English I / 2014-2015 /
English I / 2014-2015
Unit / Content Standards / Reporting Cluster(s) / Content Topics / Year-Long & Supporting Standards
Unit One:
Narrative Elements
9 Weeks /
  • Reading Literature 2
  • Reading Literature 3
/
  • Analyzing Literary Devices
/
  • Themes
  • Characters and Conflicts
/
  • Mastering Vocabulary
  • Constructing Writing
  • Applying Grammar and Mechanics
  • Comprehending Text

  • Writing 3
/
  • Writing Narratives
/
  • Narrative Writing

Unit Two:
Complex Fiction
9 Weeks /
  • Reading Literature 1
  • Reading Informational Text 1
  • Reading Literature 6
/
  • Analyzing Character Point of View
/
  • Questioning, Inference, and Interpretation
  • Point of View
/
  • Mastering Vocabulary
  • Constructing Writing
  • Applying Grammar and Mechanics
  • Comprehending Text

  • Reading Literature 5
  • Reading Informational Text 5
/
  • Analyzing Text Structure
/
  • Text Structures and Features

Unit Three:
Research and Argument
9 Weeks /
  • Reading Informational Text 8
/
  • Evaluating Arguments in Text
/
  • Argument and Reasoning
/
  • Writing 1
  • Mastering Vocabulary
  • Constructing Writing
  • Applying Grammar and Mechanics
  • Comprehending Text

  • Writing 7
  • Writing 8
/
  • Synthesizing Information
/
  • Research
  • Access and Organize Information

Unit Four:
Connections Across Texts
9 Weeks /
  • Reading Informational Text 3
/
  • Analyzing Text Connections
/
  • Connections
/
  • Mastering Vocabulary
  • Constructing Writing
  • Applying Grammar and Mechanics
  • Comprehending Text

  • Reading Literature 9
/
  • Integrating Multiple Texts
/
  • Literary Comparisons and Source Material

Grade / Unit 1 / Unit 2 / Unit 3 / Unit 4 / Writing
9 / 3 Topics
Deadline / 3 Topics
Deadline / 3 Topics
Deadline / 3 Topics
Deadline / Unit 1
Deadline
Grade / Fall SRI / Winter SRI / Spring SRI
9 / September 19 / January 14 / May 15

Year-Long Language Arts Reporting Clusters

Reporting Cluster: Mastering Vocabulary
Topic / RL9.4, RI9.4 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Vocabulary / 4 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone in a text (for example, how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone)

3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations in a text
  • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Identify specific words that impact meaning and tone in a text
  • Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking and listening.

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Reporting Cluster: Comprehending Text
Topic / RL9.10, RI9.10 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Text Complexity / 4 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the 1300+ Lexile Level (Advanced)

3.5 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the 1225-1299 Lexile Level (Proficient)

3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the 1150-1224Lexile Level (Proficient)

2.5 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the 1075-1149 Lexile Level (Basic)

2 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the 1000-1074Lexile Level (Basic)

1.5 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the 500-999 Lexile Level (Below Basic)

1 / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Read text at the BR-499 Lexile Level (Below Basic)

Year-Long Language Arts Reporting Clusters (Continued)

Reporting Cluster: Constructing Writing
Topic / W9.4 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Task, Purpose, and Audience / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate the task, purpose, and audience (for example, opinion, informative/explanatory, narrative, and research writing)

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Describe the task, purpose, and audience for a given writing task
  • Describe how to modify samples of writing for a specific task, purpose, and audience
  • Produce writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience using a template or graphic organizer

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / W9.5 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Revise and Edit / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to strengthen writing by:
  • Planning
  • Revising
  • Editing

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Plan writing using a template or graphic organizer
  • Revise and edit writing based on teacher and peer feedback

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / W9.6 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Technology Use / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to use technology, including the internet, to:
  • Produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products
  • Link to other information and display information flexibly and dynamically

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Demonstrate the features of various technologies (for example, word processor, blog, presentation software)
  • Describe the ethical use of various technologies

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.

Year-Long Language Arts Reporting Clusters (Continued)

Reporting Cluster: Applying Grammar and Mechanics
Topic / L9.1 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Grammar / 4 / Students demonstrate they have command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage in context when writing or speaking to:
  • Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested
  • Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references as needed

3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage in context when writing or speaking to:
  • Use parallel structure
  • Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent, noun, relative, adverbial) to convey specific meanings

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Use grammar and usage in isolation

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / L9.2 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Capitalization and Punctuation / 4 / Students demonstrate they have command of the conventions of standard English capitalization and punctuation in context when writing to:
  • Observe hyphenation conventions

3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have command of the conventions of standard English capitalization and punctuation in context when writing to:
  • Use a semicolon (and perhaps a conjunctive adverb) to link two or more closely related independent clauses
  • Use a colon to introduce a list or quotation

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Use conventions in isolation

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / L9.3 / Knowledge: / Assessments:
Language Conventions / 4 / Students apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening to:
  • Vary syntax for effect, consulting references for guidance as needed
  • Apply an understanding of syntax to the study of complex texts when reading

3
Proficient / Students apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening to:
  • Write and edit work so that it conforms to the guidelines in a style manual (for example, MLA Handbook) appropriate for the discipline and writing type

2 / Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Demonstrate the use of a style manual

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.

UNIT ONE: Elements of Narrative9 weeks

Organizing Principles:A unit focused on the narrative process. Students will read model narratives and construct their own narratives throughout this unit, giving teachers ample opportunity to engage with short stories or modest-duration novels.

Overview of Unit Materials
Textbook Resources / Commonly Used Full-Length Texts / Uncommonly Used Full-Length Texts / Supplemental Material
Material is drawn from Holt McDougal Grade 9 Literature Book ©2010. / No specific text from this list is required, but teachers should be teaching a balance between this column and the “Uncommonly Used Full-Length Texts” column.
  • Speak
  • Freedom Writer’s Diary
/ A course should not teach more texts from this column (or from teacher free choice) than it does from the “Commonly Used Full-Length Texts” column. / Resources from outside the textbook are acceptable, but should be shared with the grade-level PLC. Some strong external resources recommended by teachers include:
Planning Guide to Year-Long Standards
Mastering Vocabulary / Constructing Writing / Applying Grammar and Mechanics / Comprehending Text
  • Story-specific vocabulary from short stories and full-length texts read throughout the unit
/
  • Writing tasks that support Writing Narratives
  • Writing tasks that support Analyzing Literary Devices
  • Revision of significant tasks
/
  • [PENDING]
/
  • Fall SRI administered during this unit.

Topic Scales (2 clusters, 3 topics)

Reporting Cluster: Writing Narratives
Topic / W9.3 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Narrative Writing / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences that:
  • Engage the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation
  • Orient the reader by establishing one or multiple points of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters
  • Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, andmultiple plot lines to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
  • Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so they build on one another to create a coherent whole
  • Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters
  • Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Coherent, narrative, organize, reflection, sensory detail
Students will perform basic processes, such as:
  • Planning and organizing a narrative
  • Identify targeted characteristics in a sample narrative
  • Write a brief, single-episode narrative

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Reporting Cluster: Analyzing Literary Devices
Topic / RL9.2, RI9.2 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Themes / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Analyze the development of a theme over the course of a text, including how it is shaped and refined by specific details
  • Provide an objective summary of a text

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Analyze, objective, summarize, theme
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Determine theme of a text
  • Summarize a text

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / RL9.3, RI9.3 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Characters and Conflicts / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text
  • Analyze how complex characters interact with other characters in a text
  • Analyze how complex characters advance the plot of a text

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Complex character, conflict, interact, motivation, plot
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Describe the complex characters in a text

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.

UNIT TWO: Complex Fiction9 weeks

Organizing Principles: A unit focused on complex fictional texts and anchored on a study of Romeo & Juliet. There is ample room for poetry and supplemental texts throughout, but this is the place where students dig deep into analysis of a rich piece of literature.

Overview of Unit Materials
Textbook Resources / Commonly Used Full-Length Texts / Uncommonly Used Full-Length Texts / Supplemental Material
Material is drawn from Holt McDougal Grade 9 Literature Book ©2010. / No specific text from this list is required, but teachers should be teaching a balance between this column and the “Uncommonly Used Full-Length Texts” column.
  • Romeo & Juliet [REQUIRED]
/ A course should not teach more texts from this column (or from teacher free choice) than it does from the “Commonly Used Full-Length Texts” column. / Resources from outside the textbook are acceptable, but should be shared with the grade-level PLC. Some strong external resources recommended by teachers include:
Planning Guide to Year-Long Standards
Mastering Vocabulary / Constructing Writing / Applying Grammar and Mechanics / Comprehending Text
  • Story-specific vocabulary from short stories and full-length texts read throughout the unit
  • Strategies employed to support unfamiliar vocabulary in Romeo & Juliet
/
  • Writing tasks that support Analyzing Text Structure
  • Writing tasks that support Analyzing Character Point of View
  • Revision of significant tasks
/
  • [PENDING]
/
  • Winter SRI administered by the end of this unit.

Topic Scales (2 clusters, 3 topics)

Reporting Cluster: Analyzing Text Structure
Topic / RL9.5, RI9.5 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Text Structures and Features / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (for example, parallel plots), and manipulate time (for example, pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise
  • Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (for example, a section or chapter)

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Develop, pacing, parallel, plot, refine, structure, narrative tension
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Describe how an author chooses to structure a text, order events, and manipulate time
  • Describe how the author lays out an analysis or series of ideas in a text

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Reporting Cluster: Analyzing Character Point of View
Topic / RL9.1, RI9.1 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Questioning, Inference, and Interpretation / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what a text says explicitly
  • Cite textual evidence to support inferences drawn from the text

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Cite, inference, textual evidence
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Describe what a text says explicitly
  • Draw logical inferences

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / RL9.6 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Point of View / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Analyze, cultural experience, literature, point of view
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Describe how a particular point of view or cultural experience is reflected in a work of literature

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.

UNIT THREE: Research and Argument9 weeks

Organizing Principles: An exploration into non-fiction text, argumentative analysis, and shorter research writing.

Overview of Unit Materials
Textbook Resources / Commonly Used Full-Length Texts / Uncommonly Used Full-Length Texts / Supplemental Material
Material is drawn from Holt McDougal Grade 9 Literature Book ©2010. / No specific text from this list is required, but teachers should be teaching a balance between this column and the “Uncommonly Used Full-Length Texts” column. / A course should not teach more texts from this column (or from teacher free choice) than it does from the “Commonly Used Full-Length Texts” column. / Resources from outside the textbook are acceptable, but should be shared with the grade-level PLC. Some strong external resources recommended by teachers include:
Planning Guide to Year-Long Standards
Mastering Vocabulary / Constructing Writing / Applying Grammar and Mechanics / Comprehending Text
  • Article-specific vocabulary from short passages and full-length texts read throughout the unit
/
  • Writing tasks that support Evaluating Arguments in Text
  • Writing tasks that support Synthesizing Information
  • Revision of significant tasks
/
  • [PENDING]
/
  • Any student without 2 SRI scores by this point should take the test between February 15th and March 15th

Topic Scales (2 clusters, 3 topics)

Reporting Cluster: Evaluating Arguments in Text
Topic / RI9.8 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Argument and Reasoning / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text by assessing whether the reasoning is valid
  • Evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text by assessing whetherthe evidence is relevant
  • Evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text by assessing whether the evidence is sufficient

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Argument, claim, reasoning, relevant, sufficient
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Delineate (identify all the parts of) the argument and specific claims in a text

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Reporting Cluster: Synthesizing Information
Topic / W9.8 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Access and Organize Information / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Gather relevant information from multiple credible print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively
  • Evaluate the usefulness of each source in answering a research question

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Annotate, credible, effective source
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Use a teacher-provided template or process to gather information (possibly including written notes, a graphic organizer, or outline)
  • Describe the characteristics of aneffective source
  • Strategically read and annotate resources

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.
Topic / W9.7 / Knowledge: / Notes:
Research / 4 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go beyond the target.
3
Proficient / Students demonstrate they have the ability to:
  • Synthesize multiple sources on a subject in support of the creation of an original argument
  • Integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation

2 / Students will recognize or recall:
Specific vocabulary such as:
  • Citation format, integrate, research question, synthesize
Students demonstrate they have developed the ability to:
  • Write and revise a research question
  • Organize information collected from multiple sources
  • Write a research composition with appropriate citations utilizing a teacher-provided template

1 / Student’s performance reflects insufficient progress towards foundational skills and knowledge.

UNIT FOUR: Connections Across Texts9 weeks