-frequency sound signals; and that one spends the day hanging upside down by one's feet in an attic. In so far as I can imagine this (which is not very far), it tells me only what it would be like for me to behave as a bat behaves. But that is not the question. I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat. Yet if I try to imagine this, I am restricted to the resources of my own mind, and those resources are inadequate to the task. I cannot perform it either by imagining additions to my present experience, or by imagining segments gradually subtracted from it, or by imagining some combination of additions, subtractions, and modifications (The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), 436, 438-9)

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COLCHESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS Sixth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric 6th Reading Rubric

Level 1Level 2Level 3Developing Effective Novice Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. R. Standard 6.1

Level 4 Highly Effective

SCORE:

Cites several references to the text, demonstrating an analytical reading of the source material. Elaborates on the connection between the evidence cited and claim(s) in the text, not only discussing the relevance of the evidence, but its effect as well.

Development: Reading/Research

Attempts to refer to source material, but does not provide specific text-based examples. Or Demonstrates misunderstanding of the details or ideas in the text.

Across responses to the text, provides at least one direct text reference that is relevant to the position or claim that the student is discussing. Demonstrates a mostly accurate analysis of how details in the text(s) support a claim in the text.

Cites text accurately to demonstrate an analytic reading of the source material. Explains how particular passages from the reading support a claim or claims in the text, demonstrating literal and inferential thinking.

Writing Rubric Scoring Guide (use rubric below to assess an argument essay): Circle the descriptor in each row that best describes the student’s work in this category. If the work falls between two descriptors, check a mid-point box to indicate this. Use the scoring box to the right of the table to record the score for each category. For the category “Development: Elaboration,” double the points and record in the box to the right, as indicated by the “x 2.” This is because elaboration counts more towards the overall success of the piece than other individual categories.

[from the Columbia Teachers College Reading and Writing Project]

Structure: Transitions

Structure: Creates an organizational structure

Structure: Introduces topic; Provides a concluding statement

Position

6th Writing Level 11.5 Level 2Rubric Novice Developing W. Standard 6.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Attempts to make a claim, but mostly introduces the topic or does not take a position.

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5

Level 4 Highly Effective Score:

Establishes a position on the topic and mostly maintains it throughout the essay, with some inconsistencies.

Establishes and maintains a position while indicating an understanding of the complexity of the topic. This may be through mentioning a possible counterargument or through making a nuanced claim.

Takes a nuanced position on a topic and acknowledges possible counter-arguments.

Begins writing without introducing the argument.

Provides a brief introduction that connects to the topic and does not conflict with the writer’s stated position.

Orients the reader to what’s most important in the argument and offers some context.

Offers an angled introduction to the topic: crafts a lead that sets the reader up to side with the writer’s position.

Concluding section is missing or offers tangential or confusing information or reflections.

Concludes the essay with a section that connects to the rest of the argument.

There is little evidence of an organizing structure to the whole of the argument.

Orders paragraphs in a structure that demonstrates some planning.

Organizes evidence to support each reason, making it clear which evidence supports which reasons.

The presentation of evidence is confusing due to a lack of structure within sections.

Within supporting paragraphs or sections, evidence is somewhat organized.

Within supporting paragraphs or sections, organizes evidence in an order that reads well and makes sense.

Provides few transitional words or phrases: it is difficult to track the writer’s argument.

Uses some words and phrases to connect different parts of the piece together.

Uses a variety of transitional phrases to help the reader understand the flow of the argument and the connection between evidence, reasons, and the writer’s position.

Provides a conclusion that strengthens or adds to the whole of the argument through new phrasing or insights.

Demonstrates an understanding that this position is one of many possible positions on this topic.

In a concluding statement, clarifies why the writer’s position is stronger than that of a counterargument. Organizes evidence in sections to clarify which evidence supports the writer’s position, and which the counter-argument. Organizes supporting evidence purposefully.

Uses a variety of transitional phrases to help the reader understand the writer’s position versus the counter-argument(s).

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Sixth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric

Language Conventions

Development: Elaboration

6th Writing Level 11.5 Level 2Rubric Novice Developing W. Standard 6.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Includes very little evidence; or evidence is inaccurate or offtopic.

Attempts to use standard English conventions, but errors in usage get in the way of the reader’s understanding. Quotes from sources lack conventional punctuation.

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5


Includes some evidence from provided sources to support reasons.

Includes a variety of evidence from reliable sources to support each reason.

Includes mostly information from authoritative sources rather than evidence based on personal experience.

Discusses/explains some evidence.

Discusses/explains evidence and how it supports the claim.

Approximates correct punctuation when quoting from sources.

Uses correct punctuation when quoting from sources.

Uses accurate citation.

Writer attempts a formal style, but falls into more conversational language at times.

The writer’s tone mostly demonstrates a serious attention to the topic.

The writer’s tone mostly demonstrates an academic study of the topic.

x 2:

Explains details and examples and analyzes how these support the position the writer has taken up; or in the case of counter-argument, why this evidence, or its source, is not convincing.


R. Standard 6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Attempts to refer to source material; demonstrates misunderstanding of the source material or consistently inappropriate placement of that material within the student’s argument.

Provides evidence from source(s), along with a mostly accurate account of how the evidence supports the student’s position on the topic. Some evidence unintentionally supports a counterclaim.

Uses accurate citations to demonstrate an analytic reading of the source material, helping the reader see how particular passages from the reading support (or counter) the student’s position on the topic.

TCRWP – Draft – October 26, 2012

Cites several pieces of textual evidence, demonstrating an analytical reading of the source material. Clarifies which pieces of evidence from multiple sources support and counter the student’s position.

Total:

3

&2/&+(67(538%/,&6&+22/6 Seventh Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric

7th Reading Rubric

Level 1Novice

1.5

Level 2Developing

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5


R. Standard 7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Provides little or no specific textual evidence to support analysis of the text. Or Demonstrates misunderstanding of the details or ideas in the text.

Across responses to the text, provides some direct text references that are relevant to the position or claim that the student is discussing. Demonstrates a mostly accurate analysis of how details in the text(s) support a claim in the text.

Across responses, cites many examples of text evidence to demonstrate an analytic reading of the source material.

Cites relevant pieces of textual evidence, demonstrating a selective and critical reading of the source material.

Across responses, demonstrates a literal and inferential understanding of how the text evidence cited supports a position in the text.

Explains why the selected evidence strongly supports a claim in the text. Cites a combination of explicit and implicit evidence.

Writing Rubric Scoring Guide (use rubric below to assess Task 3 – argument essay):  Circle the descriptor in each row that best describes the student’s work in this category. If the work falls between two descriptors, check a mid-point box to indicate this. Use the scoring box to the right of the table to record the score for each category.  For the category “Development: Elaboration,” double the points and record in the box to the right, as indicated by the “x 2.” This is because elaboration counts more towards the overall success of the piece than other individual categories. Finding an overall Reading/Writing Scaled Score:  Add the total points from the reading and writing rubrics to come up with a raw score. Use the following table to calculate a scaled score: Total Points 1-9 9.5-13.5 14-18 18.5-22.5 23-27 27.5-31.5 32-36  

Scaled Score 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

To look closely at growth between pre- and post-assessments, keep this rubric with the circled descriptors. You will want to track growth across sub-sections, not just in the scaled score. 1 Taken from the Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project – Columbia University

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Seventh Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric

7th Writing Rubric

Level 1Novice

1.5

Level 2Developing

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5





Position

W. Standard 7.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Attempts to take a position, but either confuses the position with a counter-argument or confuses the position across the essay.

Attempts to introduce the topic, but does so minimally or in a confusing way. Concluding statement is minimal and/or conflicts with the central position of the essay.

Organizes the whole of the essay, as well as each section, in a confusing or seemingly random way.

Establishes a position that is mostly maintained across the essay. Attempts to acknowledge counterargument, in a way that sometimes takes away from the clarity of the essay’s central position. Orients the reader to the topic and position of the essay. Provides a conclusion that strengthens or adds to the whole of the argument.

Orders paragraphs in a structure that demonstrates some planning, including planning of how and where to introduce a counterargument. Internal organization within paragraphs makes sense.

Uses some words and phrases to connect different parts of the piece together. These are mostly lower-level connectors, such as “and,” “also,” “because” etc.

Uses a variety of transitional phrases to help the reader understand the flow of the argument and the connection between evidence, reasons, and the writer’s position.

Score: Takes a clear position on a topic and acknowledges possible counter-arguments. Demonstrates an understanding that this position is one of many possible positions on this topic. Offers an angled introduction to the topic: crafts a lead that sets the reader up to side with the writer’s position. In a concluding statement, clarifies why the writer’s position is stronger than that of a counterargument.

Organizes evidence in sections to clarify which evidence supports the writer’s position, and which the counter-argument. Organizes supporting evidence purposefully. Uses a variety of transitional phrases to help the reader understand the writer’s position versus the counter-argument(s).

Takes a strong position on a topic and makes clear how this position differs from opposing or alternate points of view on the topic. Demonstrates an understanding that the stronger position is based on more authoritative evidence. Offers a strategic but fair introduction to the topic: provides an overview of possible stances, but clearly takes a position within that debate. In a concluding statement, reviews the larger argument, including opposing views, but highlights evidence that supports the writer’s position. Organizes the essay to clearly demonstrate the strength of the writer’s position; orders the supporting paragraphs and related evidence in such a way that the counter-argument does not distract. Makes clear transitions between lines of thinking – position and counter-argument; and between pieces of evidence and the analysis of that evidence.

2

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Seventh Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric 7th Writing Rubric

Level 1Novice

1.5

Level 2Developing

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5




W. Standard 7.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Includes little evidence. (facts, examples, quotations, microstories, information). Discusses/explains some evidence, but elaboration is minimal or confusing.

Includes more than one piece of evidence to support each reason. Discusses/explains evidence and how it supports the claim. Most elaboration serves to clarify the student’s position or clearly introduce a counter-argument. Some inconsistencies remain.

Score:

Includes mostly information from authoritative sources rather than evidence based on personal experience. Explains details and examples and analyzes how these support the position the writer has taken up; or in the case of counterargument, why this evidence, or its source, is not convincing.

Includes valid and diverse sources and attempts to analyze the relevance and validity of these sources, including how they persuade their audience.

x 2:

Includes evidence supporting the writer’s and other positions; writes to explain the relative strengths and weaknesses of this evidence.

Attempts to use standard English conventions, but errors in usage get in the way of the reader’s understanding.

Uses mostly correct punctuation when quoting from sources.

Cites accurately, including a correct use of punctuation when quoting from sources.

Uses mostly accurate citation, and uses punctuation to clarify and emphasize quotations and to enhance meaning.

Quotes from sources lack conventional punctuation.

The writer’s tone mostly demonstrates a serious attention to the topic.

The writer’s tone mostly demonstrates an academic study of the topic.

The writer maintains an academic tone.


R. Standard 7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Provides little evidence from source(s). Explanation of evidence is confusing, or evidence unintentionally supports a counterclaim with no clarification.

Uses mostly accurate citations to support a position and to introduce the counter-argument. Explanatory writing makes sense and helps to connect the evidence to the student’s position or to the counter-argument. There is some inconsistency in the use of source material.

Cites several pieces of textual evidence, demonstrating an analytical reading of the source material.

Mostly cites strong pieces of textual evidence, demonstrating a selective and critical reading of the source material.

Clarifies which pieces of evidence from multiple sources support and counter the student’s position.

Explains why the selected evidence strongly supports the writer’s chosen position; and why alternate evidence is not convincing.

Total:

3

COLCHESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS Eighth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric .

8th Reading Level 11.5 Level 22.5 Level 3Rubric Novice Developing Effective R. Standard 8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.


Attempts to refer to source material; demonstrates misunderstanding of the source material or questions.

Refers to textual evidence from source(s), demonstrating mostly accurate comprehension of the source material.

Cites relevant pieces of textual evidence, demonstrating a selective and critical reading of the source material.

Cites the strongest textual evidence from the source material, demonstrating selective and critical reading.

Or provides very little or no text evidence across all responses.

Most of the evidence is clearly relevant to the prompt.

Explains why the selected evidence strongly supports a claim in the text.

Offers somewhat elaborated analysis of explicit and implicit evidence from the text.

Cites a combination of explicit and implicit evidence.

Demonstrates a critical lens, analyzing not only the evidence itself, but also how that evidence is presented and the effect of that authorial choice.

Provides some analysis of how the evidence supports an idea in the text.

8th Writing Rubric

3.5

Level 1Novice

1.5

Level 2Developing

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5


Position

W. Standard 8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Attempts to take a position on a topic; the position is either unclear or disconnected from the topic.

Takes a position on a topic that may waiver at times, especially when presenting possible counterclaims.

Does not refer to alternate or opposing claims.

Mentions a possible alternate position or counter-claim.

Takes a clear position on a topic. Discusses counter-claim(s), demonstrating to the reader that the chosen position is based on more authoritative evidence than alternate positions.

Establishes a credible and generally convincing position on a topic. Acknowledges counter-claim(s) and associated evidence, while making clear the relative strength of the stated position.

1 Taken from the Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project, Columbia University

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Eighth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric




8th Writing Level 11.5 Level 2Rubric Novice Developing W. Standard 8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

2.5

Level 3Effective

Jumps directly into making a claim or discussing evidence without an introduction to the topic.

Introduces the topic: the introduction may be too brief or distract from the central claim of the rest of the piece.

Offers a thoughtful introduction to the topic: provides an overview, but also clearly sets up the writer’s stated position.

Provides a conclusion that does not connect to the central claim or ends the piece without a concluding section.

In a concluding statement, confirms the writer’s chosen position on the topic.

In a concluding statement, reviews the larger argument, including opposing views, but highlights evidence that supports the writer’s position.

Shows little overall organization or planning of the flow of the argument.

Creates an organizing structure, but that structure breaks down at times.

Organizes the essay to clearly demonstrate the strength of the writer’s position.

The organization of reasons and evidence lacks consistency or purpose.

Orders the supporting paragraphs and related evidence so that the counter-argument does not distract.

Lacks transitional phrases or uses only lowest level transitions such as “also”.

Uses some transitional phrases to help the reader understand the writer’s position versus the counter-argument(s).

Makes clear transitions between lines of thinking – position and counter-argument; and between pieces of evidence and the analysis of that evidence.


3.5


Provides an accurate and insightful introduction to the topic, offering necessary context for the reader along with angled evidence pointing to a position. In a concluding statement, demonstrates an understanding of the heart of the argument: presents the reader with insight into why the position on this topic matters. There is purposeful organization within each part of the essay, including the order of lines of thinking (including citations and acknowledgement of other views), and the placement of all evidence.

Uses transitions which make clear the relationship of cited sources to each other and to the writer’s own claim. Uses phrases such as in accordance with, in conjunction with, similar to, by contrast.

2

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Eighth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric 8th Writing Rubric

Level 1Novice

1.5

Level 2Developing

2.5

Level 3Effective

3.5




W. Standard 8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Includes almost no evidence or only includes evidence based on personal experience or unverified sources.

Does not make connections from evidence to central claim, or attempts connections that do not make sense.

Attempts to use standard English conventions, but errors in usage get in the way of the reader’s understanding. Does not cite sources. Writes in an informal tone throughout.

Includes mostly information from authoritative sources rather than evidence based on personal experience.

Includes valid and diverse sources and attempts to analyze the relevance and validity of these sources, including how they persuade their audience.

Explains some details and examples and offers some analysis of their support for the position the writer has taken up; or in the case of counter-argument, why this evidence, or its source, is not convincing.

Includes evidence supporting the writer’s and other positions; writes to explain the relative strengths and weaknesses of this evidence.

Demonstrates some command of standard English conventions, making some errors. Inconsistently cites sources.

Uses mostly accurate citation, and uses punctuation to clarify and emphasize quotations and to enhance meaning.

The writer’s tone is mostly formal.

The writer maintains an academic tone.

Provides sufficient sources and evidence to fully support the stated position. Analyzes the relevance and validity of sources for and against the stated position.

Cites sources using appropriate format with only minor errors. Demonstrates a command of standard English conventions and cohesion, with few errors. Uses language and tone appropriate to the audience and purpose.


R. Standard 8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Attempts to refer to source material; demonstrates misunderstanding of the source material or consistently inappropriate placement of that material within the writer’s argument.

Refers to textual evidence from source(s), demonstrating mostly accurate comprehension of the source material. Some evidence seems out of place within the writer’s argument or is not explained.

Mostly cites strong pieces of textual evidence, demonstrating a selective and critical reading of the source material. Explains why the selected evidence strongly supports the writer’s chosen position; and why alternate evidence is not convincing.


Cites the strongest textual evidence from the source material, demonstrating selective and critical reading. Offers somewhat elaborated analysis of explicit and implicit messages from the source texts as a support for the argument.

3

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Eighth Grade Informational Reading/Argument Writing Performance Assessment Rubric Writing Rubric Scoring Guide – for scoring Task 3:  Circle the descriptor in each row that best describes the student’s work in this category. If the work falls between two descriptors, check a mid-point box to indicate this. Use the scoring box to the right of the table to record the score for each category.  For the category “Development: Elaboration,” double the points and record in the box to the right, as indicated by the “x 2.” This is because elaboration counts more towards the overall success of the piece than other individual categories. Finding an overall Reading/Writing Scaled Score:  Add the total points from the reading and writing rubrics to come up with a raw score. Use the following table to calculate a scaled score: Total Points 1-9 9.5-13.5 14-18 18.5-22.5 23-27 27.5-31.5 32-36  

Scaled Score 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

To look closely at growth between pre- and post-assessments, keep this rubric with the circled descriptors. You will want to track growth across sub-sections, not just in the scaled score.


4

Class Discussion Rubric Ready to Roll (3)

On Its Way (2)

Not Ready For Prime Time (1)

Common Core: Speaking and Listening1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Preparation

Advances The Conversation

Critical Questioning Skills

Have clearly read the text in preparation for the discussion, as evidenced by the ability to make valid points and utilize specific textual examples for support

Student makes general references to the plot; however, comments lack specific textual details and examples OR Student relies on details and evidence provided by previous speakers.

- Actively incorporate others into the discussion AND - Clarifies, verifies, or challenges ideas, conclusions, etc.

- Actively incorporate others into the discussion OR - Clarifies, verifies, or challenges ideas, conclusions, etc.

Poses meaningful questions

Poses general/factual/ superficial/literal questions

Vague or generalized references to the text. OR Student chooses not to participate

Fails to incorporate the ideas of others OR Dominates the discussion OR Student chooses not to participate Poses irrelevant or distracting questions OR Student chooses not to participate

BA School Wide Rubric 7.A Achievement

Models active learning, curiosity, and openmindedness in all venues.

Points: _____ x 5= ______ /90 100

Consistently engaged in the classroom and constructively contributes to learning.

+

Actively engaged in learning and participates constructively .

Inconsistently participates in learning in the classroom.

Turned in copy of piece: Yes (10) No (0) =

_______ /

Fails to appropriately participate or negatively impacts the learning in the classroom.

Research Presentation Rubric Ready to Roll (3)

On Its Way (2)


Common Core: Speaking and Listening2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.

Preparation

Advances The Conversation

Critical Questioning Skills

Have clearly read the text in preparation for the discussion, as evidenced by the ability to make valid points and utilize specific textual examples for support

Student makes general references to the plot; however, comments lack specific textual details and examples OR Student relies on details and evidence provided by previous speakers.

- Actively incorporate others into the discussion AND - Clarifies, verifies, or challenges ideas, conclusions, etc.

- Actively incorporate others into the discussion OR - Clarifies, verifies, or challenges ideas, conclusions, etc.

Poses meaningful questions

Poses general/factual/ superficial/literal questions

Vague or generalized references to the text. OR Student chooses not to participate

Fails to incorporate the ideas of others OR Dominates the discussion OR Student chooses not to participate Poses irrelevant or distracting questions OR Student chooses not to participate

BA School Wide Rubric 7.A Achievement

Models active learning, curiosity, and openmindedness in all venues.

Points: _____ x 5= ______ /90 100

Consistently engaged in the classroom and constructively contributes to learning.

+

Actively engaged in learning and participates constructively .

Inconsistently participates in learning in the classroom.

Turned in copy of piece: Yes (10) No (0) =

_______ /

Fails to appropriately participate or negatively impacts the learning in the classroom.

Personal Narrative Rubric Ready to Roll (3)

On Its Way (2)


Common Core: Writing-

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Engaging the Reader

Use of Narrative Techniques

Organization

Style

Students do two of the following three things: Establishes a clear, consistent point of view, a defined conflict, and an identifiable, complete setting.

Student does one or none of the following: Establishes a clear, consistent point of view, a defined conflict, and an identifiable, complete setting.

- Uses dialogue and pacing appropriately and consistently AND - Uses reflection to achieve a purpose

- Dialogue and pacing is inconsistent and sometimes inappropriate Or - Reflection is shallow and summative

- Dialogue and pacing is inconsistent and sometimes inappropriate AND - Reflection is shallow and summative or is nonexistent

-Events are ordered in a logical, sequential manner AND -Key events have clear transitions

- Events are overall, logically organized BUT may contain distracting segues or details OR - Poor transitions between key events.

- Events are overall, logically organized BUT may contain distracting segues or details AND - Poor transitions between key events.

- Writing includes sensory imagery, details and precise wording to convey a vivid picture.

- Writing lacks sensory imagery OR details OR precise wording.

- Writing lacks sensory imagery, details, and precise wording.

Establishes a clear, consistent point of view, a defined conflict, and an identifiable, complete setting.

MIDDLE SCHOOL CORE NOVELS GRADE 6 Freak the Mighty Where the Red Fern Grows

GRADE 7 The Schwa Was Here Michael Vey Revealers Woodsrunner GRADE 8 Uprising Z for Zachariah Dovey Coe Thief of Always True Shoes

Note: Each grade will read many other choices in small groups based on interest, reading level, and content area connections. Examples might include: GRADE 6 Dandelion Wine GRADE 7 Victory or Death Hit and Run Face on the Milk Carton Theodore Boone GRADE 8 Holocaust Novels – Night, Diary of Anne Frank

Grade Grade 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 Grade 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Lexile

840 * 950 * 600 990 1200 920 1070 890 830 670 630 * 800 1490 * 540 680 * 1000 940 * 1080 1010 * 1080 1010 1000

1110 1010 1010 890 * 1040 990 1270 * * 770 *

850

820

Book Title

Type

Author

Grade 9 A Hole in My Life A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Night to Remember Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Beowulf Great Expectations Grendel I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings It’s Not About the Bike Life of Pi Monster Of Mice and Men Redwall Romeo & Juliet Sirena Speak The Hobbit The Odyssey The Old Man and the Sea The Once and Future King The Pearl The Power of One Travels with Charley Warriors Don't Cry

NF D NF F F F F AB NF F F F F D F F F EP F F F F F M

Gantos, Jack Shakespeare, William Lord, Walter Alexie, Sherman Heaney, Seanus Dickens, Charles Gardner, John Angelou, Maya Armstrong, Lance Martel, Yann Myers, Walter Dean Steinbeck, John Jacques, Brian Shakespeare, William Napoli, Donna Jo Anderson, Laurie Tolkein, J.R.R. Homer Hemingway, Ernest White, T.H. Steinbeck, John Courtenay, Bryce Steinbeck, John Beals, Melba Patillo

Grade 10 A Long Day’s Journey into Night A Raisin in the Sun A Separate Peace Athletic Shorts Athletic Shorts Brave New World Fahrenheit 451 Farewell to Manzanar Franny and Zooey Godot (Beckett) Into The Wild Julius Caesar Lord of the Flies My Antonia Nine Stories Othello Our Town Slaughterhouse Five Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes The Bumblebee Flies Away The Chocolate War

D D F F F F F NF F D NF D F F F D D F F F F

O'Neill, Eugene Hansberry, Lorraine Knowles, John Crutcher, Chris Crutcher, Chris Huxley, Aldous Bradbury, Ray Houston, Jeanne Salinger, J.D. Beckett, Samuel Krakauer, Jon Shakespeare, William Golding, William Cather, Willa Salinger, J.D. Shakespeare, William Wilder, Thornton Vonnegut, Kurt Crutcher, Chris Cormier, Robert Cormier, Robert

10 10 10 10 10 Grade 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 Grade 12 12 12 12 12

760 680 * 870 * *

1090 AP 730 740 1110 1170 AP 1140 990 950 790 * 890 1200

1260 920 1050 810 730 850 1320 1350 * 700 1100 970 * 1040

1070 * 1090 1340 1080

870 910

The Contender The Grapes of Wrath The Tempest To Kill a Mockingbird Twelfth Night Grade 11 1984 A Farewell to Arms A Streetcar Named Desire After the First Death All My Sons Angela’s Ashes Animal Farm Bell Jar Beowulf Black Boy Catcher in the Rye Death of a Saleman Different Seasons Ethan Frome Everything that Rises Must Converge Fences Friday Night Lights Grendel Heart of Darkness Huck Finn In Country Inherit the Wind Into Thin Air Macbeth Native Son Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Rats Saw God The Crucible The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon The Glass Castle The Glass Menagerie The Great Gatsby The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat The Piano Lesson The Taming of the Shrew Their Eyes Are Watching God Zoo Story/ The American Dream Grade 12 A Doll’s House A House on Mango Street A Midnight Clear Alchemist, The

F F D F D

Lipstyle, Robert Steinbeck, John Shakespeare, William Lee, Nelle H Shakespeare, William

F F D F D M F F F AB F D F F F D NF F F F F D NF D F D NF F D F M D F F D D F D

Orwell, George Hemingway, Ernest Williams, Tennessee Cormier, Robert Miller, Arthur McCourt, Frank Ovwell, George Plath, Sylvia unknown Wright, Richard Salinger, J.D. Miller, Arthur King, Stephen Wharton, Edith O'Connor, Flannery Wilson, August Bissinger, H.G. Gardner, John Conrad, Joesph Twain, Mark Mason, Bobbie Ann Lawrence, Jerome Krakauer, Jon Shakespeare, William Wright, Richard Lawrence, Jerome Dillard, Annie Thomas, Rob Miller, Arthur King, Stephen Walls, Jeannette Williams, Tennessee Fitzgerald, F. Scott Sacks, Oliver Wilson, August Shakespeare, William Hurston, Zora Albee, Edward

D F F F

Ibsen, Henrik Cisneros, Sandra Wharton, William Coelho, Paulo

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

1090 670 710 900 1320

1140

620 1090 * 1050 1470 * 1210 980 AP 840 970

* 570 940 * 1190 * 680 1080 1160

670 810 600 1320 1060 1140

1340 1350 820

Antigone At Risk Awakening, The Bean Trees Broken Cord Candide Canterbury Tales Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Catch 22 Essential Writing of Emerson FarNorth Going After Cacciato Growing Up Hamlet Having Our Say Heart of Darkness Henry IV: Part 1 In the Heart of the Sea Invisible Man Isaac’s Storm Jane Eyre Johnny Got His Gun Little Women Master Harold and the Boys Maus I & II Murder in the Cathedral Night Oedipus Oleana Pride and Prejudice Richard III Rumblefish Snow Falling on Cedars Tess of the D’Ubervilles The Art of Poetics The Bear The Cocktail Party The Color Purple The Good War The Kitchen God’s Wife The Man Who Was Poe The Metamorphisis The Natural The Perfect Storm The Playboy of the Western World The Promise The Return of the Native The Scarlet Letter The Secret Sharer The Snows of Kilimanjaro

D F F F

Sophocles Rimington, Stella Chopin, Kate Kingsolver, Barbara Dorris, Michael voltarie F Chaucer, Geoffrey D Williams, Tennessee F Heller, Joseph E Emerson, Ralph F Hobbs, Will F O'Brien, Tim AB Baker, Russell D Shakespeare, William Delaney, Sharah & Elizabeth F Conard, Joesph D Shakespeare, William NF Philbrick, Nathaniel F Ellison, Ralph NF Larson, Erik F Bronte, Charlotte F Trumbo, Dalton F Alcott D Fugard, Athol GN Spiegelman, Art Eliot, T.S. NF Wiesel, Elie D Sophocles P Mamet, David F Austen, Jane D Shakespeare, William F Hinton, S.E. F Guterson, David F Hardy, Thomas AN Williams, Anne F Faulkner, William Eliot, T.S. F Walker, Alice B Terkel, Studs F Tan, Amy F Avi F Kafka F Malamud, Bernard CNF Junger, Sebastian D Synge, J.M. F Potok, Chaim F Hardy, Thomas F Hawthorne, Nathaniel F Conard, Joesph F Hemingway, Ernest

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

880 610 1180 1340 * 880 890 780

The Stranger The Street The Sun Also Rises The Sweet Hereafter The Taming of the Shrew The Things They Carried The Wasteland Things Fall Apart Time Traveler's Wife Wide Sargasso Sea

F F F F D F P F F F

Camus, Albert Petry, Ann Hemingway, Ernest Banks, Russel Shakespeare, William O'Brien, Tim Eliot, T.S. Achebe, Chinua Niffenegger, Audrey Rhys, Jean

Resources Bacon Academy Item Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12

A Night to Remember: Non-fiction The World's Great Speeches The Will of the People- Readings The Lost Art of the Great Speech Master Harold and the Boys Laying the Foundation Training laptops mounting for projectors laser printer for writing lab

hover cameras

number

Cost

50 5 60 20 30 8 12 11 1

Extension

$ $ $ $ $

9.89 10.50 12.95 9.79 10.50

$ $ $ $ $

494.50 52.50 777.00 195.80 315.00

$ $ $ 3 $

500.00 300.00 700.00 250.00

$ $ $ $ $

6,000.00 3,300.00 700.00 750.00 12,584.80

Resources Needed Middle School Grade

Materials

details

Core Texts – Where the Red Fern Grows Fiction Grade Freak the Mighty Chains 6 Dandelion Wine Small group lit circle texts

Short story collections

Core Texts – Non-Fiction

Language/ Vocabulary Core Texts – Fiction Grade 8

Technology

Perfection Learning workbooks Uprising Dovey Coe Thief of Always Once

extended $ 385.00 $ 157.25 $ 157.25

30 hardover $ 13.00 $ 5 $ 6.95 $ 5 $ 6.95 $ 5 $ 6.95 $ 5 $ 6.95 $ 120 (4 class sets) $ 5.21 $ 120 (4 class sets) $ 6.29 $

Small group lit circle texts Small group lit circle texts Small group lit circle texts Core Texts – Michael Vey Fiction Grade The Schwa Was Here 7 Victory of Death Give Me Liberty A Young Patriot Action Magazine Scope Magazine

cost each 25 hard cover $ 15.40 25 $ 6.29 25 $ 6.29

purchased with school funding yearly purchased with school funding yearly 120 (4 class sets)

LAYING THE FOUNDATION TRAINING IPADS connectors document camera, grade 6 document camera, grade 7 document camera, grade 8

6 $ 3.48 12 $ 20.00 6 $ 7.06 6 $ 6.95

390.00 34.75 34.75 34.75 34.75 625.20 754.80

$

20.88

$

240.00

$

42.36

$

41.70

$ 11.99 $ $ 7.60 $ $ 6.99 $ $ 9.41 $ $ 11.33 $

1,438.80 304.00 139.80 169.38 56.65

13 TBD 12 $ 499.00 $ 12 $ 49.00 $ 2 $ 1 $ 2 $ $

5,988.00 588.00 500.00 250.00 500.00 12,888.07

40 20 18 5