9th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics or themes to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend and analyze complex texts proficiently.

Texts are organized into modules. There are four modules that explore a particular literary element or idea. Students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts is supported by engaging in analysis, participating in evidence-based discussions, and writing to inform in the first two modules. In the third module, students learn the principles of research. In the last module, students study argumentation techniques to write their own arguments. Repeated reading for different purposes and to develop vocabulary with increasingly complex texts continues throughout the year.

Each module is divided into units. Each unit is entitled with a quotation from a text included as student reading. The quotation serves as the theme that build students’ knowledge while enhancing their ability to read and comprehend complex texts proficiently. The texts are connected by cohesive topics throughout the modules. The units within the module focus on a theme that can be supported in the various texts and demonstrated in the tasks and activities. Students are given numerous opportunities to independently practice with the texts and to build understanding.

• In Module 1, students read contemporary short stories, excerpts from contemporary novels, and the play, Romeo and Juliet. The text set presents the idea of identity and beauty, and it is complemented by film and fine art.
• In Module 2, students continue to develop the skills, practices, and routines of close reading and annotating text. To begin, students read “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe to consider structural choices that assist with the analysis of the central ideas of madness, obsession, and guilt. Students read “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson and examine the order of events, punctuation, and repetition. Both works allow students to explore the authors' structural choices that contribute to the development of the central ideas.
• In Module 3, students comprehend the process of research by reading the work of Temple Grandin and others who have observed and studied animal behavior. Through their engagement with the mentor texts, students develop a focus and method of conducting their own research.
• In Module 4, students read, analyze, and evaluate informational and argumentative writing. Students read the central text, Sugar Changed the World, and are challenged to think about products that are used in their everyday lives. Students are required to evaluate argumentative writing and analyze authors' use of rhetoric. Supplementary texts are used to help build upon concepts taught within the unit.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced higher order thinking questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

In each lesson, text-based questions build from comprehension to deeper analysis questions exploring how the text works and what the text means. Students explore author’s craft, as well as key details. Students examine the effectiveness and impact of an author’s purpose, word choice, and use of figurative language, in order to derive meaning from texts. Key ideas, craft and structure are present within each question set. Question set build upon one another to push students to higher order thinking. For example:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 11, while reading St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, students are asked a series of prompts and questions including:
  • 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 about St. Lucie’s (sic)?
• In Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 2, while reading “True Crime: The Roots of an American Obsession” by Walter Mosley, the question set prompts students to look at the specific word, "vulnerability," to view all avenues that the word presents:
  • What images in paragraph 5 help make meaning of "vulnerability" in paragraph 6?
  • According to Mosley, how does the sense of “vulnerability” in Western civilization affect people’s decisions?
• In Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 4, while reading Sugar Changed the World, in chapters “The Champagne Fairs” and “Globalization,” students are asked a series of questions including:
  • How do the author’s descriptions of Europe compare to their descriptions of the Muslim world?
  • What might be National Geographic’s purpose for publishing this article?

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent and text-specific questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

Materials contain text-dependent questions that support student analysis across the text. The questions are scaffolded and offer opportunities to raise the level of rigor in the classroom through deeper analysis and textual evidence to justify students’ responses. The texts are organized in a manner that poses thought-provoking questions to students from the beginning to the end of the lesson. The questions also provide opportunities for each student to demonstrate these skills using one text or multiple texts. Module 3 focuses on research-based questions that extend beyond the classroom.

• In Module 1, students explore the concept of maintaining a secret life. Questions require students to examine parts of a text such as the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” and similarly, Shakespeare’s development of a tragic hero in Romeo and Juliet. At the end of the module, students compare character development across several of the texts they have read throughout the module.
• In Module 2, Unit 2, students read lines 1673-1814 of Oedipus the King. In the End-of-Unit Assessment, students are asked to answer the following question: “How does Sophocles develop tension between Oedipus’s guilt and his innocence?” Using evidence from the reading, students must support their response.
• In Module 3, students examine “Animals In Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior” by Temple Grandin. Students identify two to three distinct areas of investigation and where they emerge from the text. They choose other texts to independently complete an investigation on and present their findings in a formal essay.
• In Module 4, students read “The Sound of Liberty” on pages 83-88 of Sugar Changed the World. Using an Unfolding Analysis Tool, students trace how the authors unfold the series of events of the Haitian Revolution to make connections between key ideas. This tool is used by students to answer the Quick Write question: “How do authors unfold a series of events in order to make connections between ideas in this passage?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

Each module includes a Module Performance Assessment that serves as a culminating task in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills. 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. Each unit also includes both a Mid-Unit Assessment and an End-of Unit of Unit Assessment that connect to the Module Performance Assessment. These unit assessments give teachers feedback as students work towards the Module Performance Assessment.

In Module 2, students explore identity through texts that examine human motivations, actions, and consequences. Students build on work from Module 1 as they track character development. Students analyze the effects of an author’s structural choices on the development of central ideas. Students also engage with informational texts about guilt and human fascination with crime, as they continue to develop their ability to identify and make claims. In the Module 2 Performance Assessment, students respond to the prompt: “Identify central ideas shared by one literary text and one informational text. 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.” 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. As students work through the units, the Mid-Unit and End-of-Unit Assessments provide feedback. For example,

• In the Unit 1 Mid-Unit Assessment, students write a multi-paragraph response focused on “The Tell-Tale Heart” in which they identify a central idea and discuss how point of view and structural choices contribute to the development of the central idea over the course of the text. Lessons, activities, and questions during the unit build to this task.
• In the Unit 2 End-of-Unit Assessment, students write a multi-paragraph response exploring how Sophocles develops the tension between Oedipus’s guilt and his innocence. Lessons, activities, and questions during the unit build to this task.
• In the Unit 3 End-of-Unit Assessment, students participate in an assessed Fishbowl discussion, in which they consider the claims and ideas developed by the authors in this unit in order to draw connections between these claims and ideas and explore the ways in which they support or challenge one another. Lessons, activities, and questions during the unit build to this task.

In Module 4, students learn new information about the past that may inform the choices they make today. Students consider the ethics and consequences of their decisions to build an understanding of how history helps shape the people, culture, and belief systems of our modern-day world. Students read argument texts to consider the structure, development, and efficacy of arguments. In the Module 4 Performance Assessment, students to respond to the prompt: “For this assessment, you must choose at least four of these texts and write a multi-paragraph argument essay in response to the prompt, ‘Is local food production an example of ethical consumption? Provide evidence from at least four sources in your response.’ As students work through the units, the Mid-Unit and End-of-Unit Assessments provide feedback. For example,

• In the Mid-Unit Assessment, students draft an argument outline for the prompt: “ Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring the clothes are ethically manufactured?” Lessons, activities, and questions during the unit build to this task.
• In the End-of-Unit Assessment, students write a multi-paragraph essay in response to “ Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that goods are ethically produced?” Lessons, activities, and questions during the unit build to this task.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials contain a year long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and practice which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts.

Module 1 introduces expository/informational writing in a series of lessons intended to develop close reading habits paired with evidence-based writing. Modules 2 and 3 extend and deepen the expository/informational writing skills and habits. Module 4 is dedicated exclusively to argument writing. Most lessons end with a Quick Write, on-demand assessment, which provides the opportunity to respond to text, often following a text-based discussion in class. Quick Write activities in all instances act as major process writing assignments. Mid-Unit and End-of-Unit writing assignments allow extended writing. In Module 3, students research to support exploration of topics.

In Module 1, students complete the following activities:

• Students compose a Quick Write on the following prompt: “Identify two specific word choices in the title and epigraph and explain how these words evoke a sense of place.”
• Students complete a Mid-Unit Assessment that requires the following: “Choose and explain one epigraph. Analyze the relationship between that epigraph and the girls’ development in that stage.”
• Students are required to complete an End-of-Unit Assessment for Module 1: “Write a multi-paragraph response to the following prompt: Analyze Claudette’s development in relation to the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock.”

In Module 3, students complete the following activities:

• Students compose a Quick Write based on the following prompt: “How do the authors unfold a series of events in order to make connections between ideas in this passage?”
• For the Mid-Unit Assessment, students are required to “Write an argument essay that explains who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that clothes are ethically manufactured.” Students are instructed to “use strong and thorough text evidence.”
• Students are required to complete an End-of-Unit Assessment: Students are assessed on the final draft of their research project. They must develop a claim supported by relevant and sufficient evidence. The final draft must be well-organized, demonstrate control of conventions, maintain a formal style, and make effective transitions.

In Module 4, students analyze texts to write arguments. Students complete the following activities:

• Students must compose a Quick Write based on the following prompt: “How do the authors unfold a series of events in order to make connections between ideas in the passage and other sections in the book?”
• As part of the Mid-Unit Assessment, students draft an outline to address the following prompt: “Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that clothes are ethically manufactured.”
• The End-of-Unit Assessment is the final essay responding to the Mid-Unit Assessment prompt.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to develop and synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials.

Research is found in Module 3 where students conduct a sustained research project. Students practice the skills and concepts of research throughout all modules via extension questions with each text. Students are presented with, questions regarding historical figures in specific texts, etc. Module 3 offers students the opportunity to synthesize their findings through a major process writing: a written argument. Students read “Animals in Translation: using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior” by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson as an exemplar text then develop topics for research and plan projects. Students create a blog post to share findings from research. Students make effective use of multimedia components. Student support materials include graphic organizers to gather notes, record sources, and reflect on quality of information. The “Area Evaluation Checklist” provides a tool for synthesizing information after carefully evaluating the source and determining relevance to the research topic.

Students examine mentor texts and determine qualities of well-researched, evidence-based writing. Students also develop their own line of inquiry and present their findings in a culminating task. Students also practice the research process through Accountable Independent Reading (AIR), which pushes students to discuss the text and relate it to what they are doing within their personal lives; students must go outside of their regular assigned tasks to meet with a school librarian to identify a text that peeks their interest(s). Students synthesize knowledge gained through AIR with current assignments and projects.

Students are presented with graphic organizers that provide students a method of recording information, and rubrics make expectations for quality quite explicit. The use of rubrics encourages synthesis of knowledge and understanding of said topic(s). Overall, students will research an area of investigation by generating inquiry-based questions, evaluating sources (self-selected texts), analyzing the claims of authors, and developing their own claims and counterclaims throughout.

Examples of research activities in other modules include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3 begins with a sharing of student’s independent reading research. In continuation, Unit 2, Lesson 1 requires students to conduct a brief search into the life of Rainer Maria RIlke and come prepared to share two important facts about him. And, in Unit 3, Lesson 2, students must conduct a brief search into the classical figures of Cupid and Dian and write a paragraph explaining who Cupid and Dian are, as well as their mythological importance.
• In Module 2, Unit 1, Lesson 13, students conduct a brief search of ancient Greece in preparation for the next unit.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 9 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

Students read independently and regularly for homework. Students’ independent reading is often completed as assigned homework. Students do have some opportunities to read independently in class. The reading assignments, inside and outside of class, often require that students annotate the lesson’s text. The assignments extend the day’s lesson or prepare students for the following day. This includes finding new words and using context clues to draw meaning. There is a Homework Accountability activity in the next day’s lesson following the assignment.

Additionally, students are assigned to read their Accountable Independent Reading (AIR) text several nights a week. AIR is an frequent daily expectation for homework, and through protocols built into the lessons, students engage in accountable talk in pairs and with their teacher about their independent reading texts. In the Teacher Resource Book, teachers are instructed to use the school librarian or media specialist to help students locate quality high-interest texts. The accountability for independent reading can be seen in the follow-up activities which usually require students to share what they have read with a classroom or group.

• In Module 2, Unit 1, students are assigned the following homework assignments after being introduced to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”: Preview the following lesson’s text by annotating paragraphs 8-13 (from “When I had waited a long time, very patiently” to “A tub caught all - ha! ha!”) according to the protocols established in Module 9.1, using the codes “CI,” “SC,” and “POV.” Additionally, continue reading your Accountable Independent Reading text through the lens of the focus standard RL.9-10.4 or RI.9-10.4 and prepare for a 3-5 minute discussion of your text based on that standard.
• In Module 4, Unit 1, as students continue to study Sugar Changed the World, students are instructed to read in class to prepare for discussion with their groups. The Teacher Guide states, “Instruct students to read the first four paragraphs of this passage on pages 88-90, from ‘The leaders of the American Revolution kept close watch’ to ‘the country frightened slave owners; it did not change their views.’"