Ninth Grade - ELA
• Literacy
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Early Civilizations and Migration (600 BCE)
Lesson 3
Early Civilizations
Students read specified textbook pages and answer targeted questions (Q1–Q3) that require them to identify causal claims (e.g., irrigation leading to organizational structures; iron-working destabilizing regions) and to cite textual explanations. Question 4 asks students to evaluate the controversy over using the term "civilization" and to state whether they agree with the criticisms, prompting students to consider the author's claim and reasoning. Multiple activities instruct students to use the readings as a guide when explaining how geography, resources, and social organization produced certain historical outcomes, which requires drawing on textual evidence to support explanations.
Lesson 8
Historical Essay
Students are instructed to "go back to the readings from earlier lessons to look for specific evidence to support [their] main points," and to provide parenthetical citations for sources. The rubric requires that "body paragraphs... contain strong topic sentences supported by relevant and accurate evidence" and asks students to address required analysis in answering the prompt. The discussion prompt asks students to reflect on how they decided which pieces of evidence to use.
Unit 1: Lord of the Flies
Lesson 2
Life on the Island
Students create STEAL character pages for Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, Roger, and Sam 'n Eric and are instructed to add impressions from Chapter 1 with specific examples and page numbers. Students are guided to infer character thoughts and motives from dialogue, actions, and effects on others and to record quotes and actions as evidence for their inferences. The Parent Plan provides sample citations from Chapter 1 that students might record, modeling the practice of using textual details to support claims about characters.
Lesson 3
Paths in the Jungle
Students are asked to read a linked article, annotate it, and identify the author's thesis and supporting points (Activity 1 and Student Activity Page). They fill a graphic organizer with "Key points that support the thesis" and record "Your reaction to the thesis," and are instructed to "evaluate the writer's view and their reactions and decide their final opinion" (Parent Plan and Activity 1). The lesson's skills section also states students will "cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis," which directs students to use evidence from the text.
Lesson 4
Images from Paradise
Students are asked to fill a Five Senses chart with quotations from the book and to explain how each quotation ‘‘serves as a good example of imagery,'' requiring them to cite textual evidence and link wording to an interpretive claim about tone. The lesson includes comprehension questions (e.g., ‘‘Why do you think things are breaking up?'') that prompt students to explain causes using the text. The Parent Plan explicitly lists a skill to ‘‘determine the meaning of words and phrases . . . analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone,'' which asks students to use textual details to support interpretive conclusions.
Lesson 6
Symbolism, Part 1
Students are asked in Activity 1 to choose an interpretation for symbols (e.g., Piggy's glasses, the conch) and "back up your explanation with support from the text." The Student Activity Page also directs students to write text‑based reasoning and to circle the interpretation they agree with. The Journal Entry activity asks students to record actions and quotes from other characters to indicate effects on one another and the island, requiring use of textual evidence.
Lesson 8
Defects of Human Nature
Students are asked to choose themes that support Golding's stated central idea and to 'support those choices by referring to details from the novel' (Option 1 and Option 2). Students must write 3–4 sentence explanations explaining how a chosen minor theme supports the major theme and provide examples from the text to justify their selections. The wrapping up section instructs students to use Golding's own words to 'evaluate and guide' their understanding and analysis of the novel.
Lesson 11
The Film
Students are asked to watch the 1963 film and complete a "Movie vs. Book" chart comparing characters, setting, theme, and plot. The prompt asks students to identify scenes omitted from the film that were "too critical to the major theme of the novel to be left out" and to explain why. The answer key models identifying how omitted scenes and altered events (for example, loss of the Ralph-officer conversation and the evacuated-adults context) affect Golding's point about adult violence and the novel's themes.
Final Project
Now You Have the Conch
Students are instructed in the sample prompt to return to specific chapters, note passages where Ralph and Jack contend and where the group gets "caught up," and to use those passages to develop and support a thesis (for example, that mob mentality compels characters). Students are guided by Brainstorming and Organizer pages to find passages, record key phrases and page numbers, include quotes, and explain how those examples support their points. The rubric and parent-plan skills explicitly require students to cite strong textual evidence and provide explanations, and the Unit Test asks for examples that illustrate literary devices and themes.
Unit 2: World Religions (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 1
Rise of Religions
Students are asked to skim National Geographic Almanac sections and "look specifically for examples of religion being intertwined with political or governmental functions," recording at least two examples per civilization, which requires locating textual evidence. Students must find a modern news article about a conflict in which religion plays a role, summarize the article, and reflect on "what role religion has played in the conflict," engaging with contemporary author claims. In Option 1 on Hatshepsut students read a Smithsonian article and are prompted to "respond to recent research" and answer why scholars now think she acted as she did, which asks students to engage with scholarship and its explanations.
Lesson 2
Shamanism, Animism, Ancestor Veneration
Students are asked in Option 1 to find two or three folktales and "look for evidence of animist beliefs," then compare stories on an activity page, which requires using story details as evidence that animism persists. In Option 2 students research Día de los Muertos and Chinese New Year and answer questions about the role of ancestor veneration, which asks them to connect textual/academic sources to claims about continuity of beliefs. The lesson also instructs students to make generalizations based on reading and to note limits of evidence when dealing with nonliterate traditions, prompting consideration of how evidence (or its absence) bears on claims about early beliefs.
Lesson 7
Christianity
Students in Option 1 are directed to read at least two scientific or historical articles about the life and times of Jesus (Smithsonian, National Geographic, or similar) and write summaries for each source in designated summary boxes. Students are asked reflective questions that probe the implications of those studies (e.g., reasons scholars pursue scientific corroboration and whether it matters), and are told to analyze historical and archaeological data and interpretations. The parent notes and activity instructions explicitly ask students to focus on secular, evidence-based sources and to analyze meanings of these studies for scholars and for Christians.
Unit 2: Short Stories
Lesson 2
The Necklace
Students are instructed to reread annotations and identify repetitive literary elements and use those observations to fill out a theme web, which requires them to cite textual evidence showing how the author develops the theme. Students practice incorporating direct quotes and are explicitly told to "Provide evidence to support your answer" in the APE strategy. The objective-summary activity asks students to state the main idea and use story details in their own words, reinforcing use of textual evidence to support claims about theme.
Lesson 3
Literary Response
Students are prompted to "prove" their comparison claims by providing examples or quotations from the texts using the APE method (Homework and Details and Support pages). The brainstorming and graphic organizers require students to note specific examples or quotations from each story and to put a star by the two similarities they will use in their paper. The rubric explicitly awards points for "Support of ideas with evidence from the text" and for "Explanation of how the evidence supports points," directing students to both cite and explain textual evidence.
Lesson 5
Edgar Allan Poe
Students are asked in the homework "Crazy Like a Fox?" activity to list textual evidence that the narrator is "Rational and Trustworthy" and evidence that the narrator is "Irrational or Insane," directly requiring them to compare evidence for and against the narrator's claim of sanity. Reading questions (Q3 and Q4) prompt students to evaluate the narrator's first-person claims and explanations (e.g., why the narrator says he is not mad and why he hears the heartbeat), which asks students to judge the narrator's reasoning. The answer key and parent notes model weighing the narrator's stated arguments (his claims of wisdom and foresight) against counter-evidence (his fixation on the eye, murder, dismemberment, and officers' inability to hear the heart).
Lesson 6
The Lottery
Students are instructed to cite textual evidence and organize quotations about the black box into categories (physical description, townspeople reactions, connections to town history) on the activity worksheet. Students are prompted to use close reading to record elements of the text that mention or allude to the box and to use those notes to support an interpretation of what the box symbolizes. Students also compare "The Lottery" with another controversial work and answer whether public complaints about that work were valid, which asks them to weigh evidence and reactions.
Unit 3: Rise of the Empires (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 1
Persian Empire
Activity 2 tells students to "analyze facts, structures, and events and then interpret them into a coherent ... narrative," asking them to record politics, religion, and culture to compare and contrast across empires. The Discussion Questions ask students to explain the value of Persian policy choices and to argue why the Persian Empire declined, which requires students to use information and reasoning. The lesson assigns a specific reading (National Geographic pp. 72–73) that students must summarize in guided questions, linking claims about Persian government, religion, and decline to textual details.
Unit 4: Poetry
Lesson 1
Introduction to Poetry
Students mark and underline words and phrases in poems (e.g., "Richard Cory" and an Emily Dickinson excerpt) and identify language that communicates a poet's portrayal or idea. Students record denotations and connotations for selected words, explain why the original word is more effective than synonyms, and write about how word choice communicates ideas. In the Poem Response, students choose marked words with strong connotations and explain why they are effective and why the poet chose them.
Lesson 8
Types of Poems
The Parent Plan skills list explicitly states that students will "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research." Students answer focused questions asking "What point does Collins keep making?" and "How does comparing the 17-year-old to famous achievers make the poem humorous?" In the ekphrasis activity students fill a chart that asks "What does the poem say about the work of art?" and "What does the poet say about art or the power of art? How does their poem add to or change the meaning of the artwork?", requiring students to cite relationships between text and artwork.
Final Project
Poetry
The lesson's Choice 7 asks students to read pro- and con-articles about Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize and to "consider both sides of the debate" before writing a one-page response arguing whether Dylan deserved the prize and explaining their reasons. The skills list also mentions making strategic use of media to "enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence," linking classroom work to reasoning/evidence. The assignment requires students to read other writers' arguments and to give credit when using their quotations or arguments.
Unit 5: Nonfiction
Lesson 1
Types of Nonfiction
Students are asked to examine catalog records, front matter, and back matter and "give specific examples" to support whether a title is a biography, autobiography, or memoir. The activity prompts students to "compare themes, view points, thoughts about character identity, and evidence about the book's accuracy" and to "support your comparison with specific examples." Students read an interview with Patricia McCormick and are asked to consider and explain how McCormick's role affects the book's classification, using evidence from the interview.
Lesson 6
A Day Like Any Other
The lesson requires students to use the APE strategy (Answer, Prove, Extend) and explicitly instructs them to "Provide evidence to support your answer. Use specific examples and quotations from the text." The example APE response shows a student quoting a line from the book and then using the Extend step to explain how that quote supports the answer about the father's belief. The Parent Plan also lists the skill "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis," and the activity rubric asks for quotations with page numbers in the "prove" section.
Lesson 7
Life in England
Students are asked in Activity 1 to compare Malala's book account with the filmmaker Ellick's video account and to take notes on specific comparison questions (e.g., the role her father played, how her father's influence is portrayed, and the filmmaker's focus). The parent plan includes explicit contrasting evidence: the filmmaker's comment that her father "pushed" Malala (around 3:10) versus Malala's own quote denying that he forced her to speak out (p. 184). Students are also prompted to answer and discuss whether Malala's father or the media bear any responsibility in making her a target, requiring them to judge competing claims and provide reasons.
Lesson 8
Civil Rights
Students read substantial portions of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and answered targeted questions asking them to identify the most persuasive argument King makes and explain why it was effective. Students underlined excerpts from the letter, indicated whether they agreed with King's reasoning, and wrote their own analyses in a double-entry diary about just and unjust laws. Students matched King's historical and religious references to the figures he invoked, showing how those allusions function as evidence to support his claims.
Lesson 9
Civil Disobedience
Students are asked to analyze paired excerpts from Thoreau and King in Activity 1, marking similar phrases and filling an "Overlapping Ideas" column that requires citing passages. In Activity 2, students read opposing quotes on America, government, and voting and must decide which author's views they agree with and explain how their views align, which requires using textual claims to support their position. The Parent Plan lists skills including "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis" and "Determine an author's point of view or purpose and analyze how an author uses rhetoric," which frames evidence-based analysis tasks for students.
Lesson 12
Running from War
Students are asked to use the APE strategy for homework, which requires them to "Prove" their answer by using a quotation from the text to support their claim about whether the author's dreams or memories are more traumatic. Students are prompted to evaluate the author's explanation that a medicine gave him a photographic memory by answering whether that explanation is believable and why or why not. The memory activity asks students to check the accuracy of personal memories against an eyewitness (a parent/relative) and then "consider how accurate the author's memories might be," prompting reflection on the credibility of the author's recollections.
Lesson 13
Child Soldier
The Parent Plan skills list explicitly asks students to "delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning." Activity 1 (The Truth about Memoirs) requires students to write a journal response weighing claims about Beah's accuracy and consider opposing viewpoints about whether inaccuracies matter. The "Different Accounts" activity asks students to fill in book and video columns with examples or quotes and to discuss differences, prompting students to compare evidence across sources.
Lesson 14
Rehabilitation
Students are asked in Activity 1 to compare the lieutenant's claim that government soldiers are 'not like the rebels' with examples from the text and to mark whether each listed war crime was committed by the government army, providing supporting quotations. In Option 2 students must state a conclusion about whether the government committed war crimes and cite specific examples or quotations that support their conclusion. The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill of delineating and evaluating arguments and assessing whether reasoning is valid and evidence is relevant and sufficient, which frames the student tasks.
Lesson 15
A New Life
Students are asked to compare authors' use of rhetoric and writing style and to judge whether each author's rhetoric is effective (e.g., "Was the writer effective in persuading you? Why or why not?"). The Parent Plan lists skills including "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis" and "Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose." The Comparing Memoirs activity directs students to cite differences in how each memoir presents events and to consider whether included details were appropriate for the author's purpose and audience.
Final Project
Expository Essay
Students are guided to gather and evaluate sources using the K-N-S chart and the "Audience, Purpose, and Sources" activity, with explicit tips to prefer .edu/.gov or reputable news sites and to consider timeliness. The Parent Plan skills state that students should "assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question" and to "integrate information into the text selectively," and the rubric's Support criterion requires facts to be "backed by carefully researched sources." The Quoting/Paraphrasing/Summarizing activity and the APE (Answer, Prove, Extend) method require students to present supporting facts as proof and explain how those facts connect to their thesis.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to describe the controversy about accuracy in A Long Way Gone and explain how the memoir genre affected that debate, which requires evaluating a text's claims and credibility. Students are asked to reflect on how authors' transparency and specificity about the horrors of war lead readers to learn valuable lessons, which invites consideration of authors' use of evidence. The Nonfiction review and prompts that ask students to explain relationships among authors (e.g., Thoreau's influence on King; how Malala and Beah used their experiences) require students to analyze how authors support or use claims across texts.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Ender's Game
Lesson 3
Science Fiction
Students are asked to respond to Graff's broad assertions in the "Questions to Discuss" section, identifying that his pronouncements may be melodramatic, oversimplified, or manipulative. Students are prompted to note specific weaknesses in Graff's reasoning (for example, that he says "for all we know," indicating lack of evidence) and to point out factual inaccuracies (such as no single person inventing the wheel or flight). The discussion prompts ask students to judge Graff's intent and the truthfulness of his claims, which requires evaluating the support for those claims.
Lesson 5
Movement and Time
Students are asked to consider questions that require evaluating claims, such as "How can you determine whether the things authority figures tell you are true?" and whether Dink is right that the government lies to keep power. The discussion prompts ask students to justify their positions (e.g., "Why or why not?" and "Do you think Graff may have a suspicion but chooses not to look into it?"), which requires weighing reasons for and against those claims. These items invite students to form judgments about the plausibility of characters' assertions and the motives behind them.
Lesson 6
Performance Is Personal
Students are asked to explain how the opening conversations create tension and to provide an example from the text (Text Structure Question 2), which requires citing textual evidence to support an interpretive claim. A discussion prompt asks whether Dink is "on to something" about the I.F. stirring fear, prompting students to evaluate a character's claim and its plausibility. The Competing Commanders activity requires students to choose evaluation criteria, score commanders, and justify rankings, which practices making and supporting evaluative claims about characters.
Lesson 7
Leaders Motivate
Students are asked to read background materials on John Locke and Demosthenes and "reflect on the reasons Peter feels that he needs Valentine to help him write under the name 'Locke'" and to "write a journal entry describing the links between the two sets of personalities," which requires forming a claim about authorial intent and connecting it to source material. In Activity 2 students match leadership quotes to characters and complete a chart with "Character, Quote, and Reason," requiring them to explain why a quote applies to a character. The Parent Plan explicitly states students "should have provided a theory" explaining Peter's choice of pen names, implying students must use evidence from readings and the novel to support their explanations.
Lesson 8
Flies and Self-Loathing
Students are asked to evaluate Ender's perception of his own actions (e.g., "The reader should evaluate Ender's actions, rather than simply accept Ender's perception of his own actions" and review prompts: "Review Ender's perception of his own actions and why they may or may not be reliable and accurate"). Discussion questions prompt students to judge Ender's self-assessment (e.g., "Do you think Ender is able to evaluate himself objectively?"). The activities ask students to compare themes and leadership decisions between texts, which requires weighing textual details against claims about characters and themes.
Lesson 11
Thud, Whump, Huut
Students are asked to compare specific scenes from Ender's Game to the movie or Marvel comic and to take notes on differences, omissions, and changes in information or dialogue. The Comic Adaptation activity directs students to list narration or dialogue that was omitted or changed and to judge whether the comic communicated the omitted material through pictures. The prompt "Why do they lie to him?" and related discussion questions require students to offer reasons for character/authority actions and to support those answers with textual interpretation.
Lesson 12
Campbell's Comparisons
Students are asked to discuss and evaluate character claims (for example, Dink's suggestion that the I.F. stokes fear to control society and Mazer's justification for destroying the buggers) and to explain possible reasons for those claims. Students retake an issues survey and are asked to compare their before/after answers and provide examples from Ender's Game that influenced any change. The lesson assigns a Forbes article about leadership from Ender's Game as homework for a later activity, exposing students to an author's argumentative claims.
Lesson 13
The Enemy's Gate Is Down
Students read a Forbes article about leadership lessons from Ender's Game and are asked to label and summarize the four leadership lessons (identifying the author's claims) and to link one lesson to their own life. Discussion prompts ask students to judge credibility and claims in the novel (e.g., "Should he believe the I.F. when they say the buggers are a threat?" and "How can you determine whether the things authority figures tell you are true?"). The Graff and I.F. activity asks students to list questions about Graff's motives and whether the I.F. will use Ender for evil, which prompts evaluation of characters' claims.
Unit 3: Informational Texts
Lesson 1
What Are Informational Texts?
Students watch Malcolm Gladwell's TED talk and answer directed questions about his reinterpretation of David and Goliath, including why Gladwell thinks David had advantages and what evidence he cites. In the Outliers reading and homework questions, students identify researchers' conclusions about the Rosetans' health and list initial hypotheses (diet, genetics, region) that were considered. Students also are asked to predict an author's background from textual cues and to identify parts of the book that use research or endnotes, which requires locating claims and supporting elements.
Lesson 2
Outliers
Students identify and explain how Gladwell defines and illustrates the concept of an "outlier," including re‑reading the Introduction and describing how the Roseto study functions as an analogy that supports Gladwell's approach. Students answer homework questions that require explaining the causal mechanism (why the hockey cutoff date affects success) and summarizing the "Matthew Effect" claim about accumulative advantage. The Parent Plan and activities ask students to determine an author's point of view and analyze how the author unfolds a series of ideas and uses rhetoric to advance that point.
Lesson 3
The Matthew Effect
Students are asked to reinterpret and recreate the book's charts (Option 1) and to sketch graphics that represent the TIMSS study findings (Option 2), which requires them to read quantitative evidence and translate it into visual form. Students are prompted to discuss whether the author should have used a different type of chart to convey birthdate information, engaging them in comparing how evidence is presented. Homework questions ask students to explain the 10,000-hour rule and to relate that claim back to the sports examples, connecting examples and data to the author's assertions.
Lesson 4
The 10,000 Hour Rule
The Parent Plan lists skills that require students to cite textual evidence, analyze how an author's ideas or claims are developed, and determine an author's point of view, which directs students to use evidence from the text. The "Looking Closely" activity asks students to summarize sections, explain how Section 2 (scientific studies) relates to Bill Joy, and explain how Section 3 adds to understanding of the 10,000-hour rule, prompting students to connect evidence to Gladwell's claims. Activity 2 asks students to mark key opportunities for The Beatles or Bill Gates and then create a visual that communicates how that example ties to the chapter's bigger ideas, requiring students to draw evidence from the text.
Lesson 6
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Students read a critical blog post about Chapter 7 and Gladwell's response (Activity 4) and are asked to identify the blog author's primary objections to Gladwell's claims. In Activity 5 Option 2, students complete a chart noting each criticism, how Gladwell responds, and evaluate how effective the responses are. In Activity 5 Option 1 students prepare an oral summary of the article's main objections and answer questions asking which objection is strongest, whether the blog changes their view, and whether they trust the critic's information.
Lesson 7
Rice Paddies and Math Tests
The lesson's Skills list explicitly requires students to "draw evidence from literary or informational texts" and to "cite strong and thorough textual evidence" as well as to "analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas." Homework and discussion prompts ask students to consider Gladwell's arguments (e.g., the 10,000-hour rule, talent vs. preparation) and to explain how their views have changed. The infographic mini-project asks students to condense and clarify information from the chapter, which could require selecting and using supporting evidence from the text.
Lesson 8
With Malice Toward None
Students are asked to identify and analyze Lincoln's rhetorical strategies (parallelism, antithesis, allusion) and to cite quotes from the speech on the student activity page. The parent plan lists skills that ask students to "analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed" and to "cite strong and thorough textual evidence" to support analysis. Several specific questions require students to explain Lincoln's justification for a short speech and to interpret hedged language about the war's outcome, which asks students to attend to the speaker's reasoning.
Lesson 9
Writing about History
Students compare claims in secondary accounts with supporting primary-source testimony using the provided Student Activity Page that pairs a "Secondary Source Claim" column with a "Supporting Primary Source" column. Students read multiple secondary summaries and primary eyewitness testimonies (John S. Smith, Robert Brent, Chivington) and answer questions that require citing facts the sources agree on and noting inconsistencies. Students complete a "Primary Falsehoods" activity that asks them to identify inaccuracies or misleading testimony and they write an editorial using facts from sources to support a position.
Lesson 10
Science Writing
Students complete an "Investigating Claims in Science Writing" activity that asks them to explain how the author supports two specific claims (e.g., "Noncontact forces are invisible" and "Centripetal force is often called a fictitious force"). The Parent Plan's skills list explicitly includes "Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence an author presents supports his or her scientific analysis," and the activity asks students to judge whether the booklet provides enough detail for a middle-school audience and to suggest improvements. Homework asks students to compare the written explanation to a video and evaluate which made the concept more understandable, reinforcing judgment about effectiveness of explanations and evidence.
Lesson 11
Technical Writing
Students are required to write an introduction that states a claim about the usefulness of a skill and to back up that claim with information from an outside source, including recording the source and using quotation marks for quoted material (Day 1 homework and sample introduction). The Guide Checklist explicitly requires that the benefit in the introduction "is supported by an outside source, properly credited," and Activity 6 asks students to add a "Works Cited" and ensure supporting information from outside sources is included. Activity 1 asks students to annotate a passage to discover the purpose of the information, which prompts consideration of how text parts relate to the document's goals.
Lesson 12
Logical Fallacies
Students are asked to identify and evaluate informal and formal fallacies (e.g., ad hominem, slippery slope, bandwagon, non-sequitur) in short examples and in full speeches such as Andrew Jackson's message to Congress. Students analyze a politician's claim about an increase in youth deaths (discussion of correlation vs. causation) and are prompted to highlight weak arguments and find at least three fallacies. Students analyze Lou Gehrig's speech for logos (how he supports his thesis) and answer questions about how evidence and examples support the speaker's claim.
Final Project
Argumentative Research Essay
The lesson requires students to locate and compare sources (Part 3 and Part 4), asking them to note when sources contradict one another and to record both points of view and their sources. Part 5 gives explicit credibility and content criteria (author qualifications, publisher, purpose, bias, accuracy, relevance, currency) that students must use to evaluate web sources. The "Present the Evidence" activity page has students record quotes/ideas from sources and write how each piece of evidence influences their thinking, leading them to form a thesis and identify counterarguments.
Unit 4: Drama
Lesson 2
How to Read Drama
Students are asked to find and name three clues the women find that explain what happened and to explain the motive for murder, which requires linking textual details to an interpretive claim. The Applying Aristotle's Six Elements activity asks students to state whether the plot centers on a discovery and to explain whether the play has a moral or point, prompting students to use evidence to support those interpretations. Diction and symbolism questions (e.g., how the bird symbolizes Mrs. Wright and how language evokes feeling) require students to cite specific language and explain how it supports thematic claims.
Lesson 5
Act II
Students are prompted in the Reader Response Paragraph to answer a question and "Provide evidence to support your answer. Use specific examples and quotations from the text" using the APE (Answer, Prove, Extend) method. In the Hansberry Quotes activity, students read excerpts from To Be Young, Gifted and Black and must explain which characters or ideas the quotations describe, requiring students to cite textual details in their explanations. The homework listening task asks students to identify what songs say about the American Dream and justify why the song was written, which asks students to interpret claims and provide reasons tied to the text (lyrics) or context.
Lesson 6
Act III
Students read Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" and use the "A Dream Deferred" activity page to identify five similes, analyze the imagery (including the final line "Or does it explode?"), and relate those images to characters' deferred dreams in the play. The Parent Plan lists skills asking students to analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material and to compare representation across two artistic mediums, and students answer questions connecting the poem's images to events and characters in Act III.
Lesson 13
Tragic Hero
Students are asked to watch a video defining types of heroes and then explain how Romeo does or does not meet each tragic-hero criterion, requiring them to cite character actions and traits to evaluate the video's claims. Students complete a timeline activity in which they record specific acts/scenes and actions for chosen characters and then use those events to determine and support whether a character is static or dynamic and round or flat. Students compare excerpts of Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbe with Romeo and Juliet and identify specific similarities, using textual details to support their comparisons.
Final Project
Drama
Students are asked to "Write arguments to support claims... using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence" and to "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research," indicating practice with using and citing evidence. Students must cite outside sources in their final projects and attach a Works Cited page, and the rubric includes a "Sources" category evaluating use of resources and citing. Several projects (e.g., Playlist, News) require students to provide reasons for choices (explaining why a song fits a character; summarizing articles with who/what/when/where), which asks students to justify claims with supporting details.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to review the Informational Texts unit and to identify how writers persuade using logos, pathos, and ethos and to recognize logical fallacies. Several exam prompts ask students to explain Gladwell's claims in Outliers (e.g., the Roseto explanation and the cultural factor in plane crashes) and to consider criticisms of the chapter "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes." Discussion prompt F explicitly asks students to argue whether Outliers is primarily informational or persuasive and to consider the rhetorical methods and evidence Gladwell uses.