12th Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1a.

The central texts for this grade level are high quality, worthy of careful reading, and include a variety of text genres, formats, and topics to meet a range of student interests within an appropriate level of complexity and rigor for the grade level. The texts include renowned classic and contemporary works by critically-acclaimed authors, high interest technical articles that are relatable and help students to build specialized knowledge, a variety of multi visual texts, and strong links between topics that support vertical alignment throughout the grade. The materials offer additional optional texts for students to continue to build knowledge and for extension purposes. Core texts in Grade 12 include, but are not limited to, poetry, novels, essays, documentaries, interviews, plays, and films.

Anchor texts are of high-quality, worthy of careful reading, and consider a range of student interests. Some examples include:

• Anchor texts in the majority of chapters/units and across the year-long curriculum are of high quality.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 3, Lesson 3, students read “The End of Solitude” by William Deresiewicz. The author uses a sophisticated style and engaging arguments in this text, and students will find interest in evaluating their real and social media image within a historical context.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 2, Lesson 16, students reflect on the lessons about community when reading “The Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan; “Chapter 4,” an excerpt from Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance; “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” an excerpt from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria E. Anzaldúa; and an excerpt from “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation” from The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Students evaluate which author makes the most compelling argument with texts of appropriate complexity and worthy of students’ time and attention.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 1, Lesson 2, students begin reading the classic play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This text is of high quality because of its complex structure, language, and themes.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 4, Lesson 2, students expand their understanding of the play Hamlet as they read an excerpt from “A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature, Section II Tragedy: A Genre, Tragedy,” which explores the conventions of the tragedy genre.

• Anchor texts consider a range of student interests.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 1, Lesson 2, students read “The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings” by Anthony P. Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose, & Ban Cheah. This, and other texts in the unit, consider a range of student interests when considering postsecondary options. In Section 1, Lesson 6, for example, students examine the webpage “Awareness of Postsecondary Options,” for those with interests ranging from four-year colleges to continuing adult education.

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, Section 4, Lesson 13, students explore a variety of text types, including the poem “Parsley” by Rita Dove and two interviews by National Public Radio: “Remembering to Never Forget: Dominican Republic’s ‘Parsley Massacre’” and “Dominicans, Haitians Remember Parsley Massacre.” Students read other texts throughout the unit, including, but not limited to, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez and The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 2, students read “A 6 Minute Intro to AI” by Snips. The introduction of digital, infographic style writing is sophisticated to pique student interest and allows reading for different purposes.

• Anchor texts are well-crafted and content rich, engaging students at their grade level.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, students read several texts that are relevant to their grade level, such as the article “High School Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide” by College Greenlight.

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, Section 4, Lesson 3, students read, “When a Dictator Becomes Part of Your Family” by Juleyka Lantigua-Williams. This editorial note contains a primary source letter with commentary. The sophisticated structure and content of the text offer students the opportunity to improve their academic literacy.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 1, Lesson 1, students begin reading the classic novel by George Orwell 1984. This text is well-crafted with complex sentence structures and vocabulary to engage students at grade level.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 9, students read “Will Robots Outsmart Us? The Late Stephen Hawking Answers This and Other Big Questions Facing Humanity” and an excerpt from Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking. In preparation for the reading, students analyze claims and supporting data in the articles “Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence” by Future of Life Institute and “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” by Peter Stone. Students consider the concerns and risks of using AI in society.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students use inquiry questions to find their own sources to answer a Central Research Question: “These sources can range from print texts to web-based texts, multimedia, interviews, and texts from units explored earlier in the year.” An example of a core text students analyze when exploring the concept of credibility and how to assess it is “Machine Bias” by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, and Lauren Kirchner from the Artificial Intelligence unit.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1c.

Texts fall within an appropriate range for the grade level according to the demands of the core, the culminating tasks are appropriately complex, and the activities students complete with the texts during the unit provide opportunities for close reading and tools to support students when working with these texts. The Application Unit provides an opportunity for students to explore an inquiry question: “Students review texts and topics they have encountered throughout the year and choose a text or topic they want to explore further.”

Most anchor texts fall within the appropriate range for the grade level in the Current Lexile Band (1215L–1355L for Grade 12). The texts add layers of complexity through their use of rich academic and figurative language, the need to understand background knowledge, and the use of varying perspectives and points of view. While some texts are above the suggested Lexile band, the tasks and instructional supports scaffold student access to these materials. Texts that fall below the Lexile band are topically appropriate for students at this grade level, and associated tasks enhance the level of complexity for students to develop literacy by deeply analyzing the text and/or creating new texts. In the Time of Butterflies, for example, falls below the grade-level band qualitative measure; however, the complexity of language used in the text and meaning in the text, especially with historical and cultural significance, create an appropriate level of complexity for students. Students return to the texts presented in the materials for the culminating activity to analyze and evaluate the texts in a critical lens, which also adds to the complexity of the materials’ readings.

The publisher includes qualitative analysis for some core texts in the Text Overview, including details relating to the text structure, language features, meaning, and knowledge demands. Quantitative analysis of the core texts with available qualitative documentation indicates that texts will continue to challenge and develop students’ skills throughout the year.

Core/Anchor texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to documented quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task. Documentation should also include a rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Anchor/core texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 3, Lesson 3, students read the essay “The End of Solitude” by William Deresiewicz. The Flesch-Kincaid score for this text is 12.8 which is in the appropriate quantitative level range for this grade level. The qualitative measures outlined in the Text Overview include a moderately complex structure and very complex language, purpose, and knowledge demands. The quantitative and qualitative measures for this text are appropriate for students in Grade 12.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 1, Lesson 1, students begin reading Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1390L), a quantitative measure slightly above the band for Grade 12. The text structure is very complex, and other qualitative features are exceedingly complex (i.e., language features, meaning, and knowledge demands). Students read the entire play, analyzing “through four literary lenses: archetypal, political, psychological, and feminist,” and the materials offer support to assist students throughout the unit. The culminating task allows students to “construct an analytical essay that responds to a piece of literary criticism by defending or challenging its interpretation of Hamlet.”

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, Section 5, Lesson 3, students complete the Culminating Task Planning Guide to answer the task question: How does Julia Alvarez depict the Mirabal sisters as revolutionary leaders in In the Time of the Butterflies? Students answer this question using evidence from the text In the Time of Butterflies (910L) and other texts read throughout the unit as they compose a literary analysis through a biographical, feminist, historical, or Marxist lens.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 2, Lessons 1–3, students read the complex text “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation?” by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne and return to the text for several activities in the lesson. Students break down the text using reading strategies learned in the unit and answer a series of analysis questions.

• Anchor/Core texts and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by a text complexity analysis and a rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, students read “High School Seniors: Preparing for Your Next Step After High School” by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. The materials include a qualitative analysis of the text, which is slightly complex. A rationale is available for placement in the grade level: “The language utilized is conversational and promotes comfortability in an otherwise intimidating life change for seniors.” Also, “…it will be a text that students deconstruct and analyze within Section 1 of the unit to help inform their pathway choice; the article is supportive, as it provides a topic-answer style type of writing that is easy to follow and digest.”

  • In the Development Unit, Community, the materials provide a text overview of the readings found in the unit with a rationale of their complexity. In reviewing “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, the materials explain the text contains very complex structure, language, and meaning. When referring to complex language, the text overview explains that while Anzaldua offers some translations of the Chicano Spanish used in the text, often she does not.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, the materials provide a rationale for the texts selected in the Text Overview document. In this document, the materials explain the text’s complexity based on text structure, language, meaning, and knowledge demands.

• Both the rationale and the analysis present accurate information.

  • The Text Overview provides accurate information relating to the texts’ qualitative features consistently for the grade level, and the Lexiles available on Metametrics indicate an appropriate quantitative level of complexity for Grade 12.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1d.

The program provides appropriate texts to support students’ literacy growth over the year, and the Foundation, Development, and Application Units allow students to access complex texts with appropriate scaffolds during the learning process. The materials are designed to help students grow their literacy skills from the Foundation Unit to the Application Unit. The flexibility of the program allows choice in which units to include in the course. As students move through the Foundation Unit and complete two or more Development Units, the selections should support growth in their literacy skills to achieve grade-level proficiency. The collection of texts is arranged to deepen students’ literacy skills and understanding by participating in a variety of text-based tasks. Students return to core texts throughout the until with an increased level of complexity through analysis and application of concepts learned. Additional ancillary texts curated to support the individual unit themes promote student growth from the over the course of each unit and across the school year. In tandem with the texts, the assessments and tasks are varied and increase in complexity, allowing students to deepen their reading skills. As tasks become more complex, the materials provide scaffolding material to help teachers support student learning.

Series of texts are at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band to support students’ literacy growth over the course of the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The complexity of anchor texts students read provide an opportunity for students’ literacy skills to increase across the year, encompassing an entire year’s worth of growth.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, students read a volume of varied core and optional texts to answer the unit question. In Section 1, Lesson 2 students, for example, students read the core text “The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings” by Anthony P. Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose, and Ban Cheah with a Flesch-Kincaid score of 12.5, one of several texts in the unit worthy of students’ time and attention. Other examples throughout the grade level include, but are not limited to, Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1390L) and 1984 by George Orwell (1090L).

  • In the culminating activity of the Development Unit, Community, students create a blended piece that analyzes a community to which they belong. The unit is designed so that students build their literacy skills across the unit, for instance, in Section 1, Lesson 1, students explore definitions of community, and in Section 2, Lesson 2, students begin to analyze perspectives of community in the text “Chapter 4,” an excerpt from Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. This progression shows an increasing level of complexity as students move from prior knowledge of a topic to an analysis of a text on the same topic.

• As texts become more complex, appropriate scaffolds and/or materials are provided in the Teacher Edition (e.g., spending more time on texts, more questions, repeated readings, skill lessons).

  • In The Foundation Unit, How Do I Prepare for Life After High School, Section 1, Lessons 2–5, students unpack “The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings” by Anthony P. Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose, and Ban Cheah. Containing complex layers of meaning and Tier 3 language, this text falls above Grade 12 complexity and requires a read aloud option as well as scaffolding of activities with the unit to help students make meaning of the text.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 1, Lesson 3, students read Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1390L), a complex text for the grade-level band. Students engage in a close reading of the text, analyzing his lines through a political lens. When students reread Lines 1-41 of Act 1, Scene 2, they use a Political Lens Note-Taking Tool to respond to questions, such as “2) What reaction might this hasty marriage during the mourning period create for the members of the royal family? What reaction might the citizens of Denmark have to this hasty marriage during the mourning period?” Teaching notes are available in the Teacher Edition as guidance for student support and differentiation, such as providing reminders to students to use the questions as support for annotation and margin notes.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 3, students learn the Skim, Read, Reread, and Interpret technique for reading research studies and apply these strategies to analyze “Artificial Intelligence in 2030” by Peter Stone et al. Later in the unit, in Section 4, Lesson 3, the Teacher Edition provides scaffolds for facilitating the completion of the Section Diagnostic. The material explains, “[…] you can facilitate a discussion about some or all of the guiding questions,” and “If the whole class has struggled in a particular area, you might conduct a brief mini-lesson or model the use of one of the tools with the entire class.”

• Series of texts include a variety of complexity levels throughout the year.

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, students read a variety of complex texts throughout the unit, including personal narratives, poems, and informative texts, such as “Parsley” by Rita Dove and the “Dominican Republic (Document 305) U.S. Relations with the Dominican Republic” published by the Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, both of which contain complex text structures, use of language, and meaning behind the texts with their use of historical references.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 1, students read texts of varying levels of complexity, such as 1984 by George Orwell (1090L), “Privacy and Information Sharing” by Lee Rainie and Maeve Duggan (1400L–1500L), and “Critical Thinking for College, Career, and Citizenship” by Diane F. Halpern with a Flesch-Kincaid score of 11.7.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students choose a text from the Artificial Intelligence Unit Reader and use the Potential Sources Tool to analyze:

    • “AI Doesn’t Eliminate Jobs, It Creates Them” by Michael Xie.

    • “Why We Should Stop Fetishizing Privacy” by Heidi Messer.

    • “The Montréal Declaration: Why We Must Develop AI Responsibly” by Yoshua Bengio.

  • The unit is sequenced towards the end for Grade 12 and creates a range of complexity for students to access the texts and challenge themselves with more complex readings.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1e.

The Program Guide indicates that all students will “access and analyze grade-level texts with the help of effective scaffolding and support, regardless of reading ability,” and the Grade 12 materials provide a wide volume of texts of various types, lengths, and complexity levels to build student independence throughout the school year and to support students to reach grade-level proficiency. Each unit provides a range of texts, including novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and informative texts. In addition, the publisher provides a partial text overview and complexity document as well as a list of suggested independent reading texts.

Independent reading opportunities are available throughout the course of the year and provide choices for students. The Text Overview and Unit Text List provide suggestions for independent reading for each Foundation and Development Unit with texts grouped by topic, theme, or genre. To assist students to build reading stamina and to persevere when navigating complex text, students encounter a number of meaningful topics and engaging texts that deepen their understanding of the subject matter covered in the units and expand students’ literacy skills such as comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary to equip them to be successful independent readers.

Each unit includes specific procedures and accountability measures for independent student reading to ensure students are continually working toward independence. Materials include independent reading lessons, including suggestions on how to incorporate student reading into the classroom, at the end of each section in the Foundation and Development Units. In addition, each unit section contains a structured lesson for students to create an independent reading plan and to set their pacing. Students are accountable for text selection, connecting their independent readings to units of study, and creating a product based on their independent reading.

Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to support their reading at grade level by the end of the school year, including accountability structures for independent reading. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in reading a variety of text types and genres.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, students explore a wide variety of texts, including poems, essays, and memoirs, including selections such as “If They Should Come for Us” by Fatimah Asghar and “The Site of Memory” by Toni Morrison. In Section 1, Lesson 9, students begin an Independent Reading Program in which they select the texts they will read independently throughout the unit. At this point in the unit, students have examined the Central Question and a few anchor texts and apply their learning thus far to their independent reading. Students select their independent reading text from the list of suggested texts for the unit and develop an independent reading plan. The list of independent reading texts includes nonfiction texts such as the novel The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and the memoir Boy Erased by Gerrard Conley.

  • In The Development Unit, Hamlet, students engage in one activity per section to plan and pace their independent reading and commence their Independent Reading Program in Section 1, Lesson 12.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, students read 1984 by George Orwell and reports such as “Privacy and Information Sharing” by Lee Rainie and Maeve Duggan. Students also read a letter, “George Orwell Explains in a Revealing 1944 Letter Why He’d Write 1984” by Colin Marshall, as well as a blog, “Critical Thinking for College, Career, and Citizenship” by Diane F. Halpern. Independent reading options to accompany the unit include, but are not limited to, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

• Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities and supports for students to engage in a volume of reading.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 1, Lesson 9, students choose texts to read independently: “We will learn how to choose texts, what activities we may complete, about the final task, and about any materials we will use as we read our independent reading texts.” Students use note-taking tools to analyze important textual elements.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 3, Lesson 2, students gradually work toward reading texts independently. The lesson begins with the teacher providing text-based questions to guide student reading, and students work independently by the end of the lesson to make claims about their reading, allowing them to improve self-sufficiency in reading the text.

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, the materials offer a wide variety of supports as students engage the volume of texts in the unit. In Section 3, Lesson 2, for example, students use the Marxist Lens Note-Taking Tool to help them independently read In the Time of Butterflies in a more complex way.

  • In The Development Unit, 1984, Section 1, Lessons 1–13, students read “multiple texts that explore ideas about government power and individual rights, privacy and surveillance, propaganda and fabricated news, and language and critical thinking.” Students begin reading 1984 by George Orwell before reading informational texts, including “Many Americans Say Made-Up News Is a Critical Problem That Needs to Be Fixed” by Amy Mitchell and “Critical Thinking for College, Career, and Citizenship” by Diane F. Halpern. The student facing materials guide students through a close examination of the texts to support them in their understanding before completing the Section Diagnostic.

• There is sufficient teacher guidance to foster independence for all readers (e.g., proposed schedule and tracking system for independent reading).

  • The program plans and builds lessons for independent reading into the curriculum materials for teachers to follow and implement. Materials include teacher notes on strategy and decisions are included in the teacher edition of the materials.

    • In the Development Unit, Community, in Section 1, Lesson 9, the materials offer teachers guidance on how to foster independent reading experiences for their students including suggestions on how to present the independent reading project to students.

    • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, Section 1, Lesson 9, students examine the Character Note-Taking Tool to use when analyzing In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. The materials include specific guidance on how teachers should introduce this tool to students to allow them to work independently with the tool in future lessons.

    • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 2, Lesson 2, students read and annotate “George Orwell Explains in a Revealing 1944 Letter Why He’d Write 1984” by George Orwell. Students use questions to guide their annotations, such as “What is the tone of the letter? What word choice supports your conclusion?” Teaching notes provide guidance about the author, concept, text, and topic: “While the letter is emotional (e.g., cautionary, concerned, critical, distressed), it is also philosophical and rational. It could serve as a model for how to make an impassioned argument while using sound reasoning and maintaining a professional tone.”

    • In the Application Unit, Section 3, Lesson 1, teaching notes provide additional guidance for student support and differentiation: “If students have independently chosen nonwritten resources, you might help them connect those sources with written texts (e.g., a written review of the film they have chosen to use).”

  • While a proposed schedule is not clearly stated in the materials, the Foundation and Development Units consistently include an independent reading lesson at the end of each section; there are four sections in the Foundation Unit and four or more sections in each Development Unit. The Program Guide shares, “[l]essons are designed to span 45–90 minutes, but the total length of the lesson depends on how many activities are chosen.” Materials promote the use of student agency to choose texts, set pacing, and prepare discussions with peers to report independent reading finds and further expand their peers’ knowledge and breadth of understanding on topics directly related to the unit of study. Students choose from the Text Overview or Unit Text List and follow the lesson to connect their learning, while building knowledge around similar topics and/or themes.

    • In the Development Unit, Community, the materials focus on the independent reading project in Section 1, Lesson 9; Section 2, Lesson 18; Section 3, Lesson 11; Section 4, Lesson 7; and Section 5, Lesson 8, creating a schedule within the unit for students to select a text, record information from a text, discuss a text, make connections between the independent reading and the unit of study, and create a product based on the independent text read.

    • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 15, students create a plan and a schedule to work through their Independent Reading Program.

  • Students design their own tracking systems for their reading and are kept on pace and tracked through teacher-designated assessment for the activities within each Independent Reading lesson found in each section of the unit. The Program Guide states, “[s]tudents are encouraged to use the same tools and close reading practices they use during instruction. Teachers can choose how to assign and collect those tools in order to monitor students’ reading comprehension.” Unit lessons include instructions and independent reading procedures consistently across the grade level.

    • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, teachers check in with students on their independent readings in Section 1, Lesson 12; Section 2, Lesson 10; Section 3, Lesson 12; Section 4, Lesson 16; and Section 5, Lesson 7. This check-in can take place in a variety of ways, such as peer discussion, teacher conferencing, and checking the various reading supports including the Attending to Details, Analyzing Relationships, Evaluating Ideas, Extending Understanding, and Forming Evidence-Based Claims tools.

    • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 2, Lesson 12, students share what they have learned from their Independent Reading thus far and continue this process in subsequent lessons Section 3, Lesson 7; Section 4, Lesson 5; and Section 5, Lesson 7.

• Independent reading procedures are included in the lessons.

  • In The Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life After High School?, students encounter a series of four structured lessons, one from each section, building to the culminating task in the fourth activity. Each of the units in Grade 12 follows this procedure. In Section 3, Lesson 8, the materials provide a lesson overview in which students “share the analyses we have made about our independent reading texts and make connections to the unit. We will plan a final product to share our experiences from reading independently and the knowledge we have gained.” Activities follow to guide students as they discuss, write, and read independently to achieve the lesson goals.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 4, Lesson 7, students share their independent reading following the procedures outlined in the teacher guidance section. Guidance encourages teachers to facilitate sharing activities using the jigsaw strategy, conferencing, and whole-class discussions.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, the materials incorporate the independent procedures Attending to Details, Analyzing Relationships, Evaluating Ideas, Extending Understanding, a Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, a Summarizing Text Tool, or a Character (or other) Note-Taking Tools are throughout the unit in Section 1, Lesson 15; Section 2, Lesson 12; Section 3, Lesson 7; Section 4, Lesson 5; and Section 5, Lesson 7.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1f.

The Grade 12 materials include a focus on text-specific and text-dependent questions, tasks, and assignments to deepen students’ knowledge and comprehension throughout each task.

The materials provide opportunities for students to engage in a variety of texts and to mine text for evidence. The questions and tasks in the materials require careful reading of texts over the course of a school year, and most of the questions are grounded in specific textual details to provide meaningful insight into the overarching Central Question for each unit. In addition, text-dependent guiding questions support students as they navigate and engage directly with the texts to draw evidence from what they have read, as well as to make inferences. The materials consistently pose guiding questions across grade levels and “reinforce the importance of leaning into the text itself for answers and clarification.”

The materials provide teacher guidance, including Teaching Notes, to support the planning and implementation of the text-specific and/or text-dependent questions, tasks, and assignments. The teacher notes also offer suggestions for contextualizing, teaching, and supporting students in text-dependent activities.

Most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-specific and/or text-dependent, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Text-specific and text-dependent questions and tasks support students in making meaning of the core understandings of the texts being studied.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 4, Lesson 2, students read and annotate paragraphs 4–11 from “A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature, Section II Tragedy: A Genre, Tragedy.” Students answer the following questions using the text:

    • “What are the features of the tragedy genre?

    • Based on my reading so far, what features of tragedy does Hamlet embody?

    • Based on my reading so far, what features of tragedy does Hamlet not embody?

    • What can I expect to happen in the final act of the play?”

  • These questions support students learning not only understanding the guide, but also their understanding of Hamlet.

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, Section 4, Lesson 4, students use the Analyzing Relationships Tool to analyze Chapter 9 of In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Students consider the following guiding question: “What do the characters think, say, or do that illustrate the historical context of the novel?”

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, Section 5, Lesson 4, the learning outcome for the activity reads: “We will collect evidence from In the Time of the Butterflies that supports our thesis and begin drafting our literary analysis essay.” Students must return to the text to gather evidence for the thesis they have already formulated through close examination of the text.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 3, Lesson 6, students read and annotate Chapters 5 and 6 of George Orwell’s novel 1984. To guide their reading and annotation of the text, students answer text-specific questions that focus on the structure and ideas of the novel to prepare students to answer the Central Question: How can stories send messages to societies? Examples include:

    • “What does Winston discover about Julia’s beliefs in this chapter? What central idea of the novel is reinforced through Julia’s attitude and belief system?

    • What is the nature of Winston and O’Brien’s exchange? What effect does it have on Winson? What effect does it have on you as the reader?

    • What foreshadowing is present in the last lines of Chapter 6? What effect does it have on you as the reader?”

• Teacher materials provide support for planning and implementation of text-based questions and tasks.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life After High School, Section 3, Lesson 3, the Teaching Notes suggest: “Refer students to ‘2019–2020 Common App Essay Prompts,’ which they can use to write their required essays,” which does direct students to a text for a specific task.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 2, Lesson 4, the Teaching Notes present an example of symbols found in 1984 by George Orwell for teachers to use as a model for students. The notes also offer suggestions on how to support a student discussion involving text specific evidence referencing the Academic Discussion Reference Guide.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 7, students read “Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence” by Future of Life Institute. Students consider questions such as, “Based on the mission statement, ‘To catalyze and support research and initiatives for safeguarding life and developing optimistic visions of the future, including positive ways for humanity to steer its own course considering new technologies and challenges,’ what is Future of Life’s perspective on AI?” Teaching Notes assist with instructional strategies, which can include investigating the “Who We Are” section and defining terms for the students, such as credibility, perspective, reliability, and authority, as they look at the Future of Life Organization.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 2, Lesson 6, students read the article “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” by Peter Stone et al. Students answer text-specific questions about the main claims in the article, including:

    • “How does the article respond to and dispute “Machine Bias”?

    • What are the counterarguments it presents?

    • What kind of evidence does it use?”

  • The Teaching Notes provide guidance and support to teachers regarding the claims in the text.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 4, Lesson 1, students examine the text “The Montreal Declaration: Why We Must develop AI Responsibly” by Yoshua Bengio. The Teacher Notes for this lesson suggest: “As students examine this argument, you might emphasize how it is written with a personal voice, which students might emulate in their final arguments.” This note draws the student directly back to the text to find evidence of a personal voice and encourages the teacher to support the student in doing this.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 4, Lesson 2, the Teaching Notes explain strategies for teachers to apply to the materials provided for research, including the Research Frame Tool, Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, Organizing Evidence Tool, Potential Sources Tool, Research Evaluation Checklist, and Research Note-Taking Tool. Students use these tools to gather information directly from the texts they use in their research projects. In the Organizing Evidence Tool, for example, students state their central text or purpose, locate a text, provide evidence from the text, and analyze the evidence selected.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1g.

As stated in the materials Program Guide, the instructional activities for this grade level engage students in both formal and informal speaking and listening activities and discussions throughout the units, and the materials offer students support in developing these listening and speaking skills. Section Diagnostics and Culminating Tasks include formal activities, such as Socratic seminars, philosophical chairs discussions, and presentations. Also, informal speaking and listening activities recur throughout the program as students engage in collaborative peer-to-peer, small- and whole-group discussions to analyze texts, discuss group norms, and peer review their projects.

The Academic Discussion Reference Guide provides protocols for a variety of academic discussions, materials include teacher guidance for modeling academic vocabulary and syntax during speaking and listening opportunities. Materials include guidance for modeling effective discussion techniques through the use of teacher-composed scripts, sentence starters, and vocabulary instruction to support students in incorporating new words and academic phrases into their discussions. Students build upon the protocols from previous lessons and activities to participate in more sophisticated speaking and listening activities throughout the year.

Materials provide frequent opportunities and protocols for speaking and listening. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials provide protocols for speaking and listening across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 1, Lesson 1, students begin the unit by discussing postsecondary preparation around the Central Question: “How can I prepare for life after high school?” The Teaching Notes in the teacher edition share students can utilize the Academic Discussion Reference Guide, which provides information to assist with a variety of academic discussions. Additional strategies in the teacher edition include “[b]e sure to foster an open and respectful classroom culture so that all students feel comfortable expressing their opinions as this is the first instance of students discussing the Central Question.” In Section 2, Lesson 2, students work in their research teams to discuss their findings from the Foundations Reading Guide, which includes protocols for developing a strong oral presentation, including checklist questions such as “[i]s your presentation clear, or do you use lots of unnecessary words? Are you redundant, or does each person say something new and meaningful? Do you leave out information or create gaps and confusion for the reader?” To guide their group discussions, students also discuss guiding questions, such as “[w]hat do you consider to be the most important element in a resume?” Students also prepare a presentation to share with the class their findings from “The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings” by Anthony P. Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose, & Ban Cheah. The materials provide specific protocols for students to follow when creating their presentations, including guiding questions, such as “What was the least surprising aspect of your part? Why?” In Lesson 3, the materials also provide listening protocols for students as they listen to each of the presentations. The student materials include a list of questions for students to answer to track their listening, such as “[w]hat did the group do well that you might want to use in your own group presentation?”

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 1, Lesson 7, students participate in a Socratic Seminar for the unit’s Section Diagnostic. In this lesson, students review the norms for the Socratic Seminar; review discussion strategies; and use their Discussion Tool and Vocabulary Journal to identify claims, evidence, and vocabulary to respond to the question, “[w]hat does it mean to belong to a community?” Students then use the information they gathered to participate in the Socratic Seminar and reflect on their experience in their Learning Log.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 2, Lesson 6, students participate in an academic discussion regarding their interpretation of Hamlet’s character in each scene. To develop their speaking and listening skills, students follow the protocols outlined in the materials and use the Academic Discussion Reference Guide, which suggests the following protocol for academic discussions: “Throughout the discussion, participate in a way that emphasizes inquiry, thoughtful questioning and a desire to learn, rather than advocacy, arguing for and defending your position as the only correct one.”

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 5, Lesson 2, students draft and plan a presentation using the Application Unit Presentation Guide. The guide provides specific protocols, such as defining the team roles for the presentation groups, for students to follow for their presentations. In reference to the moderator’s speaking role, for example, the guide states, “[t]he moderator is a neutral participant in the team’s presentation, giving a balanced, thorough introduction to your topic and introducing each of the commentators and the inquiry path they will explore or the perspective that they will represent.”

• Protocols are varied across the academic school year and support students’ developing speaking and listening skills.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life After High School, Section 2, Lesson 2, students work in their research teams to discuss their findings from the Foundations Reading Guide, which includes protocols for developing a strong oral presentation, including checklist questions, such as “[i]s your presentation clear, or do you use lots of unnecessary words? Are you redundant, or does each person say something new and meaningful? Do you leave out information or create gaps and confusion for the reader?”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 2, Lesson 6, students participate in an academic discussion regarding their interpretation of Hamlet’s character in each scene. Students follow the protocols outlined in the materials to develop their speaking and listening skills. Students use the Academic Discussion Reference Guide, which suggests the following protocol for academic discussions: “Throughout the discussion, participate in a way that emphasizes inquiry, thoughtful questioning and a desire to learn, rather than advocacy, arguing for and defending your position as the only correct one.” In Section 4, Lesson 6, students use the Discussion Tool to help organize their notes during a Socratic seminar discussing Hamlet by William Shakespeare. To prepare for the discussion, students write open-ended questions using suggested question frames, such as “[w]hat is the relationship between _____ and _____?” and “[i[f _____ is true, then _____?”

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, Section 4, Lesson 9, students participate in a Socratic Seminar to discuss Chapter 12 of In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. In Section 4, Lesson 14, students hone the listening and speaking skills developed in Lesson 9 by participating in a Section Diagnostic in the form of a student-led Socratic Seminar that addresses the entire book by examining the question: “How does Julia Alvarez create revolutionary characters in In the Time of Butterflies?” In Section 5, Lesson 2, students read an exemplar essay to understand the structure of a literary analysis essay and then discuss it as a class. The question students discuss is as follows: “How does the essay analyze specific aspects of a text?” The teacher has the option to differentiate this activity as a pair or group activity and provide several more examples of model essays for students to discuss and analyze.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 5, Lesson 5, students conference with the teacher to get feedback and ask questions as they plan, draft, and revise their presentations. Students use a Culminating Task Checklist, which includes Speaking & Listening Goals as students organize work, communicate effectively, and publish their findings. Questions for consideration include, but are not limited to: “In the section or aspect of our presentation that I’ve created, how well do I use language and themes that are relevant and appropriate for our audience? How well do I share my research findings with my learning community in a way that is clear, logical, engaging, and appropriate for my audience?”

• Teacher guidance includes modeling of academic vocabulary and syntax during speaking and listening opportunities.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 2, Lesson 13, students participate in a philosophical chairs discussion to demonstrate understanding of Hamlet’s mental state in Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Teaching Notes in the teacher edition prompt teachers to pose statements for students to debate, such as:

    • “Depressive Illness Delayed Hamlet’s Revenge” presents a more justifiable interpretation of Hamlet’s mental state than “The Sanity of Hamlet.”

  • The Teaching Notes also suggest guidance to support students engaging in an academic discussion, including:

    • “Model how to use academic language in a discussion:

      • Write sentence starters on the board to help students formulate responses.

      • Write vocabulary on the board to encourage and support students to practice using new words during the discussion.

      • Following the discussion, share the scripted strong examples with students, along with some weak examples.

      • Ask students to describe the qualities of the strong examples.”

  • Finally, the Teaching Notes suggest that teachers direct students to use the Academic Discussion Reference Guide for conversation stems when engaging in classroom and/or group discussions, including:

    • I think _____ because _____.

    • What I hear you saying is _____.

    • That is an interesting idea because _____.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 3, Lesson 2, students work in literature circle groups to discuss Chapters 1-10 of 1984 by George Orwell. The teacher edition provides guidance for how teachers encourage the use of academic language and syntax during the discussion. For example, the teacher edition provides the following guidance: “Model how to use academic language in a discussion: Script what students say during the discussion, focusing on strong examples of academic vocabulary and discussion stems.”

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 1, materials provide a section of material to help teachers model for and support students throughout this unit. The teacher edition suggests teachers use an assets based method of teaching this unit by activating prior knowledge and also practice using academic language and vocabulary they have had exposure to previously.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1h.

The Grade 12 materials focus on evidence-based discussion opportunities and standards-based questions as well as other instructional supports to help students grow in their speaking and listening skills throughout the school year, including opportunities for students to listen and speak during teacher-led discussions and when working with peers. All discussions require students to go directly back to the text, reference evidence or engage in repeated reading and analysis, and in many cases, the materials provide instructors with possible student responses for additional support.

Students have multiple opportunities throughout each unit to participate in various speaking and listening activities, such as small-group and whole-class discussions, Socratic Seminars, and Four Corners protocols, to discuss texts read. Most lessons and activities include standards-based guiding questions and tools to ensure students utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and other sources. Presentation of ideas and research opportunities are available through formal speaking and listening tasks and informally during the peer-to-peer discussions and sharing ideas. Students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of listening and speaking activities. The materials require students to use evidence to support their reasoning in class discussions.

Facilitation, monitoring, and instructional supports for teachers are embedded within the student-facing materials as well as specific guidance in the Teacher Edition. The materials offer teachers support on facilitating Socratic Seminars and how to use tools to monitor student progress. The Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide additional guidance to facilitate discussions, and various tools, such as the Discussion Tool, the Delineating Arguments Tool, and the Academic Discussion Reference Guide, support student growth and developing proficiency in these skills.

Materials support students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and supports. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Speaking and listening instruction includes facilitation, monitoring, and instructional supports for teachers.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare For Life After High School?, Section 3, Lesson 7, students reread a selected excerpt from a previously read text to analyze the author’s use of language. In the Teacher Edition, Teaching Notes suggest, “Rather than completing isolated language exercises, students can effectively learn style and conventions by focusing on the writing they are studying. The complex texts used in core instruction provide a rich resource of mentor sentences for students to analyze, and the short written responses, Section Diagnostics, and Culminating Task provide students the opportunity to apply their new learning in an authentic writing context. When students analyze model sentences, they build a writer’s toolbox, wherein they have a number of techniques at their disposal to use when writing a text.” Students are directed to use texts they have read and then share their findings and created sentences with their peers.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 1, Lesson 1, students participate in a discussion with a partner or small group to discuss the Central Question: What Does It Mean to Belong to a Community? The Teacher Edition provides facilitation, monitoring, and instructional support in the form of guidance and ideas for tools teachers can use with students to guide them through the discussion, including a suggestion for teachers to use an Anticipation Guide with students to activate prior knowledge and to “encourage students to draw on their cultural and social backgrounds to make connections.” In Section 1, Lesson 8, students plan for and engage in partner or small-group discussions to practice effective communication of their revised thinking, ideas, or questions. Student instructions include revising the Discussion Tool and consulting the reading to locate evidence to support their thinking. Students also “Examine the Academic Discussion Reference Guide and identify at least one discussion stem that you would like to use during the partner or small-group discussion.” Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide additional guidance, such as: “You might have students complete a self-evaluation after the discussion so they can self-monitor their ability to use feedback to improve their learning.”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 2, Lesson 13, students engage in the Philosophical Chairs protocol. In the Teacher Edition, the Teaching Notes offer instructions on what the protocol is, what to do during the protocol, how to facilitate discussion through provided statements, and even how to differentiate the activity for struggling students. As an example, the materials suggest that teachers use the Academic Discussion Reference Guide and Vocabulary Journals to help support students as they participate in the Philosophical Chairs protocol.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 5, Lesson 7, students have a team meeting to discuss the feedback for their Culminating Task presentation rehearsal. Teachers and students use the Culminating Task Checklist as a guide to facilitate group and student-teacher conferences. Students then use instructor feedback to address challenges their peers may have and to problem-solve challenges identified. Guidance encourages students to create a task-list of what needs to be done using the Application Unit Presentation Guide.

• Students have multiple opportunities over the school year to demonstrate what they are reading through varied speaking and listening opportunities.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 3, Lesson 15, students share findings from their independent reading with a partner, group, class or teacher. Students use the Forming Evidence-Based Claims tool to compose their summaries and to explain how their reading connects to the unit central question: How many ways can the same text be read? In Section 5, Lesson 10, students share summaries of their independent readings with the class. The Teaching Notes suggest that students do a culminating presentation where they can answer a series of questions, including:

    • “What aspects of the text that I read interested me the most?

    • What questions could I answer by reading the text?

    • What knowledge did I gain and what connections to the unit did I make?”

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, students review the norms for a Socratic Seminar and use the Discussion Tool to organize their notes about the discussion. Students focus on the emerging theme of the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez and employ the Discussion Tool to answer the discussion question: “Should the sisters have apologized to Trujillo?” The student instructions require students to “discuss this question from the feminist, Marxist, and historical lenses.” In Section 4, Lesson 9, students participate in a Socratic Seminar about Chapter 12 of In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. During this lesson, students demonstrate their understanding of what they have read by listening to the questions posed in the seminar and contributing to the discussion by following the expectations outlined in the student-facing materials, including “building on the ideas of others with additional evidence or ideas[, and] synthesizing your peers’ ideas.”

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 2, Lesson 3, students examine periodic sentences from the text 1984 by George Orwell. As pairs, students craft their own periodic sentences to assert their desired effect via the manipulation of syntax. Once complete, students swap sentences with another pair; examine and discuss with their pair partner the effect they believe the periodic sentence has; provide written feedback; and return the sentences. Upon receiving their original sentences, students reflect on the feedback and discuss and make any adjustments they wish to make.

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 3, Lesson 5, students demonstrate understanding of what they have read by participating in a peer-review defense in which they “delineate, present, and defend a proposed argument in response to the unit’s Central Question: How is Artificial Intelligence Affecting Our World?” Students explain the elements of a planned argument and listen to and record feedback to improve their presentations for the final argumentation task.

• Speaking and listening work requires students to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life After High School, Section 3, Lesson 2, students join their pathway teams and finish oral prompts as a group. These prompts ask students to refer to the research they collected, such as, “Based on my research, I found _____.”

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 3, Lesson 4, students participate in a discussion about “The End of Solitude” by William Deresiewicz. Students utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from the text to answer guiding questions such as, “Detailing more conversations with his students, Deresiewicz recalls them saying they have ‘little time for intimacy…and no time at all for solitude.’ How do we define these terms? Can friendship or community exist without them?”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 4, Lesson 5, students discuss with a partner the question, “What insights do you, the reader, have from analyzing the same scene through multiple lenses?” Students discuss this question with a peer after a class discussion and guiding questions based on lines 239–449 of Act 5, Scene 2, the final lines of the play. Students answer whole-class discussion prompts, such as, “What characters demonstrate an inner change? Which do not? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?”

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 4, Lesson 8, students participate in a Socratic Seminar and utilize elements from George Orwell’s 1984 and other unit texts to address the question, “How can storytelling be a powerful medium for sending messages to society?” The Teaching Notes also suggest the following questions to help prompt students to incorporate and reflect on the evidence used in the Socratic Seminar:

    • “Where in the text do you find support for your comment?

    • What about the text is still unclear?

    • What evidence from the text did you also use to support your thoughts?

    • What evidence was new to you? Which details or insights surprised you?”

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 5, students read Peter Stone’s “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030.” Students work in groups of four-to-six to share claims they found, evidence that support those claims, and the predictions they found. Students consider prompts, such as, “How will the domain you studied transform everyday life?” The instructions include students sharing textual evidence they found to support their answers.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 4, Lesson 3, students complete a peer review. Students share their research with another team and actively listen to peers’ presentations, providing feedback to help each other refine and finalize their work. One of the points students must present on is, “…key sources and explain why you think they are key. Summarize their content and explain your analysis of these sources to your peers. Show your peers and comment on your annotations, notes, and evidence-based claims about these sources.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1i.

Writing tasks center student learning around a common topic or inquiry by clarifying and deepening understanding of the text; exploring the essential question of each unit, section, or lesson; and helping students to prepare for a Culminating Activity. Overall, these tasks include long assignments with multiple drafts, short assignments for in class responses, focused projects, and other short answer responses. Section Diagnostics prepare students for the writing and presenting tasks they complete during unit Culminating Tasks that emulate one of the following: short story, personal narrative, explanatory essay, literary analysis, argumentative essay, or research essay.

The Grade 12 materials include activities for students to connect writing to texts and incorporate many opportunities for students to engage in on-demand writing (e.g., completing digital pdf guides such as the Delineating Arguments Tool and Theme Reference Guide to help them engage in various writing activities including constructing paragraphs based on claims found in texts read) and process writing that is formal or informal (e.g., journaling using an individual Learning Log). Process writing engages students in multiple steps to develop final drafts of their writing; lessons include prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing activities and provide multiple layers of instructional support for teachers and students. During process writing activities, students develop ideas and construct writing projects over a series of lessons, including revisiting writings to revise and edit their work from previous units. The materials also include multiple opportunities for students to receive a year’s worth of instruction for on-demand writing opportunities such as reflections and quick-writes. These on-demand writing assignments, including shorter, more focused writing projects, occur throughout all units in the grade level.

Materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing that covers a year’s worth of instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials include on-demand writing opportunities that cover a year’s worth of instruction.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 2, Lesson 4, students synthesize their understanding of the lessons in Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance by responding in the Learning Log to prompts, such as “What lessons do we learn about community from this text? What advice might Vance offer to a member of a marginalized community or marginalized group who is transitioning from childhood to adulthood?” Students cite evidence from the text to support the answer. The student-facing materials provide guidance of what students need to include in their writing in the form of guiding questions such as, “What elements of Vance’s writing might you incorporate into your presentation on your community for the Culminating Task? Add those ideas to the “Writer’s Rhetorical Toolbox” section of your Learning Log.”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 2, Lesson 1, students use the Forming Evidence-Based Claim tool to address the guiding question: “What is Hamlet’s mental state and what factors contribute to it?” In the tool, students select key details, analyze the details, make connections between details, and form a claim based on their analysis. Students also have the opportunity to review and revise their claims, considering the following questions:

    • “Is the claim clearly stated?

    • Does the claim communicate your opinion or conclusion about your character?

    • Is the claim based on evidence that you gathered from the text?

    • Is the claim supported by evidence?”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 4, Lesson 5, students write open-ended questions in preparation for a Socratic Seminar. Exemplar questions and thought-provoking question frames guide students in this on-demand writing activity. Question frames include:

    • “What do you think about _____? What evidence from the text supports your belief?

    • What is the relationship between _____ and _____?

    • What do the texts say about _____?

    • What about this perspective do you agree or disagree with?

    • What significance is this to _____?

    • If _____ is true, then _____?”

• Materials include process writing opportunities that cover a year’s worth of instruction. Opportunities for students to revise and edit are provided.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students begin the first write of their resume following the directions, “Begin drafting your resume based on the example and your readings from ‘High School Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide’ and ‘How to Write a High School Resume for College Applications.’” Students prepare for this on-demand writing task by listing hard and soft skills covered previously in the lesson. Students then spend the unit revising and editing their resume before publishing. In Section 2, Lesson 7, students peer review resumes they have completed for the Section Diagnostic. Students use the Resume Review Checklist to provide peer feedback, and students review feedback received to inform their own revisions focusing on the following areas:

    • “Did you spell correctly?

    • Did you organize information chronologically?

    • Did you include specific and concise details about your past accomplishments?

    • Did you include your high school jobs, internships, or volunteer work?

    • Did you include any awards or honors you received in high school?

    • Did you list any leadership experiences?

    • Did you use a professional font and size (e.g., Times New Roman, size 12)?

    • Did you include professional and accurate contact information?”

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, Section 2, Lesson 8, students participate in a collaborative writing process to “write a well-developed analytical response about Chapters 5 and 6” of In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.” Throughout the lesson, students participate in multiple steps to complete the final draft, including generating initial thoughts, organizing, revising, and reflecting. In Section 5, Lesson 5, students revise and edit the rough draft of their literary analysis essays responding to the Central Question: What makes a revolutionary? As students consider the Task Question, “How does Julia Alvarez depict the Mirabal sisters as revolutionary leaders in In the Time of Butterflies?,” students use textual evidence from the novel and other materials to support their analysis. During the writing process, students use the Culminating Task Planning Guide to guide their review and revisions. The student instructions direct students to “Reread your essay. As you do this, write down editing comments to help improve your spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Look for places to include rich sentences that use the em-dash or phrasal adjectives.”

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, students engage in a Culminating Task to write a narrative that sends a message about a contemporary issue to society. In Section 3, Lesson 9, students create vignettes to help them develop their Culminating Task narratives, addressing tasks, such as “describing the moment the main character discovers something surprising or makes a difficult decision” and “describing a flashback that reveals important background information for the reader.” In Section 5, Lesson 3, student-facing directions state “You conducted research to write a narrative that sends a powerful message to society, and you used that research to write a vignette that captured a single moment or a defining detail about an element of your story. In Section 4, you used your research and vignette to design an outline for your narrative story. You will now build on that outline to map the story arc of your entire narrative. Review the Culminating Task Checklist. Use what you have learned over the course of the unit and what you have brainstormed with peers to map the story arc of your narrative.” At this point in the year, the student writing process has spanned at least three units and is still in draft mode before completing the writing in Unit 6. In Section 5, Lesson 4, students share the story arc they developed with a partner using the Culminating Task Checklist as a guide to address the following:

    • “uses narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and characters.

    • uses 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).”

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 2, Lesson 10, students edit and revise their interpretive explanations of “Why We Should Stop Fetishizing Privacy” by Heidi Messer. Student instructions direct students to “Review your draft, noting any places that need revision for clarity. Proofread your draft with a focus on varied syntax. Make edits and revisions as needed.” Teacher Notes in the Teacher Edition suggest the support and development of student ideas by improving a weak model through revision, specifically: “Review the revised model and ask students to explain how the revisions improve the support and development of ideas.”

• Materials include digital resources where appropriate.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 5, Lesson 1, students use the digital resource, Attending to Details Tool, to answer the guiding question: “How does Morrison feel authors create text and subtext? in reference to ‘The Site of Memory’ by Toni Morrison.” Students develop their writing in response to prompts on the tool, including, “As you read, pay attention to words, phrases, and sentences that stand out to you and that relate to the question. Record these details with text citations.”

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 5, Lesson 1, students begin preparing for the Culminating Task to write an argument addressing the Central Question: How viable is the American dream of homeownership? Students draw on notes from texts and digital resources they have analyzed throughout the unit, including, but not limited to, “A 6 Minute Intro to AI” by Snips, “How to Read a Scientific Paper” by Natalia Rodriguez, and “What is AI? Everything You Need to Know about Artificial Intelligence” by Nick Heath.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want To Research?, students use an Application Unit: Culminating Task Progress Tracker in the form of a Google Document to help manage their research process. In Section 2, Lesson 7, and in Section 4, Lesson 5, students use the checklist to develop their skills and knowledge of the Culminating Task by addressing the following:

    • Add or refine any skills and content knowledge required for the Culminating Task.

    • Evaluate how well you are mastering skills and knowledge required for the Culminating Task.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students utilize a set of digital resources, including a digital Culminating Task Checklist, Evaluation Plan, Presentation Guide, and Research Plan, to aid their research products. In Section 4, Lesson 5, students use the digital Research Evaluation Checklist to review and self-assess the team’s finalized research materials. The activity helps students prepare for the Culminating Task.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1j.

Grade 12 materials provide sufficient opportunities across the year for students to engage in argumentative, informative/explanatory, and narrative writing that connects to the texts students read and analyze. Opportunities may include blended writing styles that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

Mentor texts model the various writing types, and instructional activities include opportunities within and across units for students to develop writing based on anchor texts and text sets. Students write after each reading or viewing experience, and most writing experiences distill distinct elements of the overall writing process, which may be completed as stand-alone products, or as part of a larger task or learning experience. Across the entire school year, students write six process essays, including short story, personal narrative, explanatory essay, literary analysis, argumentative essay, and research essay, that reflect a deep understanding of the Central Question and genre study within each unit. The multiple modes, genres, and types of writing practiced in informal and formal writing tasks, including the unit Culminating Tasks, as well as the support and scaffolding in place, should help students to meet grade-level proficiency by the end of the year.

Materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials provide multiple opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes/types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Different genres/modes/types of writing are distributed throughout the school year.

  • Students have opportunities to engage in argumentative writing.

    • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, students write an argumentative essay as part of the unit Culminating Task addressing the Central Question: How is artificial intelligence affecting our world? To develop their positions, students work through a series of subtopics and prompts:

      • “Job Market: Should people be concerned about the possibility of AI replacing humans in jobs? Will AI create or eliminate jobs? Why or why not?

      • Machine Learning: Can machine learning simulate enough human intelligence and executive functioning to make acceptable decisions? Should our society allow artificial intelligence to make its own decisions or influence human decision-making? Why or why not?

      • Privacy: Is it possible to protect an individual’s privacy with the rise of artificial intelligence? Why or why not?”

    • In Section 3, Lesson 4, students “Draft a position statement that communicates your proposed subtopic issue, question, and perspective.” After collaborating as a class and considering model examples, students craft their own position statements. In Section 5, Lesson 1, students commence a multi-step process outlined in the student-facing materials to begin drafting: “we will each draft a paragraph that will be used to present and explain our positions and determine where to best place the paragraph in our arguments.” In Section 5, Lesson 2, students use the Organizing Evidence Tool as an outline to “draft one or more paragraphs for each of the claims and counterclaims you will develop in your argument.” Student-facing materials direct students to include supporting evidence and appropriate citations via the prompt: “Be sure to provide parenthetical citations for the sources and quotes you use.”

  • Students have opportunities to engage in informative/explanatory writing.

    • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 5, Lesson 2, students write an explanatory introduction of their community to inform an outsider with no prior knowledge. To help students prioritize information, student-facing materials prompt students as follows: “Depending on the genre you have chosen, you might start with a personal story or anecdote to situate your reader. If you have opted for a more informational style, you might begin with an expository or expository beginning.” In Section 5, Lesson 3, students complete the Culminating Task, a blended personal narrative/explanatory/argumentative essay to explain the value of belonging to a community and its legitimacy and how one becomes and remains a community member. During the lesson, students describe “one pivotal element of the community,” using prompts, such as, “[w]hat elements come to mind? These elements could be big settings, like a basketball court, or small elements, like an ear of corn on the cob,” to incorporate sufficient details in their writing.

    • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 3, Lesson 13, students write an informative/explanatory text for the Section Diagnostic. The student-facing materials direct students as follows: “We will finalize our well-developed, multi paragraph literary analysis that defends or challenges a claim of the literary criticism. We will support our analysis using a variety of well-selected, relevant evidence from Hamlet and any other texts we have read or viewed.”

    • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, Section 5, Lesson 4, students begin to draft their literary analysis essay for the Culminating Task that addresses the Central Question: “How does Julia Alvarez depict the Mirabal sisters as revolutionary leaders in In the Time of the Butterflies?”

  • Students have opportunities to engage in narrative writing.

    • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life After High School?, Section 4, Lesson 4, students use the Next Steps Narrative Reflection Tool to begin drafting a reflective narrative describing their research processes and pathways by answering questions, such as: “Out of the pathways you reviewed, which pathway would you consider as a plan B should your initial pathway plan not work out? Why?” In Lesson 5, students use the Next Steps Narrative Reflection Tool to answer “why you have chosen your postsecondary pathway.”

    • In the Development Unit, Community, students compose a blended mode of writing that incorporates narrative, informational, and argumentative techniques. In Section 2, Lesson 13, for example, students consider narrative strategies to describe their communities by selecting a stylistic or rhetorical device used by Gloria E. Anzaldúa from “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” and composing original sentences in the same style. In Lesson 14, students practice incorporating their own personal experience to write about their community.

    • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 5, Lesson 4, students write their first draft of a narrative and use peer feedback to “revisit, refine, and revise my understanding, knowledge, and work.” This draft is in preparation for the first part of the Culminating Task to write a full narrative using all literary elements and produce an analysis of their own work.

• Where appropriate, writing opportunities are connected to texts and/or text sets (either as prompts, models, anchors, or supports).

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, to provide context and background understanding on the real-life events in the novel by Julia Alvarez, students read a text set of articles including: “Remembering to Never Forget: Dominican Republic’s ‘Parsley Massacre,’” by Mark Memmott; “Dominicans, Haitians Remember Parsley Massacre,” by Celeste Headlee, Julia Alvarez, and Edwidge Danticat; and “‘El Jefe’ - Portrait of a Dictator,” by Bill Leonard. In Section 2, Lesson 1, students use evidence from the text set, including articles, editorials, and sections of the novel, to answer the prompt: “What was life like for people under the reign of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic?” Students also use the anchor text In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez to compose a literary analysis addressing the Central Question: “How does Julia Alvarez depict the Mirabal sisters as revolutionary leaders in In the Time of the Butterflies?” In Section 3, Lesson 3, for example, students write an analysis of the diary entry in Chapter 7, “Wednesday Late Afternoon, December 30,” and answer the question: “Who has economic or social power and who does not?”

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 3, Lesson 4, students examine the use of imagery in a sentence from the mentor text 1984 by George Orwell. With a partner, students discuss questions such as: “How does Orwell use tiny details to follow the ‘show, don’t tell’ technique at this moment in the story?” The materials provide students with an opportunity to write a sentence that “contains at least two pieces of descriptive imagery” to use in their own narratives. In Section 3, Lesson 12, students write a literary analysis to defend their narrative vignettes. This activity requires students to use both the information from the text 1984 by George Orwell as well as their own writing. To create the writing, students respond to guiding questions such as: “How well did I incorporate research in my vignette to create a more plausible and vivid imagined world for my reader?”

• Materials include sufficient writing opportunities for a whole year’s use.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life After High School?, Section 1, Lesson 7, students write a multi-paragraph informational piece to detail the research pathway they have chosen.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, students write a blended piece that incorporates narrative, informational, and argumentative elements as the unit’s Culminating Task. In Section 5, Lesson 5, students review their writing and address the following areas of both narrative and explanatory writing as students develop pieces:

    • “communicate the essential elements of your community

    • explain the values of your community

    • communicate the legitimacy of your community

    • detail the ‘rules’ of your community: how are members determined, and what are their responsibilities to one another?”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 1, Lesson 3, students respond to frequent prompts to support their analysis of the text Hamlet by William Shakespeare through four literary lenses: archetypal, political, psychological, and feminist. As students reread Lines 124-137 of Act 1, Scene 1 through an archetypal lens, students use the Archetypal Lens Note-Taking Tool to respond to questions, such as, “Which lines provide the strongest evidence for this interpretation?” The student-facing materials provide notes to assist in correct citations with a play and include the following reminder to prepare for the writing tasks later in the unit: “It is important to keep accurate line citations so that you can easily track textual evidence to support your claims in the Section Diagnostics and Culminating Task.”

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, students choose to further research one of the topics and text sets they have studied in a previous unit to complete the Culminating Task to answer a self-developed inquiry question using research-based claims and explaining how the process of investigation led to said conclusions and discoveries. In the Development Unit, Hamlet, for example, the Culminating Task prompts students to explore political, feminist, and psychological lenses via the Central Question: “How many ways can the same text be read?” Students practice using these lenses to revisit any unit in the grade level to research further a text, text-set, or topic. Throughout the unit, students develop a research portfolio and presentation connecting to a self-selected topic of inquiry that presents “a clear, engaging narrative of your research process, communicating the evolution of your critical thinking and learning, reflecting on the challenges and successes you experienced, and using details to help your audience understand the context and conclusions of your work.” In Section 3, Lesson 5, students begin compiling their research and developing claims to support their inquiry question or research problem. In Section 5, students apply writing skills developed over the year and connect to texts and topics they have studied closely. In Section 5, Lesson 8, students reflect on what they have learned and evaluate their skills and knowledge by completing the Culminating Task Progress Tracker prompt: “Add or refine any skills and content knowledge required for the Culminating Task. Evaluate how well you are mastering skills and knowledge required for the Culminating Task.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1k.

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criterion that materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support sophisticated analysis, argumentation, and synthesis. The Grade 12 materials provide frequent opportunities for students to engage in short writing responses, argumentative writing tasks, and synthesis of ideas, as well as allow students to connect their writing to various texts they read and analyze across the year. Materials provide tools to guide students in completing writing tasks, such as diagnostic checklists, including student self-assessment of their writing goals, and an Organizing Evidence Tool to guide students in explaining how the evidence supports the supporting claim and the central claim or thesis.

Students learn and practice skills before applying them in their writing. Students revisit texts when responding to questions and cite evidence to support their positions, create claims and support those claims with textual evidence, review and revise claims, and consider whether additional evidentiary support is necessary. Supporting their ideas with evidence from the texts, students write literary and rhetorical analyses, as well as argumentative and informational responses throughout the year. Additionally, each unit ends with an extended writing Culminating Task that requires students to review across texts and genres and to support their claims and arguments with evidence from multiple texts. Students write to practice and apply writing standards that require them to write with a task, purpose, and audience in mind, to delineate and evaluate arguments, and to develop a short research response.

Materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support sophisticated analysis, argumentation, and synthesis. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 2, Lesson 2, students read “High School Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide” by College Greenlight and practice evidence-based writing by answering a series of questions:

    • “What do you consider to be the most important element in a resume?

    • What experiences should you include on your resume?

    • What experiences should you exclude from your resume?

    • What are the major sections you should put in your resume?

    • Discuss the layout of the sample resume. What do you like and dislike?

    • What is the difference between hard and soft skills?

    • What hard and soft skills do you possess?”

  • Students respond to these questions in their Learning Logs and draft their own resumes based on the information collected from the reading.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 2, Lesson 1, students read an excerpt from Chapter 4 of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. Using the Attending to Details Tool to dig into the textual evidence of the reading, students answer the guiding question, “What should outsiders understand about Vance’s community?” In Section 2, Lesson 3, students read a section of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance to analyze its structure and determine how the author supports his claim about education. To complete the task, students practice and apply writing using evidence. The Teacher Edition includes the following guidance for teachers to support students’ application of using evidence in their writing: “students look at the text holistically and make an evaluation, considering how the claims, evidence, and structure influence their opinion of a text.” Later in Section 2, students practice and apply writing using evidence. In Lesson 16, students write a well-developed, multi-paragraph analysis to reflect on the lessons they have learned from the texts in the unit. The student-facing materials include instructions for students to apply writing evidence: “Support your analysis using a variety of well-selected, relevant evidence from any of the texts we have read in this unit.”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 5, Lesson 6, students draft a response for the Culminating Task, to “write a well-developed, multiparagraph literary analysis essay that defends or challenges a claim from one of [three] literary criticisms,” of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Students use their partner’s feedback during the process. The student-facing materials include a list of reminders, such as: “Thoroughly support your ideas with strong textual evidence and analytical reasoning.”

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 1, Lesson 13, students draft a response to the Section 1 Diagnostic, writing “a multiparagraph response that identifies two central ideas in 1984” by George Orwell. Students utilize a Thematic and Central Ideas Note-Taking Tool to identify a thematic idea, supporting details, central idea, and theme. The student-facing materials provide a list of reminders, such as “include at least three pieces of textual evidence (details or quotations) for each central idea.”

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 1, Lesson 7, as part of the Section Diagnostic, student teams submit their research portfolios that include completed Exploring a Topic Tools, Central Research Question Checklists, and team reflections. Students then reflect on their Section Diagnostic by responding in their Learning Logs to a series of questions, such as:

    • “How well did you take necessary action to prepare for the task?

    • What went well for you during the completion of this task?”

  • Students resubmit their portfolios throughout the unit as they practice and apply writing using evidence through a variety of tools, such as the Research Evaluation Checklist in which students examine the credibility and richness of sources.

• Writing opportunities are focused around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with texts and sources to provide supporting evidence.

  • In the Foundation Unit, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, Section 3, Lesson 8, students summarize and share their analyses of their independent reading texts. The student-facing materials prompt students to “Be sure to give a brief summary of your text so that your audience understands any analysis and unit connections that you communicate.” Students also review their notes collected in the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tools and revise their claims “to produce more formal statements that express” their analysis.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 5, Lesson 4, students begin to draft controlling ideas and supporting paragraphs for the unit Culminating Task. Students use their annotations from the tools used throughout the unit, such as the Mentor Sentence Journal and Organizing Evidence Tool, to find evidence to support their claims.

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, Section 2, Lesson 7, students write an analytical response to Chapter 6 of In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Students closely read to answer the question: “How are Julia Alvarez’s personal experiences reflected in In the Time of the Butterflies?” The student-facing materials include directions to ensure students create their analyses using evidence from the text, such as: “Your paragraph should have the following: a clear introduction or topic sentence that includes your claim, the author’s name, and the title of the text an explanation of your position, with relevant details and an analysis of those details textual evidence to support your claim.” In Section 3, Lesson 1, students use the Analyzing Relationships Tool and select whether to read the text In the Time of Butterflies through a historical or biographical lens. Students then find details in Chapters 5 and 6 to defend the reading lens they chose. Students then write a response to the question: “How do these details help you think about the text through the lens you have chosen?” using the details directly from the text to defend their selected lens.

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 3, Lesson 2, students read and annotate Chapter 1 of Part 2 of 1984 by George Orwell using the following questions as a guide:

    • “What surprising development occurs in this chapter? Do you think it is a realistic development? Why or why not? What details from Part 1 foreshadowed the development?

    • How does the note Winston receives change his perspective on life? Why do you think it has this effect?

    • How does Orwell create tension in this chapter? What techniques does he use (e.g., inner dialogue, pacing, etc.)?”

  • Students then select one passage they found significant and write a brief literary analysis using evidence from the text to support their analysis.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 3, Lesson 3, students synthesize their understanding across multiple sources. Students work collaboratively in teams to determine revisions to the Research Frame Tool. The student-facing materials direct teams to “Determine what kind of revisions or refinements you might need to make to your Research Frame Tool.” The student facing materials provide questions for consideration, including but not limited to: “Which inquiry question best summarizes each inquiry path? What are the primary, or most important, inquiry questions for each inquiry path?”

The materials reviewed for Grade 12 meet the criteria for Indicator 1m.

The Grade 12 materials provide a Program Guide that details the structure of the program and how vocabulary is incorporated into both instruction and student work, noting that “While the program prioritizes Tier 2 language, students are exposed to Tier 3 language as well.” The materials offer instructional guidance in outlining and using year-long vocabulary development tools and activities to support student vocabulary development across the school year, and the Teacher Edition and student-facing materials provide specific structures to help students build vocabulary knowledge within and across texts by including specific opportunities for students to connect their understanding of words in multiple contexts and situations.

Academic vocabulary acquisition and use are prioritized within and across the units, as students identify essential vocabulary and apply it to their reading, speaking, and writing tasks. The materials provide opportunities for students to learn new academic and domain-specific terms as students encounter vocabulary in a series of contexts before, during, and across texts, and opportunities for students to determine the meaning of vocabulary words using context clues are consistent. The materials attend to content vocabulary essential to understand each text and to analyze the purpose of word choices. Vocabulary instruction and practice accompany the core program’s selections to build vocabulary knowledge and improve students’ abilities to access complex texts.

Students apply their vocabulary skills to reading tasks utilizing tools, such as the Vocabulary in Context Tool, to assist them in understanding the meaning of unknown words and that words may have multiple meanings. In addition, students have regular opportunities to record vocabulary throughout the units using tools, including Word Maps and Vocabulary Journals, to note and define words throughout the unit. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition provide definitions and suggestions on implementing the Vocabulary Journals. Materials also prompt students to incorporate vocabulary during speaking opportunities and utilize tools, such as the Discussion Tool, to consider language used during classroom discussions.

Materials include a cohesive year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials provide teacher guidance outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component.

  • The Program Guide outlines a philosophy and structure regarding vocabulary noting that “vocabulary is essential to comprehension” and that “the program contains a variety of tools to help students build a robust body of vocabulary and incorporate vocabulary into their own writing and speech.” The materials contain Critical Thinking & Analytical Tools, including the Vocabulary in Context Tool, Word Map, Vocabulary Journal, and Vocabulary Lists, to utilize during instruction and support vocabulary development. Also, Reference Guides, including the Arguments Reference Guide and Claims Reference Guide, “define English language arts concepts and equip students with content terminology used to explain their analysis of text.” Other guides, including the Narratives Reference Guide, Style Reference Guide, and Symbolism and Motifs Reference Guide contain “explanations of key literary elements and syntax techniques.” Additionally, Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition embed guidance within the lesson activities throughout the year by suggesting specific instructional strategies and supports for academic and content-specific vocabulary development and practice before and during text examination.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 1, Lesson 2, students record the terms conferring, overlap, and postsecondary education in the Vocabulary Journals they build throughout the year. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition issue guidance to model how to interact with a text to annotate key vocabulary as follows:

    • “While reading, you might pause at various points to pronounce difficult words and prompt students to annotate the text for key details.”

  • In The Development Unit, Community, Section 1, Lesson 1, Teacher Notes in the Teacher Edition provide the following guidance for the Vocabulary in Context Tool:

    • “Throughout the unit, students also interact with the Vocabulary in Context Tool. The purpose of the Vocabulary in Context Tool is twofold: 1. Students build vocabulary and develop a strategy for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases when there is contextual information and when there is not. 2. Students metacognate on their process for determining the meaning of unknown words, determine the effectiveness of that process, and articulate a plan for using it in future texts.”

  • In Section 1, Lesson 2, the student-facing materials provide an explanation of the approach to vocabulary development that is consistent throughout the year-long program:

    • “We will study important concepts and challenging words from the text, paying attention to their use and meaning in the context in which the author presents them. We will use the Vocabulary in Context Tool as needed and write down important words in our Vocabulary Journals so that we can refer back to them later in the unit and incorporate them into our own work.”

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 1, Lesson 1, students decide when to use context clues or when to use other strategies to determine the meaning of an unknown word or phrase in a text. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition include the following to support student understanding:

    • “The word inevitable does not have enough context in the passage to define it. Provide students with a student-friendly definition, such as the one below.

      • If something is inevitable, it is certain to happen or unavoidable. In the tragedy genre, a sad ending is inevitable.”

  • In the Development Unit, 1984, Section 3, Lesson 9, students begin to draft their vignettes for their Culminating Task using their Vocabulary Journals, including words they learned throughout the unit in their writing. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition offer the following guidance to support student learning:

    • “Students are encouraged to use one or more of the words they have learned thus far in the unit. If students are still mastering the use of new vocabulary, evaluation of their word knowledge can be used as formative data that you can build upon in future lessons.”

• Vocabulary is repeated in contexts (before texts, in texts) and across multiple texts.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, students encounter the word disillusioned when reading “Overcoming Undermatching: Heartfelt Advice for Highschool Students” by Jessenia Class. Subsequently, in the Development Unit, In the Time of the Butterflies, Section 3, Lesson 2, students revisit the academic vocabulary disillusioned as they read Chapter 7 of In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 1, Lesson 1, students encounter the vocabulary word exile while listening to “Where I’m From’: A Crowdsourced Poem That Collects Your Memories of Home,” an NPR radio show with author Kwame Alexandar and host Rachel Martin. Subsequently, in the Development Unit, 1984, Section 2, Lesson 2, students encounter the vocabulary term exile while reading Part 3, Chapter 6 of the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The academic vocabulary is included in a unit vocabulary list, along with content-specific and ELA concepts. After reading the text and answering guiding questions, the student-facing materials encourage students to “Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.”

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 1, students work as a class to define the term artificial intelligence. In Lesson 2, student-facing instructions direct students to “Look over the definition the class created for the term artificial intelligence in Lesson 1. Then, read the definition provided by the Encyclopedia Britannica.” As students move through the unit, they encounter the term artificial intelligence in multiple texts, including “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” by Peter Stone et al.

• Attention is paid to vocabulary essential to understanding the text and to high-value academic words (e.g., words that might appear in other contexts/content areas).

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 1, Lesson 2, students learn the vocabulary terms conferring, overlap, and postsecondary education. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition offer the following guidance:

    • “Pause and allow enough time for students to interact with these words for the first time during the read aloud. Have students annotate the words and write their definitions as margin notes. Allow students to use a reference source as needed. Reinforce to students that all teacher-direct vocabulary terms must be used in their response to the Section 1 Diagnostic.”

  • In the Development Unit, Community, Section 3, Lesson 2, materials pay special attention to the academic vocabulary word community, and more specifically, the morpheme com, as students complete a word study of the morpheme to deepen their vocabulary skills. Teaching Notes in the Teacher Edition state: “In this lesson, students study the origins of the word community in order to understand the origins of its meaning and find other similar words.”

  • In the Development Unit, Artificial Intelligence, Section 1, Lesson 7, students read “Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence” by Future of Life Institute. Prior to reading, students encounter the essential vocabulary word verification in the Vocabulary List; the term is crucial to student understanding of the text.

  • In the Application Unit, What Do I Want to Research?, Section 1, Lesson 3, students use the Potential Sources Tool to help “assess the sources on their richness, relevance, accessibility, interest, and credibility.” The tool poses guiding questions such as, “What background knowledge do I need to understand the terminology, information, and ideas in the text?” to support students as they curate resources for their research pathway.

• Students are supported to accelerate vocabulary learning with vocabulary in their reading, speaking, and writing tasks.

  • In the Foundation Unit, How Can I Prepare for Life after High School?, Section 3, Lesson 2, students use their Vocabulary Journal and Vocabulary in Context tool as they research postsecondary programs. The student-facing materials direct students to “Add at least two words to your Vocabulary Journal from your research. If you submit a resume or cover letter to your institutions of choice, you might need to include some of your new found terminology.”

  • In The Development Unit, Community, Section 1, Lesson 1, students examine the word community both objectively and subjectively before answering the following questions:

    • “What is a community?

    • What are the key features that make up a community?

    • To what communities do you belong?

    • What are the key features of those communities?”

  • Teacher-facing materials suggest additional prompts such as, “Could our school be considered a community? Why or why not?” Students use their answers to engage in a class discussion to examine the term and unit concept in reading, speaking, and writing tasks throughout the lesson and unit.

  • In the Development Unit, Hamlet, Section 1, Lesson 1, students review the Vocabulary Journal and Vocabulary in Context tools for the unit. The student-facing materials pose the guiding question, “How will you know when to use context clues and when to try another strategy?” to support student understanding that some terms can be defined using context clues while others cannot. In Section 1, Lesson 2, students read lines 124–137 from Act 1, Scene 1 of Hamlet and answer a series of questions, including “What impact does Shakespeare’s word choice have on the meaning of this scene?” The materials also prompt students to “Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal. If necessary, revisit the Vocabulary in Context Tool to assist you with words or phrases you struggle with.”

  • In Section 4, Lesson 7, students review feedback from the previous Section Diagnostic and have the option to use the Discussion Tool to address an issue they have identified. The instructions in the Discussion Tool prompts students to use significant words from their Vocabulary Journal:

    • “Review your Vocabulary Journal and the Discussion Stems in the Academic Discussion Reference Guide. Record words and stems you want to use during the discussion.”

  • In the Development Unit, In the Time of Butterflies, Section 4, Lesson 14, students use the Discussion Tool to prepare to participate in a Socratic Seminar to discuss In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Students must use vocabulary acquired from the reading in the writing they complete to prepare for the seminar and in the discussion itself.

  • In Section 6, Lesson 1, students revise their presentation rough drafts into final drafts utilizing the Culminating Task Checklist to consider how well they use language and themes that are relevant and appropriate for the audience to ensure effective communication. Students incorporate vocabulary acquired throughout the research process into their final product.