9th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that anchor/core texts are of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading.

Anchor texts are of publishable quality. Each anchor text contains content worthy of study and provides a foundation for learning across a unit. Texts provide models of extraordinary writing. All texts presented are of high interest, thought-provoking, and contain rich language with numerous instructional opportunities for both the instructor and students. Examples include:

• In Module 1, students read St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell. The text is a modern short story about magical thinking that is of high interest for Grade 9 students and is appropriately complex for the grade.
• Within Module 1, students read Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. This collection of letters spans a five year friendship between a young German soldier and the poet. These short texts are well-written and thought-provoking with rich language and vivid imagery.
• In Module 2, students read “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. This short story is a timeless classic. It has well-written, powerful imagery. The theme and structure of the story is often portrayed in modern interpretations.
• In Module 2, students read Oedipus the King by Sophocles. This text is a classic Greek tragedy, and it is often included in grade level anthologies.
• In Module 3, students read “Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior” by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. The subject is highly engaging, thought-provoking, and worthy of reading given of its treatment of two timely subjects: what we can learn from animals and understanding the characteristics of autism.
• In Module 4, students read large excerpts from Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson and Maria Budhos. This text includes meticulous research and offers a way to look at history through a different lens. The text includes primary source materials and is worthy of a close read for students learning to complete research and tell the story of what they find.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.

Materials offer a range of texts that are of varying levels of complexity. Overall, a large number of texts are on grade level, based on Lexile level and themes throughout each text. While there are texts that are above grade level based on Lexile level, these texts are paired or greatly scaffolded for student comprehension. The texts that are considered below grade level based on Lexile level are rich in theme and worthy of study. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Students read Romeo and Juliet; while a Lexile level is not listed for this version of the play, the text acts as a canonical piece of literature for Grade 9 students to study, dissect, and read. While this is non-standard prose and difficult to measure quantitatively, the story is timely for Grade 9 students exploring love relationships and parental controls. Overall, the language is rich with many literary elements including metaphor, imagery, and text construction.
• Students read the play Oedipus the King; the Lexile level for this text is 1010. The language is rich and worthy of repeated, close reading.
• Students read Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior; the Lexile for this text is 1130. While the text’s Lexile level may be higher than what Grade 9 students typically read, the text is used in the second half of the school year, and it is read with a high level of support as a mentor text to prepare students for a research project.
• Students read Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science; the Lexile for this text is 1130. While the text’s Lexile level may be higher than what Grade 9 students are reading, the text is excerpted with sufficient scaffolding and a small part read in class. It is the final anchor text of the year.
• Students read Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which is at the Lexile level of 820. The quantitative measure is at the top end of the 4-5 band. The text supplies interesting themes and issues worthy of discussion and close reading.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials support students’ literacy skills (understanding and comprehension) over the course of the school year through increasingly complex text to develop independence of grade level skills (Series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels).

Throughout the school year, students read poems, short stories, articles, and excerpts of longer texts with guided instruction and consistent discussion in pairs, small groups, and whole class. Each module contains tasks which require students to use selected works to cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says. Texts move from mostly literary texts in the first module to exclusively informational texts in the third module as students complete their own research project. More complex texts are read in smaller chunks in class, with as little as three or four paragraphs for an instructional lesson, with time and attention given to the complexities of the text substance and structure. Students build strength of analysis and comprehension with common texts then build stamina through independent reading. Students complete independent reading of self-selected texts throughout the school year. A reading journal logs student interaction and occasional analysis of independent texts. Examples include:

• In Module 1, students read a variety of literary texts with close reading questions that support collaborative conversations. Quick writes at the end of each lesson capture deepening levels of analysis and engagement.
• In Module 2, students read both literary and informational texts to explore issues of human development. They continue discussion-based assessments, quick writes, and reading journals to record independent reading progress.
• In Module 3, students conduct research to develop research skills after examining a mentor text. They develop a line of inquiry, gather and analyze information, then use a writing process to craft a well-supported presentation of research findings.
• In Module 4, students read informational text and craft an argument to process their learning.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that anchor and supporting texts provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade level reading proficiency. Each lesson follows a standard structure: overview and identification of targeted content standards, homework check, class reading and collaborative conversations, quick write to process information, and closing activity to prep homework; the majority of the activities are based solely on the text(s) in question. Students interact with texts in multiple ways, including the following: teacher read-alouds, independent reading, anchor text readings and annotations, anchor text small group readings, whole group readings and discussion questions, paired readings, vocabulary journals and annotations, and research-based texts of student choice.

Students engage in a range of text types, both literary and informational. More complex texts are chunked with guiding questions that lead students through analysis with talk partners. Less complex texts ask students to do more independent processing. Students self-select resources to read in support of research and novels for independent study. The lesson structure remains consistent throughout the year so that students develop fluency with analytic practices.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-dependent/specific, 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).

In Grade 9, text-dependent and text-specific questions are included throughout the modules. Each module is divided by units of study with individual lessons. Each unit is centered around a direct quote that functions as the theme of the unit. Questions require repeated close reading focusing on a range of text segments from the use of a particular word ranging to reading and surveying a segment of text. Students also practice analyzing the overall tone, theme, or effect across an entire text. Students are required to go back into the text and read closely in order to determine what the text says explicitly while responding to questions that require students to provide evidence for inferences drawn from the text. Text dependent questions build upon one another, providing opportunities for students to engage deeply with texts through close reading. Teachers are provided with exemplar student responses for questions and tasks.

In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 11, students read St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell, and they are asked a series of prompts and questions, such as:

• Analyze Claudette’s tone in describing her brothers on page 241.
• How does Claudette describe Mirabella at the ball?
• How does Claudette’s description of Mirabella establish her attitude toward about St. Lucie’s (sic)?
• Explain Mosley’s claim about life in “smaller societies” (par. 8). What is different today?
• What does Mosley mean by “the illusion of understanding” (par. 8)?

In Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 2, students read “True Crime: The Roots of an American Obsession” by Walter Mosley, and they are prompted to respond to questions, such as:

• What is Mosley referring to by “this” when he writes,”This is because most of us see ourselves as powerless cogs in a geater machine” (par. 5)?
• What images in paragraph five (5) help make meaning of “vulnerability” in paragraph six (6)?
• According to Mosley, how does the sense of “vulnerability” in Western civilization affect people’s decisions?

Exemplar student answers are provided in the Teacher Guide. For example, in Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 4, students read Sugar Changed the World, “The Champagne Fairs,” and “Globalization,” and they are prompted to respond to the following questions. Teachers are provided with exemplar responses, such as:

• How do the author’s descriptions of Europe compare to their descriptions of the Muslim world?
  • The authors describe Europe as “violent, ignorant, and divided” (p. 19). Most Europeans could only “count[] on their hands,” in contrast to the educated Muslims who “studied the words of the ancient Greeks” (p. 19). Additionally, Europe was very isolated and “no one ventured far” (p. 19). This description contrasts with the authors’ description of a Muslim world founded on the
    physical and intellectual exchange between cultures (p. 18).
• How has globalization influenced popular culture?
  • Globalization and the spread of ideas have made popular culture, such as “music and comic books” (par. 13), “movies” (par. 14), “clothing” (par.15), and “food” (par.16) available in a variety of countries, not just the one where the popular item started.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of sequences of text-dependent/text-specific questions with activities that build to a culminating task which integrates skills to demonstrate understanding.

Students have varied opportunities to demonstrate understanding in each module. Students prepare for the culminating task in multiple ways that integrate skills, such as: close reading, annotating, reading independently and in small groups, hosting whole class and small group discussions in multiple formats, and asking and answering questions.

Every lesson culminates in a Quick Write assessment task. This assessment provides information about students’ understanding of the lesson objectives and texts. Teachers are provided with high performance response criteria. Lessons contain sets of high quality, text-dependent/specific questions that build to the culminating task. For example, in Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 5, the quick write task requires students to “Analyze how Grandin introduces and develops her ideas about visual thinkers and animal behavior.” The activities and questions leading up to this task include:

• How does Grandin explain what it means to be a “visual thinker”(p.16)?
• How does Grandin use the concept of a courtroom to explain visual thinking?
• Why did Grandin focus on animals’ “visual environments” (p. 18)? How does Grandin’s focus help make meaning of the word "gravitated"?
• What connections does Grandin draw between visual thinkers and understanding animal behavior?

Each unit includes a Mid-Unit Assessment and an End-of-Unit Assessment that connect to the Module Performance Assessment. These unit assessments give teachers feedback as students work towards the Module Performance Assessment. For example, the Module 3, Unit 1 End-of-Unit Assessment asks students to “Analyze Claudette’s development in relation to the five stage of Lycanthropic Culture Shock.”

Each module includes a Module Performance Assessment that serves as a culminating task. The lessons and activities that are completed within the units of study lead to preparing students for the Performance Assessment. Supporting lessons contain text-dependent and text-specific questions, tasks, and assignments. Thinking, speaking, writing, and listening skills are the focus of key ideas and details in the modules. Writing and reading are integrated throughout the tasks. Text-dependent questions scaffold throughout the modules to help students become equipped to respond to the culminating tasks. Students demonstrate understanding through written expression, oral discussions, and presentations within groups. For example, in the Module 3 Module Performance Assessment, students “Identify a specific phrase or central idea in paragraphs 4-9 of Rilke’s 'Letter Seven.' Analyze how that phrase or central idea relates to one or more characters or central ideas in 'St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves' or Romeo and Juliet.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials support students’ listening and speaking (and discussions) about what they are reading and researching (shared projects) with relevant follow-up questions and supports.

Opportunities are presented for students to engage in speaking and listening activities for the texts they are reading and for the chosen area of investigation that they want to research. Students further demonstrate their speaking and listening skills through creating and sharing inquiry questions and engaging in discussion regarding self-created inquiry questions.

Throughout the modules, students are given opportunities to respond to higher order questions by utilizing textual evidence. Furthermore, students are directed to read and annotate with their peers, take notes, and respond to their peers’ questions and thoughts. Students collaborate with others and revise writings, as needed. Teachers are provided with exemplar answers as models, as well as student look-fors. For example:

• In, Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 3, student discuss in a whole-group, “How does Rilke use specific words and phrases on pages 9-10 to refine his ideas about being a poet?” Teachers are given guidance that includes, “Student responses may include Rilke’s use of 'burden' and 'greatness' when describing himself as an accomplished poet.”
• In Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 1, students read a passage from “The Tell-Tale Heart” and discuss several questions in pairs before sharing their ideas with the rest of the class. Students are prompted to respond to the following questions:
  • From whose point of view is “The Tell-Tale Heart” narrated?
  • What information does the narrator reveal about himself in paragraph 1?
  • Given what the narrator suggests about himself in paragraph 1, what is the meaning of "mad" in this context?
• In Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 5, using a completed homework assignment that instructed students to use a source assessment protocol to evaluate two sources. Students form pairs and discuss their assessments of sources and two vocabulary words identified.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 4, Activity 2: Homework Accountability, students are instructed to read “Fortress Europe” and “The Champagne Fairs.” As an assignment, they are to define “globalization.” The word is later applied in Activity 3: Reading and Discussion. In pairs, students answer questions, such as:
  • Why did globalization happen?
  • Who are the supporters of globalization?
  • What does globalization look like in the United States?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g. multiple drafts, revisions over time) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

There are regular, on-demand writings called Quick Writes that include a rubric and a writing checklist. These are used consistently throughout lessons and build to the unit assessments. Each unit includes a mid-unit and end-of-unit assessment, which provide students an opportunity to develop process writing habits that include using evidence from text analysis and information from research or inquiry projects. Graphic organizers, rubrics, and exemplar responses are provided for written responses throughout the units.

In Module 1, the Module Performance Assessment requires students to use the skills and habits that they have developed over the course of the module to read and analyze an excerpt of a new text, “Letter Seven” of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. Students work in small groups to read and analyze paragraphs 4–9 of the letter and identify a specific phrase or central idea that relates to a central idea or characters from either St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves or Romeo and Juliet. Students draft a multi-paragraph response and use the peer review process to revise and strengthen their responses. Students participate in multiple quick writes throughout the unit to prepare for the final process writing:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 1, students are provided with a Short Response Rubric and Short Response Checklist as supports for developing regular habits for short, focused writing projects. Students briefly respond to the following prompt: “Identify two specific word choices in the title and epigraph and explain how these words evoke a sense of place.”
• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, students describe Claudette’s tone in her description of States two and three of Lycanthropic Culture Shock. Students also cite specific evidence to support their response.
• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 17, students write a multiparagraph response to the following prompt: “Analyze Claudette’s development in relation to the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock.” Students use the End-of-Unit Text Analysis Rubric to guide their writing within the Student Journal.

In Module 4, students read, analyze, and evaluate informational and argument writing and build, through focused instruction, the skills required to craft strong and well-supported argument writing of their own. Through the study of a variety of texts, students learn to think of the products they use and consume everyday as part of a complex web of global production and trade that extends not only to distant lands but to the past as well. This module also focuses on argument writing instruction. Students closely read the supplementary module texts as examples of argument writing, learning the skills and components necessary for strong argument writing. Students use tools to evaluate and synthesize the arguments presented in the module’s supplementary texts, culminating in the development of students’ own evidence-based argument. The End-of-Unit Assessment asks students to use evidence from the module texts to respond to the prompt: "Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that goods are ethically produced?" For the Module Performance Assessment, students read and analyze several new sources to form an evidence-based argument in response to the following prompt: “Is local food production an example of ethical consumption?” Students participate in multiple quick writes throughout the unit to prepare for the final process writing:

• Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 8, after reading “Where Sweatshops Are a Dream,” students respond to the following prompt: “How does the author use figurative language to advance his purpose in this article?” Students use their annotations to find evidence to support their position.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 14, students use their Argument Outline Tool to record the following prompt in the Question section: “Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that clothes are ethically manufactured?” Students can use their text, notes, and any previous tools or Quick Write responses to find relevant and sufficient evidence to support their responses.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 21, students respond to the Quick Write, “How do details in this passage shape and refine a central idea of the text?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the expectation that materials provide opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. (Writing opportunities incorporate digital resources/multimodal literacy materials where appropriate. Opportunities may include blended writing styles that reflect the distribution required by the standards.)

The distribution of writing assignments for Grade 9 can be found in the four modules, and the Curriculum Map details what types of writing are available. Students focus on developing expository writing in Modules 1-3 and argumentative writing in Module 4. Students address multiple text types and genres through Quick Writes, Mid-Unit Assessments, End-of-Unit Assessments, and Module Performance Assessments. For example,

• In Module 1, Unit 1, The Mid-Unit Assessment is an expository essay that requires students to respond to the following prompt: “Choose and explain one epigraph. Analyze the relationship between that epigraph and the girls’ development in that stage.” The end of unit assessments asks students to analyze Claudette’s development in relation to the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock. In Unit 3, The Mid-Unit Assessment is an expository essay that requires students to respond to the following prompt: “How does Shakespeare's development of the characters of Romeo and Juliet refine a central idea in the play?” The End-of-Unit Assessment asks students to select either Romeo or Juliet to explain how Shakespeare develops the character as a tragic hero(ine).
• In Module 2, within the section, “Using Evidence to Make Claims, Performance Assessment,” students must “identify a central idea shared by one literary text and one informational text [and then] use specific details to explain how this central idea develops over the course of each text, and compare how the author’s choices about text structure contribute to the development of this idea.”
• In Module 3, Unit 1, students write a formal, multi-paragraph response to the following prompts as an End-of-Unit Assessment: “Part 1- How does Grandin develop and refine a central idea in the text? Identify a central idea from chapter 1 and trace is development in the text.” And, “Part 2- Articulate two to three distinct areas of investigation and where they emerge from the text.” In Unit 3, The End-of-Unit Assessment requires students to “write a one-page synthesis of [their] personal conclusions and perspective derived from [their] research. Draw on research outcomes, as developed in the Organizing Evidence-Based Claims Tools, to express [their] perspective on [their] problem-based question.”
• In Module 4, within the section, “Analyzing Text to Write Arguments, Performance Assessment,” students are required to “Choose four of these texts and write a multi-paragraph essay in response to the following prompt, ‘Is local food production an example of ethical consumption?’ Provide evidence from at least four sources in your response.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support sophisticated analysis, argumentation, and synthesis.

Instructional materials include frequent opportunities for students to write evidence-based claims relating to various topics and in response to text sets organized around the topic. Students are asked to analyze text, develop claims, and support those claims with evidence from the text. There are opportunities to practice and demonstrate literary analysis, understanding of author’s craft, and synthesis of information from class discussions. Tools, such as graphic organizers are provided to help student analyze and organize texts to be used in later writing. The checklists and rubrics also include criteria for using evidence which asks students to support explanations/claims with evidence from the texts by using accurate quotations, paraphrases, and references.

Opportunities for writing to sources include informal writing with Quick Writes,within the units and formal writing in the form of Module Unit Assessments and the culminating Module Performance Assessments. High Performance responses are also included. These response provide examples for the teacher and list criteria that students can refer to when writing. For example:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4, students are assigned a Quick Write. The prompt is as follows: “How does Russell develop the pack as a character?” For this specific writing assignment, students were responsible for utilizing discussion questions that act as annotation supports of text utilized during this quick write.
• In Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 2, students learn how “selecting relevant evidence to support their claim is an important part of the writing.” In this activity, students are given the following statement after reading an excerpt from “True Crime: The Roots of an American Obsession”: “Mosley claims that everybody is guilty of something.” Students then locate two pieces of relevant information to support the claim.
• In Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 3, students complete the Quick Write focusing on an author's method of reporting research: “How does Grandin introduce and develop her analysis of behaviorism? What connections does she draw between her perspective and her analysis of behaviorism?” In Unit 2, Lesson 1, students shift focus to research development: Writing focuses on annotation of said text, taking notes, and synthesizing information in preparation for writing. Students use the Taking Notes tool which provides an organizer for gathering details and reacting to them followed by the Synthesizing Notes Tool which relates the notes to the inquiry question. The end-of-unit assessment asks students to synthesize their research evidence and support their perspective. In Lesson 2, students draft an introduction to their paper. In Lesson 4, students develop cohesion in writing by focusing on transitions to support relationship between ideas and supporting evidence.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 8, students respond to the following prompt: “How does the author use figurative language to advance his purpose in this article?” Students use their annotations to find evidence to support their position.