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11-12.RI.1.A

Description: Evidence/Inference Draw conclusions, infer and analyze by citing relevant and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 1A, 1A, 2B, 2C, 3B, 6B, 8A, 8B

Exemplars

1A: Recalling Explicit Details

1A: Recalling Explicit Details

Description: Identifying explicit details including character, time, setting and speaker

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-4

K-4

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2496 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: A skilled snowboarder takes a big chance when he cruises the slopes in avalanche territory.
Excerpt: As the pilot's words filled me with hope, I perused the steep chutes and precarious descents for signs of my brother. But, honestly, I suspected the worst. I knew avalanches most often kill by suffocation. There is air even in dense avalanche debris, but it is unattainable if the victim's mouth and nose are plugged with snow. Even if the victim can draw a breath, his exhalations will begin to make any available air less accessible by coating the snow surface around his mouth with ice.

Question: Choose the sentence in this excerpt that gives the most likely explanation for why people suffocate in an avalanche.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Create a new graphic organizer that indicates a selection's main idea, characters, and supporting details, and how these three areas intersect.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

2B: Analyzing Relative Importance

2B: Analyzing Relative Importance

Description: Determining Relative Importance

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-4

K-4

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2496 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: A skilled snowboarder takes a big chance when he cruises the slopes in avalanche territory.
Excerpt: Still, with all his daredevil ways, I never believed he'd risk his life in unchartered territory. As I said, he was a creature of habit and had his favorite sanctuaries. But after the initial investigation and then the exhaustive rescue operations, and still no trace of my brother, I knew the rescue team was searching in vain. Evidently, Jake had decided to test his endurance and cruise the adjacent Maroon Bowl.

Question: What was the most important clue leading to Jake's rescue?
  1. the deduction of his sister that he took the challenge of the Maroon Bowl
  2. the Gortex jacket with the tracking reflector left behind in the locker
  3. the signal from Jake's cell phone before the battery went dead.
  4. the ski pass scanned Friday at 12:04 p. m. at the base of the Highlands

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Imagine you are an attorney cross-examining the characters in a selection. What questions would you ask them to elicit the most important details about the plot?

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

8A: Judging Validity

8A: Judging Validity

Description: Judge Validity

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-4

K-4

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2496 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: A skilled snowboarder takes a big chance when he cruises the slopes in avalanche territory.
Excerpt: Soon I'll be going off to a university in the Midwest, experiencing a much different climate from the harsh and rugged landscape of the Rockies. My goal is to live as seamlessly with nature as possible under any conditions. Jake predicts I'll be back, and he's probably right. But for now, I choose to live free of avalanches and high walls, unclogged and uncomplicated by a softer terrain.

Question: Which sentence supports the implication that Morgan has been affected deeply by Jake's harrowing experience in the Maroon Bowl?
  1. But for now, I choose to live free of avalanches and high walls, unclogged and uncomplicated by a softer terrain.
  2. We all misjudged my brother: my parents, his friends, teachers, and even me, his younger sister
  3. Soon I'll be going off to a university in the Midwest and experiencing a much different climate.
  4. What perplexed me most was that he didn't wear a tracking device or carry his cell phone.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Did the author of the selection have first-hand knowledge about the subject presented? If yes, explain how you can tell. If no, explain how first-hand knowledge might change the author's perspective.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

1A: Recalling Explicit Details

1A: Recalling Explicit Details

Description: Identifying explicit details including character, time, setting and speaker

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-2

K-2

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2158 words
Author: Karen Berman
Synopsis: Horseshoe crabs survived the Ice Age and play a key role in coastal ecosystems.
Excerpt: Another distinctive anatomical feature is the horseshoe crab's ten eyes. Two are located on the underside of the crab and the rest on the shell. The tail also has an anatomical feature called photoreceptors, which are sensitive to light and dark. Even with all of this anatomical equipment, however, the horseshoe crab's vision is not very good. Yet another anatomical oddity is the crab's blood, which is blue due to its copper content. By comparison, human blood is red, because of its iron content.

Question: What are two distinctive features of the horseshoe crab's anatomy?
  1. Its tail is sensitive to light and dark.
  2. It has ten eyes, located on both sides of the shell.
  3. It uses its legs like flippers to swim.
  4. It can see its prey from a long distance away.
  5. Its mouth has a wide jaw and strong teeth.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Create a website for a non-fiction selection you read. Include the main idea and supporting details. Include images that would help viewers of your website better understand the topic.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

2C: Summarizing

2C: Summarizing

Description: Summarizing

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-8

K-8

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2348 words
Author: Kate Scoville
Synopsis: Though it is clear that food affects your body's health, have you ever considered that it may also affect your mood?
Excerpt: The implications of this study are very important. Besides being essential for brain and body health, eating fat is also important for promoting feelings of happiness. Doctors now believe the connection between eating fats and being happy may account for the reason why many people on low-fat diets experience depression.

Question: Why are the implications of the Belgian study important?
  1. The scientists found that fat is vital for a healthy brain and body as well as for a cheerful temperament.
  2. The scientists discovered that eating fatty junk foods can lead to heart problems and other ailments.
  3. Researchers realized that most people consume too much fat in their daily meals.
  4. Researchers determined that people on low-fat diets tend to be happier and healthier.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Create a news report based on a selection you have read. Report facts from the selection as well as additional facts you researched from reputable sources.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

Description: Analyzing setting, plot, and character

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-14

K-14

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2134 words
Author: Nancy McCloskey
Synopsis: Citizens selected for jury duty learn about the importance of protecting individual rights.
Excerpt: Assizes were made up of 12 local "free and lawful men" who, under oath, made decisions based on their personal knowledge of the true property owner or heir. They dealt with civil, not criminal, cases and were different from modern civil juries in that the jurors were "self-informing." This means that panel members used their pre-existing knowledge as a basis for their decisions.

Question: Based on this excerpt, assize jurors were different from jurors in civil trials today because they
  1. already knew the details of the case.
  2. heard cases involving property issues.
  3. were composed of 12 lawful men and women.
  4. based their decisions only on evidence presented during trial.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe a character with whom you empathize, and explain why you feel this way.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

6B: Recognizing Persuasion

6B: Recognizing Persuasion

Description: Recognizing Persuasive Devices

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-10

K-10

Grade level: 11
Word count: 1891 words
Author: Katherine Menard
Synopsis: Some people have proposed a "balanced" school calendar with breaks spread evenly throughout the year.
Excerpt: Those espousing this calendar base their arguments principally on perceived disadvantages of the traditional calendar. They emphasize that students forget much of what they have learned when they are away from school for lengthy summer breaks. Additionally, they assert that children get bored after the first few weeks away from class, so a long stretch of vacation can be counterproductive. Conversely, they indicate that too many consecutive weeks of instruction without a break can diminish motivation and cause burnout for both teachers and students.

Question: What are the two main arguments for advocates of the "balanced calendar"?
  1. Students forget much of what they have learned over a long summer break.
  2. Too many weeks of instruction without a break can diminish motivation and cause students to "burn out."
  3. Older students will be able to more easily find jobs so they can save for college.
  4. The cost of operating the schools would be less, thus saving taxpayers money.
  5. A balanced calendar would allow more students to take part in extracurricular activities.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Imagine you want to make a documentary about a non-fiction selection you read. Describe the steps you would need to take to make your documentary as accurate and unbiased as possible.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

8B: Reasoning

8B: Reasoning

Description: Reasoning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-41

K-41

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2426 words
Author: Luke Cooper
Synopsis: Emergency crews work feverishly for months to rescue the miners.
Excerpt: On the first day of their entombment, shift supervisor Luis Urzua took off his distinctive white helmet and announced to his workers, "We are all equal now.... There are no bosses and employees." From then on the miners worked together to maintain the mine, search for escape routes, and sustain morale.

"We knew that if society broke down we would all be doomed," explained Mario Sepulveda. "Each day a different person took a bad turn, and every time that happened, we worked as a team to try to keep the morale up."

Question: Which of the following can you conclude from these two excerpts?
  1. Survival for all depended on working together to keep spirits high.
  2. A strong leader was needed to establish rules and maintain order.
  3. Each miner had to find his own way to accept the fate of the dire situation.
  4. Both bosses and employees had to spend equal time searching for escape routes.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Do people learn by studying the past? Use details from a selection you have read, as well as your reasoning skills, to support your answer.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions